I used to think McNally was a great Poker player

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Vanwink"]Either we couldn''t "persuade" or we totally misjudged the market we were operating in![/quote]Since this message-board is so quiet...there is probably a thesis to be written on the avatars posters here choose. On the image they are trying to project (not forgetting those coy ones who are avatar-less...) and any differences between the image and the reality. I am not sure what vibe I get from Frank Zappa (it is the blessed Frank?) other than a reminder of the 1960s, and all that great music, including a bit of his.

[ricardo 7,339]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Vanwink"]Either we couldn''t "persuade" or we totally misjudged the market we were operating in![/quote]Since this message-board is so quiet...there is probably a thesis to be written on the avatars posters here choose. On the image they are trying to project (not forgetting those coy ones who are avatar-less...) and any differences between the image and the reality. I am not sure what vibe I get from Frank Zappa (it is the blessed Frank?) other than a reminder of the 1960s, and all that great music, including a bit of his.[/quote]I doubt that anybody thinks that I am Elvis reading a Pinkun.

sorry if that comes as a disappointment to anyone[;)]

[Syteanric 1]

David McNally is an employee of the football club, and like all employees at any company, he does what he''s told.

[Syteanric 1]

[quote user="Oh Cameron Jeroooooooome"]He was shit in the champ wen every goal was bobbling in off his shin or his tap in from 1 yard. He''s shit[/quote]one of the best strikers of the last 20 years - Pippo Inzaghinearly every goal bobbles off his shin or is a 1 yard tap in.... if that''s "sh*t" I''d hate to see what you think a good player is... movement, awareness, getting inbetween players are the key points for a striker..does it really matter how a goal is scored? this is real life. not Fifa Sonny!

[Move Klose 303]

Sonny.

You patronising tw@t.

You refer to yourself as some sort of King, says it all.

Grabban and Inzaghi i see the similarity.

The only thing they have in common is neither of them want to play for norwich.

[Van wink 2,994]

Purple

"Since this message-board is so quiet...there is probably a thesis to be written on the avatars posters here choose. On the image they are trying to project (not forgetting those coy ones who are avatar-less...) and any differences between the image and the reality. "

You may be on to something there and I think you''re probably the man for that job.

[TIL 1010 4,718]

[quote user="jas the barclay king"]David McNally is an employee of the football club, and like all employees at any company, he does what he''s told.

[/quote]He also happens to be a director of that company.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Jim Smith"]Yes but were we not still making debt repayments then Purple whereas now we are debt free so in theory there should be more available to spend?

Whatever the situation its clear we have spent a lot, lot less than we did in the summer prior to our relegation. They''ve taken one hell of a risk. One more decent defender and they would not be getting the grief that they are getting today from a lot of fans.[/quote]Jim, these things are always very opaque, but, yes, that seems to be the case. I was expecting a spend of, in crude terms, around £20m, which was what we shelled out two summers ago. That said, then we wasted £8.5m  buying van Wolfswinkel; now we have spent much less (I assume) getting on loan someone who looks much better.But all the signs are we didn''t this time spend anything like all the money we made available. I don''t believe money was the reason we didn''t get a central defender. Either we decided we were not in need (unlikely) or we just couldn''t persuade the right player/club to do a deal. Whether we should have had a Plan B (for a so-so replacement) for that eventuality is a question.[/quote]

Purple I just feel that the strategy (if there was one) has appeared misconceived all summer. We have to decide what sort of club we are going to be. If we are going to stick to the mantra that we will be prudently run and stick to a strict wage ceiling then fine but we need to tailor our transfer targets accordingly and be a bit smart about it. We should, the day after the playoff final, have been hoovering up the best that the championship had to offer and getting our 2 or 3 key signings (including a CB) in first. Instead, it appears we spent quite a bit of the summer chasing targets who either had suitors who pay a lot more than us after them (many offering European football) or who were realistically not likely to come to Norwich City. By the time we reverted to more realistic targets such as Afobe or maybe Antonio (who i know we were in for) their clubs would have little or no time to get replacements and their values had soured following other big money moves for championship players. Had we bid £7 or £8 million for Afobe in July I reckon we might have got him.

I always understood that the way "these things work" generally is that the club more or less has personal terms agreed for the player via their agent before a formal bid goes in and also will generally have a good feel for the fee required. this summer we seem to have either slapped in bids for players without really knowing if the player will come or alternatively slapping in bids with little or no prospect of success. it really feels like a link in the chain has been missing. whether that''s down to this Darnborough being hopeless or perhaps even Neil not having great contacts I don''t know but it feels like we have been lacking focus and a bit amateurish. Of course all deals will never run smoothly and clubs will do you over from time to time but this last month or so has been bizarre.

I also was told by a source I regard as reliable that we had a deal for Dwight Gayle lined up 3 or 4 weeks ago yet it appears we only put a bid in yesterday and were ultimately unsuccessful because they had sold Murray 24 hours earlier. Not only do you have to question how wanted it makes the player feel when we were putting in bids left, right and centre for every other striker under the sun but when we are the club who misses out altogether then surely serious questions have to be asked.

