LeJuge

[quote user="Brighton Yellow"]What about Mo Camara? played 26 games post City at Blackpool, St Mirren and Torquey. There definitely is a recurring theme to players of the recent past![/quote]Mo Camara is a little different because he was 33 by the time he played for us, he was never going to be heading in an upwards direction. He was 35 by the time he turned out for Torquay. I think he was ''OK'' for us in comparison with most of the poor excuses for footballers on this list, and whilst he was clearly nearing the end at the time..... he was a good player for Wolves and Burnley at that level, and then got game time at Celtic. It''s a little like if Adam Drury went on loan to the Championship now at 33, he would probably look very average or even a bit out of his depth, but it wouldn''t surprise anybody (or shouldn''t).

[quote user="norfolkbroadslim"][quote user="Old Shuck"] Wasn''t Koroma the one that Roeder gave a huge billing to, what with his being all excited about the at that time young player we were signing and calling him a "lovely mover"? I personally had high hopes of Elliott Omozusi when he came here but, alas...  now tearing up shrubs at Leyton Orient I believe? I think David Mooney ended up there as well? David Strihavka is now with his fifth club since leaving us, MSK Zilina in Slovakia-am I the only one (clearly, Omuzusi fever here?) excited when we signed him, thinking what a bold and aggressive move it was. [/quote] Only to later learn that it was nothing more than an elaborate loan!!![:@] [/quote]A typical bit of Doncaster spin. It was announced that it was a 4 year contract, transpired to be a 1 year deal with an option to extend his contract by 3 years. Although it was probably a good thing that it was only a 1 year deal in the end. It wouldn''t surprise me if it really was a 4 year deal though, and the "1 year contract" thing was the actual spin.

[quote user="Old Shuck"]Wasn''t Koroma the one that Roeder gave a huge billing to, what with his being all excited about the at that time young player we were signing and calling him a "lovely mover"? I personally had high hopes of Elliott Omozusi when he came here but, alas...  now tearing up shrubs at Leyton Orient I believe? I think David Mooney ended up there as well? David Strihavka is now with his fifth club since leaving us, MSK Zilina in Slovakia-am I the only one (clearly, Omuzusi fever here?) excited when we signed him, thinking what a bold and aggressive move it was? [/quote] Yep, Orient have Elliott Omozusi, Jamie Cureton, David Mooney, Jimmy Smith, and Kevin Lisbie. What a bunch! They are bottom of League One with 1 point in 6 games by the way, a goal difference of -10 already.

[quote user="Old Shuck"]Wasn''t Koroma the one that Roeder gave a huge billing to, what with his being all excited about the at that time young player we were signing and calling him a "lovely mover"? I personally had high hopes of Elliott Omozusi when he came here but, alas...  now tearing up shrubs at Leyton Orient I believe? I think David Mooney ended up there as well? David Strihavka is now with his fifth club since leaving us, MSK Zilina in Slovakia-am I the only one (clearly, Omuzusi fever here?) excited when we signed him, thinking what a bold and aggressive move it was? [/quote] Yep, Orient have Elliott Omozusi, Jamie Cureton, David Mooney, Jimmy Smith, and Kevin Lisbie. What a bunch! They are bottom of League One with 1 point in 6 games by the way, a goal difference of -10 already.

