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Daniel Brigham

Adams: stick or twist (latest blog)

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The doubts about Neil Adams are increasing, but it''s not time to panic yet. By Daniel BrighamThis has not been a good week for Norwich.Firstly,

it was announced that there are plans to celebrate Delia Smith by

erecting a statue of her (let’s just wait and see how long we’re

tumbleweeding around in the Championship for first, perhaps?). Then

Norwich went to Middlesbrough, forgot how to play football and allowed

not just four goals past them but also, rather carelessly, Ipswich Town,

who belly-flopped over us into fifth place. Following that defeat some

Norwich fans – including celebrity supporter Simon ‘where’s my statue’

Thomas – got all uppity and suggested the 554 fans who willingly

travelled to the North East deserved a refund. Finally, to make

matters worse, Nottingham Forest – City’s next opponents – continued

their drunken run with a 3-1 home defeat. While, on the surface, that

was a good result for Norwich, it also means that Saturday’s match seems

to have been awarded the dreaded Must Win status. Apparently,

the next 90 minutes will show us whether Norwich’s excellent start to

the season was a true reflection of where they are as a side or, like

Oasis’s Roll With It, merely a brilliant intro that descends into plodding predictability. I can understand the panic. I share it. Adams is in charge of an excellent squad that is, currently, underperforming. Three

months into the season and Adams still doesn’t seem to know his best XI

or formation. Stationing strikers on the left (while sending wingers

Elliott Bennett and Jacob Murphy out on loan) is a trick that ends up

with a dead rabbit being pulled out of the hat every single time.

Russell Martin is being allowed to hang out in his favourite position to

the detriment of the defence. Steven Whittaker is playing football like

a cat trying to swim. We’re still moving it out too slowly from the

back, struggling to break teams down, naively over-committing and being

caught with pace on the break as our defence scrambles back with as much

agility as a group of monks running the 110m hurdles. So, yes, there are problems. The

natural reaction is to look elsewhere, to assume that a more

experienced manager would have the team playing to a higher level. Maybe

so. But the reason Adams was brought in at Norwich was because they

wanted a manager who has the club’s best interests at heart, who has a

belief in attacking football and who can create an ethos that, like

Swansea and Southampton, will continue through a succession of managers.

That’s sensible, right? To rip this up at the first sign of panic and

bring someone else in would go against everything the board was hoping

to achieve by appointing Adams.  What happens, though, when fans

start suspecting that the long-term vision has been blurred from the

start by a manager who is showing signs of finding it tough to adapt to

senior football? As we learnt last season, inactivity and

indecision can lead to irreversible decline. But, while Norwich are

still four points from the top of the league – four points! – and having

played well against and beaten a vastly improved Bolton side last

Friday, we have not yet reached the stage where not replacing the

manager can be regarded as being indecisive. The form is worrying, but

not irreversible. Fans are right to be concerned. Yet some of

the shrieking panic that has set in this week is no better than a mouse

being spotted in an elephant sanctuary. The calls for Adams to be sacked

immediately have been, at best, myopic and, at worst, puerile. Like

those who think the 554 souls who travelled to Middlesbrough should be

refunded (and, according to the poll on The Pink’Un, it’s over 40%),

these early cries for Adams to be pushed are indicative of a growing

culture in which some fans are becoming even more spoilt and greedy than

the very footballers they accuse of being lazy and overpaid.  Team

not playing attractive football? Sack the manager! Team not winning

enough games? Sack the manager and the board! Team lose one away match

heavily? Sack the manager and the board and give us our money back!Those

who want Adams gone may well turn out to be right. However, getting rid

of someone at the first sign of trouble must not become the accepted

path to take. Managers – especially ones who are leading a team

four points from the top of the table – should be given longer than

until the first sightings of a John Lewis Christmas advert to prove they

are capable of leading with distinction. Rushed sackings are just

creating a manager’s landfill site, where desperate teams go to scavenge

among the Neil Warnocks, the Ian Holloways and the Gary Megsons in

search of their next desperate managerial fix. That way madness, or

Leeds United, lies. Adams, who sounded a little lost, a little

beaten, after the defeat to Middlesbrough, has much to prove. But which

manager hasn’t found himself in that position before? It has been a bad

week but, whether Adams goes on to show that the rabid doubters were

wrong or right, giving him more time is both good for the club and good

for football. Let’s not turn into Leeds.Daniel Brigham is sportswriter and editor. He tweets at @dan_brigham