When all is said and done I actually think Dorrans, Mulumbu and Brady are good signings and i''m optimistic about Mbokani. All is by no means lost and we can still stay up but i feel we''ve made it very hard for ourselves. Its really just the defence I think is a major issue and I suppose that could be down to Neil thinking its good enough as well as our transfer inadequacy. Either way though its unbelievable that we are prepared to go into such an important season with only 3 centre backs and a first choice defence that was far from convincing in the championship.

[Bury Yellow 2]

[quote user="TIL 1010"][quote user="jas the barclay king"]David McNally is an employee of the football club, and like all employees at any company, he does what he''s told.

[/quote]He also happens to be a director of that company.[/quote]

Yes Til but he is only one director. Its not his money he spends. Do you think he would have conducted this transfer farce if he was working for Bournemouth or any other club bigger than us :-)

He''s an excellent CEO operating for and within the boards demands IMO

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"] I don''t believe money was the reason we didn''t get a central defender. Either we decided we were not in need (unlikely) or we just couldn''t persuade the right player/club to do a deal. Whether we should have had a Plan B (for a so-so replacement) for that eventuality is a question.[/quote]

Sadly my guess is that we''ve not given the CB area sufficient priority in this transfer window, and we''ve played it too hardball until too late in the window with the approaches we''ve made.

As for Plan B, you''d have thought that after our experiences with Toivonen, Alderweireld and Quagliarella, we''d be very aware that we might have to settle for second best and that we needed to make sure a good-enough second best is on our radar before the deadline was looming.

It does remind me uncomfortably of Worthy''s season in the Prem when we found ourselves playing Simon Charlton at CB - wasn''t he 5 foot 11 ? At least we had the excuse then that money was really tight, whereas this time we''ve had money to spend (without over-spending in the event of relegation) but have not done so.

I guess we''re going to have to get over it and accept this is the squad we''re now going with. We may get lucky and find our 3 CBs do well and don''t get injured or suspended at the same time but it''s a massive gamble regardless. Or we may find AN has a player earmarked as cover who does really well when called upon, in which case I''ll accept it was actually a sound move. But as things stand I think it''s an unnecessary gamble with our Prem future.

[ricardo 7,339]

[quote user="Its Character Forming"] Or we may find AN has a player earmarked as cover who does really well when called upon, in which case I''ll accept it was actually a sound move. But as things stand I think it''s an unnecessary gamble with our Prem future.[/quote]

In my opinion we are Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall that may cause Lasting Damage.I admit to having a Jaundiced Outlook but I remain Refreshingly Unconcerned with the Vulgar Excigencies of Veracity.All Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill.[:D]

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Jim Smith"] Purple I just feel that the strategy (if there was one) has appeared misconceived all summer. We have to decide what sort of club we are going to be. If we are going to stick to the mantra that we will be prudently run and stick to a strict wage ceiling then fine but we need to tailor our transfer targets accordingly and be a bit smart about it. We should, the day after the playoff final, have been hoovering up the best that the championship had to offer and getting our 2 or 3 key signings (including a CB) in first. Instead, it appears we spent quite a bit of the summer chasing targets who either had suitors who pay a lot more than us after them (many offering European football) or who were realistically not likely to come to Norwich City. By the time we reverted to more realistic targets such as Afobe or maybe Antonio (who i know we were in for) their clubs would have little or no time to get replacements and their values had soured following other big money moves for championship players. Had we bid £7 or £8 million for Afobe in July I reckon we might have got him.

I always understood that the way "these things work" generally is that the club more or less has personal terms agreed for the player via their agent before a formal bid goes in and also will generally have a good feel for the fee required. this summer we seem to have either slapped in bids for players without really knowing if the player will come or alternatively slapping in bids with little or no prospect of success. it really feels like a link in the chain has been missing. whether that''s down to this Darnborough being hopeless or perhaps even Neil not having great contacts I don''t know but it feels like we have been lacking focus and a bit amateurish. Of course all deals will never run smoothly and clubs will do you over from time to time but this last month or so has been bizarre.

I also was told by a source I regard as reliable that we had a deal for Dwight Gayle lined up 3 or 4 weeks ago yet it appears we only put a bid in yesterday and were ultimately unsuccessful because they had sold Murray 24 hours earlier. Not only do you have to question how wanted it makes the player feel when we were putting in bids left, right and centre for every other striker under the sun but when we are the club who misses out altogether then surely serious questions have to be asked.

