Bannana Boy

"Adam Johnson, he''s one of your own" I''m one of those who isn''t easily offended but I found this to be a bit beyond the pale. Jokes about incest etc fine, we get it. You can breath the air here ergo we''re all inbred. Paedophilia?! FFS. Nope. None of that, thanks. Am I being a bit sensitive?

@93Vintage - I don''t know if you caught it, but Sean Dyche was on 5 Live on Monday evening and spoke for a little while about Burnley''s transfer/spending policy. Basically he said that even with their parachute payments they can''t compete - sustainably - with the ''big boys'' of the Championship (''boro, Derby etc) and so the owners have taken a more long-term view with the aim of being sustainable should the worst happen and Burnley not be promoted before the parachute payments cease. It''s worth a listen on iPlayer if you didn''t catch it. "Perhaps more should step back and compare our transfer strategy to Burnley''s, plus their decision to stick with a ''failed'' manager." - I couldn''t agree more.

What are your credentials?

I''ve not had time to read the whole thread, so apologies if I''m repeating points that have already been made. Someone who wasn''t there calling the crowd poor is a bit rich - and often inaccurate. E.g. effects mics are placed closer to away fans giving the impression, if you''re watching on TV, that the away fans are making all the noise. Having said that, the atmosphere wasn''t as good as it can be and my thoughts as to the reason for that are: 1) It seemed to me that there were more casual fans than usual. Not surprising really - lots of people would have had work/childcare commitments and offered their seats to others. In my area of the Lower Barclay there were a plenty of new faces (one guy arrived 10 minutes late and left at half time - good way to spend £50 :s). ''Day trippers'' to the vocal areas of the ground often go there for the atmosphere, but rarely contribute (broad brush, I know). 2) Evening matches aren''t conducive, for many, for consuming large quantities of booze and singing/shouting for 90 minutes. Most will have work the following day and could do without a hangover and/or lost voice (I''ve got a couple of conference calls today and my boss would rip me a new one if I sounded like I do after a Saturday afternoon match). 3) We conceded a goal after 90 seconds and were generally a bit rubbish. Its often a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing with vocal support. Fans need to see something to get the blood pumping and players feed off that.

That video''s just been taken down. They''re on to us.

If the comments he made to AN are true then Friend is being unprofessional and a complaint should be made to the Premier League and the body the controls officials. The club could prepare a dossier of evidence about his lack, or perceived lack, of impartiality and present this behind closed doors (so not to tarnish the man''s reputation and incur the wrath of the FA). But doing this will result in diddly-squat. The league, FA and match officials body don''t give a monkeys. Did we deserve to win last night - no. But how many times do teams win when they really shouldn''t? That''s part of the beauty of the sport - and why billions of people around the world watch it and play it. In order for the unexpected, and even the undeserved to happen, there needs to be a level playing field. Twunts like Kevin Friend undermine the sport. ****TIN FOIL HAT ALERT**** The Premier League is not sport, it is sports-entertainment a la WWE. A narrative is written at the start of the season and adhered to and controlled by those who can influence things (TV companies, officials, fixture scheduler etc). This is why we see examples of utter ''incompetence'' like we did last night. Except it isn''t incompetence. It is the ref adhering to the script.

Serious question - and I''m not trying to troll those with differing opinions to my own - but does anyone think that RVW will ever ''come good'' - either for us, or someone else? I held the belief that his poor season with us could be mitigated by: > having to adapt to a new league > an annoying, niggling injury that kept him for getting a run in the team at the start of the season > Chris Hughton (not the man himself, rather his footballing philosophy) Since then however he''s failed to deliver the goods in a reasonably strong team in a reasonably weak Ligue 1 and he''s failed to deliver the goods in an average team in an average La Liga. He''s a really nice bloke, and no-doubt tries his best (and I would genuinely love it if he were to end up back here and bang in 10 goals which help keep us up) but I really can''t see him ever being a top division striker in any of the strong to middling football countries. It''s like his time in Portugal was a bit of a flash in a pan. If I was Ricky, I''d look at a move to the MLS. Championship/League One standard but with more money. Slightly OT, so apologies for that.

Jerome Thomas will be their spearhead. A man of undoubted talent with a wealth of Premier League experience. An absolute bargain. It''s that kind of ambitious signing which only a Chairman with Marcus Evans'' footballing nous can pull off. What has our new Chairman ''achieved'' - Ivo Pinto?! Give me strength. You can tell we''ve got a dud in Pinto because on Twitter he uses #GoCanaries not #OTBC. Delia out.

