Jacko

I have personally never been that sold on Ayala like others on this board seem to be. He was composed on the ball but I felt he was guilty of some very bad errors as well. Such as West Brom away last year where despite being clear favourite for the ball he not only contrived to give away a penalty but arguably could have seen red for what was a very nasty tackle. I think Hughton''s strategy was correct. There are certain areas in the team that you need experience. Centre half is one of those areas. When you sign someone who has played 100 Premier League games you can expect a certain level of performance. Michael Turner has let him down very badly in that regard so far.   I also don''t see what the big fuss about Vaughan being let go of was about. He had scored 9 goals in 30 Championship appearances at Palace. Thats a goal roughly every 3.33 games. His replacement Harry Kane actually scored 8 goals in 23 Championship games for Millwall. At better strike rate of every 2.85 games. When you also through in the fact that Kane had no record of injuries and Vaughan had only played 5 games last season it was understandably why Hughton made that decision. Obviously Kane has subsequently gone on to be injured but Hughton does not have that benefit of hindsight. Based on all the circumstances it was an acceptable enough decision.

[quote user="Gingerpele"]Howson only played in an attacking role for 45 mins last season. Unless I am forgetting any other times when he did it. Everton at home. All he did in the first 35 mins was nothing until he scored. Then he started to play well. But then he got moved back to CM, the same position he played in every other game for us to my knowledge. And he was much better for the whole second half. He''s probably not getting forward quite as much as last season. But to be honest, when he played as an AM or ''off the striker'', he did very little. Last season he was good at winning the ball. This season he seems to always be half a yard away from the ball when he tries to win it. When he won the ball he had great distribution. Can play the short pass, long pass, through ball. His passing range is pretty similar to Foxs. Howson is better at getting forward, he can shoot, he can burst forward with the ball. But I can''t see why anyone would want to waste two of his better talents last season of winning the ball and distributing it. The more Howson played, the less Fox played. Surely that tells you something?[/quote] Glad someone has the same opinions on Howson as I do. I felt in the game against Everton he was barely involved until the goal. It is possible for players to have disappointing games even when they score. How I thought he looked excellent as a deep lying playmaker. His passing ability and the way he plays on the half turn meaning he can carry the ball made him an ideal candidate for that role.

You''ve still got to give the permission City 1st. Say for instance a player has a minimum fee release clause. If a club comes in and offers the right amount of money to trigger that clause. The club still has the right to reject the offer. But its a clear breach of contract.

Now that would be worth £38 alone to see that

[quote user="City1st"]"Constructive dismissal is a form of unfair dismissal slim" eh ? one is where you resign the other is where you are sacked how is one a form of the other ? [/quote] Constructive dismissal you treat yourself as being dismissed by the club. You don''t technically resign.

Who knows whether Lambert is onto a winner here? At the very worst the board has made a monumental cock up and will cost money. At the very best it presents the club with a big smokescreen of uncertainty which could potentially affect our January dealings.

[quote user="City1st"]"What Lambert must be arguing is that he had a clause in his contract allowing him to speak to Villa. By refusing him permission we breached that term in his contract destroying this relationship of trust and confidence" If he had that clause then why would he needs the clubs permission ? Why would we try and stop him, when we would have known with that clause he would be perfectly entitled to talk to another club and would therefore already most likely to be talking to another club anyway ? Have you actually thought this through ? [/quote] Ever thought about the Premier League rules. You can''t technically approach a manager or player behind another club''s back. So it''s still very relevant that Norwich needed to give their permission.

Constructive dismissal is a form of unfair dismissal slim.

Well basically Slim. "An employer must not, without reasonable or proper cause, conduct himself in a manner calculated or likely to destroy or seriously damage the relationship of trust and confidence between the employer and the employee" What Lambert must be arguing is that he had a clause in his contract allowing him to speak to Villa. By refusing him permission we breached that term in his contract destroying this relationship of trust and confidence. He therefore treated himself as being constructively dismissed by the club.

His argument is for constructive dismissal. He believes that by not allowing him to speak to Villa, Norwich committed a fundamental breach of contract. This meant that he could treat himself as having been dismissed by the club. Which he did through the act of resigning. Does he actually have to prove loss? If a manager is sacked by a club and subsequently employed by another club soon after. They are still contractually entitled to that money from the previous club. This is monumental cock up by McNally and the board if true. One that has possibly cost the club about £4 million pounds.

The problem we had with Theo was that it wasn''t an isolated incident. He made some very bad errors in reserve fixtures after that. But admittedly his confidence must have been very low and deep down he must of known Lambert was very unlikely to give him another shot after he had signed Fraser Forster. He did have a bad game but I there is no way he can carry the blame for everything that happened. Doc and Nelse were dreadful and given the absolute runaround by the Platt/Lisbie combination. 3 members of the midfield have never played at that level again and Hoolahan has (until last Saturday) never played on the left wing again. We can argue about the standard of the A league all day long but his performances there indicate he is a decent goalkeeper. I would imagine he feels pretty upset and bitter about the whole thing. It was a big step coming to England and it led to him being humiliated, whilst wasting about 6 months of his career in the process. I for one would also find it fascinating to hear his few on that day. Was it a freak performance? Or was the preparation suspect meaning this result was on the cards.

"With Wes''s quality we know what he can give the team. With Wes in the team you have to adjust that midfield for him. But with what they had in wide areas I felt we needed four across midfield." There are two issues which immeadiately hit me about this comment. Firstly how many games is Wes going to get this season. Most teams have good wingers who can hurt you. So if we are always going to be mindful of that he simply wont play. The reality is that we are negative in our mindset whatever people say on here. If you are effectively going to rule playing your most skilful player for virtually the entire campaign because you are scared of the opposition wingers that is most certainly negative in my book. Secondly if you have to adjust the midfield to play him why did Hughton shovel him out onto the left wing. That is effectively an admission of playing someone in an area you knew they wouldn''t be very effective in. This is thing that cocerns me the most. There doesn''t appear to be a method or structure to what we are trying to do at the moment and its worrying.  

I''d take winning a cup and going down. 20 years from now you would remember that day and winning a trophy. You wouldn''t look back with the same elation and fondness on that year we came 16th in the Premier League.

Surman seems to divide opinion. Personally I really like him and think he is on the most technically gifted players we have at the club. But and this is the major caveat. You have to use him correctly. He isn''t an orthodox winger and he is isn''t an orthodox central midfielder. He will flourish as part of a 3 man midfield which is why the diamond suited him perfectly. I think we have a few players like Howson, Hoolahan, Snodgrass and Surman who currently fall into the bracket of being very fine players but who are not being played correctly.

Of course we need to focus on own game and get points. That much is obvious. But we can take great heart from the fact that despite having a dreadful start we are only in the bottom 3 on goal difference. Even after playing Chelsea and Arsenal in the next 2 games it seems unlikely we will be too far adrift. Incredibly after 6 games I think the bottom 5 for the season are already down there though. What order they come in at the end of the season is anyone''s guess.