A mudled transfer policy

[pete 372]

Many posters are rightly concerned regarding City''s failure to recruit the players we need namely a competent CB and a striker. It is now less than a fortnight before the season kicks off and we seem no nearer to seeing new faces.

Like last season we appear to be going down to the wire which is not a good policy since it gives selling club little time to replace their star striker and results in failed bids e.g. Gayle last summer.

The policy of offering low and derisory bids for decent players makes the club look as if it is two bob e.g. Brady and now McCormack. Hopefully a new CEO might see this transfer policy as flawed and encourage the recruitment team (if there is one) to identify recruits earlier and to make realistic bids.

We have bought Canos but he was initially identified by Brentford and Bristol C and we only came to the party late on and won the race because of our greater PL potential than those others. Do we really have a scouting system who looks at players other than U 21''s?

Still time to see our new star striker but don''t hold your breath wait until the eleventh hour on deadline day when we sign Murray on loan from Bournemouth.

[FenwayFrank 2,717]

Another positive post Pete, well done ...

[lake district canary 4,835]

[quote user="pete"]Many posters are rightly concerned regarding City''s failure to recruit the players we need namely a competent CB [/quote]Couldn''t get past the first line.  How many competent CB''s do we need. By my reckoning we have four.  Any combination of Bennett, Klose, Bassong or Martin is well up to the task. Simply can''t understand you.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 2,424]

Norwich were relegated last season.

This means the club need to reduce spending, especially on player wages. Whilst part of this is taken care with clauses in players contracts there inevitably needs to be players sold - especially as the club has quite a few who probably aren''t preferred by AN. Players will need to be sold before replacements come in, otherwise Norwich end out just compounding their financial issues.

Even after their initial splurge, Newcastle have now stopped spending until they can clear out a few more players. Villa have a squad of less ability than Norwich''s and have so far made only 3 signings.

You say Norwich need a CB and a striker, whilst I agree wholeheartedly with you about the striker I don''t agree about the defender. Personally, I don''t think you would find another Championship team with as much quality at CB as Norwich has right now.

It is clear the club are pushing for a striker, making a bid for a potentially record sum to Fulham for McCormack.

You call the bids made for Brady and McCormack ''derisory'' but Norwich are reportedly only £1m off Fulham''s asking price so that isn''t so bad and Brady arrived in the end didn''t he? I seem to remember Bruce asking for considerably more than what Norwich ended up paying for him. Bruce was angered by the small bids as they were unsettling Brady, this ultimately helped Norwich land the player as he pushed harder for a move. It was a nasty tactic by Norwich which ultimately worked out - maybe you would have like the club to have been more deferential to Hull and turned up with £10m in cash and doffed their cap while they apologised for overpaying.

If you want a club who overpay for every player I suggest you go support Man United or Bournemouth, as I feel you may never be happy as a Norwich fan.

[Guest]

Yawn.

[Grant Holts Moustache 113]

Sorry to disappoint Pete but Glenn Murray has already signed for Brighton.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

The transfer market in general resembles a minefield in a maze at the moment.

I have been watching the big deals that seem to have been bubbling on throughout the Summer and, whilst no few have gone ahead, a lot more than is usual seem to be dragging on, even those amongst the big boys and the big money.

Will Pogba end up at United? John Stones still at Everton? Berahaino still involved in the £25m tug-of-war between Palace and Stoke or will he stay at the Hawthorns?

Just a few examples of transfer sagas that have bubbled away throughout the window.

With so many factors such as getting the best deal for the selling club, add-ons getting more and more involved, agents touting for the best wage and chain reactions all combined with the delay caused by the Euros and the fact that rewards for getting it right are now blown out of all proportion perhaps we can view our pursuit of McCormack as just being par for the course these days.

I don''t suppose that our transfer policy is either that much better or that much worse than most others. We seem prepared to use a decent wedge whilst keeping our feet on the ground.

It''s a nightmare with the players themselves usually holding the trump card.

[A Load of Squit 6,260]

[quote user="Bethnal Yellow and Green"] I feel you may never be happy as a Norwich fan.[/quote]

Never being happy is the goal he''s aiming for, it will make him happy and then he not be happy because he''s happy. [:)]

[Lessingham Canary 108]

Pete you have already been picked up most points, so I wont go over old ground, but I do find it strange that you consider yourself a supporter of our great club, yet any post seems to be a stick to use against them, why ?

