Numbers cannot be wrong.

[SI 0]

Over the last 7 seasons to ensure automatic promotion (finishing second) a team needs 89 points. This has averaged at Home: 16W 4D 3L Away: 10W 7D 6L. Total: 26W 11D 9L

Currently we have 36 pts: H: 8W 1D 1L A: 2W 5D 3L T: 10W 6D 4L

We therefore require 53 points from our 26 last fixtures.

To keep with the average , we must produce 16W 5D 5L out of 26 matches
with H: 8W 3D 2L A: 8W 2D 3L

We have 13 home matches left and 13 away.

It is a fact that it''s better to have one win and a lost than two draws.

Here are the real facts out of our last 26 matches

If we lose more than nine then it''s ALL OVER. Maximum points 51 ( we need 53 pts)
If we lose 8 matches we must win all the remaining 18 = 54 pts
If we lose 7 matches we can afford 2 draws = 17x3+2= 53 pts
If we lose 6 matches we can afford 3 draws = 17*3+3= 54 pts
If we lose 5 matches we can afford 5 draws = 16*3+5= 53 pts
If we lose 4 matches we can afford 6 draws = 16*3+6= 54 pts
If we lose 3 matches we can afford 8 draws = 15*3+8= 53 pts
If we lose 2 matches we can afford 9 draws = 15*3+9= 54 pts
If we lose 1 matches we can afford 11 draws=14*3+11=53 pts
If we lose 0 matches we can afford 12 draws= 14*3+12=54 pts

These numbers show that to go up it''s hard work and I am sure the board has calculated every situation.

To keep with the average we are only allowed 5 more lost games and to win 16 fixtures out of 26 games. (We have so far won 10 out of 20 thanks to the loanies efforts)

I say there is ONLY one way to go up. We must reinforce the squad with DH,PC,KH, and more players.

[Snake Pit Rebel 0]

Sorry SI it simply won''t happen with our board of directors..

I am not alone in my thoughts that this board don''t want us to go up..

[Smudge 0]

Of course the Board want us to go up, they just live on planet earth.

[chicken 0]

Thats right, they dont want us to go up because they are making soooo much money and the club is rolling in proffit!

Oh and hiding in Div 1 covers the fact that Delia is really an evil martian plotting to take over the world through subliminal messages in her TV shows!

What a load of BS! Ofcourse the board want us to go up, they just arnt ready to take a large gamble on one or two players that could as easily sink us as raise us. It is as simple and as easy as that.

Next time you want to diss the board I suggest you find some old papers or knowledgeable supporters such as I who experienced Robert Chase who along with an either naive or un-knowing board sunk this club to where it is in only two or so seasons. And for those doubters out there we have not always been a selling club. Thats another of Chase''s scars left from the damage done and if we cant sell that land, it will be another. I would ask how one man has been able to do this, especially seeing that he has been gone nearly ten years now.

[Snake Pit Rebel 0]

Sorry to dissapoint you Chicken but i have been going to Carrow Road for a good 15 years now so i think that i should know what i am talking about.

I have seen the up''s. In Europe 24hrs on a coach to Arnhem and Munich the F.A Cup Semi-Finals etc etc..

And the down''s relegation from the Premier League at Elland Road,the 5-0 hiding at the Portaloo etc etc..

And i to this day will never understand how a club like ours which was reported at the time as being the 3rd wealthiest club in the premier could go into near extinction..

How did Robert Chase get away with it and why were his dealings never investigated..

My god the fat chap even got a healthy pay off..

[Tumbleweed 106]

Reading the exchanges above it is a real shame we never had these sort of message boards in the time of Chase (or if we did I never came across them), imagine all the speculation, opinions and clandestine information being passed around.

I have faith in this Board even though I have my own opinions of some of the decisions which get made or not made. The difficulty is that if we go up too soon we will end up down here again (I feel fairly sure that had we won at Cardiff in May 2002 we would still be playing Crewe this weekend). It would be great to go up but I am being a bit selfish and I wnat it to last. I remember when we had many years in the top flight and were regularly taking on Liverpool, Arsenal etc at a packed Carrow Road. I remember feeling that excitement on matchdays, of almost running to the ground in anticipation, of looking for the stars and the England players who we had seen on TV come to our place to play our team. Happy days.

What I don''t really want is for us to go up and then get hammered 5-0 every week being unable to compete and get relegated. The thrill of promotion woudl soon wear off. Let''s make it a long term thing.

Now to my point. This season I feel that not only do we have the best chance since going down (Cardiff excepted of course) but we also have the basics of a squad which, with some well placed stengthening, could actually keep us there. In a year or two with Green McVeigh Mulryune all goen and loaness returning we would have to start climbing that hill all over again. SI has shown with his statistics how tough this is going to be- in 8 years of trying we have not even got close to 89 points. So given that we need to average two points per game, how on earth are we going to do that without making some investments in the team now? At the moment 89 points looks a long way away and the Board must realise that something needs to happen quickly to make it a realistic target.

