Let's Not Fudge the Earnshaw Issue

[Ulf Ottosson 0]

For next season  the board/the manager need to make a decision re Earnie either :

1) We sell him, get the money, halve the wage bill and buy some decent players mainly defenders

or

2) We geta definite guarantee from earnie that he''ll be part of our rebuidling program for say two seasons in return for a new contract at the end of next year.

What we must not do any circumstances is re-run the Ashton saga i.e. Make a big deal about how he''s going to stay give him a whopping new contract, only then to sell him when the going get''s tough. The new contract swallows half the transfer budget meaning Grant is moved from his A List of Transfer targets to the bargain basement.

If you pushed me i''d say sell and rebuild the entire defence putting Huckerby put upfront and hoping that he''ll give us a super season pushing towards the play offs 

[Time to go Delia 0]

Huckerby wont get you half the goals Earnshaw will , if we have any ambition to go up Earnie must stay , unless he wants to leave then let him go . Anyway if he is sold do you really believe Grant will get the money to spend on new players ? very unlikely .

[lucky green trainers 0]

if selling earnie means we can get the players in to create a mean defence and strong centre midfield - then we should do it.  scoring isn''t the problem, its stopping the goals.

[USAcanary 0]

[quote user="lucky green trainers"]if selling earnie means we can get the players in to create a mean defence and strong centre midfield - then we should do it.  scoring isn''t the problem, its stopping the goals.


[/quote]

100% agree, just look at the goal difference the last few years, its frankly shocking.

[Syteanric 1]

[quote user="Ulf Ottosson"]

For next season  the board/the manager need to make a decision re Earnie either :

1) We sell him, get the money, halve the wage bill and buy some decent players mainly defenders

or

2) We geta definite guarantee from earnie that he''ll be part of our rebuidling program for say two seasons in return for a new contract at the end of next year.

What we must not do any circumstances is re-run the Ashton saga i.e. Make a big deal about how he''s going to stay give him a whopping new contract, only then to sell him when the going get''s tough. The new contract swallows half the transfer budget meaning Grant is moved from his A List of Transfer targets to the bargain basement.

If you pushed me i''d say sell and rebuild the entire defence putting Huckerby put upfront and hoping that he''ll give us a super season pushing towards the play offs 

[/quote]

Dean Ashton signed a new contract... and left 5 months later.... If Earnie signs one it wont mean diddly squat

jas :)

[Taxing 0]

[quote user="ncfc1"]Huckerby wont get you half the goals Earnshaw will , if we have any ambition to go up Earnie must stay , unless he wants to leave then let him go . Anyway if he is sold do you really believe Grant will get the money to spend on new players ? very unlikely .[/quote]

 

Spot on NCFC1, the only change I would make to your post would be to change  "very unlikely"  to  "of course not".

[Truthseeker 0]

Adam Aiken wrote in the EDP recently that Norwich shouldn''t sell Earnshaw for less than £10m. If that ridiculous idea is shared by NCISA, will there be all kinds of calls for street protests and demos if he is sold for less?

[Cantiaci Canary 557]

No I can''t agree with any of this ''sell Earny for the good of the squad'' stuff.

Earnshaw is the only legacy we have of the benefits drawn from winning promotion to the Premiership (Ashton bought with our cash and Earny came with Deano''s money when he became an EastEnder).

If we sell Earnshaw and split up that cash to bring in a number of players then we truly must hold up our hands and say we really have reverted fully back to being a lower middle table second tier football club and forget all hopes of being a playoff challenger.

The only thing which makes us better than that is that we own one of the best strikers in Britain outside the Premier League. 

[mbncfc 1]

[quote user="Konstantin Pobedonostsev"]

No I can''t agree with any of this ''sell Earny for the good of the squad'' stuff.

Earnshaw is the only legacy we have of the benefits drawn from winning promotion to the Premiership (Ashton bought with our cash and Earny came with Deano''s money when he became an EastEnder).

If we sell Earnshaw and split up that cash to bring in a number of players then we truly must hold up our hands and say we really have reverted fully back to being a lower middle table second tier football club and forget all hopes of being a playoff challenger.

The only thing which makes us better than that is that we own one of the best strikers in Britain outside the Premier League. 

[/quote]

I see your point, but I''m afraid the truth is we''re already there. Our two seasons after relegation prove it. The question is what course of action will be in the best interests of becoming a challenger again in the future...

[megson 0]

Tough one this.

We do have a cracking strike force with Earnie here, but is that enough if we are leaking goals at the back?

Whats better, needing to score 3 a game to win, or being tight enough at the back to win games 1-0?

I know what''s more exciting, but what will give the better chance of success?

