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Canary Poirot

Optimism for next season!!!

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After wallowing in absolute dispair for most of today, particuarly after the results from today with Southampton winning meaning we now need 8 points to reach safety, I sat down this evening, wrote out our entire squad onto a piece of paper and looked at it. And do you know what, I suddenly realised that we will walk Div 1 next season - no problems. But before I thought that, I re-wrote the squad out with all the players I thought that were certain to go in the summer left out. In the going contingent I included Mulryne (£0), Brennen (£100K), Helveg (£0), Svennson (£100K), Bentley (£0), Green (£3M), Francis (£2M), Stuart (£0) who all like they are the most likely to depart, with the rest staying. What about Fleming, Holt and Edworthy you all yell?! Yep they will certainly stay, and I wouldn''t worry about that. At Div 1 level, they are all better than most in their positions, and will do a good job again for us. But if you think, with the £5M in the bank from Green and Francis, plus the parachute payments, we can bring in 3 new quality mids (one wide left, two centre mids) and a new quality right back. Think about it people. With our attack of Hux, Ashton and McKenzie we will score hatfuls. Our defence at Div 1 level will be as good if not better than anyone elses (bizarrely given this season) - and we''ve got Shackell! And with our rebuilt mid (with honest Div 1 quality back ups (Saffri, Holt, McVeigh) we will destroy all before us. I even think Jonson will prove to be quality at Div 1 level.

So yes this season has been terrible. But I really am beginning to think next season will be even better than last seasons Championship winning side. The teams in Div 1 are not improving, they are all stagnating at a constant level of quality, and they''re all broke. Look at the top 3 this season - we were better than all of them last season by some way, and despite recent results, I think we will have an even better team next season than the one we had coming up with. We''ll be there with money to spend and with a few stars with a solid Div 1 outfit to back them up. Get the right 4 players in, coupled with the few Prem players we retain, we will be in an excellent position to succeed in the Prem the following year.

I''m so confident, I''m really going to stake quite a bit of money on us to win the Championship, just hope we''re 20-1 . Just make sure you get the right players this time Worthy!!!

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Good points - I think we have a great chance to go back up however we cannot take it for granted.

If Huckerby , Leon and Ashton all stay. We have one of the best forward lines to ever hit that division. It looks like they will stay but stranger things have happened.

What happens if any(or 2 of them) have a lenghthy injury - (remeber Bellers, Mulryne) both were considered the best in the league at the time. Even Giallanza and Abbeys injurys hurt us.

Our midfield needs drastic attention. Damo will probably go. We hope Safri will get a run and show us what he can do. But him and Holt together will probably not work. So Worthy needs to sign a quality attacking midfielder that will fit into to the team-And that is much easier said than done.

Wouldnt it be nice also to have a quality winger- perhaps Jonson if he stays will fill that roll. Henderson is still a big ? for me. 

Then the defence- Shackell and Drury will hopefully be a part of it for more than next season.

Fleming/Doc? = probably good enough for this division still. Another quality centre half would help though.

Eddy at right back- again probably ok for this division.

Youth coming through- I am very excited about Crow. Still undecided on Jarvis and very undecided on Henderson. It feels like Shackell isnt potential any more and will be first choice.

Anyone know much about the Danish sixteen yr old El something?

So yeh we have a great chance - If Hucks,Leon and Deano all stay fit we will score bundles, I just hope the defence stays solid with a revamped midfield.

And then theres just the question of the Goalie. 

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Oh god!  I cringe when I see the words "Walk" and "1st Division" put together.  We will stand a great chance yes.  But walk it we will not.  It''s a tremendously hard league and needs to be treated with respect

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Although I agree we shouldn''t take it for granted we will automatically win promotion, I think we will have an excellent chance. You mention the big risk of injury to one of our strikers, while that could hinder our progress, it would offer the likes of Crow and Jarvis a real chance to show us they really are good enough, plus if we have a disaster, I''m sure we could get a quality player on loan - Owusu Abeye anyone from Arsenal? He would be quality. And if I''m correct in thinking Francis and Green will be sold in the summer, the ~ £5M they bring in will allow us to effectively bring in 3 new mids - and wide left must be one of them to allow Hux to go back up front. I wouldn''t worry too much about GK for next season, as Ward and Gallacher will be good enough at Div 1 level, they are both internationals! As for our defence, I really wouldn''t worry. Most teams in Div 1 have nothing special up front or creative mids, so the fact our defence has been poor this season, does not mean it will be poor next season. I reckon we could get away without buying any new centre backs, and go with Fleming, Shackell, Charlton and Doherty. We might however need a new RB, as Edworthy could be replaced.  

