Eric Gates is a hermaphrodite

Rarely, if ever, have i read so much twaddle on these boards. And i''ve read a lot over the years. As has been pointed out by a couple of the more enlightened posters, he''s been involved in almost everything good we''ve done in an attacking sense since he joined. And he''s pretty useful defensively too. And that''s despite him having had to make big adjustments in his personal and professional life. His impact from the bench against Everton was startling and was the primary reason why the game turned on its head. Since then he has performed to a consistently good to high standard, demonstrating technique, desire and athleticism. He holds the ball up well, can play in tight spaces, commits defenders and wins vital free kicks in dangerous areas (from which we have scored on more than one occasion). Then there are the "intangibles" as others have pointed out. And please, anyone who knows anything about football will tell you that Snodgrass was more culpable for the Swansea miss. He delayed the pass way too long then scuffed it in with not enough pace and behind KK. KK had bent his run (away from Snodgrass) perfectly to lose the defender and was readying himself for a firm ball out in front for him to run on to and tap in. That was what he was expecting and that''s what should have been delivered, and would have been delivered 49 times out of 50 in training. Having correctly bent his run away from Snodgrass to find space, and having expected a firm ball for him to run on to, he was forced to recalibrate his mind to Snodgrass''s woeful imprecision (on this occasion only - Snodgrass is an excellent player by the way), stop, shift his weight and run in pretty much the opposite direction to that which he was anticipating. That is why he was caught slightly on his heels and couldnt react in time. Perhaps, just perhaps, had it happened in the first 20 minutes, he could have reacted a fraction more quickly but that is a reflection of fatigue and nothing else and the defender might well have been able to block his attempt in any case. He can and will improve his fitness if given a full pre-season but given that he''s operating in the lone striker role i dont see his fitness as a big concern right now. He wasnt the only player in that game suffering with fatigue in the second half. To sum up this man would prove excellent value for money and is already performing to a high standard. He is good enough to start premiership matches and do well but would probably prove more potent as an impact player from the bench. For the money he''d be a bargain provided he maintains his level. And if he manages to improve, which is very possible, he''d be a steal. SIGN HIM!

In a "barking at the moon" exercise that i thoroughly enjoyed i sent the following email to the club yesterday on the subject of the green in our kits. Errea are not a million miles away with this one in design terms but again they have opted for a tragically synthetic, disgusting, tawdry green that reminds me of the sea of nylon shite one encountered when traipsing around C&A with ma...my email refers to a photo of the glorious admiral kit as modelled by Justin Fashanu. Look it up - it is a masterpiece. Look up also the WSC article about the Bruce Oldfield piece of filth at http://howl.wsc.co.uk/interface/external_view_email.php?B10734940413987502524: Here''s my email: "To those involved in the decision making process about our next home kit.... Please consider carefully the hue for the shorts of our next home kit (plus socks and detailing). Why is it that the once noble, rich, dark and natural green of our club shorts has been so defiled over the years? For season after season, we are presented with the kind of sickly, synthetic, day-glo green not seen on any self-respecting sporting garment since C&A closed its doors for the last time. The rancid green persists in our kits like nuclear waste with a ten thousand year half-life. It’s strange because on some of your merchandise the nobler, more distinguished and, indeed, correct Norwich City green can be found. This really shouldn’t be so difficult to resolve! For those of you who haven’t been around long enough please view the photograph below to fix in your minds the correct hue of green that should be (re)adopted forthwith. While you’re there see also true “canary” yellow (not gold or mustard) and jot down a few ideas for the design details (note the beautiful simplicity of it all) of a future home kit. The photo shows the best kit we ever had – a design classic no less. You could do much worse (and usually do) than using the Admiral masterpiece as a template for our next kit, which could and should be simple and retro in feel (in line with what most right thinking sporting franchises have done in recent years). A thing of beauty is a joy forever and that kit is a thing of beauty. I write in the hope that a small fragment of the passion and indignation behind this plea seeps into the subconsciousness of a club employee who might, when it comes to reviewing new kit designs, just stop and dare to ask the question: why don’t we consider a new (old) direction for the green of our shorts? It’s a sad day when even our new Italian kit manufacturers cannot eliminate the crime against fashion that is the green of our shorts. In the interests of brevity i have limited this email, in the main, to a consideration of our shorts. I could bang on about how awful our home kits have been since Hummel ‘85. But i wont. Rather, please refer to the attached short article from When Saturday Comes magazine, penned by a fellow fan and friend, about the Bruce Oldfield “inspired” nadir. It sums up the feelings of many fans i think. Best wishes A deeply concerned fan

