Grant Holts Moustache

Newton I read you post and your maths is still wrong you stated that the remaining players will earn 6m a year. So even going back on last season that won''t even add 6m. Ricky was on loan too and we had all his wages paid plus a 1.5m payment for the loan. Also wages were championship wages last season so maybe we half your 6m based on the reported 40% drop/ increase wage clauses the players have and that we weren''t paying Ricky.. Then we take away the 1.5m loan fee. So that maybe gives us 1.5 onto the 27m and even if you are right and Ricky earned 40k a week in his first season that''s still only another 2m. We still only just hit 30.5m. Also modern contracts and transfers will often have payments based on games, goals scored sell ons which will have all been guessed at in those headline figures you are using. If they all remain failures then the club won''t pay these clauses and this figure will decrease massively. It can also be argued that the likes of Lafferty contributed to us getting promoted after all he did play in many of the early season wins culminating in us earning more money by being in the premier league again.

Interesting to see that even some of those clubs with mega rich owners some are calling for still aren''t that good. Sunderland and Villa being good examples. Yet Swansea, Palace, Brom and Everton have done alright without it. Anyone see the similarities with our owners? Supporters, well run, in it for the long term.

Ha ha Newton where did you pluck those figures from you jumped from 15m to 40m wasted! Just some quick maths for you and this assumes your random figures are correct in anyway what so ever but 15m+6m+6m= 27m. For someone who spends so much time banging on about money wasted you should maybe go back to school and retake your maths. All of those would have walked into our team of a few years ago and would have been stars alongside Fotheringham and Co. Anyway my point still stands I would rather be in a position signing these players than what we were previously. The reasons we are now competing for these is the board and the magnificent job they have done to turn us into a club that can compete. Plus you may not be aware but it doesn''t matter how good the board are every club makes signings that just don''t work and money is lost. Look at Di Maria, Shevchenko, Veron, Robhino these were world class players but it didn''t work out. If it was all as simple as you seem to believe then everyone would be running successful football clubs.

I''m with Cork Canary on this. We should be proud of the way our club is run. Things have never looked so good in my lifetime. Lack of debt, a board who put the club first, a Chief Executive who is shrewd and hasn''t got such an ego that he can admit he''s made mistakes in the past. Most importantly though we are investing more money eye than ever in improving the squad (look how much has been spent in the last three years, I remember signing the likes of Simon Whaley, Owen Tudor, Jason Jarrett and Ian Murray) and the club is being run like a business squeezing every ounce of income possible to continue progressing. I know the last part isn''t to everyone''s taste but it''s what can make the difference between us being a mediocre championship side and a team that can survive in the premier.

Maybe someone should tweet him the thread? Anyone here speak Italian and have Twitter? I''m sure if he sees such devotion he will rip up his contract for a shot at the big time at Carrow Road!

Austin at 15m no way. He is decent but it is just one season in the premier league. We can''t afford to put all our eggs in one basket. Say he gets a serious injury early on? What about if he is just another one season wonder at this level. There have been quite a few, I give you Michu, Amir Zaki, Marcus Stuart, Andy Johnson, Michael Ricketts, Andy Carroll, DJ Campbell, Kevin Doyle, Santa Cruz and dare I even say it Grant Holt... The list is pretty long and I''m sure there are plenty more out there. We cannot afford to rely on one person. Our best bet is to have a variety of players who can score. I would rather see us contribute with goals from a few areas and strengthen the team with two or three signings if we have 15m to spend.

Was just about to post the same quote TC. It''s almost as if people read the sensationalist headlines and actually believe them without reading the article.

You obviously didn''t see us "get smashed" cos if you would have watched you would have seen we didn''t "get smashed".

Some strange logic there Mooney. How come we need to sign £10m players? You say that Redmond is the only one we have yet we only paid about £3m for him. You also say Brady can be a £10m player and again we signed him for £6/7m. Why can''t we just keep signing players like we have been? Develop them and improve that way. Also your logic that Destro is not £10m because he is being replaced by Dzeko I just don''t get. You do realise Dzeko at the price they are paying is a steal? He was £25-30m a couple of seasons ago. Destro I don''t profess to know anything about but for someone his age he has played and scored plenty in Serie A. Played for Italy a few times. Yet somehow Charlie Austin is then that £10m player with just one good season in the premier. You argument is a bit confused to me.

Attacking positive philosophy, a few mistakes, terrible refereeing but a good platform to build on.

Those of you who clearly take umbrage with Martin should get used to seeing him play at centre back week in week out. There has been no indication that the Manager is looking to replace him. He kept him as his captain and has also played him whenever he has been available suggesting that he doesn''t see what you see when you watch Martin play. What I can see of Alex Neil is someone who likes consistency to his back 5 and he clearly sees Russ as a big part of that. His whole approach seems to be about playing out from the back. Russ is our best ball playing defender so will play regularly unless we change style. There were mistakes from numerous players defensively, to put the blame on one player is short sighted and at worst just plain bias. On another note I have seen a lot mentioned about how these are the players that got us relegated so will do so again. When we got relegated we kept 12 clean sheets that season. Which was something like the 10th best in the league. The only change in our defence/ Keepers since then is Garrido out and Wisdom in so we still have that potential to do so again. Our issues that season weren''t our back 5 but were lack of goals and not having the quality in midfield which was frequently overrun, didn''t hold on to the ball well enough and had a nasty habit of losing runners. If Alex Neil has seen the footage, which I''m sure he has, then I think he would be prioritising midfield players to improve us on the ball and with better defensive abilities which is why I think Mulumbu and Dorran were signed. Also improving the way our wide players track back and cover and a focal point up front is needed. If he signs a second player in the coming days, after a striker, I think we may be in for a surprise as it won''t be a centre back I see it being competition for Redmond as we keep having to move Howson there due to having no back up.