You also put, I quote "We have bought Canos but he was initially identified by Brentford and Bristol C and we only came to the party late on and won the race because of our greater PL potential than those others. Do we really have a scouting system who looks at players other than U 21''s?"

I am pretty confident that you have no idea what the facts are on this, or how long the club has been tracking the players progress, so again why spout such carp ?

[If wed only kept Howie.. 3]

Pete you bore me.

[Horse Renoir 1]

It''s the same at nearly every other club, or at least the ones without rich owners this summer. For some reason deals just aren''t moving, I''d guess because whenever a PL team is involved they are pricing players as if it was last year and other clubs are trying to ring more out of them because of the new tv deal.

The likes of Bournemouth/Watford/Boro etc alongside the giant clubs are all throwing money around and it''s making it more difficult for the well run clubs to compete (I really do hate suggardaddy clubs with a passion.) Sunderland still haven''t signed anyone, neither have WBA. Scum have signed what, one player?

Thanks to most teams playing one up top now the striker pool has been cut down considerably and deals for forwards are the hardest and most expensive to get done. Agents of strikers, particularly prolific ones can also afford to make the negotiation like pulling teeth.

Nothing to do with our ''policy'' it''s just gotten even tougher this summer. We need players in expensive positions to fill with any quality and it''s going to take time

[Dr Greenthumb 794]

I think you will find there were more clubs than the two you have quoted that were in for Canos

[King Klose 0]

You''re already an obvious scummer, and the fact that you can''t spell (*muddled) just confirms it.

Our transfer policy is far better than your lot at Portaloo Road. Their transfer policy centres around stealing from local charities, not paying policing bills and signing freebies and scraping the proverbial barrel.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Ross mccormack is on his way. I think we''re done then so long as nothing special comes up. Dunno what you''re worried about.

[The young canary 0]

We are not far off Redmond has been replaced ONeil replaced by the youngsters

Just need to be shot of the wolf and Kyle get in a couple of proven strikers and we will be in the mix

[SwindonCanary 457]

If we are offering too little for players, we are not alone, how come I''ve just read this "Toffees boss Ronald Koeman is said to be a firm admirer of Brady and an

offer around the £6-7m mark could be enough to land the Irishman in time

for the start of the new season, despite Norwich reportedly wanting

£20m"   And look at the price Redmond went for, when Saido Berahino is going to go for about £20million.

2

[Mr Angry 2,023]

Although I agree that Pete is a dreadfully depressing fellow, one transfer announced yesterday made me think about our scouting network. Ciro Immobile was signed by Lazio yesterday from Sevilla for €8.5 million, on an €11 million contract. While I understand that we would never be able to persuade a player like that to come to Norwich, do people think that there could be other players out there who are of the same quality as McCormack but at a much lower price, who might be willing to sign up?

[Guest]

I don''t disagree in principle Mr Angry, but the additional benefit of McCormack is that he''s proven in the Championship, Scottish (and therefore culturally used to the UK), and should be able to fit in and hit the ground running.

I''m sure there are European gems out there which may be available for a better cost, but is the risk of landing another RvW worth saving a few million quid? Especially given the desperation to get back to the Premiership, and the money we''ve got from Redmond and parachute payments.

[Canaries north 155]

Bournemouth owner put in £25 million to get promoted. Gibson was putting in £1 million every month for a number of years. Watford have rich owners but are run as a business. They do use their other clubs to help each other. Lost less money than us in our promotion season as my Watford supporting Sunday drinking buddy keeps reminding me.

Their are plenty of ways to skin a cat and out prudent slow building way is the way I would always want it but I do worry with silly money coming in from foreign owners, will we be able to compete with the rich Jonny come lately.

