Summer signings and promotion...

[Matt Morriss 69]

Our signings to date... I cant remember the last time i was more optimisic and positive about the players weve bought in. Look at the last 3 seasons, and i may make an error or two here as my memory is going, but last year we bought 1 player, Lee Croft. The year before wasnt it Jason Jarrett, Carl Robinson, Andy Hughes and Peter Thorne? Something like that. Even in the Premiership season we bought Helveg, Jonson, Graham Stuart and Simon Charlton, the only good one was Bentley, and he was on loan. Scattered in between were Cashton and Earnmore. They turned out to be

good investments didnt they, one season out of each. Yes we got a

profit from the sale of Ashton and he and Earnie got us goals but what

has this achieved in the long run? Both are history, neither will exactly be remembered as Norwich heroes and we spent in excess of £10m. Ashtons goals didnt keep us up and Earnshaw missed half the season with injury. Brilliant. In hindsight I believe our money could have been better spent, on 6 low key signings that will improve the team as a whole rather than one top player perhaps???With the exception of Ashton and Earnshaw we havent brought in anyone of any real class since Holt, Francis, Huckerby, McKenzie and Svensson. Those guys all came at the same time and made a massive difference to our squad and results that year. If my memory serves me correct we walked the league.Now, the guys we have brought in bare a striking resemblance to the aforementioned league winners in my opinion. Especially in the case of Brellier, Strihavka and Cureton. Not to mention defensive reinforcements in David Marshall and Jon Otsemebor.Now while none of the players we have bought are world class, they are most definitely Championship class, and i dont care what anyone says, we know about Cureton, Championship top scorer for gods sake, so in my books have we not bought the leagues best striker? Marshall weve seen, he''ll be immense. Brellier has done the business in Scotland, and was part of the Hearts team that won the cup and challenged Celtic and Rangers. Now if he can perform and perform well against Celtic and Rangers there is no reason why he wont do the same for us. Is anyone about to tell me Celtic, Rangers or Hearts wouldnt finish in the top 6 in the Championship? Cause I for one dont see an awful lot of quality in this league. Where did Gary Holt come from? Kilmarnock wasnt it? Nobody had ever heard of him and no doubt they were all saying much the same that were hearing now from the nay sayers about Brellier. For my money Holt was even less of a decent signing on paper back then and look how that worked out. Holt wasnt the greatest player but he was most definitely one thing, a jigsaw filler, a neccessary part of the Norwich City puzzle and there''s no question about his worth to the team and the impact and influence his ability had on our success in this league. We havent looked as solid defensively since he left, purely because weve never replaced him. Until now, as Brellier looks the same kind of player and i believe he will have a similar impact on our results that Holt had.David Strihavka appears to come with a very high pedigree. Ive read that Czech fans see him as not only Jan Kollers eventual replacement at international level but a viable alternative in the here and now. Top scorer in his league last season. And while he may not be a Dean Ashton, he is what is needed, another part of the puzzle, big strong quick, perfect partner for Cureton, and to be the end product to Huckerby''s creativeness and hopefully Croft and Chadwicks upcoming war of the right wingers.Then we have Semmy, best right back outside the Championship. Same thing was said about Drury. Nuff said.So...the point is, while we may not have broken the bank and signed world class players, and lets face it, who in there right mind thinks we have the resources to do this? We have bought the neccessary quality and type of player to make Norwich City a TEAM, and a team to win football matches at that. We tried the all eggs in one basket spend all our money on one top player approach with Earnie and Ashton. Where did that get us? We got relegated and have done nothing since.I am literally stunned by the negativity still surrounding some of your thoughts, judging by some of the posts recently. If you cant see that the team has improved from last season with the players we have brought in then you just dont know your football....Does anyone honestly believe that Marshall, Brellier, Strihavka and Cureton are bad signings? All you nay sayers, do you really not think that these players will be a hit this season? If you dont then ill say it again, you really dont know your football. Finally, as long as Etuhu and Safri stay, and if Saf does go we will need an adequate replacement, these issue''s aside i believe we have the team and squad to at least finish in the top 6 this season. Last year we proved we had the team to beat anyone in the league, inconsistency and injuries meant we achieved nothing. We now have the competition for places and strong squad to gain promotion, be it playoffs or top two. I believe either is a real possibility. One last thing, the new forward line of Dave Striker and Jamie Cureton, along with Julien Brellier will have a massive impact on our ability to defend as a team. Earnie up front on his own with Hucks and Croft either side, and no out and out defensive midfielder was a recipe for disaster, and so it proved. We looked so weak at times. We will now be much stronger and will defend from the front. Our new strike force and strong spine will change the way we play. We''ll be more prolific up front and stronger defensively on the whole. The front two will keep the ball in there half longer and Brellier will ensure it stays away from our box to greater effect than last season, and should the ball ever get thru....well, hello Mr Marshall....OTBC