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Good piece, you give all the reasons and then offer the wrong solution. Had this been "The Apprentice", Alan Sugar would have enough information now to raise his finger and say "with regret,your fired".....simple as that, whether you like Neil Adams or not. We are not talking about a business partnership here worth UKP 250k, but a multi million pound football club/business that deserves the very best leading it!

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Football clubs are in a no win situation.  They stick with a manager and risk the vitriol of the fans when things are bad, or they fir and get someone else in and there is either no real improvement, or the same thing happens again, ensuring a constant flow of in, out, in, out.  

The solution imo is to stick to your guns and keep a manager or management structure in place long enough for something to evolve.  I''m 100% certain that is why they stuck with Hughton for so long - and I supported that view.   Sacking him when they did was wrong imo, although if we get promoted this season I will take my hat off to them with that decision.   

Hughton did not improve things enough and that is tough, but now we have Adams in - we have to keep him and let it evolve.  If he went, the most likekly replacement would be Gary Holt, because if someone from outside was brought in, they would want their own men in and the whole plan would go out of the window again, creating the kind of in - out manager merry go round that none of us would want. 

So I would say hold your nerve, stick with what we''ve got - we have a good structure in place - evolving might take a while, but stability is something that is important and from it can come improvement.   The Newcastle owner Ashley has stood his ground against the fans wanting Pardue out and it looks as if he may turn it round.    Pressure comes from fans and the media.  Boards have to be strong - very strong and decisive.   Decisive sometimes means sticking rather than twisting.....

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Blimey I''m rating that piece as a 6/10 on the Nigel Pickover Scale of Owner Demagoguery, analogytastic indeed.

The use of Leeds is irrelevant, their current plight (what a shame) can be traced quite easily back to Peter Ridsdale and the wretched debacle he created, despite Bates and now this mentalist Italian the structure of their club is entirely different.

At the start of this season we were a debt free club with a very strong squad who backed the new manager like no manager has ever been backed before relative to the league we are in. Rightly there is and was a very high level of expectation and The Board for reasons known best to them elected to entrust this to a manager with zero experience of league management.

A £1000 suit with a £35 pair of shoes, seeing as it''s analogy Friday.

Many of us of which I am entirely and absolute am one, questioned what the hell they were doing? factor in another Cananry Conclave, scouring Europe, the right man being under their nose, Joe Royal, fannying about for weeks on end with the appointment, it did nothing but create an atmosphere of ''here we go again'' or in a more wordy sense, prescience.

How many times have we been down this road before? the managerial market had several contenders with absolutely relevant experience for the job and it certainly couldn''t possibly be to do with money when you look at the millions of pounds of playing talent that''s sat warming the bench and players we spent large sums on who we haven''t even see play.

The Board were happy to splash the cash but gave it to someone with zero experience, for those who remember just how close the club came to an entirely different outcome back in 2009 this doesn''t sit comfortably, moreover it made and still makes no sense.

All joking aside I enjoy reading your contributions but on this occasion I must forcefully disagree.

Oh and ''Buh'' fuck off and bore somebody else, your contributions are worth less than soiled Andrex, let''s keep the discussions meaningful wherever you might stand on this issue.

Healthy debate is a valuable commodity.

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[quote user="Bury Green"]Well quite, when do you invisage meeting with Marcus Evans at his offices?[/quote]I caught my reflection in the coffee maker and very much liked what I saw.

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Oh baby, I''m feeling decidely Pickover.