You are absolutely right Larry David. Previous responses smack of an inward, parochial mindset that screams "little old Norwich couldnt do that". Exactly the words that Neil Doncaster might have used. But big bold confident Norwich should think bigger so thank god we have McNally who has already done so much to cast aside the timidity and fear that seems to reside in the heart of the good folk of Norwich. If we''re going to invest vast capital sums in stadium redevelopment then it''s much better to ensure that medium to long term potential fanbase growth is covered. The area is growing, the fanbase is expanding and the core support is already there in large numbers. West Ham are moving from a 36,000 capacity stadium to a 60,000 one (having just been relegated). In my opinion we are every bit as big as them, if not bigger. 42,000 with new stands that allow for further expansion should be a non-negotiable, minimum.

THIS IS NOT GOOD NEWS FOR US!  We might well need Soton to beat Forest in the last game.  The incentive of not having a 10 point deduction next season is nothing like as strong (way too abstract for the average pro footballer to respond to) as the incentive of staying in this division.  They are down - nothing they do now will change that.  What fight they might have had has just been extinguished.  If i was on the Norwich board i''d be preparing the papers for objections and a potential legal challenge as we speak.  I have no doubt that the club''s response will be meek acceptance.  The only fair way to remove the likelihood of the likes of Forest gaining an unfair advantage is to have all of Soton''s results exponged from the record.  Our club should be preparing its objections on those grounds.

I''d like to echo the thoughts of many on this thread - one of the few on here worth reading - and add a few observations of my own. The original poster had a moment of clarity but my experience has been more akin to a chronic decay of my footballing soul.  It has been slow, incremental and increasingly painful.  or should that be increasingly less painful? because to be frank losing just doesn''t matter to me any more.  But anyway the endpoint is much the same.  There have been good days in recent memory but they''ve been scarce and somehow tainted.  Beating Man Utd 2-0 a few years back was great but even that was tinged with sadness.  The fury of previous fixtures from the 70s and 80s (and even early 90s) had been replaced by sickly celebratory music and the sight of far too many "fans" clapping in their orderly rows.  While revelling in that astonishing victory my mind yet reverted to memories of the seething knots of fans who tumbled as one down terraces in celebration of goals against a team we routinely humiliated.  Back in the day we more than held our own aginst these supposed footballing titans.  It wasn''t just hope we had - it was belief. For me the writing was on the wall as early as 1992 when we entertained Forest at home in one of the first of Sky''s "monday night football" extravaganzas.  While Sky''s cheerleaders were performing their half-time routine and Haddaway (was it him?) mimed away in the background my mate and i looked one another in the eye.  Nothing was said - we both knew then that football was dying.  Having recently suffered the demolition of our beloved Barclay terrace and the ridiculous whitewash of the Taylor report an ill wind blew through Carrow Road that night.  It didn''t get us that season, or even the season after - our team was too good - but it got us soon enough.  Chase, sadly, was a small-town pretender.  A fool without vision who revelled in the limelight of auctioning Britains most valuable player while failing to realise that the price achieved would be run-of-the-mill a couple of years hence.  The chance to establish a seat at the top table was frittered away in a clueless display of hubris, monumental waste and a total failure to key in to what the future promised. I have tried the non-league route in an attempt to re-ignite the spark but, while enjoying it tremendously for all the reasons mentioned, i''m left dissatisfied on a fundamental level.  i am not a fan - i''m an observer. i am and can only ever be a fan of norwich city.  and yet i cannot express myself as a true fan at carrow road.  i''ve been told to sit down too many times, i''ve been surrounded for too long by too many people who refuse to make a noise (screaming at a Norwich player''s incompetence is a lesser crime than making no noise at all), our team has been too poor for too long and now, despite having killed everything that was good about being a fan, the club asks us to faithfully attend and cheer on a shambolic rabble with no feeling for the history and identity of a once proud club. in short my friends, to use an oft misused phrase correctly for once: the passion has gone.