Another deadline day disappointment?

[chicken 0]

[quote user="ronbol ronbol"][quote user="Attack Barclay 2nd Half"][quote user="ronbol ronbol"]

well shall we just give up trying to sign players then, you have used every excuse under the sun.
other clubs manage so should we. do not except failure under any circumstances.
[/quote]

There is a difference between excuses and reasons and at no point in my post did I suggest "give up trying to sign players". Again if you read my post you''ll see that I am defending the extraordinary efforts of everyone at the club who try to exactly that.

Maybe the members of THIS board should raise a few hundred thousand and find a player - see how many future superstars you manage to bring in and keep happy over the next 12 months

So easy to slag people off when you have no idea whatsoever at the amount of work being done.

Naive in the extreme.
[/quote]

and exactly how do you know the amount of work being done?
exactly you don''t and you are not in a position to say.
To say extraordinary efforts is  absolute rubbish, or if you mean selling mckenzie without securing a replacement is the total sum of there efforts.
The only person being naive on this board is you for believing the PR spin that is dished out on a daily basis.
Failure is not an option. or in your case maybe it is!

SACK GRANT NOW

[/quote]

The problem I have with this post Ronbol is its utter hypocracy. For ages now several posters on here feel that it is ok to ASSUME that there is no work going into possible signings and that most of them are almost spontaneous, pulled out of a hat or in some cases happen to drop out of the sky.

You then question someone elses assumption that it takes a lot of work. I would imagine that in some cases it is as simple as one or two phonecalls initialy if the club in question is willing to sell the player but it is never as easy as that. Rumours may well be only rumours but quite often there is something behind them. Pearson is a good example, in mid to late December Celtic supposedly rejected a bid of around £600k from us for him.

Now I will do a bit of assumption but I am not going to claim this to be right or correct but simply by using normal common sense to deter a possible course of action. Firstly in my books if Grant is keen on the lad and he is not in the first team picture at Celtic he would have attempted to get him in on loan ala Chadwick. It seems likely that this was turned down on first request, its then possible that contact was maintained regarding his availability and could possibly have been hinted in December that Celtic would be listening to offers in January.

[Cheeky Monkey 0]

All this speculation and assumptioning is all good fun. But we still fail to sign anyone. I will keep tight lipped until the end of January. But by then it will probably be too late (again).

I have''nt had the usual reply from Neil D, 2 days after I sent him a scathing (but in a jolly way) email. Perhaps he''s giving Riordan, Pearson, Campbell-Ryce and Zamora tours of Colney as I type.

However, I still think that ''Attack Barclay'' is a blog marketing consultant employed by the club to feed us more PR spin.

They should spend the money on players instead ;)

 

[Mello Yello 2,281]

[quote user="Cheeky Monkey"]

All this speculation and assumptioning is all good fun. But we still fail to sign anyone. I will keep tight lipped until the end of January. But by then it will probably be too late (again).

I have''nt had the usual reply from Neil D, 2 days after I sent him a scathing (but in a jolly way) email. Perhaps he''s giving Riordan, Pearson, Campbell-Ryce and Zamora tours of Colney as I type.

However, I still think that ''Attack Barclay'' is a blog marketing consultant employed by the club to feed us more PR spin.

They should spend the money on players instead ;)

 

[/quote]

"Attack Barclay" a blog marketing consultant employed by the club to feed us more PR spin!"

Cheeky Monkey, I think that you''ve hit the ''NEIL'' on the head........ ;~)

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote user="Attack Barclay 2nd Half"]

And no, I am not Neil Doncaster. Another ''assumption''
[/quote]

Are you Mad Dan/Ralph Wright in "disguise?

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote user="Attack Barclay 2nd Half"]

Look at the lengths that they went to to sign Primus. Cotterill. Howard, and many many more that didn''t happen IN SPITE of the hours and hours of work, the hundreds of miles travelled.

Ever bought a house? Same thing, a chain develops. Its very rare an approach for a player is as simplistic as you would like. Everybody wants to cover their behinds before pen is put to paper, fail to do that and you find yourself starting a season in the Premiership without striker and a centre half...... Sound familiar?

So you cant have it both ways......