For the benefit of the OP lets just savour another morsel of fawning forelock tugging

''Here is a stylish, driven, hungry individual who attacks knowledge and business targets as a proven Premier League striker attacks the goal.''

It never fails to hit the spot.

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An ill-judged piece Daniel.

You are validating the very trigger-happy on-line responses that you purport to dislike with the very title of your piece.

Just like the solipsistic twitterati, you are the first journalist to ask the in or out question.

You are as premature as they are.

Parma

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But the Pickover isn''t, oh no make no mistake on that front please.

His Nigelness really knew how to whip his readership into a frenzy of waving twenty pound notes and assaulting a plastic bin the likes of which you can only dream about.

Keep working on the analogies and you to may, with a large amount of bowing and scraping, reach his heady heights of bile inducing fawnology

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Hi Parma. I see what you''re saying, but I would argue that I am merely reacting to a shift in mood among Norwich fans. Some already want Adams out, some don''t, and I''ve reacted to that. Passing it off as ''solipsistic twitterati'' ignores the calls for him to go on here, at the ground, on Radio Norfolk''s various shows. The anti-Adams movement is, prematurely, a very real thing which I felt made it worthy of debate.

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Can I just be the first to say, who ever we get as the next future manager may that be in two weeks, two years or ten year - I want them out, and I want them out now.If anyone follows me in this, please contact my Nigerian accountant with your bank details and you will be richly rewarded.I thank you,Prince Chicken.

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If our fans become divisive over the manager again like last year, our chances of promotion will be severely compromised. I might see it if we had a losing record and were consistently playing badly, but we don''t and we aren''t. The Boro game was poor, but that was down to the players, not the manager. I''m full of praise for those 564 travelling fans who were still singing OTBC even when we were 4 goals down.

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[quote user="Bury Green"]Blimey I''m rating that piece as a 6/10 on the Nigel Pickover Scale of Owner Demagoguery, analogytastic indeed.

The use of Leeds is irrelevant, their current plight (what a shame) can be traced quite easily back to Peter Ridsdale and the wretched debacle he created, despite Bates and now this mentalist Italian the structure of their club is entirely different.

At the start of this season we were a debt free club with a very strong squad who backed the new manager like no manager has ever been backed before relative to the league we are in. Rightly there is and was a very high level of expectation and The Board for reasons known best to them elected to entrust this to a manager with zero experience of league management.

A £1000 suit with a £35 pair of shoes, seeing as it''s analogy Friday.

Many of us of which I am entirely and absolute am one, questioned what the hell they were doing? factor in another Cananry Conclave, scouring Europe, the right man being under their nose, Joe Royal, fannying about for weeks on end with the appointment, it did nothing but create an atmosphere of ''here we go again'' or in a more wordy sense, prescience.

How many times have we been down this road before? the managerial market had several contenders with absolutely relevant experience for the job and it certainly couldn''t possibly be to do with money when you look at the millions of pounds of playing talent that''s sat warming the bench and players we spent large sums on who we haven''t even see play.

The Board were happy to splash the cash but gave it to someone with zero experience, for those who remember just how close the club came to an entirely different outcome back in 2009 this doesn''t sit comfortably, moreover it made and still makes no sense.

All joking aside I enjoy reading your contributions but on this occasion I must forcefully disagree.

Oh and ''Buh'' fuck off and bore somebody else, your contributions are worth less than soiled Andrex, let''s keep the discussions meaningful wherever you might stand on this issue.

Healthy debate is a valuable commodity.[/quote]I agree with  a fair bit of this but doubt that bit in red. The one obvious - and available - candidate with a record of success in the Championship and no obvious failures was Mackay, and I don''t think there is too much doubt he was the board''s first choice, or at least very much first among equals. But when he fell out of the running I couldn''t see a host of alternatives, on the assumption that Rosler and Howe didn''t want to move from where they were.Looking at the list of current Championship managers is a salutory experience, with those such as Nigel Adkins, Lee Clark, Stuart Gray, Stuart Pearce and Chris Powell having been round the block a few times without any evidence that they are better than mid-table level at best. Plus some untried managers from overseas, who might or might not work, and Lennon,whose first time in a proper league this is.Birmingham City, having sacked Clark (who has promptly gone to Blackpool) chose Gary Rowett, whose only previous job was managing Burton Albion in League Two.Whether any of those would have done better than Adams is a question, but I cannot see one candidate there whose record fits a club aiming for immediate promotion.