[Indy_Bones 444]

[quote user="Ian"]I don''t disagree in principle Mr Angry, but the additional benefit of McCormack is that he''s proven in the Championship, Scottish (and therefore culturally used to the UK), and should be able to fit in and hit the ground running[/quote]Hooper is proven in the Champs, in fact in terms of mins per goal, he outdid McCormack last season with a goal every 177 mins compared to 192 for McCormack, and was only slightly behind in terms of assists as well (1 every 460 mins compared to 1 every 449 mins for McCormack), and chances are that if he''d not held out for an England call-up, he''d have been representing Scotland either instead of, or alongside McCormack as well.He''s 2 years younger than McCormack, plays in a very similar manner (albeit with a lower work rate half the time), is better in the air, and yet we sold him for approx 3mil, and now people want us to pay nearly FOUR times that amount for McCormack - JUST WTF???At champs level Hooper is just as good as McCormack (better in some cases and not in others), yet neither Hughton, Adams nor AN managed to fit him into their systems correctly, so why does anyone actually think that McCormack would just slot in seamlessly when the player probably most similar to him in the league struggled to do so?I''d still rather we took the ''gamble'' of signing a potential European gem at a better price, than have our pants pulled down over McCormack, regardless of what happened with the RvW signing (which I still maintain was a good signing, just the player was mis-used).

[Essjayess 307]

Bethnal  summed things up pretty much, a striker is really the only urgency we have right now, we otherwise have a large squad and its players wages that could really be the area where City have to highlight. Alex already said that thru August a certain amount of guys need to be shifted, either straight transfers or loaned out, to keep the wage bill at a sensible level. So apart from a new striker, cant see City bringing in to many more new faces. The  one big "out" is obviously Brady, must be 50 / 50 right now wether Everton  or another PL club really do come in for him.The one difference ive noticed this  transfer window compared to last years summer window is the lack of rumours linking City to European players, especially from Italy. I guess its because last  summer we were a newly promoted PL club, but the difference is quite amazing, but i think refreshing, as last year i was exhausted by the  huge amount of stupid rumours linking us to so many guys abroad.

[hogesar 10,770]

Hooper is not similar to mccormack.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 2,424]

Agreed and Hooper and McCormack.

Different types of players - Hooper covers less ground, drops deep less and sticks central. McCormack likes to get around the pitch a little more and rarely pushes up against the defenders like Hooper does regularly.

[Horse Renoir 1]

...And Hooper is a poor footballer who misses plenty of sitters for a supposed poacher. I''m so tired of the comparisons between the two, they are absolutely nothing alike!!!

[Indy_Bones 444]

[quote user="Ricky Spanish"]...And Hooper is a poor footballer who misses plenty of sitters for a supposed poacher. I''m so tired of the comparisons between the two, they are absolutely nothing alike!!![/quote]If he''s so poor, perhaps you can explain his superior goal to minute ratio compared to the guy half the message board want us to splash 12mil or more on....

[Guest]

Thing is Indy, you might prefer to take a punt on someone unproven, but real life isn''t like Football Manager. I''m certain there''s a lot more to building a team than simply looking for players with the best stats in limited areas.

[GJP 79]

I mean the main thing with Hooper is that he''s a lazy f*ck.

[Indy_Bones 444]

[quote user="GJP"]I mean the main thing with Hooper is that he''s a lazy f*ck.[/quote]Oh Clearly,He was that lazy that he outperformed McCormack last season comparatively speaking.Does that mean that if Hooper decided to be less lazy he''d actually be a 30 goal a season striker? Glad we sold him for 3mil and want to pay 4 times the price for a similar replacement who happens to be 2 years older to boot then...

[Guest]

Yep, you''re right Indy. Alex Neil is a total idiot.

[Indy_Bones 444]

[quote user="Ian"]Yep, you''re right Indy. Alex Neil is a total idiot.[/quote]Beginning to wonder myself tbh.We pay over 1mil for Andreu, pay him nearly 20k a week and then just loan him out to other teams because he''s simply not good enough.We''re looking to spend a huge chunk of our transfer budget on a striker who isn''t really any better than the guy we recently sold for 3mil (even if he does work harder for the team), despite the priority clearly being another striker in the mould of Jerome.And we''re now potentially loaning our record signing to a championship rival despite our aforementioned striker problem.With all this on top of an unnecessary relegation (yes, I do feel it was completely avoidable), then I don''t think it''s unfair to potentially question AN''s performance over the past year (don''t get me wrong, he was a breath of fresh air when taking us up, which has sadly since stagnated).