It''s going to be a long time. I''m just guessing here but I''d suggest that the next time we''ll play them will be in some form of Fundraiser. Think about it - we''re already relegated, and they''re flying high under ''Magic Mick''. The £120 million cheque we received at the end of the playoff final has already been earmarked for McNally''s end of season bonus. This means that we''ll inevitably have the lowest budget in the Champs next season. We will have to sell our entire squad to keep paying RVW''s wages. On the bright side Russ Martin will promise to play for free - so long as he can be CB. Relegation the League One will be swift. We''ll be down by Christmas (we always are). Meanwhile, the Binners will be 10 points clear at the top of the Prem being lauded for the Tica-Taca 2.0 they''re playing. Our League One campaign will start brightly following the appointment of Neil Lennon - but will tail off. Ipswich''s Champions League campaign started slowly, but following their demolition of Barcelona they go into the knockout stages as one of the favourites. Lack of TV money, falling gate receipts and far fewer sausage rolls being sold mean that we just can''t compete among the big-boys of League One. We wimper to a third straight relegation. League Two starts badly with the board admitting that they "Aren''t going to show any ambition" - and gets worse with a resurgent Torquay United send us down to Conference on the last day of the season. Meanwhile Freddie Sears is rightly being hailed as the new Messi as he wins he second consecutive Ballon d''Or. Fast forward a few years and the biggest game of the season at a crumbling Carrow Road is a Norfolk derby between league leaders King''s Lynn and minnows Norwich City. In the professional game however - RedBull Ipswich have just secured their third Western Conference title in the European Super League and head into the Champions Cup in fine form. Two weeks after the final, a RedBull Ipswich 11 will travel to Carrow Road as part of fundraiser. The aim is to raise enough to install new sausage roll warmers.

At the start of the season my thoughts were that NCFC were in for a long old slog. There would be a few humiliations, but also a couple of unexpected ''giant-killings''. I thought that we''d dally with the bottom three more than once but, in the end, we''d be safe with a game to go and finish between 14th and 16th. I still think this.

"Alex Neil just said in the press conference that Haller looking unlikely now, and he can''t understand why someone would choose playing in the Europa league on a Thursday night, over the Premier league." I just saw that. I''m guessing then that the aim for next season is Champions League then, as AN obviously doesn''t value the Europa League that much (which, to be fair, is fine. It''s a joke of a competition - bring back the UEFA cup!)

The OP implies that the fixture list is dependant on signings. Fair enough - I assume this works in a similar way to chaos theory (i.e. Scunthorpe United sign Sam Slocombe in August 2008 and Norwich City get Stoke away and Bournemouth away in the space of a few days in 2016)?

We''re dooooooooomed!

I''d go for McClaren. If West Brom get sucked into the relegation mire then I can imagine Pulis being given the elbow if only to try and get the [apocryphal?] ''dead cat bounce''. As for Alex Neil even if the worst was too happen (and I don''t think it will) I''d be more than happy for him to remain in charge. Any neutrals won''t really know anything about us, or Alex Neil - to them we''re just Small Team on a Bad Run and Therefore Will Sack Manager.

@HighlandCanary - "...Our underperformance in the first half of the season has left us requiring wins at home against the big six teams which is too big an ask for our squad... " How exactly did we under perform? The normal target for survival is 40 points (although fewer are generally required). At the half-way stage this season we had 20 points. To me that would suggest performing at an acceptable level.

Great result last night, but the wait for a home tie continues. Indeed the wait for an away fixture that isn''t miles away contintues... The youth are away to Middlesbrough in the next round (6th Feb at 1900) http://www.thefa.com/fa-youth-cup/fixtures

"On balance, I reckon we would possibly up a goal and a couple of penalties this season?" I was just thinking something along these kind of lines. Maybe the introduction of a video ref who isn''t subject to the kind of pressure that the on-field officials are (crowd, managers etc etc) might be a bit of a leveller. There are always, to my mind at least, a couple of incidents a season (us v Arsenal in 2013, Chelsea v West Brom also in 2013 spring to mind as examples) where a decision or two affects a big team to the detriment of the smaller side. With a video ref - safely locked away in a TV truck or up on a gantry - surely these kind of decisions will become harder to justify.