[Le Juge 0]

Great post, think it''s spot on.

[ron obvious 0]

Ridiculously optimistic post ......  excellent!!

I think the purchases so far look to be very astute - I doubt if better value for money could have been obtained, & , unfortunately, Norwich simply do not have the wherewithal to gamble on expensive mistakes. Of course, there is no way of knowing that this assembly will "gel"; this is where we have to trust Mr. grant''s managerial & motivational skills will be capable of making a real team of them, one where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - let''s hope he''s the new Brian Clough!

BUT, like everyone else, I do think he needs a new centre half.

[Saint Canary 0]

No offence Barclayman but it''s worth remembering that following relegation many posters were very excited about the players we signed that summer.  Jarrett was to be better than Francis, Hughes better than Holt.  Colin was going to be amazing because he came from PSV and Thorne/Louis-Jean were "proven" Championship players who would bring extra quality to the squad.  Add to that, that Marney was to be Bentley but without the ego, we were set.  It was a bright new dawn with 6 fantastic new signings, on "paper" we had a better squad than the one which had won the league and some were suggesting it was better than the Premiership squad we had.

The reality of it all is this.  Thorne and MLJ are gone after leeching vast amounts of cash from club and adding nothing in their time here.  Jarrett was away on loan to Plymouth before Xmas even came around.  He been at nearly every Championship club since then!!  Marney was sent home injured and Colin struggled to adapt.  The less said about Hughes the better.  If Colin now moves that will leave only Andy Hughes from the players we signed two summers and I think most of us are praying that the rumour regarding Leeds is true.

Don''t get me wrong, we could have signed some very good players this year.  Marshall looked good and Strihavka "sounds" good.  Cureton was last seasons top scorer in the league and Otsomober was named in the League One team of the year.  Add in Gilks who would appear to be a capable No2 and again on "paper" we are looking good.  However it is not unfair to think that maybe one or two signings may not settle well early on or may not be as good as we were hoping for.  Maybe I don''t "know my football" as well as you do but what I do know is that things do not always go according to plan.

It may well be unfair that people are not being as positive as they could be but we have seen this all before.  Let''s hope all these new players turn out to be great but lets not put them on a pedestal yet!

 

[Canary Ascent 0]

Excellent post BarclayMan. I agree totally with everything you have said. I still think we need one or two players to increase the squad size and provide some competition for Shackell and Doherty but I believe we are 99.9% there!

I wouldn''t change any of the signings we have made. I think they are exactly what we needed.

We needed a goalkeeper - we got a very good one in Marshall and a well respected back-up keeper in Gilks

We needed a right back - we got a very good one in Otsemabor (yes he is good...just give him a chance before you write him off)

We needed grit in the midfield - we got that in an abundance in Brellier

We needed a couple of Strikers - We have a very highly rated prospect in the Czech lad and the league''s top goalscorer in Cureton. I must confess Cuerton worries me slightly but he has a good record, he is determined to do well at a club where he blew his chance in the past and with the team we have he should have a lot more chances created than he did at Col U.

I am definitely looking forward to this season...

 

[USA Canary 7]

You say we spent £10M on Ashton and Earnshaw...however, we re-sold them for almost £11M.  Therefore, it''s hard to justify this as bad business.  Some clubs by players for multi-millions and re-sell them for much cheaper...resulting in huge losses.  These buys were a gamble at the time with hope of promotion, but at the end of the day did not hurt us.

