Jacko

Wow. Just wow Indy. I''ve seen it all now. If Birmingham take his full wages on for the year we should be absolutely delighted. It''s effectively like giving him a free transfer and freeing up his wages. He must easily be one of the top earners at the club by a distance. We can put those wages towards a striker who can do the business instead. The reality is he isn''t very good. He''s scored 7 goals in his last 70 league games. He''s played in England, France and Spain. 3 totally leagues under 3 totally different managers with 3 totally different philosophies. He''s failed on all 3 occasions. He''s come in pre season and failed to find the net against the powerhouses of Walsall and Peterborough United. There are no more excuses for him. The evidence is damning. I refuse to believe all of these managers are getting it wrong. As for him being a good professional. I would frankly expect him to turn up and train as an absolute minimum. That''s like going to a restaurant and praising the food because it didn''t make me ill and make me vomit everywhere.

Jerome largely played up front by himself in the Championship and scored 20 goals. I don''t see it as an issue. The reason we didn''t see the best of Hooper is because under 3 different managers, he simply didn''t work hard enough. He''s only got himself to blame for it not working here.

The football correspondent for the Nottingham Post has said on twitter that Norwich as yet have not made any kind of bid for Assombalonga. So it remains to be seen whether there is any genuine interest on our part. £7 million would be a decent opening offer for a player who basically snapped his kneecap in half just over a year ago. I think a bid in the region of about £9/10 million will be ultimately what is required. That seems to be the going rate for a top striker at this level now.

I guess because this season''s kit is actually nice that people need to find something else to moan about on that front. Congratulations for finding a way.

It''s also a different ball game when you''re playing France who are arguably the tournament favourites.

Highland in talking rubbish shocker

He got 1 goal for Birmingham and was kept out of the side by Clayton Donaldson. I severely doubt he''ll smash us to championship glory next year

I was setting out Neil''s reasoning more than own opinions in the previous post. Personally I think (despite being 5 ft 4) he''s actually probably our best player at holding the ball up, bringing others into play and getting us up the field. I think Old Trafford rather debunked the myth that he can''t play away from home against a top side. But he was left out in a lot of away games against big teams last season. Liverpool, Man City, Leicester, Chelsea to name just a few. Realistically, with or without Wes we''re probably losing those games in all probability. Not a foregone conclusion of course but likely. He''d be in my team every day of the week but at 34 years old we are going to have ration his workload next season to make sure he doesn''t get burnt out. The ironic is that for all the investment and monies spent on our rise through the leagues, he''s still comfortably the most unique and technically gifted player we''ve got.

Like all statsitics they must be set within their proper context. Neil tended to exclude Hoolahan in games against better opposition because he felt that we needed to break at pace on the counter attack as we weren''t going to get much ball in and around the opposition goal. Hoolahan has tended to feature from the start more against weaker opposition where we can dominate the ball and get him into positions near the opposition goal more frequently where he is so effective. So I think that does explain to a certain extent the higher returns with him in the side than without. In all likelihood we''d have lost many of those games he was left out of whether Hoolahan had played or not - just because of the strength of opponent. However, I completely agree that we still look a more coherent and better team when he is playing. He is the one player we have genuinely comfortable at receiving the ball in tight areas and sees passes that no one else in the squad can. That will be essential next year against team who ostensibly come to park the bus. He has massive flaws in his game and a player of his undoubted class should get far more goals. But in reality if he did he''d be David Silva and playing at Man City not Norwich.

He was very indifferent in his loan spell here but his performances in the Championship the season before last spoke for themselves. If the price was sensible I wouldn''t be adverse to it as we can''t go into next season with just Cameron Jerome as our only recognised striker. That puts him under far too much pressure with the volume of games being played. He''s also young with scope to improve. The added attraction is now that he should be within our reach because I can''t imagine he''ll have too many Premier League suitors after his showings last season.

The squad needs freshening up. There is absolutely no doubt about that. A second relegation in three years will have been very demoralising and some new impetus is needed. However, people really need to get their heads around the fact that we cannot replace every single player in the squad. Firstly, it would be dangerous and destabilising to do so. Secondly, we simply don''t have the financial capacity to do it even if we wanted to. Whilst it''s evident we''re not going to out of business, Charlie Wyett is probably nearer the truth when he says we have a high wage bill and not a huge amount of money to spend as a result. This means that we need to prioritise certain positions which desperately need strengthening and make compromises in other areas. That is sensible management of limited resources. I personally see the retention of Whittaker as a smart move. Pinto appears to have established himself as first choice full back. So I very much doubt many other clubs at this level will have a promotion winning, Scottish international as cover. It is foolish to undervalue what we already have at the club. Finding that level of cover elsewhere would not be easy. Whittaker is here on a one year contract. So if we did get promoted and felt that we needed to make an ''upgrade'' in the full back area then there is definitely scope to do so. But we can worry about that problem if it arrives. There''s no guarantee at all it will. I think it''s beyond question that we fell short in both penalty boxes last season, so it means that our resources can instead be prioritised and channelled into strengthening the central defensive and centre forward positions - which are crying out for new additions. To use that old cliché. We need evolution not revolution.

