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ABC (A Basingstoke Canary)

When is enough, enough? Or is it all about the money instead of the football?

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At what stage is enough, enough????

If everyone has their price, at what stage does football start becoming the overriding principle (after all we are registered as a FOOTBALL club!)

With rumours of £12m for Jacob, maybe £10m - £12m for Nelson, and possibly a combined £30m+ for Josh, Alex P, James M, Wes, Timm & Ivo - that could add up to over £50m in the coffers - very healthy financial situation.

What then - with most decent players gone, the speed with which we would then plummet down the leagues (plural on purpose) would make the club toxic - no player would want to join, no fan would want to renew season tickets, fans coming through the turnstiles would drop to a trickle - and worst of all, that lot down the road - no, I can''t even bring myself to say it!

I don''t understand the whys and wherefores as to how our financial position became so parlous. However, one can''t blame it all on Alex Neil - he did not hold the purse strings! He told the "money men" the players he wanted and they dutifully obliged. But what about the fiduciary duty of the board? What happened to all the income from player sales, TV revenue, Premiership windfall / relegation windfall (we''ve had a couple of them)? AN may have recruited unwisely (although I didn''t really hear much complaint about those he bought in - just complaints about those he didn''t), or he may have been unable to get those recruits to perform (and I think some of the exits may give a clue as to who those could have been). Nevertheless, the lengths of the players contracts, their wages, sign on fees, sell on clauses etc. would have been under the purview of the board and determined by them and not AN.

However, whilst acknowledging that we are where we are, at what stage will the enthusiasm of those same "money men" be reined in and persuaded that enough is enough? So far the fans have been generally supportive of the restructuring, however, taking their acceptance for granted would be a definite own goal, which brings me nicely round to my opening position - we are not just a club, we are Norwich City FOOTBALL Club!

Oh and BTW, I won''t be able to attend on Thursday, perhaps somebody could pose the fiduciary question to Mr Stone?

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The club dabbled in the big league with the big boys. We''ve got our fingers burnt with big money signings, RvW, Naismith, Klose, Wilschutt all multi-million pound signings, and the gamble backfired. We paraded the trophy around Wembley then failed to improve on what we had, so relied on a defense which had failed in the premier league previously. Regular investment to replace worn out old parts with new ones would have seen us most likely survive, but we now have to cut the cloth accordingly. Sell off the family silverware and jewels and hunt around for a few bargains instead in the hope that we strike gold.

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Blimey Murphy started out at £8 million, simmo then posted a thread saying £10 million and when questioned on it failed to come up with a source for that and now we have £12 million posted !!!

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[quote user="ABC A Basingstoke Canary"]fans coming through the turnstiles would drop to a trickle....[/quote]We dropped down to the third division and that didn''t happen.......

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[quote user="lappinitup"][quote user="ABC A Basingstoke Canary"]fans coming through the turnstiles would drop to a trickle....[/quote]We dropped down to the third division and that didn''t happen.......[/quote]

I think the tide has already turned, not sure all season tickets gone for this coming season. There just seems so little enthusiasm for the team around the city. Does anyone on here know how many season tickets have been sold?

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Isn''t Huddersfield Town a football club? When our, er, footballers, played them last season, I thought they played us off the park. I didn''t realise it was all a con trick and they weren''t playing football at all. 

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[quote user="simmo_2"][quote user="lappinitup"][quote user="ABC A Basingstoke Canary"]fans coming through the turnstiles would drop to a trickle....[/quote]We dropped down to the third division and that didn''t happen.......[/quote]

I think the tide has already turned, not sure all season tickets gone for this coming season. There just seems so little enthusiasm for the team around the city. Does anyone on here know how many season tickets have been sold?[/quote]

I think they are all gone Simmo. My dad tried to buy one a few weeks back and couln''t get one. Only hospitality season tickets left...

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[quote user="westcoastcanary"]Isn''t Huddersfield Town a football club? When our, er, footballers, played them last season, I thought they played us off the park. I didn''t realise it was all a con trick and they weren''t playing football at all. [/quote]

Completely agree, best team that I saw at Carrow road last season

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westcoastcanary - I don''t recall Huddersfield selling off all their assets - I don''t even recall if they had any "prized" assets. Also remember, they were strong contenders, if not favourites for relegation last season. So for them to virtually replace the entire team wasn''t seen as a fire sale. So no, not a con trick!