[Matt Morriss 69]

[quote user="Saint Canary"]

No offence Barclayman but it''s worth remembering that following relegation many posters were very excited about the players we signed that summer.  Jarrett was to be better than Francis, Hughes better than Holt.  Colin was going to be amazing because he came from PSV and Thorne/Louis-Jean were "proven" Championship players who would bring extra quality to the squad.  Add to that, that Marney was to be Bentley but without the ego, we were set.  It was a bright new dawn with 6 fantastic new signings, on "paper" we had a better squad than the one which had won the league and some were suggesting it was better than the Premiership squad we had.

The reality of it all is this.  Thorne and MLJ are gone after leeching vast amounts of cash from club and adding nothing in their time here.  Jarrett was away on loan to Plymouth before Xmas even came around.  He been at nearly every Championship club since then!!  Marney was sent home injured and Colin struggled to adapt.  The less said about Hughes the better.  If Colin now moves that will leave only Andy Hughes from the players we signed two summers and I think most of us are praying that the rumour regarding Leeds is true.

Don''t get me wrong, we could have signed some very good players this year.  Marshall looked good and Strihavka "sounds" good.  Cureton was last seasons top scorer in the league and Otsomober was named in the League One team of the year.  Add in Gilks who would appear to be a capable No2 and again on "paper" we are looking good.  However it is not unfair to think that maybe one or two signings may not settle well early on or may not be as good as we were hoping for.  Maybe I don''t "know my football" as well as you do but what I do know is that things do not always go according to plan.

It may well be unfair that people are not being as positive as they could be but we have seen this all before.  Let''s hope all these new players turn out to be great but lets not put them on a pedestal yet!

 

[/quote]Many posters may have been very excited about previous signings. I for one was not one of them, and was not in the least bit excited about Andy Hughes, Jason Jarrett, Thorne or Louis-Jean, not once did i think there were going to be better than Holt and Francis, never liked Marney and Thorne was a donkey from the second he came to the club. They were all players other clubs didnt want and didnt fill me with any enthusiasm whatsoever.For you to compare Thorne to Cureton or Strihavka, and Jason Jarrett to Brellier or Semmy to Louis-Jean is laughable. I wasnt optimisic at all about those signings, and my initial opinions were proved correct. All 5 signings were a failure, perhaps with the exception of Hughes, who has had some good matches, albeit amongst a lot of bad. Thorne, Louis-Jean and Jarrett were a disaster from start to finish. The same will not be said of Brellier, Striker and Cureton, imo. I have enthusiasm about these players because ''i know my football''. I had none about the previous 4 because ''i know my football''.

[Salopian 1]

I agree with everything. I would only repeat what many people have been saying, - that we still look vulnerable in central defence, and Dury has not been the player he was. If we could cover these areas, by loan or transfer, then I think that if we avoid  serious injuries we should be in with a shout. There is always the old problem to overcome - the lack of consistency, of players not turning up. I can see the commitment of players like Cureton and Brellier lifting the rest. And if it''s Hux''s last aseason.....

[Saint Canary 0]

Firstly, I didn''t compare any of the players you mentioned.  I compared the excitement around this forum about how good the new signing were.  However if you are going to compare, both Thorne and Louis-Jean had at the time we signed them, very good records in this league and dare I say it, a better record in this division then Semmy or Cureton. 

For the record, I don''t think any of the players we have signed so far are bad players, they appear to be right sort of players we want and add competition/variety in certain area''s.  I just don''t think we should get carried away until we have seen them play over a prolonged period of time. 

I am assuming that because you "know your football", you have seen Brellier and Strihavka play a few times to determine that they are good signings?

This works both ways, while we do not want people to be critical of players we have only just signed, we should not raise our expectations too high either.  It just means they have further to fall.  I really hope these players are as good as you are suggesting and they all prove to be good first team players.  However I repeat that it''s not unfair to assume that 1 or 2 may not settle, get injured or just not have the impact you were hoping for.

