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2010/11 Promotion Squad

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Player for player not as talented as the current squad - but motivated, good team spirit, fought for each other and never gave up.

You felt playing for Norwich meant a lot to the players, and they gave 100% every game.

I think they would trounce any 11 we could put out now.

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" I think they would trounce any 11 we could put out now "

Um, not sure about that ... they were playing in the Championship after all. But agreed they did have great team spirit and fought for everything...

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Those who argue for Hughton''s retention and simply blame the players forget how powerful the right team spirit, approach and ethos can be. It can elevate what would be an ordinary collection of individuals into a unified force.

The epitome of this was the great Walker team which went into Europe. A bunch of almost completely unheralded, some said at the time Division 1 players, who dramatically exceeded all expectations. Walker went and the rest is history.

Today we have a good collection of players but we are not a team elevating ourselves above individual capability and the mental side looks completely wrong: an inhibited group seemingly terrified of expressing any flair and whose confidence hangs by a thread, ready to be shattered at any sign of adversity.

Of course it is the players who need to actually perform but the manager needs to set them up to maximise the chances of success.

I agree that the promotion team would beat this lot.

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Think the thing about our time in League One and the Championship is that for a lot of those players Norwich were a big club for them to be at and they were taking their opportunity to prove themselves at what they considered to be a big club and with the dream of going to a level theyd previously only dreamt of. PL constructed a team of players who had been dismissed, written off but who were still hungry. He helped them believe in themselves and they rode the wave all the way. I doubt many of the current team see Norwich as anything other than a potential stepping stone and are focussed on a number of other goals. Perhaps we were too quick to ship out the triers. The current team in terms of ability is better, but in terms of attitude and mental strength, not even in that teams league

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I think people genuinely under estimate how important the managers job is. Getting the absolute all out of average players Fox, Morison etc is an amazing trait to have. I think those players gave absolutely everything for Lambert, they knew they had to. I remember Wigan away last year, very poor match, didnt even have a shot on target, next match Swansea at home and we were unchanged, you can keep having poor matches and still keep getting picked.

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I don''t think we ever saw the best of Morison - strange player in terms of attitude but I get your sentiment.

It''s not just the manager though, it''s his coaching team. I mean from what most players say about Lambert and what we know is that he spent little time on the training ground with them - that was Culverhouse.

Whatever they did, it worked. Although it is fair to say some of the players did appear to lose faith at times due to the way they could have a brilliant game and then be dropped the next week.

As I have said before, momentum also plays a part. We won the Championship on the back of league one. When you have the buzz of winning like that it lifts you - reinforces belief that you are going somewhere higher, somewhere better.

The same happened after promotion to the Premier League - and you can see it sometimes in the teams promoted. Look at Hull, they have supplemented their momentum with keen players like Huddlestone.

That''s where ''second season syndrome'' comes from. It was clear even half way through the first prem season that to progress it was going to take a lot more than a good team spirit.

If you believe what was written then you''d believe that Lambert thought so too and had a list of players he was willing to let go to improve the squad - a list that included Holt and Hoolahan.

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It''d be interesting to know how lambert would have gone about developing us in the second season.

We got the balance right coming up, as did Swansea and now Hull seem to have. Teams like Reading underbought and teams like QPR and possibly now Cardiff overbought.

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[quote user="The Great Mass Debater"]Think the thing about our time in League One and the Championship is that for a lot of those players Norwich were a big club for them to be at and they were taking their opportunity to prove themselves at what they considered to be a big club and with the dream of going to a level theyd previously only dreamt of. PL constructed a team of players who had been dismissed, written off but who were still hungry. He helped them believe in themselves and they rode the wave all the way. I doubt many of the current team see Norwich as anything other than a potential stepping stone and are focussed on a number of other goals. Perhaps we were too quick to ship out the triers. The current team in terms of ability is better, but in terms of attitude and mental strength, not even in that teams league[/quote]

I partially agree with this. I do think the promotion squad made up of former no-hopers were more motivated - but - at any point, they could''ve started resting on their laurels too, such as when we reached the championship. Some of them may have thought "I could get a move to a bigger club soon" then too, but they kept going and kept busting a gut for ''you-know-who''.

Also, to an extent, the "bigger name" players we have signed this season should not be short of motivation to play well either - albeit if they are only doing so to get a move to a bigger club. Regardless of what is motivating them, the fact that they *are* motivated should be enough .. Ie, Fer & RVW - both desperate to get into Holland squad, Hooper desperate to prove he''s a prem standard player and has england hopes, Bassong - needs to prove he''s a top prem defender to people like AVB, If you look at all of them individually, they all have a very good reason to be motivated.

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