[quote user="LeJuge"]It serves us all well to remember just how awful we were for several years before Lambert, who remembers these.....David Carney - no club after being released by Blackpool.Mark Fotheringham - no club after playing 14 games in 2 years in the Cypriot leagueJason Jarrett - one of the worst Worthy signings? Go and look at his career post-Norwich! Currently without a club, although he spends less time without one than with one it seems.Simon Whaley - Plays for Chorley, that place made famous by Max & Paddy, in the ''Northern Premier League''.Jurgen Colin - Also struggles to get in a Cypriot team (island population 803k)Maceo Rigters - Plays in the Australian league Chris Killen - Plays in the ''illustrious'' Chinese league. Although in fairness, they might be paying him a fortune. Adrian Leijer - Played his only 4 games in England for us, before heading back to play in Australia. Alan Lee - Took him a year to score a league goal in League One, has now amassed an incredible 2 goals in 30 games after having been a player that people were calling for us to sign. In reality, he was overweight and put in a couple of decent shifts to win a contract. To think that some of us were calling for Lee over Holt. In fairness to him, he has scored 2 goals in 2 games this year, which is a vast improvement on his 0 in 28 last season.Carl Cort - No club after being released by Brentford.Zesh Rehmann - A player who at 27 years old has reached his peak, so went to show that to the world in the Thai Premier league. In fairness to him, it''s a good place for a distinctly average footballer to feel like they have the wallet of a Premiership player. Julien Brellier - Only played 11 pro games post-Norwich and then went into the French non-league at 28 years old, where he remaings.Alan Gow - Plays in the Indian league after doing not much at Plymouth and Notts County.Omar Koroma - Never played another game, anywhere, and hasn''t had a club for over a year.That''s a highly depressing list of journeymen, flops, and people who were simply over rated. It goes to show just how much money this club wasted over three or four years on useless ineffective footballers; I dread to think how much football agents took away from the club for this bunch of no-marks. Thank goodness for McNally and Lambert. Every player on this page is a Neil Doncaster legacy. Thank god for Lambert. Almost all of those players are still in their twenties by the way, only Jason Jarrett, Carl Cort, and Alan Lee, are in their thirties. [/quote]This excludes players who came here to retire gracefully, Sibierski, Stefanovic, Hartson, never again seen on a football pitch. Obviously it transpired that Hartson was in ill health, and Stefanovic was unlucky.

It serves us all well to remember just how awful we were for several years before Lambert, who remembers these.....David Carney - no club after being released by Blackpool.Mark Fotheringham - no club after playing 14 games in 2 years in the Cypriot leagueJason Jarrett - one of the worst Worthy signings? Go and look at his career post-Norwich! Currently without a club, although he spends less time without one than with one it seems.Simon Whaley - Plays for Chorley, that place made famous by Max & Paddy, in the ''Northern Premier League''.Jurgen Colin - Also struggles to get in a Cypriot team (island population 803k)Maceo Rigters - Plays in the Australian league Chris Killen - Plays in the ''illustrious'' Chinese league. Although in fairness, they might be paying him a fortune. Adrian Leijer - Played his only 4 games in England for us, before heading back to play in Australia. Alan Lee - Took him a year to score a league goal in League One, has now amassed an incredible 2 goals in 30 games after having been a player that people were calling for us to sign. In reality, he was overweight and put in a couple of decent shifts to win a contract. To think that some of us were calling for Lee over Holt. In fairness to him, he has scored 2 goals in 2 games this year, which is a vast improvement on his 0 in 28 last season.Carl Cort - No club after being released by Brentford.Zesh Rehmann - A player who at 27 years old has reached his peak, so went to show that to the world in the Thai Premier league. In fairness to him, it''s a good place for a distinctly average footballer to feel like they have the wallet of a Premiership player. Julien Brellier - Only played 11 pro games post-Norwich and then went into the French non-league at 28 years old, where he remaings.Alan Gow - Plays in the Indian league after doing not much at Plymouth and Notts County.Omar Koroma - Never played another game, anywhere, and hasn''t had a club for over a year.That''s a highly depressing list of journeymen, flops, and people who were simply over rated. It goes to show just how much money this club wasted over three or four years on useless ineffective footballers; I dread to think how much football agents took away from the club for this bunch of no-marks. Thank goodness for McNally and Lambert. Every player on this page is a Neil Doncaster legacy. Thank god for Lambert. Almost all of those players are still in their twenties by the way, only Jason Jarrett, Carl Cort, and Alan Lee, are in their thirties.

It wouldn''t have done any harm whatsoever to sign Richard Wright for a year on a couple of grand a week, we have two empty spaces, signing somebody to sit on the bench ''just in case'' wouldn''t have been difficult. I would feel a lot happier if Rudd were starting on Sunday with somebody on the bench who can come on should be get injured, sent off, or has an absolute nightmare.

