Evesham Canary

I work with a Derby season ticket holder & he says Johnson has been awful for the last couple of months. Wants to know why he can''t pass, shoot or tackle..... I did say that last year seemed to be an exceptional year for him. Some food for thought perhaps for those he think he would solve all our ills currently!

[quote user="Yellow Wal"]Not for me .................. and that is not the position we need to spend vast amounts of cash on.[/quote] Ah, but with better strikers we would have won 6-5 yesterday -it is all the strikers fault we lost yesterday......

[quote user="norfolkbroadslim"]Because he''s an improvement perhaps!?[/quote] he he! Exactly this. Same as with Pinto. Go into Europe & pick up decent players for a fraction of what you would pay for someone from the Champs. O''Neill is getting on a bit and as he has just demonstrated is prone to a rush if blood. Always need to be improving the 12-25 in the squad as well as the first 11 - not saying this is what Oscar would be though...

Can imagine someone like Gayle on a permanent deal. Loan players could be someone from one of the bigger sides - a youngster from Arsenal or Chelsea perhaps? More established striking options are difficult to thing of and most not that great! Crouch or Odemwingie from Stoke, Frazer Campbell from Palace, Cisse from Newcastle, Zarate from West Ham, Kramaric from Leicester - none of these are particularly appealing!

According to Sky we are also the biggest spenders at £20M!!! So far Prem clubs have spent a total £78M this window so we have accounted for a quarter of that. Now I''m sure some will point out net spend as we have recouped over £8M on Grabban & Bennett. Still good news so far & with possibly a striker to come things look a little brighter.

Looks a great piece of business. Assuming Naismith signs too will that be us done? You would imagine a striker coming in but that is probably all.

It might be that they just want to have 2 successful signing days to keep the minds off the last week of games!!!

As of today & in the raw aftermath of a shocking performance against a direct rival I think this would be the thoughts of most neutrals. Usually someone comes sliding down from mid table but difficult to see who this might be. Still wouldn''t be surprised to see Watford slide down the table. The trouble is, Newcastle look to have enough to get clear whilst you feel big Sam will keep Sunderland out of the bottom 3. Hopefully my usual positive side will kick in by tomorrow. Need a couple of decent signings to make me feel better!

We are starting to get too many no shows particularly on our travels. The away record is very poor with just 5 points from the last 11 games. You just can''t be getting stuffed 3-0 at Bournemouth. At the moment Swansea & us look the most likely to join Villa. Somewhere we seem to have lost our spark & have become a bit of a workmanlike side. The Newcastle result clearly knocked Neil''s confidence in his methods. We now have 2 tough home games and will need to win one of them to keep our head above water. We also need to find a way of playing away to the lesser sides as our only decent performances on the riad have come against the better sides.

[quote user="Norfolk Mustard "]When I had a job offer for a role based in Manchester I moved to the NW with my wife who was 36 weeks pregnant. If you want something badly enough you go for it. If you don’t, you stay… Hardly rocket science is it?[/quote] 👍 Couldn''t agree more with this. Moved to Midlands with wife (lived in Norwich all her life) & 2 kids under 4 for promotion at work. All of our family support network is in Norwich so 180 miles away. Norwich isn''t quite as remote as it was 10yrs ago with a better airport & improving rail & road links. This may be one of these deals that looks dead & is suddenly resurrected in the last couple of days of the window.

Awful player. How he gets anywhere near England squad is beyond me. Everyone has worked out that if you give him time he will pick a pass but under kind of pressure he crumbles. He was absolutely shocking in the game down here earlier this year. Some of the comments coming out if Swansea are very telling - some very damming comments from Curtis & the local journalists. Well suited to the car crash that is Newcastle!

Hope this is all true. Would be a decent signing with a good 3yrs minimum left at this level. Can play anywhere across our front 4 in our usual system. Decent goal record if considered an attacking midfielder. Also seems to be a good guy. Nice to see that he is someone not slagged off by his current fans as is usually the case! To get him for the same price as we sold Grabban would be top business.

Wish him well. Had an odd career here basically scoring most of his goals in 2 spurts and totally anonymous in between. Started well last year & had a great run when AN took over. His injury came at just the wrong time - he had just scored in key wins over Wolves, Watford & Ipswich. Can''t forget he has 2 goals against Ipswich on his CV. Something clearly happened over the summer & he never really settled - I don''t think he ever moved up from London either which probably tells us all we need to know! Hopefully he doesnt score next week....

