It will all come back to close seasons...

[Bradwell canary 112]

Lack of activity.

Has any newly promoted team ever had a smaller net spend? Was it the massive sum of £4M.

You would not have thought that the person/s in charge of the transfer funds had not read of the huge increase in Sky cash for next season.

We are being totally left behind by Watford and now Bournemouth. Not just in points but by the style of play.

It is clear that still many in the team are the same as those who took us down.

Put simply, unless something drastic happens, this total lack of action will see us back in the champs.

Alex I feel sorry for you, you have not got the players for you to show your full worth as a manager.

[jedi 0]

I agree to a certain extent but it''s alex neils fault that we set up wrong on too many occasions and put little to no pressure on the ball when the opposition have it. Once he changed it and had us 10 yards further forward and jerome on stones so they couldn''t just walk it up to half way and pick whatever pass they wanted it was a diffrent game.

[unique 466]

It is hard to believe that Watford and Bournemouth ( were it not for many key injuries ) have left us in their wake this season.

I firmly believe we have the best manager of the three teams, so it ultimately comes down to the quality of the squads.

With a third of the season gone, it is painfully obvious that Ruddy, Whittaker, Bassong, Martin, Howson, Redmond, Jerome, Grabban and Tettey cannot '' cut it '' in the Premier League on a consistent basis. They will all have the occasional good game, but unfortunately, not necessarily at the same time.

It would appear that AN has finally addressed the keeper problem, it can only be hoped that a few January incomings will resolve a few more.

Leicester''s turnaround last season proves there is still plenty of time for Alex Neil to find a settled side that can move up the league, but a reliable and regular goal scorer seems paramount.

[Katie Borkins 1]

Well, it''s interesting isn''t it.

The majority of this squad was "too good to be relegated" in 2013/14 and Houghton was to blame.

Then we were "easily the best squad in the Championship" in 2014/15 and Adams got sacked because a trained chimp could have got us promoted -apparently.

Then when Alex Neil took over, we went on an epic run where we could and did beat almost everybody, and we were all excited about him getting the best out of our players in the PL.

But now the same players who were too good to be relegated aren''t good enough for the PL again.

[Ivan Easter 0]

Which ever way you look at it the team at the moment needs strengthening at the moment in the transfer window, we certainly need players who can put the ball into the net. However this depends on how much cash AN will be allowed to spend and whether or not players will want to come to us considering our present position in the league. It will take big money to attract. Lets see.

[daly 551]

Hard to compare AN with Eddie Howe and Flores .

Eddie Howe Manager of the Decade

Flores over 300 games in La Liga, coached at Real Madrid, won the Europa League with Benfica

And neither continue to change the team on a weekly basis

[Branston Pickle 4,150]

Interesting the slating that AN is getting for changing the side - one that under performed badly last week - as this was one of the traits of Lambert''s reign; it is perfectly sensible to make changes to suit a certain set-up or if a player loses form and I have absolutely no problem with it.

As for the person who says Bournemouth have left us in their wake, until yesterday they had been behind us for ages, so some ''wake'' that is. As for Watford, I would not want their set-up anywhere near my team as it is playing the system to an extreme I don''t like.

Yes the summer dealings were not as good as we''d have liked, my opinion then and now was that we were short 1-2 defenders - hopefully this will be sorted early in January

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

I think that the board totally underperformed in the close season, however, of the transfers that did come in (and we were told anyone coming in would need to be an improvement on what we had) Mbokani, Dorrans and Mulumbu were on the bench yesterday so don''t expect to see too many new recruits regularly performing.

[Canaries north 155]

I agree with a few comments on here with us in Bournemouths wake. Yes 2 good results but no not in their wake. The thing I look at is the managers. Howe is the darling of all pundits whilst Flores has managed Aguero DeGea and Costa. This does not make them better managers but does give them (watford mainly)more clout when signing players. It will take time for people outside of Scotland and Norwich to realise Alex Neil''s worth while players from round the world will know Flores has a European trophy on his CV and played for Real Madrid.

[Matt Juler 211]

I still think our biggest issue is location. Whilst we all know what Norwich, Norfolk and East Anglia has to offer, we''re not close enough to a large cosmopolitan city, something that would be the draw to many overseas players.

[Jim Smith 2,610]

The board are to blame for not sorting out the defence with quality additions but by the same token I also think Neil''s naivity as a manager and the chopping and changing has cost us four or five points as well.

I personally think these players are good enough but he''s just not quite got it right too many times. Not advocating sacking him but he needs to stop "learning" and start getting it right from the outset of matches asap.

[ZLF 335]

location is part of it, as is the fact we are in a relegation battle, the lower than average wages for the PL and allegedly some difficult characters behind the scenes making agents less willing to push the canary dream & pound.

Its a complex web;

but even with that we can target emerging talent looking to step up or European squad players looking to play to get into euro squads with a pay boost. It will be costly but strengthening can happen

[ZLF 335]

Jim - I think we have the core of a premier squad capable of scoring enough to keep us up - we are average in the goal scoring charts for the season, and above average before they were shackelled, even without a regular identifiable goal scorer

However CH, Adams and now Neil have all failed to turn the nearly the same set of defenders into a premier league capable unit, by Einsteins definition of madness, I think we have to change the players to give us a chance of defending well enough to gain the points we need. Sticking with the same simply wont cut it.

[Highland Canary 78]

Indeed, we needed a PL striker, a commanding CB to replace Martin and a RCB but failed on all counts. With a much more challenging second half of the season, and five of the big six to face at CR, we will struggle to finish 19th now.

[A Load of Squit 6,260]

[quote user="Highland Canary"]Indeed, we needed a PL striker, a commanding CB to replace Martin and a RCB but failed on all counts. With a much more challenging second half of the season, and five of the big six to face at CR, we will struggle to finish 19th now.[/quote]

I think you don''t know what the word ''struggle'' means.

[PurpleCanary 6,387]

[quote user="Highland Canary"]Indeed, we needed a PL striker, a commanding CB to replace Martin and a RCB but failed on all counts. With a much more challenging second half of the season, and five of the big six to face at CR, we will struggle to finish 19th now.[/quote]This "logic" is priceless. If I needed hope that we would stay up this post has provided it.

[king canary 8,758]

''Struggle to finish 19th'' f*ck me that might be the stupidest thing I''ve ever read on this forum.

[unique 466]

Watford are 11 points ahead of us after one third of the season - they have left us in their wake.

I have little doubt that had Calum Wilson not succumbed to a serious injury, Bournemouth would be in a similar position to Watford.

Norwich have remained relatively ''injury free'' this season, so the majority of fans were expecting the City players'' previous PL experience to give them an advantage. Sadly, this appears not to be the case. They are proving to be consistently inconsistent, hence AN''s much maligned chopping and changing of the team.

Alex Neil is clearly an excellent manager, which leads to the conclusion that many of the squad have a limit to their ability, and that limit, unfortunately, rests somewhere between the Premier League and the Championship.