How Are You Feeling About....

[GJP 79]

Yup, that''ll happen. Martin is guilty of letting crosses come in too.

And I bet you''ll see Pinto let it happen. Infact they got a cross in very easily against Pinto but I guess people turned a blind eye to it because it wasn''t Whittaker.

[kick it off 1,948]

Don''t really have enough evidence to make a judgement on Pinto. I genuinely don''t think I''ve ever seen Whittaker prevent a cross coming in. Martin not great in that respect, but at least stops a few.

[GJP 79]

Think you want to watch games a bit more closely.

Worst example of anyone letting in crosses last season was when Martin was at RB.

[kick it off 1,948]

Why was Martin playing Right Back? Was it because Whittaker got dropped for being abject sh1t3?

[GJP 79]

You''d have to ask the manager. Certainly we weren''t in the relegation zone with Whittaker in the team.

But that''s where we finished without him.

:-)

[kick it off 1,948]

Just checked - he lasted 8 games before being dropped and not getting near the team again all season. Draw your own conclusions from that.

[GJP 79]

Exactly.

We finished worse than we started.

Partly because we lost a bit of the good stuff that Whitts and Redmond (under used by AN) gave us down the right.

[kick it off 1,948]

I don''t need to ask the manager, it was plain for anybody to see why he was dropped and didn''t play another league minute after Oct 10th. If you think he''s "under-rated" and a decent player, then more power to you, but you''re demonstrably wrong, and there''s a solid reason he was unceremoniously dumped from the team last season and never returned... I genuinely hope to never have to endure seeing him in a City shirt again, signing him again this summer is utterly baffling to me. We''d have been better off chancing it on the freebies or loan market, it wouldn''t be a challenge to find an upgrade on him as a squad player.

[kick it off 1,948]

I think you''re delusional. Either that or just a bit dim. Either way, I''ve wasted far more time than I should have debating this with you. He''s utter crap, if you can''t see that, that''s your issue, it''s pretty obvious for the majority of us.

[GJP 79]

Yeah but the majority are morons.

[Highland Canary 76]

1. Decent enough for the champs. Certainly enough for a mid-table finish, playoffs if we get a couple of decent strikers in. Only Olsson and Klose are PL level defenders but I guess that''s no longer an issue. Hopefully, McGovern is an upgrade on Ruddy. The great unknown is Naismith - looked disinterested at best last season. Has the potential to be a real asset in the champs but jury is out.

2. Our fate was sealed last August, hardly fair to blame the guy for relegating us with a championship defence. A number of answered questions: can he change tactics in game? Substitutions tended to make things worse? Players looked disinterested in the last part of the season, can he really motivate? Dubious transfer dealing thus far, Klose excepted? Has he the gravitas to convince players to join us? Does he have the contacts of a Bruce who is now available? On balance, he should probably be allowed the first 10 games.

3. Without new investment we will not be able to establish ourselves in the PL. Fail this season and we''ll be unlikely ever to see the top half of the champs again with all the money flowing into our rivals. So, new investment and the potential for the club to grow and develop, but or status quo and little old Norwich slips further and further towards perpetual championship mediocrity and obscurity,

4. Pretty woeful. Our scouting appears non existent, our contacts barely visible. Other than Brady and Klose most have been misses. The biggest criticism of course was playing the likes of Martin, Bennett and Whittaker, again, in the PL. There was no chance in the PL with that defence. Equally, in the champs there is no chance of promotion with our current attack. We''ll know in three weeks or so whether we''ve not only blown this season but any PL legacy of the last five years or so.

5. No new proven strikers 10th-12th.

With new additions 5th-6th is realistic.

Top four clubs:

Newcastle (best team)

Derby (best manager)

Wednesday (best strikers)

Villa (best long shot)

[Cobain18 0]

Can''t believe how negative the feeling is on this board:

1. We clearly need a striker, looks like McCormack who guarantees goals at this level. Other than that, very happy with the squad at this level - don''t think many of us would have expected to keep Klose, Pinto, Brady, Olsson and possibly Naismith. We may lose one before the end of season but certainly not all.

