Devils Advocate.

Ok, my paragraphs do contradict each other !. But as I said if he continues his managerial training at Birmingham and learns from his mistakes he may be considered a viable candidate at Carrow Road , hopefully in the far distant future. He will learn that it is not wise to fall out with the local media etc or indeed the fans, as Rodent found out here. However you can''t really dispute the fact that Lee Clark was doing well at Huddersfield and was then sacked whereas Rodent was c**p in his second season here and was deservedly sacked, had he been succesful here, would he have been sacked because he lacked relationship skills?. I seem to remember than when Clark was here, it was said that he was good in his relationship with the players and  was a go-between with Rodent and the players ?.   

Nice to see that Lee Clark has returned to football as the new boss at Birmingham, possibly having been recommended by Chris Hughton. He was very unlucky to be kicked out by Huddersfield after taking them to the verge of promotion to the championship. Maybe he can continue his training at Birmingham and one day in the far distant futurebe a viable candidate as  manager at Carrow road.  I was interested to read that not only did he fall out with his chairman at Huddersdfield, it seems that he also managed to fall out with the local media as well. Good to see that one of his mentors, Glen Rodent, has passed on a few tips.

If it were possible to buy a replacement for Grant Holt, who costs less than £6 million, demanded less pay than Grant Holt, had proven goalscoring experience like Grant Holt, was as influential as Grant Holt, wouldn''t West Ham have already bought him?.

Interesting. At age 49 and having followed Norwich since 1972, I have naturally seen many occasions when much loved  players have left. There has even been the odd  time when a manager has gone who we would have rather kept, perhaps John Bond, Mike Walker and Martin O''Neill ? . At the end of last season, it seemed somehow different. Grant Holt had just been voted Player of the year for a third time and due to his humble beginings he seemed to represent us more closely than the usual player. Paul Lambert had taken us from the depths of Division One to Premier league safety, it seemed that everything was going great and that next season the success would continue with a few additions to the squad. Am I alone in feeling that any player/manager who is succesful with Norwich now, will only be looking to move on as he only ever saw us as a stepping stone to moving on to possibly greater things ?

After the events of this summer, when the two most worshipped characters to be involved with Norwich city in recent years have been unfaithful to us, will we ever "love" a player or manager again.?

[quote user="Nexus_Canary"]Is it just me, or does it seem like Hughton is taking the longest holiday on record ? [/quote] Perhaps it''s me, but I would have thought that being given a brand new job as the manager of a Premier league team would come above a fortnight''s holiday in a caravan at Hemsby.

[quote user="Lord Horn"] [quote user="Ncfc"]The heights reached on the pitch in the Chase era will never be matched again by a Norwich side in our lifetimes , that first season of the Premiership was something else ,we really did match and better the very best , none of this can we snatch 17th and survive cobblers we get now. [/quote] I''m not going to get into a Delia v Chase argument but I would argue that the Premiership is a totally different kettle of fish to what it was when we were an inaugural member - the financial benefits for the ''top teams'' have escalated and the differential increased exponentially between those at the top and ''the rest''. [/quote] Totally agree. The days have gone when a club run by a smallish builder could compete with the big boys have disappeared. To succeed in the Premiership now, you have to have a Russian billionaire, a middle Eastern Sheikh or the combined wealth of an American sports tycoon family behind you. The Premiership is just a rich persons plaything.

Despite all that''s gone on this summer, real or imagined and the fact that I f****n love Grant Holt, he is not the future for England, is he ? . It looks like Wayne Rooney, Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck and Andy Carroll are, so far better he rests up, trains well and puts his efforts into Norwich. If he signs for someone else, then S** him !

If GH fell out with PL. why are there so many rumours signing for Arseton Villa?  

I was one of those who commented on this "error" but my comments have now been rejected by a moderator.