For me, its the defence that gets you up. Make yourselves hard to beat, then go from there. If teams struggle to score agaisnt you, struggle to beat you then confidence comes from that and its easier to string results together.

Be free scoring but vulnverable and you''ll forever be losing 1 winning 1, no real run of form, and probalby less confidence throughout the team.

[nutty nigel 7,535]

[quote user="Konstantin Pobedonostsev"]

No I can''t agree with any of this ''sell Earny for the good of the squad'' stuff.

Earnshaw is the only legacy we have of the benefits drawn from winning promotion to the Premiership (Ashton bought with our cash and Earny came with Deano''s money when he became an EastEnder).

If we sell Earnshaw and split up that cash to bring in a number of players then we truly must hold up our hands and say we really have reverted fully back to being a lower middle table second tier football club and forget all hopes of being a playoff challenger.

The only thing which makes us better than that is that we own one of the best strikers in Britain outside the Premier League. 

[/quote]

I agree totally KP!

Earnshaw and Huckerby are the match winners who, with the right players around them, can put us above the Colchesters of this league and give us a chance of challenging for promotion.

The other point, which is not so important to some on here, is that these players get the fans off their seats and make going to games so much more enjoyable. The chances are, like it or not, we will be mid-table again next season and I would rather still have these two players here than four or five average ones.

 

[Cluck 0]

Earnshaw will move on and we''ll get no more than £4 mill.  Take away from that the various "deductables" and it will be as if he was never here financially.

Good luck to him where ever he goes though...as he was prepared to come to Norfolk in the first place and might just have stayed if the club had shown any semblance of ambition.

[Mark Barham Appreciation Society 0]

In Robert Earnshaw we have a proven goal-scorer at Championship level (and his record wasn''t so bad in the Premiership - he just didn''t feature in Bryan Robson''s plans).  Any team with any ambition needs a 20 goal a season striker.  I don''t see any of our other current squad members scoring anything like that many.  We have high hopes for Chris Martin, but it''s still early days for him.  Chris Brown - not a great start and now more time out than he''s been on the pitch.  Peter Thorne - couldn''t score in a brothel ...

I don''t think selling Earnie and watering our squad down with one or two cheaper players is a step forward.  What''s to stop us ending up with another Neil Emblem/Peter Thorne - players who for whatever reason just never cut it.  Is it really worth gambling with the £4M, which is realistically what we''d get for Earnshaw ?

To progress we need quality players.  Players like Robert Earnshaw (and Darren Huckerby).  I, as well as everyone else, can see that our defence needs shoring up.  I just don''t see that selling what quality we have is the answer ...

 

[Tumbleweed 106]

I''m hoping the question will prove to be rhetorical. If the Board are serious about promotion then we must keep hold of Earnshaw AND spend serious money in the summer to bolster the defence. Earnshaw''s goals could easily be the difference between promotion and stagnation, the problem now is the defence- it has been so for a couple of years and that needs to be fixed but not at the expense of hampering any other part of the side.

[Pyro Pete 1,897]

It''s more of an issue of whether Earnshaw wants to stay or not. After that, it is whether the club feel the transfer fee offered is acceptable.If Earnie is sold, just hope it doesn''t happen on the last day of the transfer window, because then we would be truly screwed!

[charlies dad 0]

Or the board will do the usual thing, sell him, buy a couple of cheap tossers and bank the lions share of the transfer fee for use in other projects. If we sell Earnshaw we will be weaker - historical fact.

[Syteanric 1]

[quote user="charlies dad"]Or the board will do the usual thing, sell him, buy a couple of cheap tossers and bank the lions share of the transfer fee for use in other projects. If we sell Earnshaw we will be weaker - historical fact.[/quote]

the club were quoted in the Evening news i think it was as saying "we are now concentrating all our efforts into off the field activities" so thats Earnie sold to build a video board.. a video board will of course score 20 goals a season and take us up.....

Jas :)

[Mello Yello 2,293]

Keep Earnshaw.........sell his "Hummer".[au]

[FilletTheFishWife . 0]

if anyone here thinks the board would reinvest the receipts from selling Earnshaw back into the playing squad they obviously haven''t learnt much from the last 3 years. You''d be lucky if they spent more than 25%.

[GMF 744]

[quote user="Pyro Pete"]It''s more of an issue of whether Earnshaw wants to stay or not. After that, it is whether the club feel the transfer fee offered is acceptable.

If Earnie is sold, just hope it doesn''t happen on the last day of the transfer window, because then we would be truly screwed!

[/quote]

Spot on Pyro Pete. It''s usually the players who call the shots these days [:@]

[blahblahblah 2]

Pyro Pete has said everything I wanted to - except :MMMMMMMMMMMM - Fudge.