[quote user="Number 9"]Lambert must have given that question considerable thought over the summer. He has had time and money to bring in another keeper if he wanted, he chose not to. I know that Lambert has watched Declan play rather a lot more than I have.[/quote]Adrian Coote was a prolific goalscorer for the youth team, in the reserve team, and in training. I''m talking about 20-30 goals per season in the reserve league. That doesn''t mean that he was any good when put in front of 16000 people in the Championship in games which actually meant anything, I''m sure that Nwankwo Kanu still looks like a world beater in training, but he has only scored 3 goals in 38 championship games. You can carry an ineffective outfield player though, there is no hiding for the keeper, most important player on the pitch.

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Cookieace"]If lambert and Rudd fuck up I will turn around and say I was wrong and so was he, but how would Rudd feel if one minute is saying I have confidence in you and the next brings in a back up keeper. If he does do well then I will be the one to tell you I told you so.[/quote] --- That is too short-term a view. Anyone can have a one-off stormer, or a nightmare. Andy Marshall''s first full game after Gunn had been injured was one of the greatest exhibitions of shot-stopping I''ve seen from a Norwich keeper (and I''ve watched at least 20 of them, going back to Sandy Kennon). Relegation certainly wasn''t Marshall''s fault, of course, but his inexperience cost us vital points. The question - at least in my mind - was never whether Lambert should have got in a keeper for one game. That would have been silly. But whether Rudd would be an adequate stand-in all the way through until January if Ruddy were to get a serious injury once the transfer window shut. In other words, should we have done what every other side in the Premier League has done and got in at least one experienced back-up at the outset? [/quote]Beat me to it there. I hope that Rudd has a great game against West Brom, but if he does there is still plenty of time for the lack of experienced keepers to become an easily avoided mistake. Of course, as Norwich fans we know this all too well, for reasons that you have already explained (Marshall). It is also worth noting that in the Gunn/Marshall days the transfer deadline was open right up until March, it was no doubt Chase''s refusal to spend money rather than Megson''s (or whoever was in charge, might have been Deehan?) decision not to have another keeper in the squad. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) if this gamble doesn''t pay off, the buck will stop at Lambert this time and not at anybody in the boardroom.I support every one of Lamberts signings this season, I think that he has bought very well. But I was saying from the off that he should sign a keeper for a season and get Rudd out on loan with a recall clause. Even if we had signed Richard Wright (still a free agent by the way), and then chosen to recall Rudd anyway for this game rather than playing Wright, we would be recalling a keeper who had played 6 or 7 games already this year (just like Steer has at Yeovil). We should have signed a keeper to get Rudd some experience, it really is as simple as that. If Rudd were to play a full season of football somewhere, anywhere, then we wouldn''t have this concern next year...... because Rudd would have 50+ games under his belt instead of less than a dozen.

[quote user="Cookieace"]If lambert and Rudd fuck up I will turn around and say I was wrong and so was he, but how would Rudd feel if one minute is saying I have confidence in you and the next brings in a back up keeper. If he does do well then I will be the one to tell you I told you so.[/quote]It''s not just about this one game though, it''s about the whole season. Like I said though, I''m more than happy to be proved wrong, but I''ll decide whether or not being the only team in the league without two seasoned keepers on the books was a mistake or not. We can both agree that it is a risk, the only thing that we don''t seem to be able to agree on is that if you take risks at this level you will be punished.

