Brightside

Lawrenson is still a miserable git. He doesn''t seem to have anything positive to say.

I believe this is a winnable game. We''ve now got the strength and depth in the team to make home games against the vast majority of teams winnable. Norwich 2 - 1 Everton

Absolutely brilliant!!! Nice to hear it sung with an actual tune rather than the moronic barking from some elements of the crowd. The "premiership" word change in the second verse is great and needed to keep up to date. This would be amazing played 10 mins before kick off and don''t see any reason why it can''t be. Citeh have blue moon and WHam bubbles after all. Great job mate!!!

It''s a no from me.

First game of the season, we''re at home so I hope we play an attacking style and go for the win. Ruddy Martin Bassong Turner Olsson Snodgrass Johnson Howson Redmond RvW Hooper

[quote user="CDMullins"][quote user="Brightside"][quote user="Houston Canary"]I''m not 100% sure of this but I don''t think Wigan played any Euro football last season so their relegation was not a result of it, Brightside. Likewise (and assuming I''m right about last season), it hasn''t attracted foreign league big time players, but it can be argued some of their summer signings found the attraction of a Euro competition just one more reason to sign for them. Several Pinkun posters have pointed out our Grant Holt gets to play in European competition now. There are other teams he could play for close to his home.[/quote] My point is that Wigan have Euro football this season but arguably at the expense of Premiership. They have not attracted any big names who have come to play in the European cup because they are now in the second tier. The argument about Euro Cup football attracting better players can only be applied if Euro football is accompanied by first tier football which for Wigan it is not. If we get into Europe and achieve survival then brilliant but I just don''t think we should go into Europe if it means by going on a cup run we get relegated.[/quote]The Wigan example isnt a good one.Wigan had a bye to the quarter finals of the FA Cup, By the time they played Everton they were well in trouble and by the time the FA Cup final came around, they were all but gone.Grant Holt the lure of playing in Europe was massive and theyve managed to hold onto a couple of their better players, players that everyone expected to leave. I expect Wigan to be back next season, Would I sacrifice a year back in the Championship for an FA Cup and a European Adventure.... You bet I would![/quote] Perhaps the Wigan example isn''t great but it is a real life example so could happen to us. I don''t think they will get automatically promoted back to the premiership. The busy Championship schedule along with Europe will be very tough. Playoffs at the very best. If we can get into Europe through a top six position then brilliant I would love it but there''s no way I think we should lose out on Premiership football for a European place.

[quote user="Houston Canary"]I''m not 100% sure of this but I don''t think Wigan played any Euro football last season so their relegation was not a result of it, Brightside. Likewise (and assuming I''m right about last season), it hasn''t attracted foreign league big time players, but it can be argued some of their summer signings found the attraction of a Euro competition just one more reason to sign for them. Several Pinkun posters have pointed out our Grant Holt gets to play in European competition now. There are other teams he could play for close to his home.[/quote] My point is that Wigan have Euro football this season but arguably at the expense of Premiership. They have not attracted any big names who have come to play in the European cup because they are now in the second tier. The argument about Euro Cup football attracting better players can only be applied if Euro football is accompanied by first tier football which for Wigan it is not. If we get into Europe and achieve survival then brilliant but I just don''t think we should go into Europe if it means by going on a cup run we get relegated.

[quote user="Houston Canary"]I agree with CDM except for the part about relegation being ok. This thread is rife with "lil ole Norwich" sentiment. It may be the League Cup version of international football, but it would be a fun, fascinating and unusual-for-us ride. As stated before, it would attract better players we are competing to sign so that would alleviate the concern about it making us relegation fodder. What''s wrong with that? .[/quote] I think you have misunderstood. I don''t think there''s any fan that wouldn''t want European football but not when it comes at the expense of Premiership survival. It''s not a question of lil ol Norwich mentality it''s a just bring realistic. Just look at Wigan what big signings has European football bought them?

Silverware would be great but I believe our priority has to be the league and securing our survival. Going by how close it was last season and what happened to Wigan I think it would be dangerous to concentrate on a cup win alongside league survival. Yes Wigan are now in Europe but with the crowded Championship game schedule I don''t see them getting too far.

Sorry didn''t see Hereford''s similar post. Looks like it was written whilst I was writing this.

We''ve got a relitively easy start to the season and should get a good haul of points in our first six games. We should win our home games against Everton Villa and Southampton and pick up points away at Spurs Stoke and Hull. We should be looking at a minimum of 12 points by October. We''ll need these as our following games against Chelsea Arsenal ManC with only Cardiff at home will be tough. I know it all balances out over a season but it would be nice to get a psychological advantage of a good number of points and league position early on.

""err, I think you will find that is down to the scouting network, and the board"" Pretty much this however RvW was on Hughtons radar whilst he was at Newcastle so it shows something that he must have kept tabs on him over the following year.

