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Hayden

Cold Light of Day

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City is finally a complete Jigsaw and the team looks balanced and dangerous, hence even away from home our threat means defenders and midfielders of the oppostion are not so attacking minded as they have to remember their day job. Harpers directness and Edworthy''s work rate and service have both sorted out the service issues and Brennan is coming, forwards have more space and opportunities due to defenders having something to think about it. Huckerby makes his own chances and he is as good as any player we could ever hope to get at this level.

This is the best Div 1 team we have had and I am sure a lot of Div 1 tems would love to be in the position we could potentially be in. To sign Huckerby and Harper would probably cost £2.5m plus wages. Would you spend £2.5m to get back £30m plus gate receipts and more sponsorship revenue? If you want to get in the Premier league you have to spend cash, there is no ifs or buts about it. You have to spend money. We could be bobbing around in Div 1 for the next 5 years consolidating and spending circa £250,000 to £400,000 a season on Div 1/2 players and loans just to keep us ticking over or we can go for it. The gamble on Huckerby would not destroy this club. I am not slamming the board, I am not saying we look down the barrel of administration. These are the facts. We have been in Div 1 for a long time now, if the fans want Premier league football, the business plan has got to change from consildation to growth and with any business that means Investment. The stadium is there to bring in the revenue and the fan base is there. Doncaster and Delia must be having sleepless nights. Huckerby is a proven goal scorer and Harper is class. I love the "What if Hucks gets injured and is on the bench or not playing, what then?" posts. If you hadn''t noticed, we are doing that anyway with Iwan sitting on the bench who earns the biggest wedge at the club and we let it happen last year with Izzy and Emblen.

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We would all like to sign Huckerby but the problem is his wages are not just higher but about treble those of Roberts, Llewellyn or Emblen. Thats a hell of a lot of money.

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agreed it is a lot of money, but where do we draw the line Al?

taking last year as an example, we were quite financially ''happy'' with emblen, izzy, russell, nielsen, steeno, heckingbottom and Kenton all on the wage bill. We have brought in Francis, Edworthy and Brennan so our wage bill should be less than last year. Iwan is close to ending his stint with the club and that will free up a lot of cash too. Surely Huckerby is worth the combined salary of Iwan, Kenton, Emblen and Russell. The biggest issue is the wage structure, Ipswich went silly and they suffered (good), but if we want promotion and to get in the big time something has got to change. Nige has proved he can do it with a strong side but when Hucks has gone who will see us through to the end of the season?

Jarvis? No
Iwan? No
Henderson? No
McVeigh? Possibly
Notman? No
Abbey? No

So we are left with bringing in another striker who won''t be as good. If we then miss out on the play offs or promotion we will all go What if? Then we will all say well if we want promotion we need to invest in the team blah blah blah

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All good points, and I agree that if we are not careful we will become the best First Division side to never go up.
Huckerby would represent a massive gamble, but we will have to gamble to get anywhere, or find a Sugardaddy. But I guess we have to realise that if we couldn''t afford the likes of Hulse etc, how can we afford Huck?
Also, Huckerby is a great player but he is not the only player on earth. Hulse, Earnshaw and Co. are all banging the goals in and I daresay we could have signed them for cheaper than Huckerby would cost now. Plus we could have paid them far less than a player coming from a Premiership side, keeping our wage structure pretty intact.
We should just enjoy it while we can (because it''s bl**dy great at the moment isn''t it?) and hope the board have the foresight at Christmas to buy a good young striker with lots of goals in him, or loan another star who just wants to score.

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Thank you King Juan, I couldn''t agree more. Yes, everyone would love to see Huckerby stay permanently, along with Crouch and Harper, but in realistic terms, the only one of those three we can actually afford is probably Harper; and much as I am impressed with what he brings to the team, I am not entirely convinced we need him long term.