[Smudger 0]

[quote user="USA Canary"]You say we spent £10M on Ashton and Earnshaw...however, we re-sold them for almost £11M.  Therefore, it''s hard to justify this as bad business.  Some clubs by players for multi-millions and re-sell them for much cheaper...resulting in huge losses.  These buys were a gamble at the time with hope of promotion, but at the end of the day did not hurt us.[/quote]

That is because (as with the rest of his post) he is talking absolute piffle!!!

We spent approximately £3million on both Ashton and Earnshaw... with one being a direct replacement for the other there was never anymore money invested by the club than the original money that we purchased Ashton for.

We made all in all about a £4million profit on the pair of them... hardly big money for two proven players of their calibre in my opinion... but then again we have always sold on the cheap haven''t we???

[Pyro Pete 1,919]

Ah, an optimist. Good for you. Of course I''m hoping the new guys can add some quality. But this season I am employing a ''wait and see'' policy.The only player we have signed with any sort of Championship pedigree is Jamie Cureton. I know very little of any of the others. Even Marshall only played a few games, so is hard to judge. 

[Matt Morriss 69]

[quote user="Smudger"]

[quote user="USA Canary"]You say we spent £10M on Ashton and Earnshaw...however, we re-sold them for almost £11M.  Therefore, it''s hard to justify this as bad business.  Some clubs by players for multi-millions and re-sell them for much cheaper...resulting in huge losses.  These buys were a gamble at the time with hope of promotion, but at the end of the day did not hurt us.[/quote]

That is because (as with the rest of his post) he is talking absolute piffle!!!

We spent approximately £3million on both Ashton and Earnshaw... with one being a direct replacement for the other there was never anymore money invested by the club than the original money that we purchased Ashton for.

We made all in all about a £4million profit on the pair of them... hardly big money for two proven players of their calibre in my opinion... but then again we have always sold on the cheap haven''t we???

[/quote]

Yep, an error there I admit, got carried away with the £7.5m we sold Ashton for, not bought him for. But calculation errors aside, another ridiculous line from you Smudger. My post is my opinion, how can an opinion be wrong? This is a forum, for fans to express there opinions. We have to listen to your negative opinions all the time, are you saying that everything you say is actually fact? And anyone who disagree''s with you is talking piffle?

Ill reiterate my point for you again, just so you understand. This is a forum, for fans opinions, any opinion you do not agree with doesnt make that opinion wrong.

[Matt Morriss 69]

[quote user="Saint Canary"]

Firstly, I didn''t compare any of the players you mentioned.  I compared the excitement around this forum about how good the new signing were.  However if you are going to compare, both Thorne and Louis-Jean had at the time we signed them, very good records in this league and dare I say it, a better record in this division then Semmy or Cureton. 

For the record, I don''t think any of the players we have signed so far are bad players, they appear to be right sort of players we want and add competition/variety in certain area''s.  I just don''t think we should get carried away until we have seen them play over a prolonged period of time. 

I am assuming that because you "know your football", you have seen Brellier and Strihavka play a few times to determine that they are good signings?

This works both ways, while we do not want people to be critical of players we have only just signed, we should not raise our expectations too high either.  It just means they have further to fall.  I really hope these players are as good as you are suggesting and they all prove to be good first team players.  However I repeat that it''s not unfair to assume that 1 or 2 may not settle, get injured or just not have the impact you were hoping for.

[/quote]Saint Canary with respect that is exactly what your saying. If your comparing the opinions of the new players with what was said when we got in Thorne, Jarrett etc then your effectively comparing the players. The positivity, from me at least, about the new signings is far more justified than when we signed Thorne and Jarrett. Thorne was washed up and Cardiff didnt want him, and he wasnt the leagues top scorer the season before like Cureton is. Jarrett was also not wanted, and was not hero worshipped by his club as Brellier was, nor did he win any league cup.There is simply no comparison with these sets of signings and I still maintain the optimism, whether they work out or not, at this time is totally reasonable. On paper and past record suggest that our signings should be a hit. There was nothing to suggest that Jarrett, Thorne, Louis-Jean or Hughes would be a success, and lo and behold, they werent.