[quote user="Wings of a Sparrow"][quote user="LeJuge"][quote user="Cookieace"][quote user="LeJuge"][quote user="Cookieace"]So much negativity, PL has done very well after these past two years and now people are questioning his judgement? Unbelievable If you ask me. ILWT![/quote]He isn''t the sun god, he is human and he can make mistakes. This is potentially a mistake. It will become a mistake if Rudd gets injured or sent off, or shows himself way out of his depth. I don''t think we can afford the risk, if the decision costs us 2 or 3 points, then it could be crucial. I find it laughable that because Lambert has done well we have to agree with every one of his decisions. If football ever becomes like that I will stop attending games.[/quote] I am not saying that, if it fucks up then you should jump on his back. I personally also think lambert is riding his luck, but at the same time I trust his judgement.[/quote]Well then we are of two completely different schools of thought. Personally I hate those who jump over something with the amazing gift of hindsight. By putting my fears out there now, I am more than entitled to say "told you so". You, on the other hand, will have no right to do so having criticised those who dare question Lambert. On the other hand, if Rudd has an absolute blinder and looks like a potential future England keeper, keeps us in the game, and makes us all realise how great he is.... then I will say "Now I see why Lambert didn''t sign an experienced back up keeper". At least, I will say that if we get through this entire season without regretting the signing of another keeper. The fact that you are criticising me for being afraid of a possible eventuality, but would be happy for me to remain silent and instead be critical in retrospect, says it all really. That is the last thing that I would do, what kind of person would I have to be to praise Lambert for not signing a keeper, only to criticise him for the same thing a few days later? I''d love to be proved wrong, but the idea that I have to suppress my instincts and opinions and become one of those know it alls who predicted everything but "just didn''t say it" is not particularly appealing to me. So I''ll say it again, I am worried about Rudd with a kid on the bench, would have preferred Lambert to sign an experienced keeper. I''ve stuck my opinion out there, and as the season progresses we will find out whether or not I am proved wrong.... or indeed whether Lambert signs another keeper at some stage. I''ve been wrong plenty of times before, just like I''ve been right plenty of times before. I was wrong about Simeon Jackson last season, who I had completely written off, if Rudd wants to prove me completely wrong too then nobody will be any more happier than me. [/quote] Judging by the correct/incorrect use of capital letters, I should think so. [/quote]I''ve read my post through and couldn''t find a mistake? So I can only assume that you are referring to cookieace there.

[quote user="Cookieace"][quote user="LeJuge"][quote user="Cookieace"]So much negativity, PL has done very well after these past two years and now people are questioning his judgement? Unbelievable If you ask me. ILWT![/quote]He isn''t the sun god, he is human and he can make mistakes. This is potentially a mistake. It will become a mistake if Rudd gets injured or sent off, or shows himself way out of his depth. I don''t think we can afford the risk, if the decision costs us 2 or 3 points, then it could be crucial. I find it laughable that because Lambert has done well we have to agree with every one of his decisions. If football ever becomes like that I will stop attending games.[/quote] I am not saying that, if it fucks up then you should jump on his back. I personally also think lambert is riding his luck, but at the same time I trust his judgement.[/quote]Well then we are of two completely different schools of thought. Personally I hate those who jump over something with the amazing gift of hindsight. By putting my fears out there now, I am more than entitled to say "told you so". You, on the other hand, will have no right to do so having criticised those who dare question Lambert. On the other hand, if Rudd has an absolute blinder and looks like a potential future England keeper, keeps us in the game, and makes us all realise how great he is.... then I will say "Now I see why Lambert didn''t sign an experienced back up keeper". At least, I will say that if we get through this entire season without regretting the signing of another keeper. The fact that you are criticising me for being afraid of a possible eventuality, but would be happy for me to remain silent and instead be critical in retrospect, says it all really. That is the last thing that I would do, what kind of person would I have to be to praise Lambert for not signing a keeper, only to criticise him for the same thing a few days later? I''d love to be proved wrong, but the idea that I have to suppress my instincts and opinions and become one of those know it alls who predicted everything but "just didn''t say it" is not particularly appealing to me. So I''ll say it again, I am worried about Rudd with a kid on the bench, would have preferred Lambert to sign an experienced keeper. I''ve stuck my opinion out there, and as the season progresses we will find out whether or not I am proved wrong.... or indeed whether Lambert signs another keeper at some stage. I''ve been wrong plenty of times before, just like I''ve been right plenty of times before. I was wrong about Simeon Jackson last season, who I had completely written off, if Rudd wants to prove me completely wrong too then nobody will be any more happier than me.

[quote user="Mahogany"]Provided the team keeps up to a similar standard to how they''ve started I don''t think it''s realistic to expect us to keep the whole squad if we go down. I reckon we could keep a starting 11 strong enough to go up, but we won''t be able to keep everyone. For instance we have 5 strikers good enough to be starting regularly in the Premiership, I doubt 3 of them will be happy to sit on the bench most weeks in the Championship. And to be honest it would make sense to cash in on some of them. We won''t need a team as good as we have to get out of the Championship and with a years top level experience a lot of our players will have doubled in value, makes sense to sell them on, bring in some more promising talent from the lower leagues and pocket the difference. Or maybe I''ve just been playing too much Football Manager...[/quote]If we had 5 strikers good enough to start regularly in the Premiership we would not be having this conversation. The team can show themselves as good enough for the Premier League by staying up, or they can show themselves as not good enough by going down and can stick around and get us back up.

