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Jezzard

Unnecessary gamble...

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Ian Holloway''s comment last May was stark: "How did you guys not get promoted?" Alan Irvine had got us playing well, and by the end of the season we were playing to about our potential, one of best sides in the league beating Reading and Brighton in uncomplicated fashion. So what should we do? Mild tweak or tear it all up and start again?

We chose the latter. Stuart Webber comes in and in what could possibly be described as an "oh look at me stance", or a one-trick pony method, goes all Bundesliga (zwei or vier) on us. Now that''s fine if you''re Huddersfield with no chance of ever getting into the Premier League without some radical gamble that could end you up in League 1, but Huddersfield often go into League one anyway. But we are the club in the Championship with the most seasons in the Premier League this decade bar Villa and with a squad that suggested it. Okay, finances, but surely we could have afforded one more big push for promotion with better players than most of the league for this season, and if it didn''t work come May, then gamble for 2018/19. And with the cash for Jacob & Howson surely a good coach could turn Ryan Bennett and even Bassong on lower wages into a decent Championship pairing. One or two classy signings and I think we''d have had a great chance of top two. Instead we get Die Chuckle Bruder at centre back. I know everyone is saying "Give him time", but that''s the point: we didn''t need to be in this situation of giving anyone time and unnecessarily dropped points, we could have gone in with Irvine and started with a bang. What brings this home is we look strong when we play last year''s team: Oliveira, Hoolahan, Murphy and goodness me even Alex Neil''s last signing Wildschut on the pitch (I''m been very impressed with Yanic and amazed when he gets substituted or not picked). But instead we have to endure Vrancic, Husband and Watkins.....

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Whilst I don''t agree with all the points, I do with the sentiment. Under Irvine we actually looked fairly decent for the most part and we''re tearing good teams apart. We had the usual defensive issues but we looked liked we''d just score more than the opposition far more often than not.

We needed to offload some players but what we have done is a massive gamble in a vital season. Hopefully it works but at present, we don''t look a patch on the side that finished last season.

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I think you make some valid points. Another logical question: if such a restructuring was an absolute (and foreseeable) economic necessity in case of failing to clinch promotion, what was the point of sticking with Neil for so long? Wouldn''t an earlier managerial change have been so much less of a gamble than setting up an untested an inexperienced structure? I just wonder.

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The squad, as it stood, was unaffordable. By next June we will recieve £32m LESS than this season.To extend contracts beyond that point would have been suicidal. The club (unlike yourself) has a responsibility beyond one season.There was definitely disharmony withing the squad. It was decided trather than removing some of the malcontents to have a complete clear out.I''m sorry that hasn''t put us top of the table from the first game. But there is another 42 games to go so come back after half of them are gone and have another grizzle if we have not spent money we do not have, and are not racing away with the title.

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Rather uncomfortably I agree with Bill for the first time on a football related matter. This is finance driven and we simply could not afford to not cut the wage bill. If we don''t go up this year then another, more severe, round of cuts will have to happen.

The point remains though that last seasons inaction when AN was floundering was shocking mismanagement. The unfathomable decision to stick with him was a disaster and blew our main chance of getting back. Hence we are where we are.

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Yep, if we''re going to look at the biggest cost to the club it was probably persevering with AN for too long

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I do think securing Dijks - purchasing two CB and giving Irvine a shot would have given us a better chance of promotion this season.

But finances and other factors meant we chose route B- the overhaul and cheap but hungry players

I can accept that choice but what I struggle with is just how little was spent on the new guys; all of whom are a massive gamble.a few proven bloodied champ signings would have been wiser- alongside one or two unknowns

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The only reason we have an issue is because our owners haven''t got on place a modern method of football financing

Or to put it another way to sell off to a stinking rich Chinese or Arab owner

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[quote user="Captain Birdseye"]The only reason we have an issue is because our owners haven''t got on place a modern method of football financing

Or to put it another way to sell off to a stinking rich Chinese or Arab owner[/quote]Who issued it to us ?Does it come out weekly, or monthly ?I think we should be told

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We should have taken the ''unnecessary gamble'' two seasons ago.

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For the OP.

No good coach could have turned Bennett and Bassong into a decent championship pairing, no matter who is was. Bassong has been a decent defender in his time but, I''m afraid, Ryan Bennett never has been and never will be.

As far as I am aware Seb Bassong has yet to find a club and was training on his own and Ryan Bennett has found another bench to sit on.

Are you not aware of the number of people who, quite wrongly, wanted Josh dropped for the Villa game?

He was beginning to get the same treatment as his twin did at times last season, so the argument of playing him falls flat as many posters preferred various other options.

Fair enough, I feel that Hoolahan and Oliveira should start in every game they are fit for but for you to say ''we look strong when we play last year''s team'' I take it you are happy with Russell Martin.

To say that you are impressed by Wildschut leaves me baffled. Fair enough he has played in what others would say is not his best position. He has played wing back (in a team where one wing back couldn''t attack and one couldn''t defend) and was found wanting. Presumably his best position is wide left. So, where does that leave Josh?

