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Green and Yellow fellow

No repeats of mistakes this time.

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This time last season there was only one type of player on our minds, which everyone associated with Norwich City FC knew about, we needed a striker. As time slowly ticked by and with Norwich City leaving us in the dark (as usual) over transfer targets and negotiations, we finally secured the assets of the young Harry Kane. This is a guy quoted to have been ''The next Teddy Sheringham''. Not only does this prove how over-rated young English players are, it also proves how important it is to get business done early.

With the much anticipated arrival of our record £8.5 million signing RVW, Norwich have finally sorted out what the club aimed to do nearly a year ago. This came close to the expense over Norwich''s premier league status.

The January transfer market also proves why it is very important to get pre-season targets in early. Hull FC have recently shown interest in Curtis Davies, who Birmingham FC priced him at approximately £5 million just 6 months ago. Now it is reported that Hulls bid maybe worth £3 million. It will also be interesting to see how much Celtic let Hooper go for, if he was to leave.

Overall last season was big learning curve for Norwich during this time of the season, and I hope we get our transfer targets in early and not end up with a last minute bid for Jimmy Kebe or another short term fix for a long term problem.

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All very well but a bit unrealistic. It takes two to deal. We can''t just go out and buy who we want unlike FM etc.. We know that there were several deals lined up which fell through before Harry Kane and Luciano Becchio were brought in. It was not lack of planning or intent that led to last minute deals but the fragility of doing business in an environment where deals are dependent on other deals and/or can fall down if someone has a change of heart.

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I''m not so sure it was about learning curve, I think it had a lot to do with self imposed financial restraints, and having the common sense to stick to them.The club, rightly so, prioritised getting us on a sensible financial footing rather than throw stupid money at players that just weren''t worth it.Also perhaps throw in uncertainty about how we were going to do last season after L**bert left, if I was a Premiership player I would have maybe been slightly wary about signing for the club, making the assumption we would struggle and maybe get relegated.On our side now we have a bit of Premiership pedigree and more money, exciting times!

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The facts don''t support the OP. Only Swansea used their financial resources more effectively than Norwich.

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[quote user="T"]

The facts don''t support the OP. Only Swansea used their financial resources more effectively than Norwich.

[/quote]Yes, quite possibly. Depending on what the 2012-13 accounts for Premier League clubs show. But that is not germane to the point the OP was making, which was about how we handled the transfer windows (and particularly last summer''s) rather than the end product of our dealings. That we finished where we did doesn''t mean everything went as it should have done. If it had, purely for argument''s sake, we might have finished higher than we did, certainly in terms of points. Our points total (and this is not a complaint) was lower than last season''s.As it happens I don''t agree with the OP, in terms of argument (it does take two to make a deal) or fact (I don''t think Birmingham ever expected £5m for Curtis Davies). 

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Swansea made a lot of money on Joe Allen etc as well.

Was saying to the pantwetters almost every day, what we achieved just by staying in the league on the leagues smallest budget was testament to Hughton and his coaching staff (and of course the players )

This year our budget will be bigger and hopefully we will have a similar placed finish

 

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[quote user="T"]

The facts don''t support the OP. Only Swansea used their financial resources more effectively than Norwich.

[/quote]

 

Thank the lord for Swanselona then! Without them there''d be nothing to whinge about at all. And we can''t have that. How about a few lucky results papered over a rubbish season? That might have some legs....

 

 

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I disagree with the OP 100%

 

This time last year we were going through the saga of losing our manager and recruiting a replacement.

 

If there was one position that people generally thought City needed to recruit for last summer, it would have been at CB, as the previous season we had scored and conceded a lot of goals.  Up front, Holt had just finished an excellent season, there was hope that Morison could recapture his early-season form under a new manager, Vaughan was back to fitness.  At the back, we basically had a back-line mostly of championship standard. 

 

So when CH joined us, it is understandable that he started by strengthening the defence and we had summer signings as far as I remember of Bassong, Turner, Garrido, Whittaker,  and Tettey at DM.  Whereas at the attacking end we only signed long-term target Snodgrass, and Butterfield very much as a prospect.  Signings in attack were very much a lower priority which was reasonable given how good we were at scoring the previous season.  Hence getting Kane in just before the window closed was a reasonable gamble.  It would have been great to sign a quality experienced attacker took, but you just can''t have everything.

 

By January the need for a new striker was obvious, with Vaughan loaned out for the season, no sign of Morision givng a decent contribution,  Holt not being prolific, Kane not .  But in January it is easy to pay silly money especially for strikers (Andy Carroll).  I think we made the right decision by not paying too much for Hooper.  We got in Kamara who earned us some vital points.  And trading Morison for Becchio was a sensible move IMO - he was never going to go into the starting lineup but was important as cover for injuries and competition for places.

 

So this summer we start having landed our key target already.  However RVW turns out, no one can argue with the way the Board stole a march on everyone else by signing him well before the end of the season. 