[quote user="spencer 1970"]I''m with you cookieace...shocking amount of negativity from fellow NCFC fans. Its prob this new breed of football fan who has make cara rud a quieter place over the last few years...grumble grumble...ssssssshhhhh! get behind your team and back them from the off on Sunday...and lets not all go mute like cara rud did 2nd half against stoke.[/quote]New breed? Season ticket for 16 of my 28 years alive mate, 3 of the other years spent living 300 miles way and another during the Chase boycott. I think you will find it is those who nod and agree and worship every decision made by non-playing staff who are the quiet ones mate "siiiittt daaaaaannnn, I caaarrnn''ttt staaand uppp wit me bovril, me ''ips are playin uuupp, get aaaaooott if ya wannaaaaa staaand".

[quote user="Cookieace"]So much negativity, PL has done very well after these past two years and now people are questioning his judgement? Unbelievable If you ask me. ILWT![/quote]He isn''t the sun god, he is human and he can make mistakes. This is potentially a mistake. It will become a mistake if Rudd gets injured or sent off, or shows himself way out of his depth. I don''t think we can afford the risk, if the decision costs us 2 or 3 points, then it could be crucial. I find it laughable that because Lambert has done well we have to agree with every one of his decisions. If football ever becomes like that I will stop attending games.

[quote user="Mahogany"]I think (I hope) we''ve reached a point where we don''t really need new investment. If we stay up this season then great, we''ll have another year of Premiership money guaranteed and can work on building on the squad and maybe the stadium, if we go down then it looks like we''ve spent wisely and will have some very saleable players to make a good bit of profit on, along with the parachute payments and can have another go at getting promoted. I wouldn''t really want to see a foreign owner come in and spend obscene money. It''d ruin the feel of the club and we''d end up with a load of mercenaries like QPR. In the end most of these owners will get bored of their clubs and/or realise that the way football works means its very difficult to reliably make money. Then they''ll leave the clubs in huge debt and the fans will have to try and pick up the pieces.[/quote]I would hope that we wouldn''t need to profit on any players whilst the parachute payments are forthcoming, I would want us to hold on to all of them and get straight back up. That''s the only way that we would have a chance of keeping Lambert at the club too.

[quote user="Shack Attack"][quote user="Heeley5"]To say that my comments are pathetic is a little strange its just the way I viewed it! His version of closing down never seemed to put pressure on the defenders! It looked like he was marking space and not hustling the defenders! I think Holt always looks like he is in the faces of defenders, busy. eg always winning + giving away freekicks, he made a good account of himself V Chelsea, who knows if he would have done better but good question.[/quote] Sorry. I shouldn''t have said your comments were pathetic.  [/quote] Yes you should.

[quote user="Heeley5"][quote user="LeJuge"][quote user="Heeley5"]He is gonna have to face 4 top top defenders most weeks for the rest of the season![/quote]I may as well get in there first with the inevitable and pointless yet entirely justified response....... he isn''t going to playing alone up front every week though, is he?Plus I would personally like to think that our best eleven is far superior to a Wales side made up of predominantly Championship players, and as a result he is more likely to get a bit of service. [/quote] Thought when i got to the computer this morning some sad act would respond that way! Ok no problem maybe Grant Holt can do his running for him! Should be easier for him now! Bless.[/quote]Any striker in the world would struggle to run enough against a world class back five. In fact, why not look at the back five that Rooney played against and then perhaps ask my he didn''t score a hat-trick? Playing alone up front is a difficult task, Holt can''t really do it either. To be honest you sound like somebody with very little knowledge of football, Wales should have gone 4-4-2 with Morison and Earnshaw as soon as they went 1-0 down if they wanted to score. Please give me an example of a game in which Grant Holt has been effective as a lone striker. He hasn''t. Now, please tell me what formation Morison is likely to play in with Norwich City, as well as the formation that he played in at Millwall, and then come back and tell me how the hell the Wales game is the slightest bit relevant to us.Blind people shouldn''t watch football mate, I bet you were watching the wrong player if you think that Morison didn''t run. I take it you didn''t see the Wigan game either, where Morison well and truly out ran a below par Holt.

