Will have a good enough team to come straight back up?

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,072]

yes, I''ve thrown the towel in and conceded relegation , so the question I''m asking is will we have the basis of a team left - after the likely departures in the summer , to launch as promotion chase?

I''m taking a realistic guess that our side could look something like.....

                     Bunn/Rudd

Martin      R.Bennett    Turner    Olsson

E.Bennett  Howson   Johnson/Tettey   Redmond

                  Becchio     Hooper

...is there enough there that is straight away better than the majority of the run of the mill sides in the Championship.....will we be left with enough "standout" players who will make the difference?

the defence is "solid"-ish for that level....Howson "should" look a class above most midfields, Redmond should be a danger to most full backs and a strikeforce of Hooper and Becchio is a decent starting point for goals.....but is that enough?..is that team better than the one we were promoted with?.....will they have the same heart and belief of that team??

Obviously this is largely dependant on the identity of the new manager but in my opinion whoever it is will need to dip into a fairly decent slice of the apparant record breaking parachute payments on a good 5 players or so ,for us to rise above the Championship pack.

never has it been more true to suggest that the first season is the best opportunity to come straight back up.

[mrs miggins 0]

You''ve answered it yourself, it depends on the manager I think, it also depends if we lose some players-we cannot afford to lose Hooper, Howson, Redmond, Olsson etc

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

I am very very optimistic that we will have a squad very capable of giving a good account next season provided we have a decent management team in place. The worst we could do is give adams a go and change again after a dozen games. Malky for me he is tried and tested and probably very hungry to prove a point.This season has been a set back no doubt of that but if we keep over half of this squad we will be better than the one we got promoted with. The defence will be ok and Redmond Hooper, Becchio, Bennett and Howson will score plenty even if RVW and possibly Snodgrass move one. If the latter stays we will be very powerful indeed

[Reggie Strayshun 0]

Agree with pretty much all of the points made by GJL and Miggo. Even as a Champ club, Norwich would still be an attractive place to come to for either a manager or a player . On the basis that, even as a PL club, we''ve had to cut our cloth, and not been able to afford top people, then tbh, I do not see the fact we are Champ altering that greatly, certainly for the first season .But, yes, the answer is based mainly on how many of our better players decide to stay, and what calibre the new management team is...not least their ability to attract  to  the club the kind of players of both quality and attitude that Lambert was able to.It is hard to overstress the importance of the decision that the board is faced with in the next month. Get it right, and we should be real challengers in 2014-15. Get it wrong, and we are likely to become Championship also rans or worse, in the same mould as 1p5wich.

[morty 0]

An important factor will be our great crop of youngsters coming through. The timing of relegation (if we do get relegated) could actually be beneficial to a few of them getting starts in the first team.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,072]

[quote user="Reggie Strayshun"]Agree with pretty much all of the points made by GJL and Miggo. Even as a Champ club, Norwich would still be an attractive place to come to for either a manager or a player . On the basis that, even as a PL club, we''ve had to cut our cloth, and not been able to afford top people, then tbh, I do not see the fact we are Champ altering that greatly, certainly for the first season .

But, yes, the answer is based mainly on how many of our better players decide to stay, and what calibre the new management team is...not least their ability to attract  to  the club the kind of players of both quality and attitude that Lambert was able to.

It is hard to overstress the importance of the decision that the board is faced with in the next month. Get it right, and we should be real challengers in 2014-15. Get it wrong, and we are likely to become Championship also rans or worse, in the same mould as 1p5wich.
[/quote]

not sure if I''d agree with this point?  For the first season ,with the parachute payments, it should make us a powerful force financially in Championship terms?....did I not read that whoever finishes bottom in the Premiership this season (a title we seem determined to attain!) will get more TV/Premier League money than Man Utd who won it last season?  Add to the fact that should the likes of Ruddy,Snodgrass,Fer , Pilkington?...(you''ll note I''ve omitted the name of our most "prized" assett,RVW) be sold , it certainly shouldnt be on the cheap, we will for one very brief window in our history be a very large financial fish in a small pond?.......oh, and no need to spend money on that proposed new main stand either?

[Chippy Minton 10]

The youngsters coming through is a great plus for us as a club and to any manager coming in who I''m sure would love to work with a crop of keen, talented individuals and see them through to the next level.Surely our loyal fan base, financial situation and the opportunity to make amends for a couple of years of mismanagement of the team and take us straight back up, along with this superb youth set-up would be tempting for a lot of managers.As so many times before, for us and other teams, this summers most important signing is the manager. Please get it right Mr McNally!

[Reggie Strayshun 0]

No GJL; Perhaps I did not make myself clear, but that''s pretty much what I was saying. We''ve never been a top spender , even in the Prem, but we should have a similar pot at our disposal in the Champ, so I do not see the financial constraints we''ve been operating under greatly different to what we''ve experienced in the PL. But, as you say, the majority of the other teams in the Champ will be worse (not better) off than us.

