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BroadstairsR

A self-critical appraisal

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for a dull Sunday.

 

Things are going pretty well for our Club nowadays. Facing a third season in the top-flight, we are richer than we have ever been in our history, we are debt free, have a good team that we are on the brink of improving, we have a much respected manager who seems to know exactly what he is doing, fill a more than decent stadium for every home game and even our youngsters are making their mark.

 

The "Norwich model" is to be noted and it is easy to be a happy clapper nowadays, whilst loving Delia and Co. to bits.

 

Yet us "Men of Norfolk" like a good moan and its not right that we are denied this by all this ''everything in the garden is rosy'' squit. There''s a void to fill, so I occupied a few moments of my time attempting to do this.

 

1. That there ground of ours could do with work. That Main Stand is old and too small, we''re missin'' the boot with orl these people on the waiting list for tickets. Do suffin'' about it Naill.

2. That there hotel thing is stupid. Knock it down Naill.

3. That manager of ours and his sidekicks are too cautious. We shudd be thinkin'' about someone better.

4. That there yellow and green kit of ours is too garish. The players look better dressed for a pantomime than for a football game. It was better in the good old days when it was sumple. Loike me.

5. That choyse a match-day pies gets smaller and they are too proicy. So is the tea.

6. ....... Er. Now let me see...................................... Oi''ll find suffin''.

 

Seriously though, I like the place NCFC is a at the moment and happily cannot find other than trifles to be critical of. Long may the bubble not burst.

 

No doubt there will now be a long line of those anxious to be detractors. Let the negatives begin.

 

   

 

 

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Thas'' a good post Naill.I do think the signings we make will go a very long way to determining next season''s outcome and while I''m not moaning, I very much hope Hughton is given the funds he believes he needs and is able to "do the wages" for the targets he wants.  The area where I have most faith in his ability is identifying good signings - based on previous performance - so another good set of transfers could set us up for the top half of the table.  Another round of brinkmanship however, and we could miss out on key targets and end up with a "make do and mend" approach which would leave us scrapping around the lower reaches again.Clearly I''m not saying "sign players at any price", but central midfield in particular would benefit from a cash-fuelled revamp.

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No need for your tin hat for me Broadstairs as I agree - largely.

It''s a good time to be a Canary fan. Most of the negativity I think is because there is great anticipation for this transfer window and it is slow news at the moment.

My concern is what style of football we will be playing next season. I hope we can at least start the journey to playing more expansive and entertaining football.

OTBC

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Maintaining the status quo for a number of years will constitute great success.

Finishing anywhere from 8th to 17th for another 3 years will be continued - and notable - success. We will have to move forward with signings, wages and consistency of points accumulation in order to stand still.

In the broader footballing world Norwich are overachieving.

Should the club be able to establish the status quo as the received and perceived norm for Norwich both inside and outside the club (a club the likes of RVW would gladly and regularly sign for say), then this would represent great success and progress.

The issue the club faces - as a barrier to such successful stability - is whether the fans also view standing still (or perhaps even backwards in terms of league position , whilst remaining in the top tier) as suitable.

Given the economics of football and the disparity that exists in the top tier, unrealistic ambitions of the fans is the greatest threat to achieving the realistic objective of (unsexy) continued consolidation.

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Realistically as far as the league is concerned we can''t do much more than maintain the status quo. Swansea have said to push on from their 8th place or whatever it was then it would take hundreds of millions. Realistically there wasn''t a great deal between the teams in 8th - 17th this season points wise so our challenge should probably be to achieve the upper places in that part of the league regularly and not spend 3-4 months of the season looking over our shoulder!

Of course the other measure of success is the cup competitions. Realistically for a club like ours the only way we''re going to win any trophies and have the big celebrations is either relegation and winning the Championship again or a major cup.

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The ground improvements come with a lengthy stay in the prem league,  which is dependent on continuing to improve the strength in depth of the playing squad while retaining the team spirit that serves us well.   Ground investment comes at a cost - just ask the Gooners.

 

We should look to add some pace in all areas (at centre back too) and improve the ability of the starting 11 selections in central midfield in particular. 

 

An additional attacking midfielder will be good but my view is that if the two holding midfielders are better we have excellent creative options already in of Wes, Pilks, Snoddy, Bennett, Surman & Howson who are as good as most teams if they are allowed to play higher up the pitch (which better deep midfielders will facilitate)

 

Things are so good for us right now the only other worry (beyond the playing 25) is fans expectations.   We are near to our (glass?) ceiling in performance terms (the next level of teams have serious benefactors and its unlikely we will break the top 6) so most seasons of mid table security without a cup run are likely to be the norm.  Even a europa league run can seriously harm your league health - as much a factor in Newcastles woes last season as the french legion influx. 

 

Is that exhilarating enough for us given the highs and lows of the last decade? 

 

Fulham r us anyone?   

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I think the main requirement going forward will be to not make any serious errors of judgement regarding the footballing side of things. We''ve bought pretty wisely and overall got good value without being under pressure to sell key personnel.Compare with Wigan who had to rebuild each summer; QPR who bought a load of mercenaries; Newcastle who bought a load of questionable French players or Sunderland who bought badly under Bruce, had to sack O''Neill and suffered a degree of upheaval the following season (ie last season).There''s also the inevitable sackings, many of which seem to fail to have the desired effect. We''ve done well, perhaps been fortunate, to stay up after having Lambert leave and having to change our style of play.We''ve already done the hard part of staying up for consecutive seasons without breaking the bank and having a somewhat restriced budget due to the outstanding debt, so should have an advantage over the promoted teams such as Palace.In summary, as long as we don''t do anything silly then we stand a good chance of staying up again.

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If we sign good young players with potential like RVW, Van Ginkel and others I cannot see how we lose. We build a better team and sell players on at a premium. That in turn will make us attractive to other good young players across Europe who want to make a name for themselves. An upgrade on the Lambert concept of league 1 hungry players

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