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Malky was indeed the standout candidate, I think it''s been discussed before but I rather think that somebody on our Board might have been aware of the ''great vengeance and furious anger'' Vincent Tann was about to mete out. On one hand I think he''d have done well for us but just imagine him being in the job for just a few weeks and then Vincent Tann cluster fucks him?

At the time dear old Colin wasn''t doing anything much more than Talk Sport and yet by the start of the season he had himself a Premiership job. Granted his appointment wouldn''t have been welcomed by most supporters (me included) but he has a reasonable enough track record for getting clubs out of the Championship.

Again possible hearsay but I seem to recall he gets on with Delia and always speaks warmly of her mum when asked about us. Oh and I thought he was pretty good on the radio, not that it counts for much and of course some of us find ourselves averse to a commentator turned manager.

Despite not having managed in the Championship Neil Lennon was the one I really thought we''d have ended up with, the CE''s time at Celtic, Gary Hooper, all a bit 2+2=5 but I was convinced he was going to get the job and never ever did I think they''d give the job to Adams. Not after the very sorry Brian Gunn debacle and the harm it caused but it just goes to show it pays to be surprised at nothing in football.

At the time dearest Royston Keane esquire was available I think, he got a team promoted and of course would rate incredibly highly on the Nigel Pickover Scale of Marcus Evans adulation, fawning and quaffing pints of frothing IPA

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I am still staggered Adams got the job. After 16 games, he not only doesn''t know his best team, he also doesn''t appear to know his best formation or his best defensive, midfield or striking unit.

Our supposedly better players (Ruddy, Olsson, Howson) are not performing at the expected level. Our usual triers are not trying. Our runners are not running.

We are only 4 points off the top but with this squad we should be at least 9 points better off than we are, even allowing for the occasional blip - so far out of 16 games we had 8 or 9 blips.

This is a poor league and we have been dragged down to its level, in my view by a management team who are taking too long to find their feet.

I was not one of the "we''ve got our Norwich back" shouters when we were winning. We beat Blackburn, Brentford and Cardiff because we got lucky in all 3 games. Even the win against Ipswich was only a win because Murphy missed a sitter.

None of the 16 performances so far have been convincing. Bolton was the closest until we messed it all up with 5 minutes to go. We''ve played well in patches but we''ve been woeful in patches; and then against Boro we did at least manage a consistent 90 minutes by being abject all game.

Was I surprised? Not at all. Tactically, we haven''t a clue and are extremely easy to play against. At almost every game when the team is announced anyone with a modest knowledge can see the problem areas which the opposition will attack.

Maybe the Board think that Adams and his team have time to learn their trade and that if it takes us a couple of years to go back up we''ll be fine. Maybe they''re right. But if the aim really is immediate promotion then being 4 points off it after a third of the season has gone isn''t really being on target is it?

When do we push that button? On paper we should win the next 5 games. There''s very little chance of that happening but even if we did we would still not have caught up to the 2 points a game target required for automatic promotion.

That is why the Board should act now in my opinion - because, believe it or not, the playoffs this season would represent failure and we are not even on course for that.

Adams has had 16 games. That''s enough to know we won''t go up this year if he stays in charge.

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I''ve been convinced we wouldn''t go up this season right from pre season.and I''m not in the Adams Out brigade. We need stability and he can provide it. Like Purple I cant see many other options ....Pulis might be great but would he want a Championship club anyway? But if the board really expected promotion then they may have got it wrong again like sticking with Hughton too long. We are in transition it seems to me and I cannot abide seeing all the posts and media articles about our ''great'' squad. Just really look at the performances. They are fine or average at best but hardly are we real contenders for the top 2. Teams that are stand out by miles. We don''t. Nor do many others so far either.