Really positive about the younger players - some won''t make it, I think a few will and the likes of Maddison, Thompson, Murphy''s etc. could be squad players pushing for a start and will be like new signings.

2. People have short memories and re-write history at times. Getting us promoted was unlikely when he took over, we almost got automatic promotion, recovered from that disappointment and won a playoff final.

Looking at this season, he''s persuaded players to stay who could be key, injected some youth and with it a bit of pace. Get a striker and his building of the squad has been successful. Based on his performance at this level last time, don''t think we could do better!

3. Same board that has delivered success (many seasons in premier league) over the past few years minus McNally. Not sure why you''d want to change it

4. Answered this above. There''s a lack of focus from some on who we''ve retained, injection of youth with the likes of Maddison - a striker and I''ll be very happy

5. Never underestimate this league. Top 6 a definite with a strong chance of automatic promotion

[Jools 584]

[quote user="kick it off"]1) We have a strong squad for this league, but I''m absolutely stunned we are sitting here 5 days before the season with only 1 striker on the books. Absolutely unthinkable after last season''s debacle that we''d pull the same stunt again.

Need to trim more deadwood from the squad.

I''d be trying to ship Mulumbu, Whittaker, Vadis, Andreu, McGrandles etc out the door ASAP. Sure the club are trying on this front (except Whittaker unfortunately), but can''t be an easy job. Lafferty can join that list if we can find a body to replace him. As could Russ Martin for that matter. I don''t rate Dorrans either but he''ll do a job as a squad player.

2) Alex is still learning. He will make mistakes this season, but I like his attitude, and I really hope to see him succeed and flourish with us. I don''t see his job being at risk, it''s not his job to sign the players, there were good players identified last season and the board didn''t get them over the line. If we''d signed a classy CB in August instead of January, I don''t think we''d have gone down, and we''d all be happy enough with the manager situ. I do think he needs to learn quickly this season though. That Newcastle result seemed to shake him to the core and playing more defensively after that just didn''t suit us. When defence is the weakest area of the pitch, and you''re not scoring enough goals, then playing defensively is asking for trouble. With the squad we have, we should be looking for 3 points from every game, home or away. Obviously we won''t win them all, but we shouldn''t be setting up to try and scrape a draw or nick a 1-0 on the counter at all next season (Newcastle aside).

3) The board. I understand we have limited funds, and there''s been CEO upheaval, but being in the same position as we were last season where we have a clear position of weakness and it''s not been addressed as the season begins is inexcusable. Last year, I said on deadline day that if we didn''t get a decent CB in we''d go down. This year, if we don''t get at least one decent striker (plus another one for cover) in then we probably won''t go back up. P***ed off that we never seem to learn from our mistakes at board level.

Gutted to see McNally go, and even more gutted to see Moxey arrive. The bloke has made a career of being mediocre and we should be aiming for better. I have a feeling this one will come back to haunt us.

4) At this juncture I would settle for one quality striker and hope we don''t get any injuries before Jan but realistically we need two strikers in the door in the next few weeks.

Canos is obviously a good signing, don''t really get the McGovern thing but I guess Kean wanted to go and we needed a third keeper so it makes sense. On a free too so that''s fine by me. McCormack is hugely overpriced. He bangs goals in for fun at this level, and if he scores enough to take us up then it''s worth it, but I''m disappointed our scouts couldn''t do a better job and find someone better value for money. We need to be looking at Europe more, the domestic market is extortionate.

Whittaker. WHY? I get it that he was already in the building and no fee involved, but he is absolutely S***. I was so looking forward to seeing the back of him this summer. Hopefully Pinto will stay fit and we won''t see him on the pitch, but I''m gutted to see him staying. I''d rather have my cat playing Right Back than him. And he''d do a better job too.