[quote user="norfolkbroadslim"][quote user="LeJuge"][quote user="Heeley5"]He is gonna have to face 4 top top defenders most weeks for the rest of the season![/quote]I may as well get in there first with the inevitable and pointless yet entirely justified response....... he isn''t going to playing alone up front every week though, is he?Plus I would personally like to think that our best eleven is far superior to a Wales side made up of predominantly Championship players, and as a result he is more likely to get a bit of service. [/quote] Not sure how you can say far superior?[:^)] Take Wales'' strongest 11, including the likes of Bellamy, Bale etc. On paper we are no stronger. [/quote]Not sure what the strongest Wales XI and Craig Bellamy have to do with anything, the only relevant XI were those out on the pitch. To put another perspective on the matter, why not look at the Wales back five that Rooney failed to score against, and then look a the England back five that Morison failed to score against.

[quote user="Number 9"]Looking in perspective that this could be positive for us. The players will no doubt have had extra training on not conceding pens and getting red cards, the defensive players will no doubt be even more aware of protecting the keeper, which could make us sharper at the back. Trust Paul Lambert[/quote]That will all mean nothing if he drops a cross in the six yard box.

[quote user="Heeley5"]He is gonna have to face 4 top top defenders most weeks for the rest of the season![/quote]I may as well get in there first with the inevitable and pointless yet entirely justified response....... he isn''t going to playing alone up front every week though, is he?Plus I would personally like to think that our best eleven is far superior to a Wales side made up of predominantly Championship players, and as a result he is more likely to get a bit of service.

[quote user="Mr. Bump"][quote user="LeJuge"]What''s the betting that West Brom go into the game with a big forward instructed to give Rudd a few big knocks, they will prey on this as an area of vulnerability. I can''t think of any other team without two experienced keepers. Look at West Brom, they have Carson and Fulop, then QPR have Kenny, Cerny, and Murphy. The same applies to all of them. Lambert is riding his luck, really tempting fate if you ask me. Potentially a huge mistake. [/quote]West Brom have Foster and Fulop.[/quote]Lol, that''s what I meant to type, probably whilst thinking "don''t type Carson, don''t type Carson".

[quote user="Skijumptoes"]Just thinking, John Terry could do his rep no harm right now and throw some of his cash wads their way.[/quote]Why John Terry and not any other multi-millionaire footballer?

What''s the betting that West Brom go into the game with a big forward instructed to give Rudd a few big knocks, they will prey on this as an area of vulnerability. I can''t think of any other team without two experienced keepers. Look at West Brom, they have Carson and Fulop, then QPR have Kenny, Cerny, and Murphy. The same applies to all of them. Lambert is riding his luck, really tempting fate if you ask me. Potentially a huge mistake.

I feel nervous about playing a goalkeeper with so little first team experience. Rudd hasn''t filled me with confidence to be honest. Hopefully he will put in the type of performance which makes me realise precisely why Lambert is happy to have him as his #2, and then we can all move on from having these conversations, but I fully expected us to sign somebody like Richard Wright or Stuart Taylor to sit on the bench for the year and was very surprised when the deadline passed without us doing so. As good as Rudd may or may not be, it reminds me of the season that Gunn broke his leg and we had a young Andy Marshall thrown in at the deep end. It all ended in tears. Personally I think that Lambert has shown a slight naivety in not signing a third keeper. If it weren''t for Ruddy playing so well against Stoke and Wigan we wouldn''t have any points on the board, and now we go into a game which will be one of our best chances this season for 3 points and we have a young kid with little experience in goal, one who has just come off of the back of a 4 goal mauling which can''t have done much for his confidence. If this goes wrong I sincerely hope that Lambert learns from this, I would hedge my bets on Ruddy''s red card not being his only one this year and the ban for the second red is always longer?