Josh

quote colneycanary "Yer would of been nice to be told this morning that we weren''t signing anybody else, to save everybody''s time. Why did we bid for the Quag, Toivenen and Alderwerald if all was completed earlier in the summer? I''m pretty disappointed really. RVW was signed months ago. So really only Fer, Redmond, and Hooper which all signed weeks ago. Was expecting at least another big signing. Some players moved today for bargain prices compared to what we bid for Quag and Alderwerald. If they were happy with the team, why bid for these players? And why didn''t we bid for players in similar positions when they turned us down? We Havant exactly got a quality squad in depth. Relegation battle here we come!" We''ve signed RVW, Fer, Hooper, Olsson, Redmand, Elmander et al and have 2 decent players for each position, plus having the strongest NCFC squad for donkeys years, with a transfer window spend of around £25m, and you think we''re game on for a relegation battle? That''s utterly phenomenal!! For the record, we tried for Quagliarella and Toivonen but in case it hasn''t escaped your notice, Elmander is who we ended up with. CB is the slightly worrying position. We''re quite reliant on Bassong and clearly tried to sign another quality CB but were sadly unsuccessful with our targets. I''m sure McNally and Hughton tried their best, especially with Alderwerald who was a very ambitious target but has incidently signed for current Copa del Rey winners Atletico Madrid today!

Ah yes, the prolific Shane Long. 21 Premier League goals in 116 games for Reading and WBA. Loves to score against Norwich, hence why he is so highly rated by the Norwich faithful. Had a cracking year in The Championship a few years back, the only year he''s ever hit double figures in a League campaign, but that''s the Championship... Now if only he was Dutch, I''m sure the Holland national boss would haven given him at least 2 caps by now ;) Indeed, he is not better than what we currently have. Would make a worthy addition to our squad, but he would get a starting role at Hull, whereas he''d probably warm the bench here, so who''s to say he''d join us anyway? (That''s if the Hull deal hasn''t collapsed).

If we stay up, Hughton has succeeded. So many teams around us have also strengthened strongly. Swansea, Southampton, Fulham, West Ham. Even Cardiff have spent quite a bit. Villa are starting to look very good and have made astute signings. Newcastle have a talented but massively under performing squad, as do Sunderland, so we can''t write those teams off either. West Brom are looking weaker but we can''t forget they finished 8th last season. It will be incredibly difficult to crack the top half of the table so improving on our 11th place finish last season will be a massive achievement. Anyone who is expecting "progress" in regards to league position are deluded. This is an incredible competitive league so anything from 17th up will be sufficient.

Yeh exactly, if it takes off then a version that doesn''t need to be updated every year would probably catch on better. Plus people would probably feel more nostalgic and emotional hearing the names of past City greats in such a wonderful update of OTBC. Players such as Pilks and Bassong are currently great players for us but probably haven''t worked their way into our hearts just yet...

Absolutely fantastic effort, would love to hear this played at FCR!! Just one thing though, not sure about the name dropping. I think it would work better if it was in reference to past legends such as Hucks, Holt, Roberts, Gunn, Keelen etc....just my opinion though. Lets keep pestering McNally, I''ll drop him a tweet later...

Well said The New Boy

quote Bill Car "A lot of key players missing, very happy with the point but we were lucky to get it. Possession wise nearly 70% 30% in Everton’s favour and they had 20 shots, 7 on target. We had two shots on target, both went in, so those saying it was a fair result are probably being a tad bit biased." Not really, it was agreed by all the pundits on Final score and the BBC reporter at Carrow Road that it was a fair result, and they are about as unbiased as you can get. Not sure where the heck you got 70% possesion stats from, the bbc have it down as 56% Everton / 44% us which sounds about right! Shooting stats can be a bit misleading to, they didnt exactly have many clear cut chances and neither did we. All in all it was pretty even.

Epic troll fail by I am a Banana, that post just makes you look delusional and bitter. Good honest response from Holty, that''s why I''ll always love him.

Really sad news, always respected them as a football club. Feel for their fans.

Without entering that daily record link into you browser and looking at the wording you could be forgiven for thinking that Snoddy was missing and unable to play due to being pregnant :D But reading that link....sounds nasty, glad Snoddy''s missus appears to be ok.

Another vote for Gary Doherty Only that I didn''t love him and it used to infuriate me that most of our fans did. Average player who was frankly a liability in defence and stifled our progression as a football club. Hey I''m a nice guy, perhaps I could have got a game upfront for Norwich back then? Thank god times have changed and now we actually have defenders of real quality at the club.

RVP?

[quote user="ReadingCanary"]Michael Carrick has always been the core of my Fantasy League team.Brilliant footballer who in my eyes will be the next Ryan Giggs / Paul Scholes and play for ever[/quote] Why on earth would you have a midfielder in your Fantasy Team who rarely scores or assists? Agreed though, very underrated player.

