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Grumpy Old Blogger

Worst fears being realised.....

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It seems our Board has convinced itself that we can''t compete financially at this level and they are still devastated by having to take a hit on Wolfie (a chance would be a fine thing!). Then we have a Chief Exec concentrating more on sponsorship deals than building the team to a point where we can compete. Add a Recruitment Manager who arrives far too late and from a club who, by all accounts, were glad to see the back of him. Now drop in a Manager who has never had to play the transfer market before in his short time in Scotland and who has little or no idea who might be available and if they are suitable.

In all a recipe for disaster when we are left with a team who were relegated last time they were in the Premier League, who have had virtually no improvements made except Brady for Olsson (if that is an improvement).

We seem to be drifting around players who are available considering low bids and wages and hoping for a break.

Paul Lambert was far from perfect as he proved at Villa but he did have one thing right. Get your business done early and get them bedded in before the season starts.

This needs someone to get a grip and that someone should be the Chief Executive Officer. Somehow there seems to be an air of resignation around that we are not going to get anyone in of consequence and will loose some of those we already have. Neil Doncaster once said we had "budgeted for relegation" - this feels very much like the same. No real money spent, go down with parachute payments and we just might have a bigger bank balance in three years time than if we had tried a bit harder to recruit quality and stay up.

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Ah yes the transfer window is closed right? Now I agree about bedding them in early, but it just doesn''t work out like that sometimes.... And getting antsy about our pursuit of extra revenue seems bizarre? We can''t claim there''s no money and attack the clubs efforts to create extra income!

Anyway I think it best to judge a transfer window after its closed, we''ve made solid signings so far and got off to our typical start of season defeat!

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[quote user="Grumpy Old Blogger"]It seems our Board has convinced itself that we can''t compete financially at this level and they are still devastated by having to take a hit on Wolfie (a chance would be a fine thing!). Then we have a Chief Exec concentrating more on sponsorship deals than building the team to a point where we can compete. Add a Recruitment Manager who arrives far too late and from a club who, by all accounts, were glad to see the back of him. Now drop in a Manager who has never had to play the transfer market before in his short time in Scotland and who has little or no idea who might be available and if they are suitable.

In all a recipe for disaster when we are left with a team who were relegated last time they were in the Premier League, who have had virtually no improvements made except Brady for Olsson (if that is an improvement).

We seem to be drifting around players who are available considering low bids and wages and hoping for a break.

Paul Lambert was far from perfect as he proved at Villa but he did have one thing right. Get your business done early and get them bedded in before the season starts.

This needs someone to get a grip and that someone should be the Chief Executive Officer. Somehow there seems to be an air of resignation around that we are not going to get anyone in of consequence and will loose some of those we already have. Neil Doncaster once said we had "budgeted for relegation" - this feels very much like the same. No real money spent, go down with parachute payments and we just might have a bigger bank balance in three years time than if we had tried a bit harder to recruit quality and stay up.[/quote]You?

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Despite having been here, on this forum, pretty much from day one, even I am stunned at how quickly people have literally $hit their pants so far this season.

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[quote user="Grumpy Old Blogger"]So reminiscent of the responses two years ago when anyone dared to question the club''s ambition......keep your fingers in your ears and keep repeating "La-la-la-la - I can''t hear you"[/quote]Wait and see where we are transfer-wise at the end of the transfer window.Wait and see where we are table-wise at Christmas.All this pre-emptive panic is really beginning to grate – it''s almost as if certain factions want to be able to say "I was the first one to see this coming!". Surely not?

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[quote user="Grumpy Old Blogger"]So reminiscent of the responses two years ago when anyone dared to question the club''s ambition......keep your fingers in your ears and keep repeating "La-la-la-la - I can''t hear you"[/quote]

 

Grumpy, I am not challenging your right to question the ambition of the club. What I am questioning is your sense of timing and perspective. The Norwich-Palace match was a good game to watch. Yes, we made some defensive mistakes but Palace performed well last season with their counter attack style. They were extremely lucky to leave Carrow Road with three points. Everyone with any common sense knows that we were harshly treated to say the least.

 

I''ll say it again....the Norwich-Palace match was a good game to watch. Did you happen to see Stoke against Liverpool? Boring doesn''t even come close to describing it. Liverpool scored a few minutes from the end and their fans break out into "You''ll Never Walk Alone." Did you watch WBA in the first half against Manchester City? They hardly put a foot into a tackle and, to a man, simply occupied space. You won''t see that out of Norwich this season regardless of whether we win, lose or draw. It''s the first game of the season. Take a breath and let''s see how we do in the first number of games before jumping down the throat of the club.

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[quote user="morty"]Despite having been here, on this forum, pretty much from day one, even I am stunned at how quickly people have literally $hit their pants so far this season.[/quote]It''s getting ridiculous… the faecal matter flowing across here and that there The Twitters is quite breathtaking in its stupidity.What has really concerned me is the number of people that actually I know, blokes in their 40s and 50s, who are beside themselves with our ''disatstrous'' start to the season, spouting utter nonsense and encouraging the hordes of children to hammer away at their keyboards or keypads.Football is eating itself. Its not just here. The Gooners are doing the same.Pathetic.

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Thanks for your measured response Yankee. I too enjoyed the Palace game. I found myself sitting in the sunshine after 30 minutes saying to myself "I don''t care if this finishes 0-0 its a good game." but it doesn''t alter my sentiments and would have written the same piece on Friday Night as all the points remain the same and McNally was basking in his second sponsorship deal of the week. Poor old AN was still out of his depth in the transfer market and we still had the bloke Burnley didn''t want asking what he should do to help out. Wolfie was still a thorn in Delia''s side and we were still being "rumoured" with some pretty indifferent strikers.