So, instead of living in cloudcuckooland believing we can keep these players and go up, we should be turning our attention to possible alternatives. I think someone who fits the bill on both your counts above is Nick Chadwick of Everton, he is playing very very well for Everton''s reserves at the moment, and would almost undoubtedly be in their first team if it were not for the likes of Rooney, Radzinski, Ferguson, Campbell, Jeffers and now McFadden. He would be desperate for first team football and more importantly goals were he to come on loan, but I think we would stand a decent chance of getting him permanently for a reasonable fee (less than Hulse wnet for, for example). Add to that the fact he is not on huge wages at Goodison, and he could well be the answer........

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what a refreshing change to read such a upbeat and well argued message, and I do agree with you, trouble is we are not in charge of what happens at the club, though of course collectively the fans do contribute to the money there.

What has upset me so much over the past two days is the dismissal of our hopes and dreams - how do they know we couldn''t raise some money, various sums per head have been put forward, and if it were not the whole amount it would help.

I am perfectly willing to put in £200 if it would secure Huckerby for the club - as you say we have to gamble one day, and I can''t see us finding anyone else as good as him in the near future. Agreed on injuries, it happens, look how many players we have had out for whole seasons in the past, I bet no one argued that you shouldn''t sign Emblem on a three year just in case he injured himself.

I thought the club''s attitude to the fans was turning in the right direction, after all, not many sets of fans would put up with some of the stuff we have in the past ten years, but no, we are merely dismissed and patronised and accused of inciting false hopes in other fans

Tell me if you will, what is football without hope

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Strange isn''t it? I seem to remember feeling like this when both O''Neil, Rioch and Walker were at the helm. I don''t want to be over dramatic (but I''m gonna be), but we have always chickened out of this situation and until someone grabs the club by the balls, we always will do. Gambling on one player (whoever that might be) might just be the difference we need. The Scum did it with Stewart and it worked. All we need to make sure of is that we don''t then follow suit and p*ss loads of money away on highly paid, unproven foreign players. We CAN keep the club''s stability but make the odd gamble. What''s wrong with that? Buying one good player doesn''t mean we have to buy seven!
Let''s just hope that we are in the top four at Christmas and the board are left with no choice....

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It won''t happen. We have a wise and sensible board at Norwich City. They have steered the club admirably through the dark times of football and cleared up the mess left by Mr. Chase comendably. However, not wanting to sound too damning, they lack ambition. Obviously they would love to be in the Premier League, who associated with Norwich wouldn''t? However, they will not carry out any action that will bring us a step closer to the hallowed land if it jeapordises, even slightly, the carefully balanced financial books.

But, you''ve got to ask yourself. Would you prefer the sensible, reliable board we have now, or or an ambitious, risk taking board who would either guide us to success, or guide us to financial ruin?

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also - just because you buy a Huckerby doesn''t mean that he suddenly becomes valueless!! lets say we buy him for 1.5 million (everyone pays in installments anyway) pay him 400,000 in additional wages and he scores 15 goals and we go up no problem. If we miss out we can make the decision to keep him or sell him on. Based on his performances to date there will be a market for a player like him in the summer. If we let him go back to Man City and we have to sign another loanee to replace him we are on the hook for the new player''s wages anyway so potentially our only exposure is the interest for six months on whatever amount we initially send Man City (worst case is a career ending injury but that is why god invented insurance companies). Sometimes you do have to spend money to make money! and if we are never going to take any risks then barring divine intervention we will be no better than an average Division One side for an awfully long time.

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This is probably the best opportunity (Cardiff apart) that we have had since relegation. I agree with the King that if this club had the balls it is almost there for the taking. Its possible that West Ham could walk away with this division, but already it looks pretty even at the top.

The big issue is wages. If this club have genuine ambition the transfer fee should not be an issue. As I have said before, if we spend £2/3m on Huck by borrowing, what will the guy be worth if at the end of the season we have missed out? Probably exactly the same- he is a known quantity and there is enough money both in the first division and the Prem for him to find a home pretty darn easily. So, if we buy and get promoted we''re all in whoppee land. If it fails we have a quality player who will not have depreciated, and we repay that loan.