 

Looking around the team, we have a much stronger squad than this time last season, including RVW, and with the excellent performances of Howson and R Bennett towards the end of the season.  Clearly there are slots where we can look to strenghten, especially IMO centre of midfield, cover for LB, cover for left-wing, and more firepower up front.  But starting from a much better position than last summer.

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With our limited budget last season it was a case of not being held to ransom and getting somebody in (eg Kane, Kamara) rather than nobody at least for the sake of cover and variety. A true panic signing would have been paying well over the odds for someone like Hooper.Similar to the price of petrol going up as soon as the price of oil rises, the

price of domestic players and wages probably rose as soon as the news

of the new TV deal was announced. With more money chasing largely the same supply of players, like most other products expect an increase in the quantity of (more reasonably priced) foreign imports.

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[quote user="JonnyH"]With our limited budget last season it was a case of not being held to ransom and getting somebody in (eg Kane, Kamara) rather than nobody at least for the sake of cover and variety. A true panic signing would have been paying well over the odds for someone like Hooper.[/quote]

^^ This.A large price tag on his head, coming into a premiership situation mid season with players he didn''t know, instant pressure to succeed with no time to settle in.   If he hadn''t been able to start on the front foot straight away, that would have had a detrimental effect on the team.   Buying players in January is a mugs game.    As it is we have RVW, well in advance of next season.  A pre-season to get to know everybody, time to get fitness levels up to standard - a much better chance of succeeding.    Kane and Kamara  were always a gamble and not a long term solution.  Kamara had more impact than Kane, but Kane  was thrown in at the deep end.  One shot (with his wrong foot) sealed his reputation with some of our more fickle fans.   Buying players is a lottery and not as easy as some people seem to think it is.   So for me there were no mistakes, only experience - and with the arrival of RVW it looks as if we can relax in the knowledge that the powers that be know what they are doing.

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"This time last season there was only one type of player on our minds,

which everyone associated with Norwich City FC knew about, we needed a

striker"
absolute nonsense ! as said elsewhere we were scoring freely - the problem was at the other end"Not only does this prove how over-rated young English players are"again nonsense, all it proves is how some folk at every level over rated one player ... that''s all

"This came close to the expense over Norwich''s premier league status."and what was the cause of those clubs who finished below us - did they leave their signings even later ?"It will also be interesting to see how much Celtic let Hooper go for"extremely interesting as these figures are never published, they are just figures conjured up in the media

but, saving the best for last we have this priceless gem "Norwich City leaving us in the dark (as usual) over transfer targets and negotiations"oh dear, oh dearie, dear me

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I don''t think any mistakes were made last year in terms of transfers. We made the best out of the situation. Buying players is not like your weekly ASDA shop. There are so many different variables to consider and a lot of deals are dependant on a domino effect of other teams purchases. Infact I would probably go as far to say that the deals we did in Jan were brilliant. We didn''t pay over the odds for Hooper and instead loaned Kamara who scored a couple of vital goals. I''m also sure the groundwork for the RVW deal was done in Jan too.

As far as the summer goes Hughton has his targets and I''m sure a list of back ups if we aren''t able to get those. We are in a much stronger position this year. Last year rightly or wrongly we were one of the favourites to go down. Second season, new manager etc. This could well have put some players off. This year I don''t think anyone can realistically say we are one of those teams destined for the drop having finished mid table two consecutive years and have a year old manager (I think Hughton at Norwich is surprisingly the 6th or 7th longest in the prem now).

I''m looking forward to two or three really astute signings in the next few weeks.

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Its hard to tell if mistakes were made or not. ultimately we had enough to sneak over the line (he says anticipating all the posts pointing out we finished well clear of relegation in the end) so we got it just about right. That said we were clearly being messed around by selling parties at the end of both transfer windows and it does feel a little bit as if we put all of our eggs in the Hooper basket in January when the signs were there quite early on from Celtic that they did not want to sell.

This summer I therefore hope (and am sure) we are trying to get deals done early and i also hope that if we end up being messed around by Celtic (or anyone else) we will move on. I believe they signed a striker yesterday (or are going to today) and that, plus the suggestion they may be interested in Holt and the fact they do not have a big champions league tie on the horizon may be the key to a deal now going through,

Its clear to me he''s our main target. If we can land him alongside RVW then I think our next priority is some pace and another left back. I would also like to see a bit of creativity in the middle of the park but I also suspect that the form of Howson and R Bennett at the end of last season may well caused a bit of a re-think and cut the number of players we are looking to sign by 2!

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[quote user="Jim Smith"]Its hard to tell if mistakes were made or not. ultimately we had enough to sneak over the line (he says anticipating all the posts pointing out we finished well clear of relegation in the end) [/quote]

 

Sorry to disappoint you Jimbo but I''m not going to post about how we finished well clear of relegation. Although we did. I will just say that we were among nearly half the league who sneaked over the line. A reflection perhaps of the way the league panned out last season.

 

 

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