Absolutely DH - especially when we already had good players to cover his preferred position and especially when you add on his salary. As has been said elsewhere, I'm not sure AN made one decent signing during his tenure, though IMO, AP could turn out to be excellent, but then of course AN hardly ever had him in his starting 11, preferring his 'pet' Naismith.
Pinto, Pritchard, Klose, Oliveira and although over priced I still don't think Naismith was a bad signing, he certainly improved at the end of last season.
So those of us that want an end to stealing from the poor and disabled to give the mega-rich bigger tax breaks are "Marxist loons?" In some ways it will be good if she gets back in so you can all suffer the loss of the NHS and implementation of dementia tax.It won't hurt me for too long, I'm on my way out anyhow!
I really don't get this "money is so tight" rubbish. How many seasons have we raked in the Premiership millions lately!? And we can barely compete with other Championship clubs?!
I think it comes down to the fact that we simply spend it when we have it. PL teams earn a lot of dosh but they spend it too in inflated fees and salaries. If you want to compete (read: survive) in the PL you're obliged to put that extra cash to use or be accused of going down without a fight. We messed that up investing in players like Naismith and Wildschut in the hope that extra firepower would keep us up / send us up. Yes we got a silly amount for Grabban back but the outgoings haven't matched the incomings. We've made a loss and even selling Howson right now won't balance the books. The positive about all this is that SW would have looked at the books before he joined and still rates us a solid outfit.
Thanks for that Woodbine and I agree with most of what you say - both Pint and Oliveira (again, WHY didn't AN play him more regularly???) could go on to become key players for us next season and Pritchard has already shown what he brings to the team. I think when Naismith was selected for the last few games, he performed better by not having to play alongside Hoolahan
"it's really nice to have a Norwich born and raised realistically competing for a starting place." I really thought it would be Declan Rudd this year, I personally think he would be good enough, perhaps not if we made it up to the PL but he could have developed this year. I feel sorry for the bloke, who's dream has always been to be No.1 here.
I have to say that I'm fairly lukewarm about Gunn coming in on loan in a position that we already had well covered. Yes he's a promising keeper and Norwich born, but we're simply going to be developing him for Citeh. I'm willing to wait and see though. For me, the fact that we couldn't agree a deal for Dijks is hugely disappointing and that is hardly outweighed by Gunn coming in.
It was frustrating he didn't play Pritchard more often, even when he was our best player AN would drop him in the next game, made no sense. Just goes to show how much he has to learn, same goes for Sergi Canos, think he's another player who could have done well for us.
Are we going for an entire starting 11 of keepers? I am sure we didn't need another! A defense would be nice!
I think the fact we kept on players with big salaries such as Turner (who never kicked ball in anger last season), Whittaker, Bassong, etc and then spent heavily on Pritchard, Naismith and Wildschut (balanced by the sales of Redders, Olsson and Brady) didn't help the finances much. I guess we'd have paid AN a compensatory package as well plus his back-room team and the jokers who called themselves a recruitment team would have been paid off as I well I wager.
When Dijks joined us on loan it was pretty obvious that if we didn't go up he wouldn't stick around. As for our goalkeepers McGovern is probably the best of the 4 playing much better for N Ireland than us . Jones hardly got any game time and should be released now. Rudd came into the first team replacing Ruddy had a few good games then started playing worse than Ruddy and lost his place again. Didn't do especially well at Charlton either by all accounts. Gunn could be another Fraser Forster signing and if by some miracle we go up I'm pretty sure City would sell him back as he will be nowhere near their first 11.
Not knocking Farke, as he's only been here 5 minutes but a free, out of contract ostensibly wide / front / in the 'hole' man and a 'keeper on loan for the season are not really priorities as I see it. Wouldn't it be good if there was some action - or at least credible press talk about left backs, central defenders and a prolific(ish) striker. Just for a change for NCFC
Is he even in charge of players coming in and out? I thought with our new setup it's Webber who decides that sort of thing.
Before Farke arrived Webber said the new HC would “have the final say but not the only say” on players and tactics: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/spor...mer-of-major-changes-at-carrow-road-1-4986200
I haven't seen anything about German players either. I thought those rumours would be coming fast and furious once Farke was appointed.
