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Rudolph Hucker

Why the dramatic change of mood?

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It was going ok.

Yes, our fixture list indicated a need to pick up early points and the home form wasn’t what we needed (albeit questionable refereeing and inspired goalkeeping played a part) and then before a cup game Lewis Grabban spits his dummy and walks out.

Next thing Alex Neil is talking tough to SKY in interview. He is enticed to call Grabban a ‘silly boy’ and you think to yourself: it’s going to be hard for Grabban to return to the fold after that and so the supporters on social media begin giving Grabban abuse. Grabban is a Championship standard finisher but has the build, running ability and movement of a Premiership striker. Certainly, Bournemouth thought so.

This is Alex Neil’s ‘Bassong’ moment and I posted at the time that it will be interesting to see how that pans out after Neil Adams took so much stick for his handling of a dissenting player. The situation rolls on.

What worries me more, in retrospect, were the comments Alex Neil made about ‘no player or group of players’ having more input than him at the club. I know the words are probably wrong but you get the gist. This was an interview about Grabban but he widened it out to ‘players’ and ‘groups of players’ and at the time I thought he was just talking big but maybe he has a lot of discontent to deal with? In his defence, there may be a case for poor attitudes needing to be weeded out but this is a squad which only a short while ago spectacularly won promotion.

Alex Neil likes to play one up front and Grabban (finishing aside) is the best we have or ‘had’ should this seasons Kei Kamara turn out to be as good as he looks on You Tube which doesn’t highlight his failures.

Roll on to Sunday and watching on TV I couldn’t see many ‘game faces’ being worn as our boys lined up. The commentator remarked how we had only one midfielder who didn’t just play off the front foot (Tettey) and on this occasion, Wes aside (and he was sacrificed), I didn’t see any tackling, closing down, tracking back or generally putting in a shift from any of them. How Jonny Howson got a 4 year contract in the same week our only talismanic player was sold is beyond me. Howson looks as lightweight this time as he did when he was telling us we were safe last time in the EPL.

This was not a happy unit. Players ended up arguing with each other and Steven Whitaker’s soft dismissal now looks like a player who didn’t have his mind right for the match. In the days that followed we find many of the squad were being loaned or offered for sale and often before replacements were lined up. It now looks like there was a collective sulk going on in a game where it was Southampton who were being talked about in terms of player uncertainty.

The supporters know we are likely to concede goals in every game and more so need a fresh centre half to make up numbers. We have been here before with incomplete squads – the Simon Charlton’s at CB, the Gary Doherty’s as strikers and it is just too much deja vue for many to take, including supporters as sanguine as Ricardo.

Maybe, just maybe Mbokani will prove to be an inspiration but you have to wonder how much ’due diligence’ went into this signing. On the surface it looks like a punt. Let’s hope he comes good.

The Barry Butler Memorial Cup needs re-naming. Perhaps POTS should be FOTS(after). I am staggered by this sale and even more so by Bradders interview which suggests he was courted (or groomed) for some time. There goes out talisman; there goes a player who gets stuck in; there goes a player who came on late against Southampton and showed some of the aggression we were missing. All that EPL cash and no BJ and no blown wad?!

And now there is discontent because it looks like Groundhog Day at Norwich.

How we yearn for the days of Lambert’s early business. Buying direct before the auction started.

And all of this in a few short days since ‘Stoke.’

Alex Neil has previously criticised the up and down mood of Norwich’s support and I doubt he’ll be enjoying the change of atmosphere now.

But we are where we are and we have to go with what we’ve got. Unless some inspired loan is on the way? So, I suggest we re-wind and enjoy the blank weekend before backing the players who want to be here in taking three points of Bournemouth which would make us all feel a lot better.

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I can''t believe we''re here already. I''d hate to be a Norwich player tonight. Apparently everyone elses players are better than ours. And the ones that have come in don''t even get a word of welcome. I know I''m getting old Rudolph but I hate this transfer window, the upsets it causes to teams and the way fans scream and stamp their feet when they realise Santa only brought them a skipping rope and not a doll''s house.

 

 

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Well, I''ve just learned from another thread that we can''t loan beyond this deadline either, Nigel.