5) I think we''ll do OK. It''s hard to predict where we''ll finish without knowing who else is coming in (if anyone!!!). If we get McCormack or another quality forward then I expect us to finish top 4. If we go into the season with just Cam then I don''t see us being better than midtable, trying to scrape bottom end of playoffs. If Cam gets injured and we have no-one else in the door then write the season off.[/quote][Y] Speaks much sense this ''KiO'' fellow.

[Indy_Bones 441]

1) Overall I think there''s relatively little to complain about. The missing links are absolutely a good striker (or even 2), and possibly a better CB to replace Bennett/Bassong. The other problem that may occur is if we accept deals for Brady and/or Olsson, which means our left side is suddenly VERY sparse, with only an inexperienced Toffolo and possibly Whittaker to cover LB and an injured Jarvis and a couple of our younger players to cover LM/LW...Great cover and competition between the sticks atm, excellent news that Klose, Wes, Tettey & Howson have either signed new deals or guaranteed to at least give us this season, and some of the most exciting young players we''ve had since the days of Eadie and Bellamy.2) Depends on which Alex Neil is in charge. I''d be 100% behind the version that took us on that amazing run back into the prem, who motivated the players and seemed to get us playing with real desire and purpose. I''m not even vaguely interested however in the version we saw for large parts of last season, which his inexperience really showed at times, and some of the transfers and player selections were less than ideal. The appointment of Alan Irvine could be FAR more important than many realise, as we now have a very well respected coach with a huge amount of experience for AN to draw from, and hopefully between them they''ll be able to prevent many of the silly little errors that have plagued us before. If we''re struggling after about 7 games, I''d be looking elsewhere tbh.3) Clearly the big changes more recently have been Balls and Moxey, with the latter having a lot of work to do to convince some of our fans he''s a decent appointment. Personally I don''t see a huge list of massively succesful CEO''s out there who are just begging to join us, and as long as ANY CEO works within the boundaries set by the club''s owners, they can often be little more than a trumped up admin manager who''s there to deflect some of the problems away from the manager and owners and make the tough day to day decisions in a fair and reasonable manner, and thusly someone like Moxey who has the experience and understanding of this is at least a reasonable choice, if not the best possible.4) So far we''ve basically sold Redmond at well below market value IMHO, to be replaced with Canos who looks a good talent at a sensible price, but who isn''t anywhere near as ready as Redmond was/is. McGovern on a free is a smart piece of business, gives Ruddy even more to worry about and if JR can''t recover his form from a couple of seasons back, he''ll be the one bench sitting whilst McGovern holds the no1 shirt.The BIG issue is the lack of quality strikers. Jerome is the ONLY target man who fits AN''s preferred system, Lafferty is a Red Card waiting to happen (as well as now being on an FA betting charge), and our club record signing has been sold on to Vitesse to hopefully recover his stalled career. Fulham are trying to have our pants down regarding McCormack (who I don''t think is the right fit anyway), and there appears to have been little to no contact or interest elsewhere either.If we don''t get at least ONE good striker in during this window, it cannot be seen as anything apart from negligent, and a damning indictment of our scouting setup in the process.5) Good - if we can play cohesively and our better players have good seasons. We need Jerome to be getting back towards how he was for us the season before last, we need Wes to keep providing the magic, Tettey and Howson the midfield bite, and Klose to somehow marshall our erratic defence. If players like Naismith can pull their finger out, and our younger talents like Maddison and the Murphy''s can provide good contributions, then we''ve got every chance of going straight back up, yet part of me thinks that AN is too rigid in his setup and system, and we might be found out more this time around and may have to go through the playoffs instead.Generally though, I think we''re in a decent position, but that the all important transfers and ability to motivate our players will be key, and if AN get''s both wrong, we''ll likely see a new manager sooner rather than later, and if that does happen, let''s just hope it''s someone who wants to play decent football as I just can''t handle another Hughton (or a Kenny Jackett coming in)...

[Jools 584]

I''ve come to the conclusion that we''re going to have to blood some youngsters and hope they come good.

[king canary 7,580]

Thought I''d dig this one out again as it''s interesting to see what most thought. It seemed the general mood was pretty accurate in the end.