That''s the thing Morty - there isn''t some conspiracy (probably - they''re only out to get me, not my football team) we just don''t have, and haven''t had for a while, the type of player who ''wins'' penalties.

Thanks guys

Planning to go to White Hart Lane on Boxing Day. I''ve not been before. Is it ''better'' to go in the upper or lower tier? Cheers

@gainer I''m not sure if you''re trolling, deliberately misunderstanding or just a bit ''slow''. Yes, I have heard of krakatoa. And it proves my point..... Large amounts of greenhouse gasses pumped into the atmosphere changed the climate. Why haven''t the gasses human''s are pumping into the atmosphere had such a dramatic effect (mini-ice age, for instance). This is quite a simple one. It is because of the volume spread over time. This is why for example we''re seeing temperatures rising slowly. ''Science cannot show rmpircally(sic) anything regarding human impact on climate''. Yes, it can. And has done. And continues to. Just because you don''t believe it, either through choice or because you don''t understand the data, doesn''t invalidate it. See rising temperatures, or melting ice. You know, things you can measure (hence empirically). ''Liberal guilt nonsense'' Happy to go along with that to a degree. Why do I recycle and not own a car? Essentially because I know that my actions have negative impact on the environment despite that fact I know full well that I''m pi$$ing in the wind (mainly due to fat Americans driving SUVs when they could walk and China building bijillions of coal fired power stations). I also suspect that a lot of the ''Liberal guilt nonsense'' stems from a wish to have energy independence. If we use less fuel, we have to rely less on Sheiks, Russians and Nigerians (or those pesky Norwegians).

@gainer - Your scepticism should be admired. Without such scepticism our race would likely still believe that we lived on a flat, 7000 year old planet at the centre of the solar system. You would live wherever your ancestors lived because it would be patently obvious that if one were to sail past the horizon, the ship would fall off the edge of the Earth. It would be safe to assume that female humans had more in common with ribs, than with great apes. You are also correct when you say the Earth is able to cope with natural events - such as volcanoes. However - the ''coping'' with the effects of such events leads to massive, global, climate change (the USGS has a good overview here https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/climate.php). I guess an adequate analogy would be when you get ManFlu. Your body copes with it, and you don''t die, but you feel blummin awful. Please note - I don''t, for one second, subscribe to BS ''theories'' regarding the Earth being a living entity. The illness stuff was just an analogy. Now - man made climate change has a lot of deniers. For no reason, to be honest. By your own admission you are happy that the Earth deals with volcanoes (ruddy great exhaust pipes, if you will) and science can show, empirically, the effects of the gasses on climate. Human activity is dumping far greater levels of these gasses than volcanoes have ever done. The Earth is coping with the rubbish we pump into the atmosphere - but the consequence is climate change. I will concede that the levels of change are debatable, but the change itself is not.

For the record I always look forward to reading Parma''s posts and long may they continue. They are well written, informative and most importantly for a forum spark some interesting debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/mar/13/uli-hoeness-sentenced-three-and-a-half-years-prison-tax-evasion-germany Doesn''t like to milk football supporters like cows but is happy to squirrel away "large profits made on the stock market into a Swiss bank account". Sorry - this doesn''t add anything to the debate, just thought I''d highlight it.

6/10 I thought the prose was generally good but, as others have pointed out, there were several glaring mistakes. Honest or otherwise these make you sound ill-informed. The final paragraph was a bit unnecessary, and dare I say it, comes across as a little arrogant. There are plenty of city fans world-wide who, while disappointed by any defeat NCFC suffer, don''t immediately call for pitchforks, torches and a gibbet on Castle Meadow. My main criticism was that the content was light. There wasn''t anything new there. I didn''t struggle to read it, and I don''t think its utter tripe, but there was no originality. As has already been mentioned, if you''d like to break into football blogging (and then push on further into the industry surrounding the sport) then you need to do something different or have an original take on something. You need to show your audience that you know what you''re on about and aren''t just repeating the standard punditesque verbal-diarrhoea. By doing this you gain the authority to speak on matters and you start to develop a virtuous circle. "Would have preferred you to agree/disagree with the points raised but thanks for the reply." - Sorry, but you posted a link to your blog. You will receive criticism which is hopefully constructive. Instead of going on the defensive, perhaps take it with good grace. I hope you keep going, and I look forward to your next blog.