[Away Day Specialist 0]

I agree tumbleweed , it would not be too enjoyable to get a beating week in week out in the premier, but look at West Brom. One particularly good season in Div 1, then the horror in the premiership. I know several West brom fans and they had a ball in their 1 year up there. Travelling to all the premier grounds, getting to see all the top flight players week in week out, the delights and skills of the top league. Not only that but they cleared their debt, still invested in the squad and are still riding high now.

That must be better than being trapped in the mill of Div 1 and consistenly falling short.

[Nobodys Perfect 0]

Two FA Cup finals were an up eh? Getting there was, but the outcomes don''t register high on my list of fabulous days out.
I''m not a Chase fan but what has changed since he went? The debt has increased, and will continue to do so while we vegetate in this league.

[SI 0]

50 points to go

Go on city

[The 4th Official 0]

In 98/99 (5 years ago) Bradford were promoted in 2nd place with 87 points (Sunderland champions with 105).

In 96/97 (7 years ago) Barnsley were promoted in 2nd place with 80 points (Bolton champions with 98).

Each season for the past several years there have been a few teams who were clearly better than the rest of the league, and this has been apparent at the halfway stage - roughly where we are now. These few teams get a lot of points, and then there is a big gap to the chasing pack.

This season, there are no teams which are clearly a class above the rest. The last time we had a league as tight as this at the half-way stage was in 95/96. That season, Sunderland were champions with 83 points, and Derby were promoted with 79. I think this season will be similar (but that doesn''t mean we shouldn''t reinforce the squad).

[Vlad 0]

This post is an interesting barometer of the current mood [a promometer?!]. Opens up with a few calcs of what we have to do to get promoted, sideways via a few moans at the board and then finishes with The 4th Official ramming home the situation that we actually face.

Yes, its going to be tough to get promoted. We knew that.

The points requirement (for auto) is likely to be less than the historic average. City are currently ahead of our own historic average for this time of the year. We have 3/4 loan slots still to fill ... and I have no doubt we will. (Still not sure why we used one on Fulhams'' Elvis tho...). This adds strength in depth which is precisely whats needed at Carrow Rd and any Premiership hopeful


Yes, we need reinforcements. We have had them and may get more..albeit of a different flavour to that served by Delia & Co in the run up to Christmas.

The board are not idiots (I hope) and will be well aware that we need to strengthen and therefore spend some money. But this is football. Arsenal 0 : 0 Fulham anyone. A nil-nil massacre. Chuck in a few bad ref decisions, running in to teams hitting good form etc etc ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. Spending cannot be based on the assumption that we get promoted. Because its football. Leeds, anyone?

So, a few loan players in - squad problems not looking too bad versus the rest of the division. Leading to my final point - WBA winning the division?! Only because they are hard to beat and score more often than not. Second place? I fancy our chances as much as anyone with the possible exceptions of those with money to spend. Yet we have an advantage there too. Dare I say it, but the "Man Utd" factor so beloved of tabloid types. Man Utd there year in year out, no panics, at or near the top. We have been in the play-off hunt consistently now - loan players may just be the edge that we needed. "Who" doesn''t matter, so long as they are of the requisite quality (ie Prem reserve/1st team fringe/ideally a youngster).

Football, eh?

[Carrow89 0]

What nonsense some of our fans talk.

Try checking the financial standing on Norwich City in 1985 when Chase took over. We were on the point of collapse.

It was actually his wheelings and dealings that pulled us out of the mire and took us to Europe, hustled a record deal for Sutton (a fairly average one hit wonder) and set up the infrastructure that is the club today.

Spouting meaningless gibberish about abeing a selling club is as stupid as the binmen who try to defend the rubbish that Burley signed as '' confidence players''.

I attended a supporters meeting when Chase explained the bare bones of the Sutton deal. It was an emabbrassment. To retain Sutton the club would have had to borrow up to £4m to pay lost signing on fees and match the new contract given. It would mean a complete run on all new contract renewals as the rest of the squad sort parity. Having previously negiotiated, what at the time, a sale clause of £5m the clubwere left in no position to refuse a sale.

This happened with numerous contracts and is now pretty much an industry standard.

Sadly the club started to believe it''s own hype and contracts were offered at far higher rates than were sensible. Any talk of investment inthe infrastrucure was dismissed as unambitious and we were left to see the club spending more than was coming in. Bringing back the clueless Mike Walker didn''t help (where he now ?).

Unfortunately we still have a legacy from those days, the blind idiots who can see no further than their nose and regard the club''s finances as they would the fiver in their pocket as they wonder towards the kebab shop after a skin full of abbot ale.

Thankfully this isn''t ipswich and we don''t have a clueless upper class ruggerl, loving buffon presiding over affairs - but reading some of the posts on here I do wonder if some wouldn''t be happier if we had the same limited grasp of matters up here as well.