All in all, releasing 5 players or selling cheap (Mullers, Sven, Brennen, Stuart, Helveg) and selling Green and Francis, we could bring in 4 new real quality players who can play at Prem level or have the potential to (we hope), go with a smaller squad and give the youngsters more responsibility. I really beleive we could have a great year.

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if we get off to a good start and work our b***cks off then we should be able to do it. but i am still not positive about it. it will be just as hard as last time

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I agree that we need three new midfielders, one left and two centre''s but more importantly although I believe our current defence is goood enough for the fizzy pop league we need to get up and coming defenders who will be good enough for the premiership one day and let them gel together for the next premiership campaign.

Here are my suggestions of who I feelwould be perfect signings;

Nigel Reo-Coker - Attacking midfielder.
Kris Commons - Attacking midfielder left.
Curtis Davies - The next Rio.
The Crewe centre back who is supposedly the next Martin Keown, please give me his name.
A young right back.
An up and coming defensive centremid.

This is our possible lin up for next season;

Lewis

NEW Davies CreweKeown Drury

Jonson NEW Reo-Cokr Commons

Ashton Hucks

We will walk it.

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i am afraid you are deluded like many who think we will get re-promoted. Didn''t Leeds, Leicester and Wolves think the same this season and West Ham and Sunderland the previous. Truth this it will be a dogfight between at least a dozen teams (add the other 2 relegated teams plus those failing in the play-offs this season). If we sell Green &/or Ashton &/or Francis who''s to say we will spend the funds wisely. Our transfer record doesn''t look to impressive this season. Only Ashton and Charlton have been worthwhile additions. Wasn''t anyone suspicous to the lack of real competition for the signatures of Jonson and Helveg?  Both have had two good games at the most. We''re the laughing stock amongst Spurs fans for taking Doherty off their hands. Safri is a so-so Championship player who had one good half after Arsenal had won the game and were strolling around. Stuart was a gamble that hasn''t paid off. Bentley a prima-donna with Norwich''s future of little concern to him. Everytime we lose everyone with amnesia calls for the previous failures to be reinstated. As for Worthy, I''m not with the ''sack him'' brigade. Unless there is a good alternative then we should stick with him. He''s proved he can get us promoted but inept at keeping us up. Depends if we want to gamble with someone with the potential to do both. Didn''t West Ham think the same with Pardew, Wolves with Hoddle etc?

 

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Before this season got under way i knew that we would`nt be good enough to stay up, and thought that we would stand a very good chance of getting back up again, but now i`m not so sure. I expected abit more from us this season, thought we`d have abit more fire in our belly and play better football than what we are. We must`nt forget that two other teams will be going down with us ( two teams that do have abit more fire in their belly, and have played better attacking football than us ) prob palace and wba , so they will hinder our chances of comming straight back up, and wolves and leicester played better than us in the prem and they would have also thought they stood a good chance of a swift return and just look how well they have done, so i don`t think everything in the garden is as rosy as some of you are making out

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I would like us to bounce back up into the Premiership, but this is wishful thinking, I fear. A few Premiership relegations achieve this, but they usually have money, and that we seem to lack.

The present team are not good enough, - WBA and Palace, or Southampton, are better outfits, and we lack the finance to buy too many players. It''s nice to have shopping lists, but we can afford only one or two players of proven quality, -not enough. Better to be patient and spend longer, - consolidate in the Championship with one or two purchases each year, until we have a side with some prospect of surviving in the Premiership.

This requires patience by supporters, a medium term plan by the Board, and management with vision and courage - no panic buys!

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having watched a lot of first division football this season were in for a very tough season. It''s possible certainly but let''s not just presume we''ll come straight back.  lets see how the team looks then before we make any calls.

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Really can''t believe all this hysterical ....''we will storm the Championship''. etc.etc.