I doubt it stops players being unsettled and tapped up either. It should go. It is a restriction on trade and should be illegal.

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Absolutely agree... they''ve done ok so far.... bar Sunday...And are far more entertaining to watch than anything since Lambert.Just back them ... Mulumbu and Diamerci to come... looks ok to me

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The failure to strengthen at the back is what people are upset about, because it is so obvious it should have been priority number one, but it wasn''t addressed and we''re going to be facing Aguero etc with Martin and Whittaker. Gulp.
The rest is OK, although not brilliant, but we have already this season watched the team needlessly throw games and points away with poor defending.
I''m happy with Mbokani, Mulumbu, Brady and Dorrans.
Jarvis is $hit and has been for 4 years. 3rd choice keeper is irrelevant really. Wisdom looked like a rabbit in headlights on Sunday, although I''m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but hardly covered himself in glory with the 2nd and 3rd goals on Sun.
I can live with losing Johnno, although I don''t much like it as he could have been a useful squad player for us. The loans out are neither here nor there, with the exception of Turner. Even if AN doesn''t rate him, we''re stupid to give a body away there and not replace him. We could have done with another Striker in a different mould to Mbokani/Jerome, Gayle would have been fine for this, but we''re left with Hooper and Grabban, neither of whom want to be here (and Grabban is nowhere close to Prem quality). We could have done with a Hoolahan role player, because if Wes gets injured, we have no cover. Howson never really performed well in that role and Andreu out on loan (although question marks remain as to whether he would have been up to it).
We''re a Bassong injury away from absolute crisis at the back, and no recourse to address that until January, and I think much of the anger today has been a reflection of the disbelief that we are actually going to trust this already leaky defence until January, and the sale of Johnson for money we didn''t use more than anything else.

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Priority one was a proven goal scorer, purely based on the fact we have been creating many goalscoring chances. A CB was always a lower priority given the cover we have.

We have taken a punt on Mbokani, I think he is the biz, strong and clinical, time will tell.

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Don''t understand why everyone is so outraged:

We''ve sold Bradley Johnson who was never good enough at this level. He proved when he was last in the premier league that his speed of thought is far too slow! We''ve replaced him with a proven premier league player, who just needs football and a fresh start to get up to speed.

Up front, we''ve acquired our number 1 target. I know nothing about him but will certainly not judge him before I''ve even seen him play! At the back, once Whittaker is fit, Wisdom can play centre back or right back - we were never going to replace our club captain, I think we could do better but clearly Martin is highly thought of.

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Because of our failings this window an injury to bassong now and we''re screwed, simple as that. We have a weak defence with no cover

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its not the death of the club some people are calling it

and we didn''t do to badly but would have liked two more bodies in Jarvis helps as we have looked a little light on wide players

as for the amount of people moaning I suspect at least 5+ of the random posters are all one person which cuts it down a little

CB is my main concern but we will have to see how it goes OTBC

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Surviving in this League is very very difficult and getting back to it after relegation is even tougher.By my reckoning there is only us and WBA in the Premier League who don''t have wealthy (enough) owners prepared to throw their own money at the team.This is precisely why we should have had a carefully planned list of targets and made sure we got them in as early as possible.As it is we have sold our POTS, who I agree is probably not quite Premier League quality, but he always gave his all.We have not brought in any centre backs but have let one go who had Premier League experience.And we have 5 strikers, three of whom don''t want to be at the club.It''s not the workings of a club trying their hardest to stay in the Premier League.

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I''m normally one of the more optimistic fans I''d like to think, certainly compared to some of the moany buggers on here. But I''m still in disbelief at the dealings of this window.

I can see why we sold Johnson. We have Tettey, Mulumbu, Dorrans, O''Neil, Howson and Hoolahan for the three central roles Alex likes to use, and Brady and Jarvis who are natural wide players. Johnson wasn''t a first choice so £6m isn''t a bad fee, but I''d rather see him play centrally than O''Neil, and wide left rather than Jarvis. Also, why wasn''t the money reinvested? I''m sure we''d all rather have Johnson than some more cash added to the pile.

