So Long Earnie and thanks for all the squit!

[Lucky 0]

Its been so long since I''ve been on here that I have forgotten my username and password but having read the vitriol that has been spouted on here I feel hat there are a few points that have been forgotten which need to be raised.

1. Earnie stated quite openly in his close of Season interview that he was happy at Norwich and unless the club sold him he would not be looking for a transfer.
   
2. The release clause in his contract was "confidential" and was agreed when Norwich were forced into a panic buy on the last day of the transer window in an environment where there was only one club with silly money available to buy players and the new TV money in the premiership had not been negotiated. Unlike Matty Svensson, Earnie did not make the clause public.
   
3. The cause itself was reasonable - it was only triggered if we were not promoted in 2005 or 2006 and represented a 40% increase on the base price paid for a premiership fringe player to a mid table championship club. It is not Earnie''s fault that we were not promoted.
   
4. If Earnie (and other key players) had remained injury free in 2007 we could have been in a position where the clause was not triggered - that is down to luck rather than judgement. Injuries of players like Chadwick are not the responsibility of the board.
   
5. If we had not signed Earnie on that day we would have been playing Division 1 football last season as there were no alternatives available and we would have had to rely on McKenzie to act as key striker.
   
6. Earnie has kept his side of the bargain by consistently scoring goals and the club has shown ambition because of the attempts to sign other players. It is fairly clear from the lack of press commentary that he did not request any move and Derby made the first move.
   
7. How Derby decided on £3.5m will never be known but from what has been reported the board are obliged to advise the player if the clause is triggered and then it is up to the player to decide his next course of action. In this instance Earnie decided to talk to the club and decided to join them.
   
8. The club have been pro-active in seeking a replacement albeit with a volunteer who would die for the club, but there will be other real transfers to back this up - the work done in creating a first class stadium on the existing ground is securitised and will not absorb transfer funds - this is a credit to the board.
   

In amongst all of this we have forgotten that for the time he was here Earnshaw was a valuable servant and matchwinner on several occasions - there were no "scans to prove injury" but a desire to get back in the team as quickly as possible - lets not be cynical and say that it was to get himself in the shop window more that as a professional he was prepared to do his job and work for the club. I believe that if there had been no trigger of the clause then Earnie would happily have stayed and led the line for another season so ultimately we should just accept his departure as a business issue and thank him for his efforts which (even though I would have preferred an improved shots to goals ratio!) have been one of the joys of the past two seasons - the business is now moving on and if half of the rumours currently circulating are true will be one of the forces to be reckoned with in 2007/8.

And, for Smudger/Stirrer and your band of two I speak here as a 30 year fan, Season Ticket Holder, Shareholder and mug who has spent the past few seasons driving 100 miles to just to watch my club play at home games and mourn the results on the dreary journey home - but I will be back next season because I love the club first and foremost.

OTBC