I know that there have been tongue in cheek comments about managers jumping ship before ever sending a team out and wondered whether this has ever happened. One name has sprung to mind, that of Sven Goran Erikkson. I believe that he was due to take over at Blackburn Rovers in 1997 but had a change of heart and jacked it in before he ever started. The job went to Roy Hodgson instead.

Couldn''t agree more. I normally find the close season boring, but despite the Euro''s this one has been exceptionally dull. Were it not for the "managerial merry-go-round", there would have been nothing doing, which is odd as normally there is some impending transfer action to debate. Is it just the Euros that are slowing things down, or is football feeling the pinch too?    Wouldn''t be surprised if our first game is against Villa, but it will be away and on the Monday night thanks to Sky.

Papers seem to be going for David Moyes. It really does seem that Lambert jumped the gun when he went to Villa, bet he''s sick !!!!!

Remember those wonderful days when nobody wanted our manager, including us !  To be honest, Spurs seem to have bigger ideas these days and would be more likely to approach a manager from Europe such as Mourinho or Guardiola. However I have heard a rumour that Harry''s dog is in the frame.

[quote user="Mr Brownstone"]... and ''Arry has left Spurs I bet Lambert is regretting his decision. Ha![/quote] Just because Lambert has signed a contract, doesn''t mean he''s staying there. Maybe the cancellation clause would be a little more strict than the one he had with us though.

Did we have a scout after Chester Left?

IF there were problems between GH and PL, why are there so many people tipping GH to move to Aston Villa? Surely the problems would re-surface if he did?.

[quote user="Cambridgeyellow"][quote user="Sir Humphrey Appleby"]Cambridge - what do you mean about the way the club was being run? I have only caught snippets of the latest goings on and would appreciate any thing you could add. Ta. [/quote] It was said that the coaching and even some mentioned tatics, the picking of the team and the subs were done by Culverhouse. Lambert turned up twice a week once on Friday and then to tell everyone his team before a game. As I said this was only mentioned and maybe not be what happened in reallity. But if it did Lambert would have to find somebody he trusted 100 % if his style was to work. By the way that is also the way Martin O''Neill works.[/quote] If all of that is true, who could blame Culverhouse and Karsa for being envious of all the credit being given to Lambert. In fairness to Lambert he does credit the pair when asked.

Blimey, we''ll soon have more coaches than Sanders.....

[quote user="Canary1902"] It would appear Lambert has knocked the loyalty trust out of you lot. Are we REALLY talking about Hughton leaving less than 24 hours after he walked in? Jesus. [/quote] No, but for the bookies at least and probably the Newspapers as well , the "managerial merry-go round " never stops turning. Mind you, there was that late start to the press conference .....

I very much doubt that we could ever qualify for the Champions league. The only way we could play in Europe would be via the Europa league. Given the number of games played in the Europa league, it would mean playing Thursdays and Sundays for a lot of the season . We would almost need two squads to compete and simply can''t afford that. Playing in the Europa league last season arguably stretched Birmingham last season to the extent that they failed to gain Promotion. Good Job really, we may not have been able to attract Chris Hughton had they gone up !

Am I right in thinking that ten years ago we had just lost to Birmingham in the play-offs at Cardiff ?. We were all immensely proud of the efforts of Norwich and also very envious as Birmingham, then managed by Steve Bruce and backed by the fortunes of the Gold brothers and David Sullivan together with Karren Brady headed into the Premiership. Now look at Birmingham, Steve Bruce was fired years ago. The Golds, David Sullivan and Karen Brady have sold up and now head toward the Premiership with their "new" toy West Ham.Birmingham are now owned by Carston Yeung (sp), they are subject to a transfer embargo and they have now lost their manager to us. What a difference ten years make, funny old game.......

http://www.thesackrace.com/teams/tottenham-hotspur Harry''s contract runs out in a year, he is angling for a new one. Look who''s down  at 28/1  to succeed him, with Mr Loyalty at 25/1.

I noticed that, let''s hope he got muddled up with "First team coach" and manager. Surely he didn''t mean........

How about doing and saying nothing ?