kingsway

Nail hit firmly on the head!

Archie Macauley started the turnaround in the late 1950's which led to a decade and a bit of consolidating in the 2nd Division. Ron Saunders took the club beyond that and into the 1st Division. The mid 1970's - early 1990's spell which is undoubtedly Norwich City's greatest era he instigated in his spell at the club from 1969-73 and laid the foundations for the club being where it is now! His later successes at Aston Villa are further proof of how great a manager he was!

Leitners technically excellent with the ball at this feet but hasn't got much of an engine, is slow and too lightweight in the tackle. The lack of the above physical aspects are why Leitner is not good enough for the Premiership. Theirs an often used urban myth about getting more time and space in the Premiership but in reality due to playing against fitter, stronger, faster and technically better players who make less mistakes in reality the opposites the truth! Tettey is one of the few players whose legs have gone that can just about sometimes get by in the top flight!

Yes I've heard that about the South stand foundations but then I've also heard that foundations WERE built, which way is correct I don't know? Anyhow Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday have added upper tiers to stands that were 70+ years old and surely when built didn't have considerations to do such a project all that time into the future? Alan Bowkett said many years ago that its probably best to start from scratch with the City stand cause the current version while seen as state of the art in 1986, now is very cramped and nothing special in current times. I think the plan is to have a large single stand similar or a little bit bigger than the South Stand and retaining Carrow Road as a service road/walkway going underneath it like you see at Sheffield Wednesday, Man Utd and no doubt other grounds as well. No doubt expensive stuff hence why it hasn't been done up to now!

Those are the questioned I've asked for a long while! I think its possible but it would be very expensive!

Building a new City stand is the obvious route but like I said, I questioned whether a South stand upper tier could be done first could this could be constructed without any reduction of present capacity for games? I know some will say putting an upper tier on the South stand would make the ground lop sided but isn't it already if your worried about things like that and surely we all go to the ground to look at the pitch rather than the stands?

"The over Excitable Expansionist!" Is that me?!!! I'm certainly not a Tom Cavendish disciple as anyone getting a bus or driving to the UEA would know, adding a 30-40,000 Norwich City FC football to Earlham Park would be a logistical nightmare. Anyone whos done the train or park and ride to Brightons new ground, been to Stokes retail park stadium or jumped on a packed minibus outside Bristol station to get to Ashton gate home of Bristol City would testify, out of Town/City stadiums are dreadful to get to! Carrow Road is an ideal location for our ground cause its walking distance from the City, close to the Railway station and not far from the Southern bypass. Does anyone know if the club has bought that strip of land covered by bushes that lies behind the Barclay end?

This subject has been talked about loads by Norwich fans for the last 10 years almost every year! The main reason why this has been a popular subject in that timeline is because average League crowds at Carrow Road since the new South stand was built in 2004 have never dropped below 24,000, currently they are 27,000+ and even in the 3rd Division we averaged just under 25,000. All of which indicate the club would of almost certainly at times in this 15 year period had bigger ATT figures. National ATT stats at League clubs in England show that Norwich City have had one of the highest ratio of ATT's to ground capacity in the Country which indicate that Carrow Road has one of the most pressing needs for expansion anywhere. Regardless of whether the "little ole Norwich" blinkered fans still insist we don't need to expand (while we're at it lets reduce the capacity instead!) the above stats are cold facts! With most ambitious clubs seeing that in order to compete, ground expansion is a necessity to not being left behind by other clubs, its obvious Carrow Road needs to get to be expanded when financially viability allows, to as near to 35,000 as possible within the next decade. Clubs like Southampton, Brighton, Leicester, Cardiff all of whom haven't got bigger fanbases than Norwich have bigger grounds and are proof of the "build it and they will come adage" which in the modern Premiership era definitely applies. Ground expansion is like buying your first house in that if you looked in to the costs you'd never contemplate it but once you've done it you adjust things and you get through it. I remember the outcrys when the new South Stand and it facilities were built in 2004 but that stand has proved a fantastic, necessary investment which has pushed the club forward. Much the same as the River End stand when built in 1980 and the grant funded Barclay end in 1992, there were murmours of discontent from a few. (who remembers fans calling the River End stand the Kevin Reeves Stand cause they assumed he was sold to pay for it?) Ultimately these 3 stands replaced ageing costly to patch up stands with bygone era facilities and no other streams of income other than matchdays. Just a shame that 3 stands at Carrow Road were built when the club averaged around the 15,000 mark in the top flight cause I'm sure in modern times they would have been built bigger. Likewise the Hotel was built in the corner after the 2005 relegation when maybe if Premiership survival had been achieved an infill with a Hotel attached behind could of been constructed and capacity now would be close to 29,000? From what I can make out the current land purchases around the ground are Carrow Road which starts where the Canary store in the corner next to the River end is, ending just past the Hotel and the strip of land between Carrow Road and Koblenz avenue. I assume that cause of the need to purchase the Road behind the City stand in order to pave the way for possible future stand expansion in that area meant that the club had to buy all of the Road which of course goes round behind the Barclay. Have the club bought the strip of shrubbery that lies between the main road and Carrow Road behind the Barclay end? The City stand has the foundations to add and upper tier but I think the general thinking is that this 1986 completed stand is not state of the art nowadays and it would be better to start from scratch with a bigger modern single tier stand of a similar/ slightly bigger size to the South stand. I've always thought that in order to not cause any temporary reduction in capacity during ground expansion the best way would be to add a second tier onto the South stand. While no doubt an expansive exercise is it possible to build a 4-5000 South stand upper tier with extra corporate and commercial space? - This modest capacity increase would push capacity up to 31/32,000 which is not an unrealistic figure for Norwich. Then after doing this if near to capacity crowds were achieved over a number of years then a bigger City stand could be built? While undoubtedly Norwich won't sell out a 30,000+ Carrow Road regularly while out of the top flight, they certainly would average 30,000+ in the Premiership which would make them more competitive, satisfy demand and the possible extra corporate/commercial faciltities would be advantageous! Fair play to the current Norwich City hierarchy for putting plans in place to assist with the future POSSIBLE expansion of Carrow Road!

