Yelloow Since 72

Yes, a great story and it speaks well for his character as well. Having started professional football late he is still developing and hopefully will push on further under City's coaching. The high praise heaped on him by former teammate Saint-Maximin, who signed for Newcastle for £18m, is a further indication of his potential.

Mumba is fit and should be on the bench.

My feeling at this stage is that we will stay up, but it's by no means certain. We've strengthened every position except perhaps WR, although we need to remember that Buendia's greatest years were in the Championship. His goals and assists dried up considerably in the PL just as Pukki's goals dropped from 29 to 11 in the PL whereas the new players have all achieved at the top level in various countries. That has to translate into PL achievement and I think it will, though we won't really know until the mid point around Christmas when we've played all of the other teams.

Normann didn't play in Norway's third game, so could start at Arsenal. Tzolis came on as a sub last night for Greece and provided the assist for the winning goal, so should at least be in the bench for us as should Sargent and Kabak.

The changes this window are more of an evolution than an abrupt change. Rashica was the first indication of an increased emphasis on counter-attacking with pace. Sargent and Tzolis have added to that. In midfield, Gilmour and Lees-Melou are another shift, moving away from the double pivot of Skipp and McLean which thrived in the Championship but could be overrun in the PL. The 3 man midfield allows a wider screen in front of the defence but other options to support our own attack as well. It's interesting that Spurs have now switched to a 3 man midfield as well, with Skipp at the heart of it. McLean, Lees-Melou, Rupp and now Normann can also play at CAM which helps to bridge the gap from midfield to the attacking players while still being able to cover for FBs going forward. The 3-3 balance of midfielders and attacking players should make us stronger overall and harder to predict in attack, hopefully with more goals from midfield as well. With the possible exception of WR (when Sargent isn't playing there), every position has been strengthened for this season and the way we play has been strengthened as well. We'll be less predictable in attack while also being stronger in defence than we were in the PL two years ago.

The word was that Villa paid the £33m up front to get the deal done early. That converts to around $46m at current conversion rates, so $8m less than Howard's $54m. That was enough to underwrite the first installment payments of the rest of our transactions with the PL payments yet to come.

Our recruitment has become far more sophisticated than when Brellier ('the Judge') was signed. Still there was the 'Amadou' window which SW now admits that he 'went down the list too quickly'. Amadou had his moments, but then left in January and Byram was the only other positive from that window. Rashica, Gilmour and Lees-Melou have looked promising so far and Sargent and Tzolis both looked excellent in the cup game so we'll have to wait and see how Normann fits in over coming games, Watford in particular.

Idah now has 20 appearances for Ireland, 12 in the U21s with 5 goals and 8 in the senior squad. That was quite a jump but he's handled it well and will keep getting starts there. I agree that we need 3 strikers and I suspect that his progress is why Hugill was the one to go out on loan. At 20, he just needs to bide his time as injuries will happen.

The Normann compilation on YouTube gives a good idea of his long passing and through ball skills and he does some shooting as well: Like all compilations it concentrates on his attacking play. This was a year ago so doesn't include his latest season.

Perhaps you've been reading the wrong sites. This scouting report details why Normann isn't a box to box midfielder. He's a progressive DM who covers the ground like Skipp but he can also pick out attacking players and provide telling through balls as well, something Skipp struggled to do. https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/mathias-normann-2020-21-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics

Around £10m 3 years ago, which along with the £22m for Maddison allowed us to pay off our debt and build a Championship winning team with Pukki, Buendia, Krul, McLean and Rhodes coming in. That was a very good window but not even close to the window just ended.

Of course the wages will be higher in the PL, as they would have been for those leaving. The difference overall is what I meant. We now have 21 senior players and 5 U21s, which is fewer than last season and I doubt our new players were big earners at their former clubs so our wage bill is likely to be similar to two years ago when we had big earners like Klose, Fährmann, Amadou, Drmic and Duda who contributed little to the results achieved, modest as they were. Edit: £80m would mean that our 26 players would be getting an average wage of £60k a week. My guess would be an average wage of £30k, so a wage bill of around £40m. Emi was on £25k a week when he left, for example, and he was one of our highest paid players.

What about the wages of the other 11 players who have left or gone out on loan? Our wages won't have increased dramatically overall.

Though it isn't about the physical encounters, this tactical analysis of Normann gives a reasonable view of his playing style: https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/mathias-normann-2020-21-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics The Norwegian commentator in David Freezer's interview thought he is closer to Skipp than Tettey, but a better passer than Oli with the ability to play telling through balls or accurate passes over the top to bypass the press. If that's the case and his defending is as good as Skipp's, we could have quite a player who may well be the key to our season.

Buendia, like Maddison, is a great player, but his departure shocked us but it paid for the arrival of Rashica, Gunn, Lees-Melou, Sargent, Gilmour and Tzolis as well as the formation and tactical tweaks we've seen so far, just as Madders' departure enabled the arrival of Buendia, Pukki, McLean, Rhodes and Krul and the movement from a 14th place finish to finish Champions.Our net outlay in effect is the cost of the loan deals for Williams, Normann and Kabak. The Gibson and Giannoulis deals came out of last year's budget. Much as I admired Emi, the 6 players who have come in from the money his departure provided and the last 3 loan deals have given us a real chance of survival without a huge financial gamble. Even wages of those 9 have been balanced by the departure of 12 players. That is a master-class in transfer dealings by Webber.

That's an excellent scout report Bethnal, clearly showing why we are so interested.

This.^

I'd also bring Sørensen in and play Sargent with Rashica behind Pukki: KrulAarons Hanley Gibson GiannoulisGilmour Sørensen Lees-MelouSargent Rashica Pukki Sargent and Rashica know each other's game and Sargent is better than Cantwell defensively and can also take some of the burden off Pukki as he's had a full pre-season and two Bundesliga matches before he arrived.

Latest EDP take: https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwich-city/canaries-ncfc-farke-brandon-williams-mathias-normann-transfers-8261308 Trying to read between the lines, it seems that Williams at FB is definite and CB is DF's next priority after which a DM, if possible. That they're admitting 'having tracked Norman for months' that's now looking a lot closer if a middle ground can be found.

Charlton was a LB who was moved to CB after injuries. He did very well in spite of his height.

Aarons was our top rated player on WhoScored at 7.3, but Lees-Melou was just behind on 7.2. He also saved a certain goal off the line. This article puts our new players into perspective and hopefully there's more to come: https://saturdays.substack.com/p/norwichs-surprisingly-strong-statement

A possibility rather than a rumour -Kean Bryan. 24 year old left footed CB who can also play as a DM. He made 18 appearances towards the end of last season for Sheffield United. Came up through the ManCity academy and is currently a free agent, with rumoured talks with Boro not amounting to much yet.

Still? Can't be a very fast jet! 😅

This is the key to a 3 man midfield. I'd prefer for it to be Lees-Melou breaking forward as he has pace and the ability to score from around the box. Has Rupp even got close to scoring yet? McLean could also do that when he's match-fit again.

The Pinkun seems to be sitting on the fence on Cahill, citing fan interest in him, the club considering the possibility: https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/ncfc-transfer-rumours-ex-england-defender-considered-8238052 Question is, will this be getting the 'wide of the mark' treatment tomorrow?