[/quote]

No one can doubt the effort that went into signing Cotterill, at the end of the day he simply chose to join in a higher league. There is nothing the club could have done.

I feel I have to address the "hours and hours or work" the "hundreds of miles travelled" in trying to sign Steve Howard and I think your buying a house metaphor fits well. If my wife tells me she wants a 5 bedroom house and sends me off to buy one, I could visit every estate agent in the country putting in hours of work and travelling countless miles identifying every 5 bedroom house in Britain . However, if am not prepared to meet, or even get close to asking price then I am wasting my time and that what happened with Howard. Munby admitted we could have afforded the fee but Worthington said we were a long way off meeting it. The club may have put a lot of "hours" into the transfer of Howard but at the end of the day they just weren''t prepared to pay the going rate and then you miss out.

What did they spend "hours and hours" doing to sign Howard though? Ring Luton ad nausea saying "please sell us Howard on the cheap, please sell us Howard on the cheap........"

Howard has now scored 11 goals for Derby and set up a few as well. Derby are 2nd we are 17th. It''s been obvious to anyone watching this season and last that we needed this sort of player to partner Earnshaw. The player was available for sale but we failed to even get him here for talks because we didn''t want to pay the asking price as the board felt hewas not worth that much. Basically they were not happy at another club trying to push the price up, something we are happy to do as the seller. Contract extension for Ashton anyone?.

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote user="Cheeky Monkey"]

However, I still think that ''Attack Barclay'' is a blog marketing consultant employed by the club to feed us more PR spin.

They should spend the money on players instead ;)

 

[/quote]

Marketing is very important, how else would you get 20,000+ people wearing yellow t-shirts?

[Chunky Canary 0]

Marketing is very important, how else would you get 20,000+ people wearing yellow t-shirts?

Yes Cheeky Monkey, but will they all be wearing them next season?

[jetstream 0]

Attack Barclay 2nd Half wrote:

Ever bought a house? Same thing, a chain develops. Its very rare an approach for a player is as simplistic as you would like. Everybody wants to cover their behinds before pen is put to paper, fail to do that and you find yourself starting a season in the Premiership without striker and a centre half...... Sound familiar?

From NCFC Official messageboard:

Re: What date in window will Grant move to his B list?

Joe Ferrari @ 05-JAN-07 05:47 PM

Hello,

I''m not at liberty to divulge Peter''s plans regarding the transfer window - all I can do is echo what he has already said to the media, which is that we have made a number of enquiries about a number of players.

This process is on-going and in many cases clubs will not consider releasing certain players until they have found a replacement - similar to the house-buying chains some of us are all too familiar with!

As and when there is any concrete news to give you, we will.

Thanks,

Joe

 

Spooky! That ''house-buying'' analogy is certainly doing the rounds.....

 

 

[Cheeky Monkey 0]

I''ve purchased four houses in my time. I tend to go into an Estate Agent make an offer below what its worth. They phone back within 10 minutes and say no. I phone back and make another offer. They phone back 5 mins later and say no. So cunning as a fox, I wait at least 30 mins and make my final offer. The one that I know is reasonable for the house I want to buy and they have said ''yes''.

4-8 weeks later I move in.

So Joe F, why haven''t we signed anyone again?

[Cluck 0]

[quote user="Cheeky Monkey"]I''ve purchased four houses in my time. I tend to go into an Estate Agent make an offer below what its worth. They phone back within 10 minutes and say no. I phone back and make another offer. They phone back 5 mins later and say no. So cunning as a fox, I wait at least 30 mins and make my final offer. The one that I know is reasonable for the house I want to buy and they have said ''yes''. 4-8 weeks later I move in. So Joe F, why haven''t we signed anyone again?[/quote]

I like this one........[Y]

[Chip20 69]

[quote user="Cheeky Monkey"]I''ve purchased four houses in my time. I tend to go into an Estate Agent make an offer below what its worth. They phone back within 10 minutes and say no. I phone back and make another offer. They phone back 5 mins later and say no. So cunning as a fox, I wait at least 30 mins and make my final offer. The one that I know is reasonable for the house I want to buy and they have said ''yes''. 4-8 weeks later I move in. So Joe F, why haven''t we signed anyone again?[/quote]

Because when you buy a house, when you buy a house you only have to agree terms and conditions with the vendor, not the merchandise as well. You don''t have to convince the property to relocate its family, that it will be good for its career, that it can be guaranteed to be your perferred accommodation (rather than being a substitute abode), that you can offer it the income equal to or higher than it''s become accustomed to, and that it will be allowed to move on if ti doesn''t become a Band F Des Res by this time next year or a preferred buyer shows up in the summer. It''s not just down to agreeing a fee with the seller. Somebody already posted above at least half a dozen reasons why a player might not sign for us over other clubs.

