The Great Mass Debater

Has something changed to make you feel differently about another Premier League campaign? Or have you simply had your head turned by the winning at Championship level? I sadly have no renewed optimism that any Premier League season would be anything but a repeat of the last 2. Only Attanasio pumping money into the club would change my position on that, and I dont think he has any intention of doing that.

We got Keith O'Neill from Home Farm if Im not mistaken

Is there any club in the Birmingham area (or North East actually) that Steve Bruce hasnt managed? Why do clubs keep giving him a job?? Also the commentator said Norwich's game plan seemed to be Bounce it off Byram. Is that a budget version of Bend it like Beckham?

Nothing to say actually, Im just really pleased with my thread title... Seriously though, were the boos at full time from us?

You'd think Scousers would find more kinship with someone completely supported by the state...

My point is we would never spend that kind of money, and that is our downfall. We are not prepared to pay the fees or wages required to get the calibre required. Take Ajer for instance, seemingly our primary target. We were only competing against Brentford, who despite their darling status at present are not a club we should automatically think we cannot compete with. But we had our upper limit and refused to do what it took to get the signing over the line. We were once chasing Virgil van Dijk before he joined Southampton rumour would have it, but we refused to stump up the cash and then look what happened. He was a player we could have conceivably signed if we only had the drive to do so. Southampton signed van Dijk for £12.5m I believe and sold him for £75m. If we had a warchest of £60m I think it was, you're talking about potential quality like this. We could have had Ajer had we been willing to pay for him. But we werent, we went with Kabak on loan instead. That worked out well. I dont think we needed major surgery - just corrective surgery and a few quality additions. Pukki we know can score in the PL. We needed one more striker of a similar standard to compete with him. Thats £20m perhaps. A defensive midfielder - £20m Im sure could get you a replacement for Skipp. That leaves £20m to replace Emi. That replacement doesnt have to be as good as him, but has to replicate his creativity. We didnt sign anyone like that and therefore Pukki suffered. **** £20m on someone with a bit of flair and creativity and we might have had a half decent chance. Instead we did what we did and pretty much every single signing was a flop.

Id probably disagree with that. The main holes in our squad were Emi and Skipp. Two £20m genuine replacements for them and we may well have had enough

That is selling Farke down the river for me

For a Premier League season? Im sorry but the decision to spend huge amounts of money (for this club) on potential when the club needs to upgrade is a poor one in my opinion. Not the approach taken by a club with any serious intent of being competitive in the league. I wonder if Farke was happy with acquiring players for the future, considering results in the here and now cost him his job very swiftly. Im guessing he'd have preferred a few players for the 21/22 season, not ones which may come good for his successor in a few years time

Mark Attanasio: "The facilities at Norwich City are world class." Is this an accurate statement do we think or somewhat of an exaggeration? I remember reading that Tim Krul said when he arrived the gym was essentially in a conservatory and other facilities were in a portacabin. Obviously a lot of development has gone into the training ground and academy. We have the soccerbot to boast. But World Class? Is this just hyperbole? I would consider facilities such as Man City's complex to be 'World Class'. I think I read that Leicester have recently completed a £65m facility at their training ground. I dont see how we can be 'World class'. Do we just gloss over this?

Has he transformed, or was this always his level? Plenty of Championship strikers of this calibre struggle at Premier League level. So the question remains, why are we buying at this standard for a Premier League campaign? - because he was woeful in the Premier League. Id rather have a 30 year old of the required standard who had a hope in hell's chance of scoring goals to keep us in the Premier League, than a younger player who wasnt at the races but one day could be good enough but probably wont be

Sargent hasnt been jettisoned this season, which is the major point - that we've shipped Tzolis and Rashica out for a campaign at a level lower than they were bought for. Do we conclude they are felt not to be even Championship level? Or is it more about getting them off the wagebill? Sarge appears to have found his level

I think Id rather have 30 year olds who were of the required standard to keep us up, than players who were woefully short of the standard we needed but might possibly be good enough one day. Any player coming to a club will want some form of security with at least 3 year contracts being standard

Rashica we were told was coveted by some of the top clubs in England the season before and like RvW before him we had stolen a march on the bigger clubs who wanted him. Tzolis was one of the most exciting young players in Europe, with the potential to be one of the top talents in the world. Rashica made hardly any impact and has now been farmed out on loan (albeit to a bigger club). Tzolis also shipped out on loan as soon as possible after practically zero game time. £20m between them roughly, of our Premier League warchest - money that was supposed to make us competitve in the Premier League. What are we to conclude that neither were felt to be necessary for even our championship campaign a year later at a level lower?

Just randomly came across this article and thought I would share. I loved Ashley Ward at the time. My local club growing up was Derby County, so though I was gutted when he left, I could still kind of follow him. I remember reading a week before teh transfer he's just had a little girl and they'd named her Darby. He said, 'If I knew it would have a bearing on my transfer I'd have called her Inter Milan!' Think he turned into a bit of a bad lad, didnt he beat his farmer neighbour up for shooting his dog? Did he join Prison FC? https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/catching-up-with-ashley-ward

Id have taken him at Championship level on a free had his contract been cancelled. Probably no other circumstance though

It will be very interesting to see how Gilmour does at Brighton. Gone are the Chelsea fan-boys to tell us what a mistake we were making. Therefore gone are the Chelsea associations, so gone will be the incessant pundit eulogising. Perceived to have failed at Norwich and been jettisoned by Chelsea, Gilmour will now either have a point to prove and come back fighting, or will be low on confidence and flatter to deceive once more. Brighton fans, unless they saw something in him that we didnt, will perhaps be open-minded about his signing, but are unlikely to be blinkered. If he doesnt impress them I doubt they will insist on what a world class player he is for too long. He does however have a chance at a fresh start. Good luck to him. Reality is none of the bigging up was his fault, and he doesnt seem to have an attitude problem.

Helveg definitely played some games for us at right-back, but ultimately Edworthy played better. Helveg was at the end of his career and on a downward trajectory. Not a bad punt, and actually brave of Worthy not to overlook Edworthy and automatically pick the player with the higher reputation. Having been deemed inferior to Eddy at right-back, not a bad idea seeing if his experience could help in other areas we were struggling at. Contributed very little ultimately though, and was surely on decent wages, that ultimately the club felt it couldnt afford to give to Malky and Iwan

That signing will always be mystifying. You would have thought that of all positions Gunn would know goalkeepers. To dismiss him after one game (both of them) shows how bad a mistake it must have been considered to be. He was Gunn's number 1 target that summer. He must have been atrocious in training to have never given him another chance

Shae Hutchinson No we dont still have him https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/shae-hutchinson-departs-club Good luck to the lad though, which such adversity his ability to reach the level he did is remarkable

Do we still have that Youth Team lad with the kidney condition (Allport syndrome perhaps?). His story was remarkable

I deliberated over Krul...

Surprised, but then not surprised at all that Onel is the overwhelming choice for current player so far

My sentiments entirely

Im sure its a different experience if you actually go. When I heard the crowd on the highlights, the atmosphere sounded good, so fans are clearly able to enjoy themselves. If I lived near the club I would love to be a season-ticket holder and have a group of friends to attend games with, Im sure that's a different experience. However I have never lived near the ground and this has never been feasible. Most games I have attended have been as an away fan. Maybe I ought to look at attending an away game if a suitable one comes up. Since having kids its been a while since I did that. Liverpool when Russell Martin scored was my last game I think. Game prior to that was Liverpool when Holt scored. (I dont exactly live near Liverpool either, but the missus is a Liverpool fan so I managed to justify that one!) She's also a Real Madrid fan, so if that ever happens Im there!