kingsway

Only part of the ground at the Boxing day Aston Villa V Norwich City game with empty seats was in the away end! Manchester United tickets were available to fan without away memberships!

I've had an inkling for a while that after the probable relegation at the end of the season we will sell 3 - 4 players bringing in £50M + in transfer fees which will likely go into finishing Colney off and a new City stand. - The parachute payment(s) (is it one year or two if we go down this season?) will still ensure we are one of the Championships richer clubs. Alan Bowkett said years ago that while its possible to put a top tier on the City Stand, he thought it would make more sense to knock down the now outdated mid 80's stand and start again with a complete brand new version. - A large single tier stand bigger than the South stand with a tunnel underneath which would enable Carrow road to be turned in to a service road similar to those seen at Old Trafford and Hillsboroughs main stand would be my bet?

Wonderful servant who has proved a terrific signing! Still one of our best players even though his legs have gone! - In fact I'd make him a strong contender for PotS if he carries on as he has! Another player in the Gary Docherty/ Russell Martin category in that many fans will say hes rubbish till their blue in the face but in reality is one of our better players. Vastly under rated by many but people forget Hughton signed him in 2012 to strengthen a side who'd just came 12th in the Premiership! Great passer cause he keeps it simple, very good positional and reader of the game and strong physically. If he had super pace we'd of never seen him at Norwich! Absolutely deserves a new one year deal at the end of the season

Not worth him staying if he isn't going to feature!

A friend of mine has a spare ticket in the home end today if anyone needs a ticket? PM myself and I'll get you in touch1

This season is unfortunately proving that a self sufficient, the smallest transfer budget spending team, model is very very hard to maintain in the top flight. Although long term we may be in a better position to challenge again once back in the Championship. Although I still say that any club, even Liverpool who had our amount of injuries earlier would of found it difficult. Norwich's track record in big money signings is not good while our record in signing bargain basement players who give good service and terrific value for money has been excellent. - This is not a recent phenomenon, this has been happening for the last 40 years. With our recent woeful expensive signings like Naismith and Van Wolfswinkel being nothing short of disasterous its very understandable the club are very shy in going down that route again. I'll never knock Smith and Wyn Jones cause they've been at the helm for 23.5 years and for a club like Norwich most seasons have been positive ones, most of us haven't got the funds to do similar and most clubs of a similar size without mega rich benefactors haven't done as well in the same time period - Look down the A140 for firm evidence! Also see also the current plight of Coventry, Bolton in the Third Division and the millions s*unked by Forest and Derby who both have done much less than us in the last 20 years! Unfortunately nowadays £30M players don't guarantee success. I'm sure the detractors would be going mad now if we had signed a player for £30M who hadn't produced! I do think Delia Wyn Jones need to keep the door open for extra investment unlike the current closed door policy. I've never spoke to nephew Tom but my impression of him is of someone not that clued up and in an ivory tower where he doesn't really understand the fan in the stand, so I've my doubts if he's the answer after aunty and uncle have gone? I think a likely outcome from here going into next season is we will almost certainly go down and then we'll sell 4-5 of our best players raising up to £90M. I think the Board will then give serious consideration to building a new City stand while trying to replicate last seasons success by buying in a number of players on the cheap? The above sentence fully emphasises the point I'm about to make - its easy to talk about something and how to spend money which isn't yours!

Liker others have said in previous posts, Leitner is way over rated by many Norwich fans. Yes hes technically very good but hes not mobile enough, strong enough in the tackle and generally too slow to be effective enough in the Premiership. Cause of these factors he lessens the effectability of the team and we become very unbalanced. Leitners best (only viable position) position is in front of the back 4 alongside a physical midfielder but cause he gets easily brushed of the ball it makes him something of a liability as this would put the back 4 under pressure. What I've seen of Roberts is that again like Leitner hes technically very good but lacks the physicality required. - I can see why hes not featuring. Also factor in possible fallouts with Farke and you come to our current situation.

Amazing player who never seemed to break sweat! One of the best if not the best player I've seen play for Norwich and at a time when he was supposedly winding down his career. - A true measure of how good he was in that he played 200+ games for us in this "indian summer" spell and in my opinion could of had another couple of seasons playing for us but was tempted by the manager job at Sheffield United!

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?