Turner is totally out of favour at Sheffield Wednesday and can''t get anywhere near the first team picture. That tells you everything you need to know about his standing as a Championship centre back. Whilst it wasn''t solely his fault of course, our upturn in fortunes in the promotion season coincided with him losing his place to Bassong. Following that we actually had one of the strongest defences in the Championship in terms of goals conceded. When you look at all of those facts I honestly don''t see how a case can be made for him being a better option than Martin.

I agree that we need to freshen things up, but we don''t have masses of cash to achieve this. This inevitably means we are going to have to prioritise positions that require the most urgent strengthening. In terms of pure numbers, the squad is short at centre back, right wing (when Redmond is inveitably sold) and centre forward. Those areas that must be prioritised in the summer above all others. Pinto will be our first choice full back next season and given that Neil is likely to revert to a pressing game with very high full backs I can see him being a massive weapon for us next year. Whittaker has shown at this level he can also do that job for Neil when called upon. I therefore do not see the sense in going out and spending what scarce resources we have on a new full back when we have two perfectly good ones here already and other areas of the team which need urgent work.

Like any county, there are some very pleasant places to live and some not so nice places to live. I thoroughly enjoy living in Bury St Edmunds. It''s a really nice town with an awful lot going for it. However, putting the rivalry aside, Ipswich as a town centre is a complete disaster and offers very little. It speaks volumes that I have lived in Suffolk for two years and only been to Ipswich twice in that time. For the league and play off games.

Whether we like it or not, we are now a Championship and we therefore have to judge our squad on Championship standards. On the assumption that Pinto stays, Whittaker would represent excellent cover in that position. He''s already won promotion from this level once with us, has won caps for Scotland and has Premier League experience. You will be very hard pushed to do better at this level in terms of cover. The added bonus is that he can also cover the left back position as well. Making him a very useful squad member - if he wants to stay. A lot of people will make the comment that they don''t think he''s good enough to play at Premier League level. However, the reality is that we''ve got a massive fight on our hands to return to that level and so that will be lovely problem to have if we actually make it.

Bournemouth only sold Grabban to us because he had a release clause of £3 million. It is unlikely that many of the players mentioned have similar such clauses. The clauses also usually stipulate that the offer must be from a Premier League side. Grabban''s was unusual in that regard. Loaning Bassong to Watford was pure stupidity from us and it probably cost us automatic promotion. Hard to believe now but Bassong was superb when he returned to the fold last season. Other clubs around us won''t be so charitable.

The fact that some posters on this board genuinely believe the likes of Derby, Wednesday, Hull or Brighton are genuinely going to sell key players to us - a direct divisional rival, just shows how little comprehension of reality there is on here at times. Whilst the Secret Footballer stuff is untrue, Charlie Wyett is reporting that we don''t have too much cash in the bank to spend on new players and we''ve got a high wage bill. So we''re realistically going to have to sell before we buy. We aren''t going to be splashing the cash as many presume. It''s going to be a mixture of some new additions, retaining the nucleus of the existing squad and trying to introduce some of the younger players (the Murphys and Maddison) in particular. We''re going to have to look at players not getting a runout in the Premier League or players who are plying their trade in the bottom half of the Championship or League 1. That''s the reality of our situation.

Whilst I agree Morty that it''s important to have someone nudging the 20 goal mark, it''s worth remembering that Middlesbrough got promoted this season without one single player getting into double figures for goals.

I had no doubts that we would be okay until we lost to Aston Villa. From that point onwards I stopped believing we''d do it.

Realistically we will do well to keep hold of Tettey, Howson, Redmond and Klose next season. Brady, Pinto and Olsson may attract some attention if fjey are lucky. I can''t see any club battering down the door for anyone else.

Celibate failure? So basically because Norwich have gone done no one connected with the club is allowed to have sexual relations? Seems a bit harsh to me.

Personally, I think if you look at the chain of events McNally had clearly made up his mind that he wanted to leave on Saturday. I think the retraction he made on twitter was more likely to be a case of - sleep on it and see how you feel. The board came together and made the decision to accept his resignation on the Sunday. So one can only assume that he still wanted to resign and they felt there was no point in trying to keep someone who didn''t want to be here. Just as there is no point in trying to keep a player under those circumstances.

You just want to force Sunderland to win a match to survive. If Norwich just hand survival to them then that will be so disappointing.

It''s a massive long shot but just imagine if we did actually stay up after all this? Just imagine. It would be hilarious and farcical all at once.

Taking an awfully long time to deny it if it''s a simply twitter hack. The club is aware of it by now. Think this has legs.