[chicken 0]

[quote user="Cheeky Monkey"]I''ve purchased four houses in my time. I tend to go into an Estate Agent make an offer below what its worth. They phone back within 10 minutes and say no. I phone back and make another offer. They phone back 5 mins later and say no. So cunning as a fox, I wait at least 30 mins and make my final offer. The one that I know is reasonable for the house I want to buy and they have said ''yes''. 4-8 weeks later I move in. So Joe F, why haven''t we signed anyone again?[/quote]

Ok. Step one - in football there are the players that have been transfer listed these would be the ones that are in the estate agents window and would therefore apply to your rule of buying a house. However when you get this house and are able to move into it does depend on if and when the current owners are able to move out of it and surrender ownership.

Then there is the seccond way which in property terms is like going up to a house that you rather like, knock on the door and ask whether they would like to sell it to you. The problem with this is that should the occupants decide that a change would be nice and they are willing to sell at the right price they would need time to find a new home to move into - could you perhaps wait a week or two at least before contacting them again.

In otherwords by buying from an estate agent you are buying into a chain, by making an out of the blue offer for a house not on the market you are effectively STARTING a chain. In that sence there can be far more work and time envolved for clubs in the seccond option than in the first. And ofcourse the first option is not guaranteed to get you the best property as in some cases there is a reason behind the house being sold such as the elderly owner has died and the property needs extencive renovation before it is fit for modern occupation.

Thats the bit of me that used to be an estate agent - sorry!

[Cheeky Monkey 0]

However, if I was to purchase a house of somebody who had a couple of houses spare, it should be fairly easy?

Basically what you are all saying is that no one wants to come to the House of Norwich City because it''s in a rubbish location, and has been managed poorly over the last few years and is near derelict.

 

 

[jetstream 0]

I think if the last three posts go to prove anything it''s that the whole ''house-moving'' analogy is a pretty crap one!

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote user="Lincoln Canary"]

It''s not just down to agreeing a fee with the seller. Somebody already posted above at least half a dozen reasons why a player might not sign for us over other clubs.

[/quote]

Be fair Lincoln, in the last 3 season''s I can only recall Morrison and Cotteril choosing to go elsewhere after a fee was agreed.  The issue is not players choosing another club, the issue is that we fail to speak to them in thr first place because we don''t agree a fee.  Howard is the prime example, we would not meet the price as £1m was deemed to be more than his worth.  However the club quite happily handed over £500k to the tax man after making profit.  Technically Steve Howard could only have cost £500k because we would have saved giving that amount away to tax man.

If a player chooses another club that''s fine, you can''t blame the board for that but we hardly ever get find out if they choose another club because they are not even getting a choice to make.

[Branston Pickle 3,638]

[quote user="CambridgeCanary"]

I do sometimes feel that posters here regard transfers as a step up from swapping Pannini stickers in the playground.  "I''ll give you £750,000 for Pearson...Ok, we''ll send him round tomorrow and you put a cheque in the post".  .

[/quote]

Damn.  That is another illusion shattered!! 

You are dead right - some people think it is as simple as just ringing up a club with an offer and the player turning up the next day.  I guess at times it might not be so far from that - if someone is surplus, wants the move or whatever - but those occasions are surely hugely outnumbered.  

The vast majority of the time it must be far from simple for a whole myriad of reasons...for starters there is agreeing the fee and possibly waiting while a replacement is found, then there is player''s side of things: when you and I go for a job it is usually because we have applied for it, having weighed up where it is, the offer, and how it will affect life.  It is not often a case of the job ''seeking'' us. 