So its down to wages for me. Has NW blown the savings by bringing in three expensive imports or is there enough in the kitty? Unlike some I do not want to see big Iwan go, I thimk he still has a role even though he may not make the starting line up (for example of how strikers can be hugely successful from the bench look no further than Sheringham and Solksjaer when Cole and Yorke were the Man U regulars). Savings should come from those who are genuine make weights rather than City legends-in-waiting.

December, when the loan ends, will be one of those rare moments that come along every so often- the chance to say "we tried our best and it failed" or "we didn''t have the courage, here we go to Walsall and Rotherham again". The last time was after we lost to Inter away- we had the chance to build on that fantastic spirit and team and the directors blew it big time.

We always take the safe option and have remained largely in mid table oblivion. I believe the risk is low (see above) and it is one we should take.

And remember, nobody is advocating doing a Leeds or Ipswich. We''re talking one single solitary player.

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I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed in both Cold Light of Day and the responses but aren''t we missing something? Of course I would be happy to stump up some cash to keep Huckerby at NCFC but does Darren Huckerby actually want to stay? What''s in it for him? A cut in wages, the delights of sleepy Norfolk as opposed to metropolitan Manchester and a bunch of team mates who only manage to latch on to his perfectly weighted passes into the box when he''s delivered about 13 carbon copies in the game already! I would love to think that Darren can see the delights of Norwich, both on and off the pitch and is itching to sign that permanent contract but are we deluding ourselves?

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We now have the scenario of dare we go for it? the simple answer is YES! Huckerby and co have the ability to get us to the Premiership, I can`t remember such a buzz around the NCFC fan base for years, we are onto a winner with Huckerby, he is electrifying with his dazzling runs and ball control, he takes defenders away leaving others with scoring chances ( just ask Iwan) he isnt even selfish with the ball, making some great passes. One hears the likes of Roy Blowers blowing our dreams straight out of the water saying things like "Putting all Our eggs In One Basket" Thank God all the teams with an ounze of ambition dont all think like him otherwise no team would dare buy a top notch player, and has he never heard of INSURANCE? And this speculate to accumilate springs to mind doesn`t it... Come on lets do all thats necessary to make him a permanent City player, thats Norwich City of course, because if he does not any longer figure in K Keagans plans...Just watch him statched up by another club as was Hulse, Connolly etc.

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fanforlife! great buz, great enthusiasm wonderful attributes for any one;I''ll give you that. What are the realities when we look at the bungling defence and the inability for them to awaken at the start of a match. We have had some real good additions to the team. The difference is that the new lads are keen and show it. The problem is that the defence has a lack of organisation and no midfield General who intelligently reads the game and has the hardness to see that those around him are keeping their shape so that a strategy exists to make sure that defence turns into attack at a pace. Malkie just manages to get there when as a spectator when the danger is obvious two moves before. There is not enough movement and bite in midfield when there is a battle to be fought, we respond rather than initiate and dominate the games. Once we are showing that effort and committment that is needed to win promotion at the heart of defence. Then we can invest in a team that really has the committment to a period in the premiership. As would any good businessman who has the faith in a work force who regularly puts in the effort to produce a top class product; in this case football. Huckerby and co do''nt need motivation or coaching, Mr Worthy''s words! What about the others; when the consistancy of effort is there then we can make the investment, progress is the stuff of effort ,not dreams!!

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Calm down! ...I gotta feeling,Hucks is gonna play a blinder away at Cardiff ,the fans will demand we get him,then although other clubs try to steal him,2 un named prem and WBA,Wigan,with his agent advising him to take one of these and going on a radio programme,stating hucks association with Norwich is finished,Hucks himself will get angry,drive to Manchester demand a deal is done with Norwich,take a wage cut,by half,and become ours on Boxing Day,that''s my prediction anyway,along with in the future we have a superb board that supports the manager and a new invention which lets you have over 5 ,000 songs on it,the size of a matchbox!

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Trawling up a thread nearly ten years old...........some people need to get out more. [:$]

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[quote user="TIL 1010"]Trawling up a thread nearly ten years old...........some people need to get out more. [:$][/quote] Oh the irony, how many posts have you made on here? Lol

I noticed the posters don''t seem to be on here anymore? And is this when the pink un forum first started?

 

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