Good original blog OP

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I totally agree with Parma. It''s one thing for posters to engage on this subject prematurely, quite another for someone who states he is a sportswriter and editor to do so. Daniel states he is "merely reacting" to the shifting mood of the fans. Sorry, that doesn''t tick the box on the "sincerity scale", particularly when he states that he not only understands the panic but he shares it, while also indicating that part of the bad news week is the discussion of a statue for Delia Smith.

 

Neil Adams is in his first season of managing the club. Approaching the end of September we were top of the table. We have had a bad run for several games where results ( and some performances ) have not gone well. It happens. If everything was rosy on the fronts of all other leading Championship contenders there would be a few teams that would have already opened a significant gap on us, but they haven''t. We are four points off the pace. During this early part of the season there have also been players leave that test the resolve of a new manager. If Adams is the type of character who can steel himself in the face of adversity he will learn from this. Let us all demonstrate a little patience.

 

Finally, there is Lakey popping up again, also calling for patience but unable to do so without once again injecting Chris Hughton into the equation, saying Hughton did not improve things enough. Hello!!!! Hughton had a total of 71 games and took us backwards. He made his decisions on tactics and where we should spend big money ( for us ) and it didn''t work. He had his honeymoon period post Lambert but once the players saw the management approach it began to unravel fairly quickly. I like your stance currently on Adams, Lakey, but to tie it into the Chris Hughton experience does not bear comparison. Neil Adams is learning on the job. The Norwich Board knew that going in. He will either learn and come out better for it, or he won''t. Regardless, those that feel this is the time for a decision to be made are simply not using the little grey cells they should be equipped with.  

  

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One of my points was that we can''t really know what the Boards intention is. If their objective is immediate promotion, I think it is already quite clear that won''t happen with Neil Adams in charge. The trend is already obvious and we will only fall further off the pace. If that is their objective, there is only one decision to make and that is to try someone else.

If they really are trying to build some kind of dynasty, and want a Norwich man to begin that, then two or three years in the Champs with him in charge may be acceptable.

What they can''t do is decide in February when we are 15 points off the top two, that it really was automatic promotion that we wanted all along so we are going to sack Adams now.

If they keep him in position much longer, then my conclusion will be that they must be going for the slow rebuild rather than the fast recovery.

I suspect that there has been a lot of uncertainty already about what they do want and that the signing of 3 centre backs and allowing two of our best players out on loan to rivals is indicative of that lack of focus.

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[quote user="sgncfc"]I am still staggered Adams got the job. After 16 games, he not only doesn''t know his best team, he also doesn''t appear to know his best formation or his best defensive, midfield or striking unit.

Our supposedly better players (Ruddy, Olsson, Howson) are not performing at the expected level. Our usual triers are not trying. Our runners are not running.

We are only 4 points off the top but with this squad we should be at least 9 points better off than we are, even allowing for the occasional blip - so far out of 16 games we had 8 or 9 blips.

This is a poor league and we have been dragged down to its level, in my view by a management team who are taking too long to find their feet.

I was not one of the "we''ve got our Norwich back" shouters when we were winning. We beat Blackburn, Brentford and Cardiff because we got lucky in all 3 games. Even the win against Ipswich was only a win because Murphy missed a sitter.

None of the 16 performances so far have been convincing. Bolton was the closest until we messed it all up with 5 minutes to go. We''ve played well in patches but we''ve been woeful in patches; and then against Boro we did at least manage a consistent 90 minutes by being abject all game.

Was I surprised? Not at all. Tactically, we haven''t a clue and are extremely easy to play against. At almost every game when the team is announced anyone with a modest knowledge can see the problem areas which the opposition will attack.