My post was about when enough becomes enough and for the club to not be so fixated on selling our prized assets (remember it was the board who held the purse strings ). I for one have been really impressed with the dealings so far - I just want to have the confidence that the club realises that we are a FOOTBALL club - and not a financial institution and when they intend putting the shutters up.

There are certain players (like the Murphy''s) who we have been nurturing over the years - with a new structure being implemented, it is only reasonable to expect the supporters to want to see the club reap the rewards on the field (and also for us to enjoy seeing them in full flight in Canary colours).

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It''s like going for a day out at the seaside and being stuck with a whining kid, endlessly grizzling.Stop making up stuff ABC, and shut up !

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I see you''re still up to being the board police City 1st! Still funny that you tried to tar Til with that brush!

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I''m sorry, but I don''t understand what the question you want answered is ABC. If it''s "when are we going to stop selling our best players?" then given that all of the players you say may be worth £50 million in total are still with us, it''s now.

Show me a club that doesn''t sell its top players IF the bid is big enough. Yes, we all want to watch the best players we have, but equally we want the club to invest in new ones, and to stay solvent. So can you clarify what you think is different for us to any other club?

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So are we to conclude that the Southampton board don''t realise they are running a football club? After all, they "nurtured" the likes of Walcott, Oxlaid-Chamberlain, Chambers, Shaw and Lallana, every one of them the product of the Saints'' academy, for years, only to sell them to other clubs. Or, just maybe, the Southampton board understand exactly what running a football club requires, and the contribution to doing it successfully that a properly operated academy can make?

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Have we sold Jacob Murphy. Have we sold Josh Murphy. Have we sold Pritchard or Oliveira? No. So am I missing something?Your post ABC is based on nothing but rumour, so how can it be all about the money, as we have only received fees for the two players we have sold, and some of that has already been used to strengthen the squad!

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[quote user="westcoastcanary"]So are we to conclude that the Southampton board don''t realise they are running a football club? After all, they "nurtured" the likes of Walcott, Oxlaid-Chamberlain, Chambers, Shaw and Lallana, every one of them the product of the Saints'' academy, for years, only to sell them to other clubs. Or, just maybe, the Southampton board understand exactly what running a football club requires, and the contribution to doing it successfully that a properly operated academy can make?[/quote]Good post wcc. [Y]

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[quote user="City 2nd"]Have we sold Jacob Murphy. Have we sold Josh Murphy. Have we sold Pritchard or Oliveira? No. So am I missing something?Your post ABC is based on nothing but rumour, so how can it be all about the money, as we have only received fees for the two players we have sold, and some of that has already been used to strengthen the squad![/quote]steady on old fellowwe ''ll have none of those factual and accurate replies herethey won''t dono sirthis is a thread for the hysterical, the panicking and the over wroughtfolk who in an old film would have had a sharp slap to the face or given a sedativehow to reply to ABC

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West coast, great post, would love to see us produce a line of youngsters like Southampton have, historically they''ve always produced some good players, like Crew used to under Dario.

We certainly need to start producing to maintain any chance of pushing on in the next few seasons.

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[quote user="Indy"]West coast, great post, would love to see us produce a line of youngsters like Southampton have, historically they''ve always produced some good players, like Crew used to under Dario.

We certainly need to start producing to maintain any chance of pushing on in the next few seasons.[/quote]We will.That was the aim some while back and it hasn''t changed.With Cat 1 it has allowed us to search far wider.The difference now is that we do not have to chuck them in early to pad out the squad.

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Doesn''t cat 1 status cost a fair bit to run? I thought someone said it''s about 1 million a year? That''s a fair investment to maintain, so we hopefully will see the benefit.

I assume there''s no restriction in pulling in German youngsters? Or are we restricted to the UK?

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My understandung is that is far higher than that - 32.5m, although part of that is met with grantsOn a simple cost basis I think the two Murphys will easily (and have) repaid thatSimilarly Rudd and Steer have given us games and feesOthers now coming through will likewise repay the investmentI''m not sure exactly how it works with non UK youngsters - however I think the focus from Farke will be on the immediate needs of the first team and promotion

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The difference in runniing costs is around coaching, the FA guideline is one coach for eight players in Cat 1 and 1 in 10 for Cat 3, also Blackburn have managed to retain Cat1 under the Venky''s , also so have Wolves!

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