We may do but I wouldn''t bet on it. A lot of people have short memories. In 1995 we kept all our best players together (Eddie, Newsome, Ward etc.) and, rumour had it at the time, turned down a huge double offer from Spurs for Eddie and Ward. Not only that but Chase finally seemed to see sense and landed an astonishing coup in getting O''Neill as manager. Remember thoseT shirts we bought? ''On loan to the Endsleigh League'' or whatever it was then. Nine years later we were still stuck in the same division!!

OK I know that Chase messed up the finances and O''Neill resigned etc. but we need to get real in our aspirations for next year.

The main problem is the continued favouritism that Worthy shows to certain players and the long ball game that we play. Unless BOTH these issues are addressed I see no evidence pointing to an automatic return. Almost everyone agrees that we need a creative midfielder and wide right side player to create the chances but my bet is that the likes of Holt and Jonson will still fill those positions next season. A certain Clare Williamson writing for NCISA in the Pink Un this weekend said .........''Ashton will score bucketloads of goals for fun in the championship''. Sorry but she must be watching a different Norwich side to me in the last 3 months! Exactly who is going to create all these goals for him? Just watch Ashton in the next game he plays, he spends nearly the entire game with his back to the goal he should be attacking trying vainly to get a hopeful flick on to yet another useless long ball from Green or the back four. Why should that fundamental approach change next season?

I''ll stick my neck out now. Ashton will score about 14 goals if he plays a full season in 05/06 IF the current tactics and midfield personnel remain. IF the manager sees sense and gets some creativity in and decent crosses and through balls then Deano may get 20+ but don''t hold your breathe.

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You lot are a bunch of miserable pessimists.

FACT: Our team is better than the one we had last season when we romped to the title.

FACT: Sunderland, Wigan and Ipswich are the best 3 teams in Div 1 - none of whom have improved their squads since last season materially and we were miles better than them then.

FACT: All of the teams in Div 1 are broke. They won''t be buying any quality. We will have parachute funds and the money from Green and Francis to strengthen our team.

FACT: Leeds were crap this season as they are broke and sold all of their good players.

FACT: Leicester were crap this season as they have been broke since they came down the first time with Taylor in charge - remember they were in admisitration when they won promotion back to the Prem two years ago, they are still cash strapped, much worse than ourselves.

FACT: Wolves are full of a bunch of prima donnas - we are not.

FACT: The likes of Holt, Fleming and Edworthy who have proven not to be Prem players are experienced successful Div 1 players - they will be again.

FACT: With the cash we raise from the sale of Green and Francis, we will rebuild our mid with quality who will create chances.

FACT: Our defence may be crap in this div, but you name one midfield and attack in Div 1 that will prise our defence next season. Remember, we went up with Fleming and Malky as CBs, next year we will have Shackell (looking quality) and Flem who was our POTS when we won the championship.

FACT: If Huckerby stays he will destroy defences week in week out once again.

FACT: Ashton bagged 20 goals in half a season with Crewe, not reknowned for their quality creative mids - certainly not as good as ours, so those whingers and whiners who say he will only get 15 all season, I simply cannot believe your brain was engaged when you said that. You are in dispair still - wake up and accept this season has gone badly, and begin to beleive again like you did 18 months ago - we are miles better now than we were then (FACT).

FACT: Jonson is an international. He has a bad season. But I''m certain he will be quality in Div 1 next season.

FACT: Every Div 1 team is broke. The quality has stagnated at that level. We are better than Preston and Derby (4-0 at Pride Park last year anyone???!!!!) and they are looking very strong.

FACT: Our season will depend on who we buy in the summer. 3 quality mids is an absolute must. And a right back would be good too. We don''t need to worry about the CB until we win promotion back to the Prem. Really some of you have forgotten that there is a chasm in quality between Prem and Div 1 and are beginning to think Luton Town will have strikers like Yakubu or Malbranque in midfield (picked to illustrate how lesser Prem team have real quality in their teams).

FACT: When we went down in 95, we were top (maybe second) when O''Neill left, and seeminly sailing up. Then an inexperienced Megson came in, ballsed it up, and then we ran out of money and had to flog our best two players (ward, Newsome) to stay in business. Things are totally different this time.

I am really confident. I would like to see an improvement in our last 6 games, and some wins to gee you whingers up for next season.