Please understand we are still players short in the team due to injury. One of those is a classy international centre back who we have, perhaps, still to see the best of and who our new manager may be able to get to play to his best.

Also remember the transfer window does not close until the end of the month!

Our previous manager took time to understand the Championship and his feeling that a player in the Scottish Premiership who impressed him could do the same in the Championship cost us £1M and then a free transfer move (only sub yesterday for Coventry in League Two).

Not only is this a time for the players to learn the new manager''s way of playing it is also a time for the manager to learn the Championship and to learn about the players that he has at his disposal.

It is also a time for the supporters to learn some patience and understand that many of the outgoing transfers that have been made have been made by necessity.

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Mello Yello wrote the following post at 20/08/2017 9:38 AM:

How long into the season do we actually have to be patient for?....

Certainly more than four games.

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[quote user="Yellow Wal"]Mello Yello wrote the following post at 20/08/2017 9:38 AM:

How long into the season do we actually have to be patient for?....

Certainly more than four games.[/quote]Yep, I''d go with that Wal[Y]

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A key performer in the end of season form under irvine was Pritchard. ...it''s creel that farke should be denied him as he would potentially be the best player at the club who would thrive in the system farke is trying to adopt.

But we were joint top scorers in the league last season but conceded the third most.what was needed was better defenders and someone to coach them.I''d hoped these two Germans might have bolstered that but now I''m unsure

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It isn''t just the playing squad that has been down graded it is also taking place in the boardroom where potless,pointless Tom will be taking us into the future. However i am told he is a lovely chap who is happy to talk to the fans.

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The scorched earth policy should have been delayed until the end of this season when the PL money finally runs out. We should have gone for a proper manager with experience of getting teams out of this league - think Warnock. But, regardless, without new equity we are doomed to gradual decline through the leagues. We''ve bought league one players and evidence suggests that''s exactly the direction we''re heading.

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Of course the radical change was and is a very valuable debating point on this forum. And we have had all the close season, some very early signings, who have already made their debuts and now four league matches to debate this change.
But is it really the time to evaluate that debate and conclude we are in trouble? Four league games?
We were top for some of last season and managed to miss out.
Four new players in the back five. Five new ones when playing a back six. 8 goals conceded of course.
Four new players, if you include Maddison as having a new start, in midfield and up front. 6 goals scored.
By all accounts, in the four games, overall we have had a majority of possession. One of DF''s aims. However, another of his aims is to be solid and skillful at the back. That obviously is misfiring.
I do think he was going to make changes anyway for yesterday and he alluded to that at his Friday press conference. Unfortunately the Oliveira one was probably enforced. I hope he doesn''t become another tinkerman.
You can play as many pre season games as you like but it is the pressure of matchday that counts and at the moment. that pressure has seen us wanting.
But come on, we have new foreign players and backroom staff who have to get used to living as well as playing in this country. Not an excuse just a reason.
And the debate about us not going up and not having money is not really valid. Of course clubs are bringing in foreign investors. And I don''t subscribe to the belief that they are all faceless foreigners who don''t give a toss. But we are having to rely basically on our income.
However, we don''t know if our current majority shareholders are looking to bring in new, wealthy investors or not. But the fact is, we have to work with what we have, at the moment. And that may still see us gaining promotion or having a really good, entertaining season.
And as critical as many of us, me included, of the board''s slowness in reacting to last season, I do implore supporters to give the new regime a good period to try and make this work.
And lay off Ipswich''s good start. All this talk of them faltering is just jealousy. They and Cardiff are leading the way and their managers have masses of experience in this league and if their teams do well then that is no surprise.

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Could gave, would have, should have..... but we didn''t and we are where we are, which is a manager new to first team football, new to English football and new to this division trying to mould virtually a complete new team of players who represent what we can afford and are for the most part new to English football and the division.

It would have been a near miracle to have hit the ground running. My expectation is of erratic performances at the start of the season followed by evidence of steady improvement through the autumn and up to Xmas. If we don''t get that then is the time to worry.

Expectations seem to have got high, too high, ahead of the season but why shouldn''t they be - we are football supporters and it goes with the territory. But this is a longer term project which may take more than one season and to abandon hope after a couple of set backs is crazy.

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Memo to the rest of the league.

Could you please go easy on us and not take games until December too seriously as apparently our squad isn''t ready to compete yet, but if we give it enough time, then there is a chance that by then, we will be.

Thanks for your cooperation Norwich City FC

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The problem with not hitting the ground running and not being in the play offs minimum, will just mean that next year anybody with any value or quality will be off. The likes of Pritchard won''t be wanting to play mid table championship football.

Which in turn means we''ll be back shopping in the league 2 or the German equivalent, which will more likely than not lead to an ever longer stay in the championship

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126 points left yet and already we are talking about next year''s crisis and Pritchard leaving!
So how the heck did we make it up with to the Prem with Whitbread, Ward, Crofts, Ruddy, Holt, Jackson , Hughes etc.?

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