But the issue with the centre backs is the main concern. We have three of them, and those three were the three when we went down last time. We haven''t signed a centre back to strengthen the backline since Bassong three years ago, and we clearly needed to add an extra body this summer, never mind needing to add quality. The club knew this, hence all these bids, but is three months not enough time to get a deal done? It was nothing short of shambolic.

Also, we''re a striker light in my opinion too, and again, the club knew it because we were after any forward we could get our hands on yesterday- but still failed miserably. We have Jerome, who was excellent last season but has never fully convinced at this level, and a total unknown in Mbokani. After that, we have Grabban who is exiled and Hooper, who the club were offering out to all and sundry last week as he isn''t really wanted. Then there''s Lafferty, and the fact I''m even mentioning him as an option shows how desperate things are.

The club''s transfer dealings have been, on the whole, abysmal. We''ve signed two decent players but the main two areas that needed strengthening haven''t been- and because of the reduction in numbers at the back, one has been weakened.

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Other teams have strengthened. The right side of defence looks average in the championship. We are already two points behind where we need to be after these four games. We''ve sold out talisman. We will be lucky to finish 20th. Perhaps, fhose who think we''ve had a good window will feel differently when we exchange leagues with 1p5wich.

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What the OP was commenting on was the overall situation rather than simply the transfer window, but recent occurrences do seem a tad bizarre.

AN majors on team ethic and his seemingly favourite striker last season fell out big time, over the capital one cup where it is normal to field fringe players? Suggested a deeper issue.

The no show on Sun was startling. Certainly not the Norwich we have come to know under AN. My theory is that the LG affair has unsettled many, but AN must have been distracted by this and the transfer target hunt. Was it the B team who prepared the team on Sun? Or maybe Chrissie H came cack for a one off.

Selling BJ was a real blindsider. Last time we sold such a talisman was Huckerby under Roeder, we know what happened then. before that it was the Malky/Iwan thing with Worthy and we know what happened then as well. Just hope that AN has a plan, looks like a strange one to me with no apparent purpose.

Jarvis- why?

Loans make sense

But no CB. Staggering. Wenger-like complacency or were we just rebuffed time and again?

Mbokani- how will that affect CJ etc? Hope he works out, it''ll have to as we seem destined to concede plenty the other end.

So a very confusing time. Doesn''t seem very well thought out, and once we lose that team harmony and group ethic as we did on Sunday we are in big trouble. The first real challenge of AN''s managerial career so far, it will be interesting to see how things pan out from here.

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We have spent roughly 10 million this transfer window, it is simply not enough, we lack quality and depth and still have a defense that was only passable for the Championship. Something has gone drastically wrong this transfer window.

Not to mention we''ve ripped the heart out of our team only to replace it with some nobody from West Ham, from the sounds of it they would have paid us to take him!

This isn''t about just strengthening the squad, this is about showing our talented young manager that we as a club have sensible ambition, I fear that his own ambition will quickly out strip our own.

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I have to say there''s a lot of flouncing and over-the-top negativity at the moment - IMO we were a cb from having had a pretty decent transfer window (and hopefully that can be rectified - either with an u21 stepping up or with an out of contract player).

We ended up with our no1 striker target, whether he''s any good we''ll have to trust the club on; we tried to bolster things further but it didn''t work out - though it has to be said that most of the guys we were linked with were dismissed as rubbish by people on here anyway.

There were certainly some strange elements - Grabban throwing his toys about and the loss of BJ, but nothing insurmountable. People need to cast their minds back to Grant Holt and his public flouncing that was all sorted when CH came in, this isn''t that much different.

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I think i''m just mourning over Johnno.
Once i''m over that i''ll be fine.
It might take a season or two though.

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No point buying shiny new windows and a new front door when your foundations are creaky and may suffer subsidence at any time. Strange sense of priority and if we continue to leak silly goals then AN will face his first serious doubters pdq.

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[quote user="Highland Canary"]Other teams have strengthened. The right side of defence looks average in the championship. We are already two points behind where we need to be after these four games. We''ve sold out talisman. We will be lucky to finish 20th. Perhaps, fhose who think we''ve had a good window will feel differently when we exchange leagues with 1p5wich.[/quote]

 

Your big games this season will be against Bolton. How do you think you''ll get on[:^)]

 

 

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