 

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I''m not going to puncture your optimism, I feel that reality might do that. we won''t walk the title, but if we get everything right in the summer, we have a good chance. It''s an IF not a guarantee.

by the way

FACT: Jonson is an international. He has a bad season. But I''m certain he will be quality in Div 1 next season

is actually a statement of an opinion. fact he is an international but then so is mulyrne, your opinion he will be quality next season.

your facts are almost all opinions. fact.

 

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Well done Rich, great post!

Canary Poirot''s rant was clearly aimed at my message but he hasn''t got a clue what a ''FACT'' is! In fact the nearest item he mantions which could be construed as a ''fact'' is actually incorrect. I am damn sure that if he checks the Div. 1 league table after the Grimsby home match in December 1995 (O''Neills last in charge I believe) he will see that we were just in the play off spots and were falling away as O''Neill had lost interest.

BUT to be fair to Poirot, hidden away in his rant is ....''we need to get new midfielders'' etc. Very true!

Time will tell whether his ''facts'' about next season are realised but get real on some subjects.

Another 2 clubs will have parachute payments - not just us and have''nt we already used next seasons transfer money on Ashton anyway? The club said so. As for ''debt'' I am fed up with this dream that ......''we are so well managed financially''. Now this is a FACT - we service a debt of something like £16M - £20m. It may be ''manageble'' as far as long term repayments is concerned but it still HAS to be repaid. The WBA chairman has said very recently that they only have a £2M debt. Now we don''t know exactly what that means but it''s a sobering thought. Who knows, perhaps after 2 Premiership seasons and a parachute last year, they MAY be in a much better financial position than us (and they have a striker who comes off the bench to score a blistering hat trick!).   

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You say all of my facts are opinions. This is not true. A fact can be deduced based on past history, evidence and data – and the facts speak for themselves (best defence in Div 1 when we won championship – and that included Fleming, Huck creating goals, Ashton scoring for fun in a poor Crewe team  - and yes most first div teams are broke etc etc). You would say Fowler was better than Harewood and call it a fact, if looking at goals scored in the Premiership in the last 10 years and postulate that class is permanent form temporary. Okay so some of them are opinion such as Jonson, but part was fact (ie he is an international)).  I’m generally sick and tired of misery guts out there. Our season next year is of course dependent on who we sign and sell, but get the right players in, we will, WBA aside (convinced Palace will implode if they go down, losing AJ and Dowie and a few other stars) who will challenge us, be up there in the top 6 at the very least. Div 1 IS a pot of mediocrity (my opinion) and we are marginally better than mediocre, even if we are bottom of the Prem!

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If your namesake, Christian name Hercules, had been as loose with his FACTS as you are, he would have been the only detective to never solve a case.

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Forgot to add:

I do know the difference between fact and opinion. I admit not all of my facts as I stated them should be classified as facts - in that they cannot be proven to be true beyond any doubt although some of them can. And although statistics can never actually prove anything, they can give you confidence that what you are saying is a fact or not. I beleive many of my ''opinions'' (or maybe call them hypotheses) can be proven to be, within a 95% confidence interval, true. Your hypotheisis that Ashton won''t score above 14 goals is laughable it shouldn''t even warrant a response - he bagged 20 goals in an average sub standard Crewe side who since selling him have plummeted down the league!!! Really, you should stop wallowing in your pessimism, it won''t get you anywhere - I was after the Bolton game, but geed myself up. If Huckerby destroyed defences in the past - he can do it again.

However, Yellow brick - your stock as a faithful Canary fan has taken a knock. When O''Neill resigned on the morning of our game V Leicester at Filbert Street (which we lost 3-2 with Mike Whitlow amongst the goals) we were sitting second, and had we won we would''ve gone top. This was off the back of a 4 game winning sequence including WBA 4-1 win and at Watford 2-0 (which I believe was the game before he left with Keith Scott scoring). So for starters, get your facts right before accusing others of getting them wrong.  And do we really need fans who are so negative? Start believing we can win, and maybe it will get over to the players on the pitch.

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YC!!

Didn''t Hercules end every program by laying down the facts according to him, based on purely circumstantial evidence and then the perpetrator would then brake down and confess because they new his theories were factual!!!!

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