I''ll still be there every week. I''ll still be supporting the team. I''ll still kick the cat when we lose and I''m listening on Radio Spud........and I''ll still think that the supporters deserve better.

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We have a much better squad than last time , we also have a manager who wants to attack not just go out not to lose.We will be fine.

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On the basis of the OPs thoughts, it looks like Arsenal and West Brom will be relegated with us.Who''d have thunk that the season was over before the end of the first week?

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I''ve got concerns too, but it''s mainly with how the football board is working and what the transfer strategy is.The transfer market has got more like a casino in the last 25 years and we''ve got to get it right if we want to both compete and avoid losses. The question is how do you maximise the former while minimising the latter?Some of McNally''s reforms are almost certainly a good idea. But the strategy looks like it could be improved, and what''s already in place could be executed better.We need more players to come through, not just raw youth, otherwise we won''t be able to spend as much per player when we buy the experienced PL players.The cycle of buying cheap and young, bringing them through, then selling when older and more experienced, isn''t working very efficiently at the moment.So my worst fears are being realised in that in this window we don''t seem to be buying for the future.

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yoda wrote the following post at 11/08/2015 6:33 PM:

We have a much better squad than last time , we also have a manager who wants to attack not just go out not to lose.We will be fine.

Yoda this is tosh - its almost the same squad that got us relegated -

Replace the WBA 2 with Snoddy & Fer , and yes I accept Jerome is better than Wolf, thats about it

Where is the vast improvement - please tell me

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[quote user="Newton"]yoda wrote the following post at 11/08/2015 6:33 PM:

We have a much better squad than last time , we also have a manager who wants to attack not just go out not to lose.We will be fine.

Yoda this is tosh - its almost the same squad that got us relegated -

Replace the WBA 2 with Snoddy & Fer , and yes I accept Jerome is better than Wolf, thats about it

Where is the vast improvement - please tell me[/quote]On paper the squad is neither better nor worse than the one that was relegated before in my opinion. What will make the difference is the tactics and the togetherness of the squad. AN is clearly the type who will get players running through brick walls for him, whereas Hoots had neither the tactical adventurousness nor charismatic leadership to bring the best out of those players. This is a squad that has had six months of rapid improvement and incredible success - couple this with the fact that you have a nucleus of first-team regulars who have been here long enough to know the club inside out and surely believe in the ambitious and steely leadership of Alex Neil, and we''re not looking too shabby. Add a clinical finisher and possibly a commanding ball-playing centre-back, and I think our squad is settled and capable enough to comfortably hold its own this season.

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[quote user="Newton"]yoda wrote the following post at 11/08/2015 6:33 PM:

We have a much better squad than last time , we also have a manager who wants to attack not just go out not to lose.We will be fine.

Yoda this is tosh - its almost the same squad that got us relegated -

Replace the WBA 2 with Snoddy & Fer , and yes I accept Jerome is better than Wolf, thats about it

Where is the vast improvement - please tell me[/quote]You''re just a half glass empty kinda guy.Way I see it, it''s also pretty much the same team that finished midtable the year before relegation under a poorer manager than what we have now. Also have Redmond who has improved his game considerably, a team with about 3 seasons worth of experience playing together and as you''ve already admitted, a better main striker. So all in all, with another couple of players soon to come in, we are in a much healthier position, and don''t give me that rubbish that''s going round Twitter saying the league has moved on a level since we were last in it, the PL is overrated and there is about 10 bang average teams in it. It''s ludicrous that some people think the board aren''t spending the money on purpose given the FACT every single spare penny has gone in to the playing budget every single season we''ve had this board, why would that stop now?

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It is quite obvious our squad has deficiencies and to compound that some expensive and high wage earners who are surplus.

We all know that if we could sign a top centre half and striker and move on three or four senior players we would all feel much more optimistic. But the summer transfer window is becoming as ''down to the wire'' as the winter window.

Grabban has good physicality and excellent movement but needs too many chances to score. If he had a better conversion rate he would be a 10m striker.

Jerome is a better finisher but I assume is not fully fit.

The rest are more suited to the Championship and don''t suit AN''s preferred formation.

The defence consistently make errors in games and in the EPL the punishment ration is much higher. I feared before the Palace game that naivety might be our undoing and after a great start without scoring we left the space Palace were waiting for.

But our overall play was encouraging, we looked cohesive and were unlucky - but unlucky not to dig ourselves out of a hole poor defending had put us in.

Whatever happens, unless he shows so far unforeseen incompetence, Alex Neil should have no fear he will start here next season. He has had no scope yet to build his own team and as an ambitious young manager will be learning from every experience.

There are obvious fears with this Norwich side lets hope that either players like Bennett and Grabban step up to the plate or we manage to get in and get rid.

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[quote user="Grumpy Old Blogger"]I found myself sitting in the sunshine after 30 minutes saying to myself "I don''t care if this finishes 0-0 its a good game."[/quote]
Somehow, I really don''t think you did.

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My worse fears are that stupid mistakes are made like in the early ''90''s when money was put into great ideas that wouldn''t materialise until nearly 30 years later or not at all.

Like buying land at Colney to build a new out of town stadium (supposedly) which we didn''t have the money to build. And ''investment'' in land that wasn''t to be developed for too long. Sapping money away from the playing budget resulting in the forced sale of our best players resulting in the club spending the best part of two decades trying to just be back in the top tier of mens British football.

As it turns out - it was the worse possible time to take the club to the bottom. From a time where we were performing well at the top end of the Premiership.

Getting players in is always going to be difficult when most of the top business is yet to be concluded. We''ll be looking for players that were perhaps first choice at top ten teams in top European leagues but have been replaced as they have fallen out of favour.

That or successful players in leagues that are relatively poorer and see our club as a stepping stone to greater things.

But we are not the only side looking.

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