[quote user="nu_matik"]Why should the armed forces get tickets? They get paid far better than me and in engage in wars not always necessary, causing death. Well done, here have a free ticket to something totally unrelated... total joke.[/quote] It''s clear from this statement that you have very little idea about what our armed forces actually do and how they are run. I personally don''t think that members of the armed forces should get free tickets but only because I don''t believe you can separate what they do from the police fire and ambulance personnel.

We''ve made some great signings but I don''t think this means highest ever expectations. As last year Hughton will be tasked with keeping us up as an absolute minimum. Like we saw last year McNally is happy to ride the storm when things are not going great which was exactly the right thing to do. I think Hughton will be given a whole season whatever happens. Things are looking great and this is the most confident I have been about a season since promotion.

I stand corrected he''s 4th.

[quote user="clarkey1972"]Rogers second longest serving manager? Dont think so[/quote] Pretty sure it''s Wenger then Rogers. I see you didn''t offer your opinion!!

Liverpool - The rat faced cannibal will most likely leave and Gerrard is getting older. Liverpool could struggle but with Rogers they''ve got the second longest serving manager in the Premiership so I think that will count and they will scrape a top six finish. Newcastle - It all looks set to kick off there ( no pun intended ) with Pardew and Kinnear and I can see mid season fun and games there. Cisse is now staying but hasn''t made any friends with his want away antics. I think they will struggle. I would love Arsenal to struggle but they''ve got a very strong side so they''ll be ok Everton will be the club that has a shocker this year. With Fellaini and Banes likely to go, Martinez will find it tough to replace them in time.

[quote user="CodeNameCanary"]I would have hoped that having spent the best part of £25m we would travel up the odds table. Do people really think that we are only just slightly better than the new boys that have come up? Hello all by the way, my 1st post.[/quote] .....and you trawlled back to June to find this thread? Hello by the way. Oh you will be referred to as a binner. It''s just the initiation ; )

It''s great we''ve now got that flexibility. But it means nothing without sound tactics to accompany it. It was very frustrating at times last season when we clearly adopted negative tactics which didn''t utilise the strength of squad. It was also painful to watch substitutions kept to the last 10 mins when we were behind and desperately needed a different approach. Now that we have the depth to play different formations I hope we are able to use this to our advantage now. I would like to hope that we will now more often play the right formation for us and not to counter what other teams are doing.

Agree with the OP. Results at this stage are not important. I do query the logic of going to the states and playing games on AstroTurf though. I hope in the next few matches we will see more of Hughtons idea of a first team. I would love to see RvW and Hooper in the same starting 11.

[quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]We may be disappointed as the season unfolds but I very much doubt it, these are truly wonderful and exciting times, lets kick on and improve year on year[/quote] This ^^ We''ve made some great signings and I''m sure one or two more will follow. I feel more confident going into this season more than any in the last 5 or 6 years. Hoots and McNally have done some excellent work. I just hope that we use these signings well and use them to maximise our performances. It may not be Hughtons plan but I would love to see RvW and Hooper playing upfront together playing off each others strengths rather than one being used as a sub.

The thing that niggles me is that we don''t seem to have a plan B. The thing that struck me most about last season was that we were very rarely able to make significant tactical changes during a game when things were not going our way. If we went behind in a game there was no evidence of quick changes made to how we were playing to address the situation. Substitutions for example would still not happen until the last third.

My tuppence worth Huth Shawcross Pienar Agger

[quote user="Alejandra"]A lot of people had moaned there wasn''t the quality in the squad, now premier league quality and big names are filtering throughIf you want big names like Wolf/Fer to play in a Norwich city shirt, you have to pay premium prices to see them.As the saying goes, watch what you wish for :) [/quote] This High ticket prices are a byproduct of success. I think we all know that £45 for a casual ticket is expensive but as Morty has correctly explained the ticket prices are set to manage supply and demand. Like it or not NCFC is a business. If they can charge £45 for a ticket and sell them then why charge £30?? The fact that there is a queue for season tickets tells you that demand is high. The purpose of any business is to generate as much capital as possible and whilst a market is in a business'' favour it can charge high prices for its product or service.

[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]It shouldn''t be up to the club to worry about pricing people out of football. The FA could set up community schemes and lotteries and then pass a law making it compulsury for 10% of seats to be made available to kids/ poor people etc.[/quote] Nice idea but it just wouldn''t work in practice. All clubs would do is redistribute the money lost to the 10% of cheap seats to the ticket prices of the other 90%. On top of this how do you define a poor person? High ticket prices are a byproduct of success plus we are the biggest club in the geographical area. I would like to see NCFC TV where every game both home and away streamable to your TV for say £5 a game. I don''t this would have a detrimental effect on FCR attendance and all would enable more people to see the games. The games could be shown say 15 mins behind and half of all money would go straight to the club.