[morty 0]

[quote user="Chippy Minton"]The youngsters coming through is a great plus for us as a club and to any manager coming in who I''m sure would love to work with a crop of keen, talented individuals and see them through to the next level.Surely our loyal fan base, financial situation and the opportunity to make amends for a couple of years of mismanagement of the team and take us straight back up, along with this superb youth set-up would be tempting for a lot of managers.As so many times before, for us and other teams, this summers most important signing is the manager. Please get it right Mr McNally![/quote]There are plenty of positives[Y]

[Mr Angry 2,094]

I''d say that lineup looks good enough to go straight back up but then I think our current squad should have been good enough to stay up this season.

[Dubai Mark 0]

Should we go down, then we will surely be red hot favourites to bounce straight back up.....and agree, providing we have a top quality management team leading us.

[Hoolahans Left Foot 0]

Maybe we should get Houghton back..............

[It's Character Forming 1,211]

You''d hope so with that squad but it''s not easy.  Looking at the Champ table, last year''s relegated teams look like making the playoffs, but both the auto promotion places have gone to teams who''d been out of the Prem for some time.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

 I firmly believe that the first season down offers the best chance of a quick return and, although statistics in the past might not support this, lessons are gradually being learned from the disasters at Portsmouth , Leeds etc. with wages restraints being one example. I was always in favour of stadium expansion asap but now it seems to have been a wise decision to hold back. Our beloved neighbours rushed into this unnecessarily and it resulted in administration and years of mediocrity. All of last season''s relegated clubs are thereabouts this season.

 

After the first season it can become a quicksand as mediocrity sets in.

 

It is not straightforward though as there are some strong (and wealthy) Championship sides in existence nowadays as Leicester have shown.

 

I also believe that we should keep as many of the existing squad as is possible, for that first season at least.

 

Snoddy seems certain to go and perhaps Ruddy if a big club comes along. The future of the two Dutch boys is anybody''s guess, but I would prefer them to stay as they have something to prove and will not have the acclimatisation problem the second time around. I suppose if we get a decent offer for RVW the temptation for both parties will make it difficult to resist. I am not sure I entirely wear this somewhat mythical opinion that the Championship is some sort of rough-house, a bear pit where only the tough survive,. In fact I consider it somewhat the opposite these days , especially as the import of foreign players into the Prem. has meant that a great lot of the better  and more skilled home-grown players have now found the second tier to be their home. I do not recall Hooly being particularly manhandled when we were down there recently and he can be considered somewhat lightweight.

 

Mention of Hoolahan. How many feel that he could be due one more good season at Chumps level as a well-earned swan song? It is far from the bounds of possibility.

 

Finally, as Morty has stated, we have possibly one of the best batches of youngsters that the Club has ever had. These will get more opportunity if we succumb and this is one particular positive amongst all the negatives in these bad days. Some might sink without trace if on the books of a PL club. These are formative years for these players and there is not much between failure and success. For this reason also I would want NA to be kept in a prominent position in the hierarchy of the Club.

 

My vote has landed firmly in Malky''s court now. Some tar him with the Hughton brush, but who really knows?  He has been a great success in the Championship with both Watford and Cardiff and with a fairly weak squad by PL standards had to cut his cloth according to his means this season. There were also other restraints  as we know. He was an inspirational player and he seems to have carried this trait onto managerial level.  

 

Yes, in answer to the OP, we should, all things being equal, we are capable of maintaining a good enough set-up to yo-yo, but it is not a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination and won''t be easy.

 

The inevitability of full-houses will be the bed-rock of our fairly healthy financial situation, whilst the Parachute money is nothing to be sniffed at, especially in these days of FFP restraints.

[pete 375]

We will certainly be amongst the favourites to go straight back up, the multi millionaire clubs will be in a much better position.

The squad have not performed this season although that can be mostly placed at the failings of the management team.

Yes we have a bunch of youngsters who look quite good against players of the same age. But don''t expect them to be pitched into a Championship scrap. Send them out on loan to develop their skills.

Some of the players mentioned will be out of contract namely Turner and Bunn, will they want to stay or look for pastures new?

The most important appointment will be the new manager whoever that will be, get it right this time McNally. I would like to see Culverhouse and Adams as part of the management team rather than a management team who are available because they have failed elsewhere a la Hughton et al.

[Tumbleweed 106]

On paper we had a squad good enough to survive the Prem. We look certain to have failed in that.

I see no reason why we should suddenly expect this group to perform any better in the Champ. If we play like we have done for the last season and a half we will be mid lower tier.

Why players like RVW, Redmond and Fer will suddenly realise that "potential" when going on a long journey to a windswept Riverside on Teesside on winter''s evening rather than having the world''s eye on them in one of the best leagues in Europe I simply don''t get.

Snodgrass and Johnson are too slow at this level, we have no playmaker if Wes goes and no target man who can stop the ball pinging back into danger.

I think we''ll need some strengthening in key positions in central midfield, right wing and up front. And an onfield leader not an onfield snarler.

Apologies to go against the general grain, but the damage done by Hughton to some players'' confidence and general approach will take a long long time to heal properly. Better off to start afresh with some new faces in those positions I have described, in my view.