Essex Canary

There''s no need for a new stadium at any point in the future. Carrow Road is a tidy ground with a lot of character, good facilities, a great location and plenty of room for expansion. Any new stadium would end up as a decent but characterless, out of town, identitkit modern stadium like so many others (Reading, Leicester, Derby, Coventry, Milton Keynes, Colchester and so on.) We all agree that Carrow Road needs to be expanded, but it''s probably just as well to wait for another season in the Prem before we take the plunge. We don''t want to end up with an Ipswich-style half empty stadium. I think that Norwich will never be able to attract bigger crowds than 35,000, not unless we win trophies and some rich Sheik buys the club. NCFC has a wide catchment area it''s true, but the city itself is not massive. The City Stand is the obvious choice to redevelop.

Good to see Ruddy in the squad, the only representative from outside the so-called ''big clubs.'' Not sure about Holt, whose goal-scoring record is good, but would he be able to make the step up to the international stage? We all probably had a ''Roy of the Rovers'' style fantasy about him taking England to the final but it''s not going to happen. I am very patriotic and want England to do well, but like most England fans I am not expecting too much (partly as a mechanism to avoid disappointment.) I also think Hodgson deserves a chance. He is under enormous pressure right from the start and the media and English public will be quick to criticize. Let''s wait and see what he can do with this rather limited pool of England players.