Maybe the Board think that Adams and his team have time to learn their trade and that if it takes us a couple of years to go back up we''ll be fine. Maybe they''re right. But if the aim really is immediate promotion then being 4 points off it after a third of the season has gone isn''t really being on target is it?

When do we push that button? On paper we should win the next 5 games. There''s very little chance of that happening but even if we did we would still not have caught up to the 2 points a game target required for automatic promotion.

That is why the Board should act now in my opinion - because, believe it or not, the playoffs this season would represent failure and we are not even on course for that.

Adams has had 16 games. That''s enough to know we won''t go up this year if he stays in charge.[/quote]

 

Now I see you can state that we won''t be promoted and I like that you bring some facts to the tabel with the 2 points per game needed for promotion. I notice that at this time nobody is averaging 2 points per game. And it''s unlikely, but not impossible, that anyone will be averaging 2 points per game at your 21 game cut off. So who do you think will fill those automatic spots this season?

 

 

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Hi Yankee. So when would a writer be allowed to engage the topic? The anti-Adams sentiment has been discussed on Radio Norfolk, in the stands, on here, on twitter and in the pubs. As I say in the piece, it''s too early for this kind of reaction, but the reaction is very real. I don''t understand the suggestion that a writer shouldn''t comment on a situation that the majority of fans are discussing.

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[quote user="sgncfc"]We beat Blackburn, Brentford and Cardiff because we got lucky in all 3 games. Even the win against Ipswich was only a win because Murphy missed a sitter.

None of the 16 performances so far have been convincing. Bolton was the closest until we messed it all up with 5 minutes to go. We''ve played well in patches but we''ve been woeful in patches; and then against Boro we did at least manage a consistent 90 minutes by being abject all game.[/quote]I guess some people see what they want to see.

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Bor Bor Bor wrote the following post at 07/11/2014 7:32 PM:

sgncfc wrote:

We beat Blackburn, Brentford and Cardiff because we got lucky in all 3 games. Even the win against Ipswich was only a win because Murphy missed a sitter. None of the 16 performances so far have been convincing. Bolton was the closest until we messed it all up with 5 minutes to go. We''ve played well in patches but we''ve been woeful in patches; and then against Boro we did at least manage a consistent 90 minutes by being abject all game.

I guess some people see what they want to see.

Yep

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That Neil Lennon looks a good manager , bags and bags of passion makes Adams look like a cardboard cut out . Opting for Adams instead of Lennon could be the biggest mistake Delia has ever made , certainly a bigger one than appointing Gunny . How long before Bolton pass us in the league ? .

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[quote user="Daniel Brigham"]Hi Yankee. So when would a writer be allowed to engage the topic? The anti-Adams sentiment has been discussed on Radio Norfolk, in the stands, on here, on twitter and in the pubs. As I say in the piece, it''s too early for this kind of reaction, but the reaction is very real. I don''t understand the suggestion that a writer shouldn''t comment on a situation that the majority of fans are discussing.[/quote]

 

Hi to you too Daniel. Of course, you already know you are free to write what you want when you want. That''s true of all posters and, you may not have noticed, but I have refrained from entering the fray with other posters on this subject because, quite frankly, I regard such reactions too often to be the way of the football world today and frequently tediously premature, i.e. "I want what I want now and if I can''t have it the manager has to go."

When it comes to journalistic input on all matters, be it sports, politics religion etc., I hope to find objectivity in the written piece. Sometimes, it''s not there and I''m disappointed when it isn''t. We all like journalists who think and write well. I believe most objective observers would realize the Board appointed Neil Adams knowing that their man has the passion and commitment for Norwich but may need time to find his feet. I also believe most reasonable people would feel that 16 games into his first season ( I certainly don''t count last seasons wrap-up ) and four points out of first place is the time to be tabling this issue. I suspect most journalists would agree. They appear to at the moment.

In your own case, as Parma indicated, you seem to the first journalist putting it out there as an option. I gave my reasons for my reaction in the first paragraph of my response, and I stand by those. 

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