When all is said and done I actually think Dorrans, Mulumbu and Brady are good signings and i''m optimistic about Mbokani. All is by no means lost and we can still stay up but i feel we''ve made it very hard for ourselves. Its really just the defence I think is a major issue and I suppose that could be down to Neil thinking its good enough as well as our transfer inadequacy. Either way though its unbelievable that we are prepared to go into such an important season with only 3 centre backs and a first choice defence that was far from convincing in the championship.[/quote]Jim, I know no more about what goes on behind the scenes than you do, and probably less. All I can say, generally, is that if you look at other clubs in the transfer window, hardly any do all their business early, and often it is the prize target - as with Spurs and Berahino - that ends up being acted on last, for obvious reasons. The selling club, if they are willing to sell, will hope for a deadline-day auction.Frankly, for that reason, I don''t believe for a moment an early bid for Afobe would have got us anywhere. Wolves didn''t want to sell, as shown by supposedly rejecting £10m, and the only way they might have changed their mind was if the price got astronomical, as a result of a bidding war, and the player got restless.As for wanting Gayle a while ago, perhaps we had other targets in mind and he was a fall-back if they fell through. When the name cropped up here several posters hated the idea, and were relieved when we didn''t get him! No, the real cock-up, as you say, was over a central defender, although even there we may have the chnace of a free agent to tide us over until January. It will be interesting to see if we only name 23 or 24 in the squad.As to money generally, I understand your first point about Championship players, but there is a prudence/ambition conundrum here. We could almost certainly, say, have afforded the £15m, for Austin, but not his wages. In other words we rightly saw the wisdom in going for better than good Championship players, because that was what we already had in the squad, but then, because of wages and ouir low-profile, we had trouble persuading them to join.

[ricardo 7,339]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"]As for wanting Gayle a while ago, perhaps we had other targets in mind and he was a fall-back if they fell through. When the name cropped up here several posters hated the idea, and were relieved when we didn''t get him! No, the real cock-up, as you say, was over a central defender, although even there we may have the chnace of a free agent to tide us over until January. It will be interesting to see if we only name 23 or 24 in the squad.[/quote]Correctamundo.[Y]

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

Now, thinking about the Worthy era has reminded me of the infamous saga of getting rid of Malky to avoid paying his bonus, and when we ended up starting the Doc as a striker.

Sure our squad is much better now (but so is the competition). Can someone reassure me that we won''t come to see this transfer window as bad (relatively speaking) as that one, in that it left us with critical (and avoidable) weaknesses in key areas? After all, if we''d signed Ashton in the summer and kept Malky, I''m pretty sure we''d have stayed up....

I''m off to re-read Against A Dark Background to see if it improves my mood

[ricardo 7,339]

[quote user="Its Character Forming"]...

I''m off to re-read Against A Dark Background to see if it improves my mood[/quote]The Player of Games is my favourite.[Y]

[Fuzzar 1,702]

Bump. Hope we''re all happier than when the summer window closed last year...

What are your thoughts to date Ricardo?

[Mello Yello 2,277]

Deja Vu.......12 months later?

[Rock The Boat 1,324]

Many posters with great foresight, though you''re all too modest to mention it.

[king canary 7,577]

I assume everything worked out fine last season right? That is why posters on here are calling anyone who has been concerned about the window pant wetter or children having a tantrum.

[GPs Beard 0]

what we found last year was amarket much changed even from that over the previous years that we were in the Prem. Our stance on Wages (and to be fair the lack of head start due to the playoffs) meant that we were always up against it. And so it proved. McNally, Moxey , whomever, will always find the same issues.

We now find the championship much changed too, again by money. Deep pockets prevail in the Transfer market, and even though we currently sit in 4th or 5th in the wages league table , we still are not willing to spend on a player (like McCormack) where we cannot see past the risk of spending many millions of pounds over a 4 year period , with little of no value at the end of it.

Huge emphasis must therefore be placed on the Scouting network. We will see how this pans out over the next few hours. But to blame McNally is misplaced.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

Well apart from the fact that he by all accounts destroyed (or at the very least failed to put in place) the scouting network which means it may be a couple of windows before any new network really starts to bear fruit.

I truly believe that a failure (should it come to pass) to spend to get one of our main striker targets this summer may be short sighted. We basically have two seasons to get up after which, due to the changes you allude to, we will no longer be financially competitive with the top clubs even at this level due to our ownership structure/constraints and will have to be increasingly creative and resourceful to compete on the pitch. If we don''t get back up then we will have to switch to a new model but for now we can actually compete in terms of transfer fees with all but the most ludicrous Villa bid.

[TCCANARY 263]

[quote user="king canary"]I assume everything worked out fine last season right? That is why posters on here are calling anyone who has been concerned about the window pant wetter or children having a tantrum.[/quote]I think people are calling you a child having a tantrum because you''re acting like a child having a tantrum.

[ricardo 7,339]

It gives me no pleasure to see that I what I posted turned out to be correct.

We''ve been at the top of a cycle for several years and history shows that these things don''t last forever. I really fear that everything might now be on the slide.

[Van wink 2,994]

One more day to go but this is all beginning to feel horribly familiar.

[king canary 7,577]

@TCCanary

Yeah, I know when my nephew has a tantrum he is always talking about the need for more depth at the centre forward position and wondering why it hasn''t been addressed yet...

[TCCANARY 263]

[quote user="king canary"]@TCCanary

Yeah, I know when my nephew has a tantrum he is always talking about the need for more depth at the centre forward position and wondering why it hasn''t been addressed yet...[/quote]

I think it''s time for someone''s morning nap.

[Skip 3]

do you mean depth? or quality? we dont want any Tom Dick or Lafferty