What is your ambition for the club Pliff? How much money do you think we should be realistically spending on matching that ambition?

I am interested to see what Wisdom can do but think it will be a while before we get to see him. Alex has shown he is very loyal and likes a consistent back 5. Add to that Wisdom only played 45 minutes for us and another 45 for Liverpool in pre season, he maybe needs a little time to get up to speed. He looked decent in his cameo against Brentford though and Whittaker could have a real battle to keep his place in the side this season. Which has to be good for the team.

Canary Legend you may need to watch that goal again. The mistake was Brady being caught too far forward so Bassong had to come across and cover the full back. This meant Whittaker and Martin were left with 3 players. Something that no matter how good a player you are you will struggle to cover. So much scapegoating already on here. Has been ridiculous. I thought we played well. We moved the ball nicely. Created some chances had three very major decisions not go our way. I agree there were some improvements that can be made defensively but this nonsense that players are not good enough is just people trying to get in with the I told you so carp already. What do some of you seriously expect?

Picked up a pretty serious injury so won''t get signed until he proves his fitness. Will be aiming a lot higher than us though. Rumours of top 8 clubs for the last few seasons.

Redmond had a long season last year. Spent the summer with under 21s so joined the squad late. He didn''t get many minutes in pre season either so suspect he isn''t quite up to speed yet. Jerome had the injury in pre season and also spent a lot of the end of the season playing with an injury so again just looks like he will need a little time to be fit enough to play 90 minutes and won''t risk another injury by playing too much too soon .

Why would he be on the bench. We play one up front, there were two strikers on the bench who were better than him in Jerome and Hooper. Would have been foolish to have someone who is currently 4th choice sat on the bench. Soon to be 5th choice when Lafferty is fit and 6th choice if we sign someone else. Good movement isn''t a reason to give him a game. We need to provide a genuine threat if we are going to stay up. I believe we currently have 4 strikers who can offer more than he can. Unless we get injuries I don''t see how he will even make the bench let alone get a game. Doesn''t look like the Manager does either judging by him being given the no 29 shirt.

I think they paid 3-3.5m for Wilson. We had a deal agreed with Coventry too. He decided on Bournemouth because he didn''t think he was going to get much game time because of the strikers we had.

[quote user="Keith Scott"]Not everyone is agreed Lincoln. The usual suspects have been telling us for weeks that our defence and attack are more than capable at this level. But obviously they will deflect the blame onto the referee. Because he clearly was the reason we defended so poorly and apart from the obligatory shocking miss from barn door Grabban, created next to nothing.[/quote] Did you watch the match? If so I don''t get how you can say we created next to nothing? Two goals, Jeromes should have stood. Bassong with a strong shout for a penalty. Grabban missing a very good chance. One cleared off the line. The Johnson header scrambled away. In another day we would have scored three. The issue today was poor refereeing. We could have been better defensively but the third only came about because we were pushing forward trying to equalise.

And the scapegoating begins. Most certainly wasn''t Martins fault we lost today.

Wow can''t believe this thread is still going. Seems that some have expectations of the club that are just unrealistic. Remember we are Norwich, have just been promoted, don''t have owners who will fund massive losses and the premier league money doesn''t go up until next season. Unless we survive the next two seasons we won''t be making "big signings". Our target now is to incrementally improve the team and the squad. As we are fortunate that we have held on to many of our better premier league players when we got relegated that makes it so much more difficult to improve. So we have to be patient and allow the club to work on bringing in the right type of player that can as Lambert used to say "give the lads a hand". I''m sure we could have signed plenty of players but how many would realistically improve the side. This isn''t like when we came up before where we just cherry picked good championship/ League 1 players like Howson, Johnson, Snodgrass, Bennett x2 and Pilkington. We are a much better squad now and to improve that means competing in a different market. A market that has the likes of West Brom, Palace, Villa, Sunderland etc. A market where frankly if I was a player I would be more tempted to join one of them as they have proven they can stay in the league. Offering more money doesn''t automatically overcome this difference particularly with modern contracts including relegation clauses. So even if you do join Norwich over say Palace for an extra £10k a week the chances of you still earning that wage next season are lower. Also for those saying that we can''t sign continental strikers because Van Wolfswinkel was a failure I couldn''t disagree more. If you are a good player with confidence in your ability someone else''s failures won''t determine whether you sign for a club. Do you think Depay ever went well Falcao was rubbish at United so I''m not sure about that?

I can. I give you Bechio and Kamara.

Just says a fee is agreed on the BBC. Still time to get in with a bid if we are genuinely interested. I think he would provide some good competition for Wes. At a good price and only 26 too.

[quote user="Oh Cameron Jeroooooooome"]Premier league ground...... Portman road........ They can''t even remember premier league football.[/quote] I''m sure they remember. History is all they''ve got after all.

Brief but interesting piece from the secret footballer on Brady. http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/articles/the-secret-footballer/27310/robbie-brady-in-great-shape-to-boost-norwich-city/