Rudd Whitaker Martin Bassong Olsson Mulumbu Dorrans Ojidija Andreu Lafferty Jerome Not sure if Wisdom fit but he might play if he is. Think the central 2 will definitely be this. Andreu & Laffs might not play if a loan move or exit is imminent in which case the likes of Howson, Brady or Redmond come into picture. If Jerome not to be risked then Grabban will probably start.

Could this not be referring to Berahinio again? He is getting stick from all quarters at WBA. The most worrying aspect is the removal of the NCFC banner. I would not sell him. Currently our biggest asset although Brady might start pushing him in this soon. Still only 21 and has added goals to his game over last 12mths. Ok he has had not been at his best in the last 2 home games being strangely reluctant to take on his man even when isolated with him 1 on 1 but as some have said he was brilliant at Man Utd. Some frankly ridiculous comments on this thread. This is the guy who scored at Wembley & got the key 2nd goal in the 2nd leg against Ipswich. As for those who think the Murphy''s can step right in & replace him i think you are deluding yourselves. It would be the same as selling Redmond & then replacing him with someone who has played 20 games for Walsall. If we did that this board would explode. As ever because they have been youth players they are considered to be almost above criticism & miles better than they are. Yes, they are doing great at their loan clubs & we hope they develop further & fulfil their potential but Redmond is further down the road.

As someone who has been going to City games for 30yrs, this is nothing new. The great Stringer team of the late 80''s went a very long time without getting a pen & it included the likes of Fleck, Fox & Gordon all of whom were tricky skillful players. We had one season in the mid 90''s when Neil Adams scored about 10 - most of which were usually last minute one''s that meant earning a draw or a win! Apart from that I struggle to think of too many times when we have had regular pens. Perhaps under Lambert? Wes & Holt took a few in the promotion seasons. Last year Grabban took a couple, so did Hooper & Wes scored against Forest & in the semi against Ipswich.

Good player & a good guy. Always strikes you as a good person to have round the squad. If he goes he should go with thanks & good wishes. Was he in our 25 man declared squad?

Ruddy hasn''t been the same since coming back from his long term injury. He is still a decent keeper & selling him in this window would be a mistake unless we are getting in a significant upgrade to be the No1 choice. However, doing this would undermine Rudd & lead to an unhappy back up keeper. By all means review again in the summer but leave alone till then.

Don''t, I see Marvin Sordell has been released by Burnley!! A Darnborough signing last summer.....

Brady at £7M looks more a steal every week with prices quoted for some players at the moment. It also makes our attempts to sign him for £2-3M all the more ridiculous! Perhaps even more, it makes Dorrans at £3M look insanely good!

Having let Turner go, we must be reasonably certain that a CB was going to sign. The need for reinforcements in this area is arguably more pressing than up front.

[quote user="birchfest"]Doing the rounds on Twitter that we have a delegation over there talking to him at the moment... Might not be over just yet![/quote] Where is our airport man to tell us if a flight to Naples has gone out recently? Are we really splashing £20M or even more on 2 signings?

It would require a heart of stone not to feel pleased for him after last nights goal. He is one of a number of players who have struggled to adapt to life in the prem. Abel Hernandez, Brown Ideye, Roberto Soldado, Dani Osvaldo have all arrived for big money and have not really had any success. The new £12M striker at WBA looks like he might be another who will struggle. I would love RVW to prove us all wrong but I''m not sure he will or will even get much opportunity. At best I feel a few cameos from the bench with the odd goal is all we can hope for.

[quote user="FCC"]I always thought Alex''s strength was his man management. Certainly got Seb back and playing superbly. I guess he feels pretty let down by all this.[/quote] He should feel let down. Grabban was generally first choice striker when fit/not suspended under Neil last year. The sending off at Rotherham rather blotted his copybook but he started the first game this season before a poor performance saw him drop to the bench. Only a day or so before the "walkout" Neil was waxing lyrical about how Grabban should know that Neil was a fan & saw him as a key part of the squad. He must be an absolute tool to behave as he has.

[quote user="Prem1"]I don''t think Wolves are going to sell whatever we bid , time is now running very short and our forward line needs some serious bolstering before the window slams shut if we have other targets its time to move onto them .[/quote] Trouble is that this late in the window every selling club is in the same boat, no time to sort out replacements. The Grabban situation might mean that Hooper stays as can''t risk losing both without at least 1 replacement having arrived. I suspect the last day or so of the window will be absolutely bonkers!