Crowds since the Worthy years of the early 00's prove we need extra capacity. To compete better in the top flight a club of Norwich City's size need a 30,000+ capacity. Yes more income comes from the TV deals but the extra income from bigger crowds albeit smaller is still very handy and the demand is definately there! This season I reckon if Carrow Road held 32,000 we'd be getting that every game the same as we are getting 27,000 at present. The Premiership draws people in from all over the place including people who don't particularly like football, that should never be underestimated. The home FA cup game against Portsmouth last season saw many unfamiliar faces in home areas proving that many people who currently don't go regularly would be interested in attending matches. Southampton and Leicester who in the last 30 years mostly get smaller crowds than us when they aren't in the top flight regularly get 30,000+ in the top flight. Cardiff City who out of the top flight are a 16,000 average ATT club, averaged 31,000 last season. Yet some Norwich fans don't think we would! - Trouble is many Norwich Fans particularly those who were following the club in the 1980's have been brainwashed by the "little ole Norwich" urban myth and therefore think the club is smaller than what it actually is! Didn't get the poster who used the crowd figure (27,000+ virtual sell out) for the recent Watford home game as a reason why ground expansion isn't needed? No disrespect to Watford but they are one of the most unattractive teams in the top flight who we played on a Friday night at 8pm, a somewhat awkward time to be contending with unreliable public transport, when the game was live on TV. I'd say these facts are firm evidence that Carrow Road should be expanded to 33-35,000 in the next 10 years when finances allow!

Leitner can knock the ball about without a doubt but isn't fast enough or physically strong enough to be effective at Premiership level end of. I've never understood the love in some fans have had with Leitner, exactly for the reasons above. Not fair on him or the team to play him in the advanced midfield role, best role is sitting in front of the back 4 with a strong defensive midfielder alongside him!

A very effective targetman on his day but always seemed like he had a chip on his shoulder while with us and looked like he gave up to easily at times which didn't help his cause.

Always look better with Tettey in the team cause he offers good protection for the defence with tenacious play! Very effective player who more often than not gets unfairly criticized by blinkered fans when other less effective players don't! Good job he was about yesterday cause we had our best away performance thanks to limiting Bournemouths efforts on goals cause for once our midfield wasn't outmuscled. Then done a sterling job at CB which I wouldn't have trusted on any other player on the pitch or bench yesterday!

A few years ago Alan Bowkett said that due to the ageing nature of the City stand, it would be better to knock it down and build a new stand rather than putting an upper tier on it. I agree as the 1986 built City stand is now showing its age and has very limited leg room compared to even the Barclay stand where most fans stand anyway! David Mcnally wanted to put a temporary stand in front of the Hotel a few years ago but the Hotel wouldn't let him do it for some crazy reason cause surely a bigger capacity at Carrow Road would mean more potential for increased revenues at the Hotel? I've always thought that it would be better to put an upper tier on the South Stand cause this could possibly take place without any reduction to the present capacity. But an upper tier would need to have non footballing income streams to make it viable as a poor run of form would see no demand for extra seats. Yes I remember when the River End was the shiny new stand and fans nicknamed it the Kevin Reeves stand cause its widely thought that his sale helped to pay for it. The old River End terrace when demolished in 1979 like the old South stand in 2003 had by then long before reached its sell by date cause lots of money was needed to improve the facilities to keep up with improving ground regulations and both had no other streams of income. To summarise, they were both neccessary projects. The 1992 demolition of the original Barclay end was again a neccessity as bolting seats onto the old stand would of been highly non practical cause facitlities would of been poor and again it would of offered no other streams of income. The new Barclay end was largely funded by Football League grants which was why the project was completed in 1992 rather than a couple of years later. Continued Premiership membership over 3 or more seasons is probably the only way a major expansion will happen at Carrow Road, although last years successful, oversubscribed Colney Bond scheme shows theres potential down that route? The club has needed a 30-35,000 capacity Carrow Road for a number of seasons now. This was evident yesterday when I went to the ticket office and most of the people in the que were hanging around waiting for tickets to become available from people unable to attend. I'm sure that in present times even with a 32,000 capacity stadium we'd still be selling out every home game?

Chris Suttons one of the best players I've seen play for Norwich City but he's never been a very nice person! I don't worry about the pundits opinions cause the "little ole Norwich" urban myth is hard to shake of and anyway I'd rather be under rated than over rated! Suttons wind up nature and general not very nice personality is in reality a breath of fresh air for punditry cause he certainly doesn't sit on the fence and says the truth even if it isn't nice to hear! He was right about Naismith a few years ago ! - "His legs have gone!"

Probably the most surreal Norwich City game I've ever seen and will likely ever see! I regard it as a feather in my cap that I stayed until the final whistle! Michael Theoplitis - What a legend! Which team lost their opening game of the season 7-1 at home, then went onto win the Division by 9 clear points after taking the manager of the team who inflicted that defeat? Has that question ever been asked in any quiz or on A question of sport?