rjwc22

Dear all Long time voyeur here but felt I needed to say something in the face of all the anger on the board. We are NCFC fans and that is for life. However we must resist the temptation to judge players and managers by our standards of loyalty. Lamber and Holt are professionals who have done well by the club and clearly like it but their primary responsibility is to provide for their families. I expect a far few of you have jobs and will be loyal to your companies to varying degrees (given how many of us are on here during the working day I might question all of our work ethics!) but outside of those who own or have a share of a business, how many of you can say you would ignore overtures from other employers or look to better yourself (wage, prospects, conditions) if the opportunity arose? I love my family and expect much more from them in terms of loyalty than my cleaning lady or the man who comes to fix my roof. We are all disappointed but let''s not allow this to spill over into anger and abuse - we are better than that. The club will move onwards and upwards. OTBC

Barnett is making all the right noises about staying and with the form of WBA cannot see them fighting to keep him for their squad.  Will of course depend on us being willing to pay around £500k for him as am sure if we don''t WBA can find someone who will. Lansbury til the end of the season would be great but still think we need another marque signing to push on for a top 4 finish.  Not sure that we have enough firepower up front when Holt is out, really want to see Jacko and Johnson evolve into their potential but think we will always need Holt to play alongside a n other.

Think someone has been playing too much Football Manager if such a thing is possible!

I don''t get the impression that PL is one to jump onboard the bandwagon as quickly as the jerky kneed many on this board.  Plus don''t think we have a surfeit of money to provide for anything but the most urgent of loanees which this ain''t (yet). He spent big (comparitively) in bringing Jacko in and do not see him doing anything but give him and Oli more of a chance.  There is nothing to say with the style of football we are playing at home that we have to have a target man.  Besides what use is a target man who spends half his time running the channels. Dropping the captain is a big step though and don''t think it will be happening anytime soon.

I think PL will keep faith with the team from Sat as he cannot say universally positive things about them and then make changes imo. That said I want to see Jackson get a run out tonight and hopefully a scoring one at that. I predict 2-1 with Leicester scoring first and Jacko getting the winner late on.

We have not lost two on the bounce since PL took over, so let''s hope that run continues. I think we badly need 3 points from this and a few goals. 

I can''t see the FA ever going for O''Neill - too outspoken and there are still too many at Soho Square who remember who taught him his management style!

I don''t think that one will go anywhere.  He stayed out of the game long enough after leaving Celtic and think he will not rush into another job, will probably wait to see what happens to Hodgson at Liverpool. The Leicester players will be feeling the pressure and will want to play well to support each other, support the manager, reward the fans, earn their bonuses and for many other reasons beside. I think they are going to be a tough side to beat tonight.

I think if we all manage to get alone then there is a much better chance of us getting along. OTBC.

1.  Holt - standard 2.  Martin - great prospect and love having a player who can hit a good free kick 3.  Korey - has the level of commitment every fan wants to see 4.  Drury - Legend in my eyes 5.  Admiral - somebody has to say it!

I think Barnetts future will depend more on how West Bum are doing in the league come next Jan.  If they are sitting pretty will probably be happy to let us keep him with a view to a perm.  If they are fighting relegation will be thinking about keeping him for the Champ next season. Would welcome him if he comes but think he is going to be another Tiny Taylor - great on loan but only that.

How do you adjust at 26 years old to a life outside of professional football - what did it feel like on the first morning that you woke up and knew you were never going to play again? Do you plan to take up Dario Gradi''s offer of a coaching position at Crewe?

Most fouled player in the Premiership at one point! I think this is another area that more tv cameras could really help with.  The amount of stuff that goes on off the ball that you only see when you are at the live game always amazes me.

A loan for someone like Ishmael Miller maybe - think would only be able to get anyone with a bit of experience in until Jan but would be nice. If not surely there must be someone like the new Carlton Cole or Andy Carroll out there.

Could be Smith will be worth a few quid in the future but think this is all a bit premature for a player with barely a season of first team football behind him.  Sadly as pointed out in the other Smith thread there are a lot of young Prem players that get snapped up by lower prem/champ teams every year.  You look at the likes of Muamba and Larsson and still dont think that Korey compares. It has been shown that the real money lies in the goal scorers and if both Smith and Martin were to leave next summer after successful seasons think that CM would be the one bringing in the bigger bucks.

I think this academy is a great idea both for the young footballers and as a business model.  Seem to remember reading about it a few years ago and they said that they place players at the clubs and then claim a % of any transfer fee recouped. That said, so far they have had one success story and am pretty sure they are losing money hand over fist.

If we can take 1000 it will be at least 10% of the total if not more like twice that on a Tuesday night. I cannot afford to go and am impressed that so many of you can - well done guys and girls, really impressive.

He is a good prospect but there are always a huge amount of Prem youngsters who get more exposure to the England youth teams.  Don''t get me wrong, players like Muamba, Henderson, Albrighton, Rose and Cleverly are good and I would be happy if we swapped Smith for any of them. There are only ever a handful of non-prem players in the squads which is crazy as most of them do not play for their clubs week in week out. But I echo what others have said, let''s keep him a secret for as long as we can!

Davo, I know what you are saying but think that he would be better in a Lampard style central role.  Think with Wes in front and knowing his remit, he too often looks for a pass forward rather than taking on his man and going for goal. Great player though, best permanent signing I have seen us make since Ashton.

A fair and logical point - D''oh! Not sure finances are ever going to bite the Prem teams until they let someone like Pompey go under.

Now there is a url to register! Could then have a lot of fun on the ITFC website! On a serious note I still harbour hopes of Hucks having a more hands on coaching role at the club as think his passion and reputation would help the youth set up no end as the boys who watched him start to come through.  Just never let him manage the club!

I try not to spend too much time imagining what our first team might be doing in 7 years.  Strange use of time in my opinion. Will Drury be coaching in Indonesia or running a nice country hotel outside of Swaffham?  Answers on a postcard to whogivesamonkeys.com  

I saw this as well and came very close to posting about it, was ridiculous but then to be fair to him was not exactly in a well managed or structured side.  I was surprised when Pool got Varney as thought he was average when I saw him, so maybe Holly is able to get something out of them that others cannot. Gunny''s first signing!

Players like Kightly and Kelvin Etuhu could make a real difference to a championship side. That said I do not think there are going to be as many big names available as people think and the ones that are will go to the lower end Prem sides.  All youngsters under 21 (I think) are outside the rules so not sure that it will make someone like Boyate any more likely to head out on loan.

I think he looks a really classy player.  Good on the ball and sees the game well, plus is a threat going forward. Would like to see him score a few more, remember him scoring a few crackers for Saints so hopefully this will come. I am not convinced that the diamond is the best shape for him but think he will be one of our most important players this season.