[quote user="The New Boy"][quote user="CambridgeCanary"] He has nothing for his club for two years and nothing in four years for England to suggest that he is more then a good player.[/quote]EYYYY??! Two years ago was July 2011. In the 2011/12 season he scored 34 goals, made the EPL team of the year, and was shortlisted for the Ballon d''Or!In addition he has scored 10 goals in his last 15 games for England.Why do you feel the need to make up a load of crap? [/quote] People really do talk out of their bums when it comes to Rooney, I always hear the "has been rubbish for the past 2-3 years" argument. It''s utter tosh. Apparently he was "very poor" last season but he still scored 12 goals and made 10 assists in 22 premier league starts and 5 sub appearances. He contributed at least a goal every 90 minutes despite playing all over the pitch (basically never as a CF) and suffering some bad injuries. Personally I think the hate is more to do with people not liking him as a person (which is kind of understandable), not to mention the amount of money he earns and the way he earnt that extortionate contract a few years ago

quote user "Indy" = "None of us on here know how good he is, we don''t watch him play every week and to keep comparing him to the likes of Zola, Baggio and such is criminal as he''s not that quality! You say yourself that his game is not reliant on pace and that might be so in Italy but in the premeirship you don''t have the luxury of time on the ball, you have players in your face, hunting the ball." Read my post again. I said Quag may not be of the same qualify of the likes of Zola and Baggio, I just simply pointed out he is a similar type of player. And yes, the Premiership is faster paced, but playmakers who lack pace do succeed in this league! Hoolahan isn''t equctly the quickest but he''s done OK. Do you think Hughton and McNally would be paying out €10m for Quag if they didnt think Quagliarella was up to it?

Quagliarella, easy choice! It''s difficult to know how good Hooper actually is but Quag is proven class, plus we really need an upgrade on Wes (wonderful player but we need more goal threat).

As I mentioned on the other thread, Italian number 10''s (like Quag) tend to play into their late 30''s, such as del Piero, Zola, Mancini, Totti, Baggio, di Canio and even di Natale. Their game is more intelligent and not as relient on pace so they dont get burnt out as early. Of course Quag may not be in their class but he is a similar type of player so we may get many good years out of him. As somebody previously mentioned, these type of Italian players often peak in their 30''s so Hughton might be onto a winner. It baffles me, 4 years ago we were preparing to play in League 1 and today we are being linked with Italian internationals, and some of our fans find a reason to be dissatisfied with it? Surely these types of signings are what captures our imagination as football fans? Put it this way, yes 8.5m is quite a lot of money to spend but it''s not your money. It''s the clubs money which is being monitored by the careful and wise eye of David McNally. Do you think he''d let the transfer happen if it wasn''t good for the club? No, he wouldn''t. Quagliarella is a class senior player who the youth could learn from, he could extend our global appeal and most importantly, his goals and general role in our attack could earn us prize money far in excess of his transfer fee and wages. It''s a calculated risk. I know some people here want younger player then Quag and I fully understand this viewpoint but we have just lost Holt who was a senior player, so tbh I actually think we need an old head to replace him such as Quag.

Yeh vs Leicester sounds right, lets hope Ricky takes them his penalty''s look very good on his YouTube clips anyway

I swear I remember Hoolahan taking a penalty for us in a cup game last season or the one before, keeper saves it but luckily Wes scored the rebound! Please never let him near the penalty spot again unless we need him for a penalty shootout or something! I imagine Wolfie will take the pens with Snoddy second in line.

Zola was 30 when he joined Chelsea should I say! Stayed there till he was 37. I reckon we could easily get 5 good years out of Quagliarella, maybe 6-7 if we''re lucky, although he would have probably moved on by then.

Yeh I totally agree with some of the posters here, 30 is way too old and he is clearly on the decline *cough* I mean look at Gianfranco Zola when he joined Chelsea, totally past it, he only went on to play 313 games for them, what a terrible buy that was! #sarcasm As far as I''m aware Quagliarella is not known for his pace which may prolong his career, he is a technically gifted player like many Italian number 10''s (e.g., del Pierro, Zola, Totti, Mancini, Baggio), all of whom have had / are having long careers (Totti the youngest at 36). Quagliarella may not be quite in the same class as these players but you get my point, these type of players tend to have longevity. Hope this signing happens but seems more of a dream at the moment.

quote user Jonzey "In four years time would we really want a 34 year old who''s always struggled to score a lot of goals draining our cash?" I almost chocked on my coffee reading this. This is a guy who has consistently scored 1 goal in every 3 games from a support striker role, which is impressive. For those choking over the transfer fee, lets put this into context. If we could actually pull this off, and pay the reputed £6m, do we not get an extra £1m per place in the Premier League? Say for example, we enter the season with Hoolahan or Howson playing the support striker role, and they struggle to score more than 7 goals between them for the entire season, which is quite possible. We finish 11th again. Or we enter the season with Quagliarella as our support striker. He scores his usual 1 in 3 goals (assuming he adapts to the PL), and scores 12 goals. Not to mention that this is his natural position, so he sets up numerous assists for RVW. His overall contribution helps us climb to 8th in the table, gaining us an extra £3m in prize money. He repeats his form the following season, effectively paying off his £6m transfer fee. The point is, he is class and you pay premium for that even at the age of 30. He could be a match winner and pay off his fee within 2-3 seasons. The only real risk I foresee is whether he can adapt to the pace of the PL....

I''m not feeling too in tuna with this rumour, people need to kipper a lid on this kind of stuff or else some posters will start pouting with disgust, or others will see it as a red herring. There''s a time and a plaice for silly rumours, but one thing is for sure, our signings are looking good so far so we''re bound to have a whale of a time next season.

Sadly only 1 in 10 alcoholics get off the booze, such a savage illness and I fear this will end badly given his fame.

Sounds good to me, I''m in!