I live in Surrey and if someone rang me out of the blue tomorrow and offered me a job in, say, Manchester or Liverpool - even on much higher wages - I would take a fair bit of persuading to even go and look at it, let alone take it, believe me.  And that is without even thinking about my wife, children, friends and so on. 

Footballers are usually more ''mobile'' than most, but it is not too surprising that it can sometimes take a while to weigh things up and sort things out.  The Pearson transfer seems like a good example - Derby supposedly agreed a fee with Celtic on Saturday and he apparently watched their game - but he hasn''t signed for them yet and it is 4 days later.  It is something that Worthy, for all his faults, did get right - he said that these things can take time to get the right man.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

[quote user="Saint Canary"][quote user="Lincoln Canary"]

It''s not just down to agreeing a fee with the seller. Somebody already posted above at least half a dozen reasons why a player might not sign for us over other clubs.

[/quote]

Be fair Lincoln, in the last 3 season''s I can only recall Morrison and Cotteril choosing to go elsewhere after a fee was agreed.  The issue is not players choosing another club, the issue is that we fail to speak to them in thr first place because we don''t agree a fee.  Howard is the prime example, we would not meet the price as £1m was deemed to be more than his worth.  However the club quite happily handed over £500k to the tax man after making profit.  Technically Steve Howard could only have cost £500k because we would have saved giving that amount away to tax man.

If a player chooses another club that''s fine, you can''t blame the board for that but we hardly ever get find out if they choose another club because they are not even getting a choice to make.

[/quote]

Not strictly true Saint cuz I understood the accounts were up to May 2006 and it would have been after that we signed Howard. But in principal I agree with what you say. The Tim Howard thing really annoyed me but I can see both sides and it maybe that if we had got Howard we wouldn''t have Dublin. So we maybe got away with it! However, we didn''t get away with missing out on Ashton in August 2004!

 

[Dicky 0]

[quote user="Saint Canary"][quote user="Lincoln Canary"]

[/quote]

  However the club quite happily handed over £500k to the tax man after making profit.  Technically Steve Howard could only have cost £500k because we would have saved giving that amount away to tax man.

[/quote]

Take it you''re not an accountant then Saint....  If only it was that simple.

[SuperCity 0]

Is it just me?  Im getting really dispondant, and downright fed up with having no sniff of decent players joining our club.  Maybe, when we are at our next home match we will get a nice suprise of the signing of two new players being announced............oh...sorry was I dreaming again [:D]

[Cheeky Monkey 0]

[quote user="SuperCity"]Is it just me?  Im getting really dispondant, and downright fed up [/quote]

Nope it''s definately not just you!

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote user="Dicky"][quote user="Saint Canary"][quote user="Lincoln Canary"]

[/quote]

  However the club quite happily handed over £500k to the tax man after making profit.  Technically Steve Howard could only have cost £500k because we would have saved giving that amount away to tax man.

[/quote]

Take it you''re not an accountant then Saint....  If only it was that simple.

[/quote]

Of course that is a highly over simplistic view Dicky.  The main crux of my argument though, still remains - it may be hard to get players to come here but we are not even giving ourselves a chance to convince them, even though we can afford the price being asked.  It''s a bit hypocritical of board to cry about over inflated prices when they were quite happy to jack the price up for Ashton.

[allways travelling 0]

Does look like the A list has come and gone.The B list looking frustrating either not offering enough or wages beyond us.Looks like the C list is left div one and two players left to sieve through i know i am guessing but have a feeling i am not far wrong please i hope i am.

[Cluck 0]

[quote user="Saint Canary"][quote user="Dicky"][quote user="Saint Canary"][quote user="Lincoln Canary"]

[/quote]

  However the club quite happily handed over £500k to the tax man after making profit.  Technically Steve Howard could only have cost £500k because we would have saved giving that amount away to tax man.

[/quote]

Take it you''re not an accountant then Saint....  If only it was that simple.

[/quote]

Of course that is a highly over simplistic view Dicky.  The main crux of my argument though, still remains - it may be hard to get players to come here but we are not even giving ourselves a chance to convince them, even though we can afford the price being asked.  It''s a bit hypocritical of board to cry about over inflated prices when they were quite happy to jack the price up for Ashton.

[/quote]

So true it''s painful.............[Y]