Welcome indeed, Redruth, your views will be most welcome on here, and there's no reason at all why you can't pop back to the 'pit' from time to time, instead of wasting your time on that Cornish lager!
Perhaps the thread title is a bit misleading? - Hind sight is a wonderful thing indeed, and yes perhaps it is We know if a player is capable PL will take them to a new level - no one will question that. If we have to change the type of players we need to keep staying in the top flight do we think the club can/will do that, and not talking so much about money. Will the club bring in older heads, more experienced heads which will inevitably mean more money and potentially bigger ego's to deal with? or do you think they will keep the same philosophy of recent seasons?
Pardon me Thai, but when you head an article with the title, " Is Paul Lambert the right man - long term?", then yes, you´re questioning his ability, in this particular case, his ability to change his philosophy if needed. That sounds to me as if you yourself are in some doubt as to whether or not he can. Personally, I should think a man of his undoubted talent, would be able to adopt whatever philosophy was necessary in any given situation. I wouldn´t be worried about that in the slightest.
I am not doubting anything RBF, it's a topic open for discussion - doesn't mean I think one thing or the other. I could equally ask - Will Ruddy ever play for England, doesn't mean I think he will or will not but others will have an opinion on it. The honest answer for me is - I do not know how a radical change from what we have recently would effect anything, doesn't mean we can not open it up to other peoples views
Perish the thought, I wouldn´t dream of preventing other people voicing an opinion, I´m just voicing mine, that´s all
Apologies if this has already been covered, but isnt the question more is Paul lamberts recruitment policy the right thing for the club long term? Clearly the guy is a very good manager that is not being questioned. I know he doesn't want any big time Charlies, but there must be available players who could bring some experience to us (I'm thinking about defence) who don't have big egos? Surely having the odd player is not breaking the policy
Thai - max And just above my post - no more scan reading posts for me! I doubt that lambo will go for this IMO
Growing up and starting to go to watch NCFC in the late 80s and being lucky enough to watch a succession of fantastic seasons, our transfer policy never did us much harm back then. Most players we bought were pretty obscure, were moulded into class acts and then sold on for a profit. Now you can argue til the cows come home whether you agree with that as a model or not because I can totally understand that some people were thoroughly cheesed off that we didnt hang on to our best players and should have done more to keep them at Carra Rud. However our stay in the top flight only failed so miserably when all of our strikers got sold in the same season and we had noone to bang in any goals. So far PL has had the last say on who comes or goes but if we do well this year and next the vultures will come circling once more. Try hanging onto the Pilkingtons of this world if a genuine big team comes a calling! There's not a hope in hell, just as there was no stopping Mike Phealan when Manure came knocking or when Disco left when Rangers wielded their more powerful sword back then. The overriding issue will be by then is whether PL will stand for this kind of way of working or not. If he accepts that this is who we are and these are the parametres that clubs of our size have to work in then I have every faith that he will continue to do as good a job as he has so far. If, like Mike Walker, he feels that it is not tenable that your playing staff vanish at the first sight of a bigger pot of gold then he too will be off into the sunset. The point I'm trying to allude to is that if it aint broke dont fix it. When we got relagated from the PL in the 90s we tinkered with the model to achieve a fast buck by cashing in on all our best strikers and you could argue that nearly put us out of existence! This time around there wont be a need to offload so many all at the same time. In Lambo We Trust
Chris - I was a regular home and away follower (not the cheesy Australian TV nonsense) in the 80's & early 90's and the comparison you have made is pretty fair. I only too well remember Robert Chase selling the family jewels when we were 5th in the league which subsequently turned in to relegation. The only thing that is different I guess is the amount of money that is floating around and that may possibly change the dynamics, even for Norwich.
It's an interesting point about the 80's/90's Chris, essentially being a selling club then. For a club of our size, we'll always lose our best players if a big offer comes in, but I don't think McNally would be so quick to take the cash as Chase was. More than that, Lambert and McNally (and Delia etc) clearly have a much better relationship than Chase ever had with any manager. Would we break from the young player way of buying, I'm sure if there was a good deal available for a good player, Lambert would act. The nucleus of the squad will always be young, I'd have thought, but that's not to say we wouldn't go for 'older' talent to bolster the squad.
Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but: "You'll never win anything with kids" - Alan Hansen - c.1999. And we all know what happened next. The fact of the matter is that, when we establish ourselves in the Premier League, and consequently make more money and become more financially stable, we will be able to afford better players. They will still be young, and they will still be hungry, but, in terms of skill level, it'll be much improved - instead of purchasing Huddersfield and Brighton players, we'll be buying Wolves, West ham, Wigan players etc. - depending on our progression as a football club. They'll still be young and hungry though, and our current players will have developed into more rounded athletes as well. Sorry Thai, but in my opinion your argument just doesn't stand up at all. ILWT.
Another thought to bear in mind is the young and hungry we can attract to the club is much better than the young and hungry we could attract in League 1 or the Championship. By being in the Premiership we can attract even better players who see Norwich as a great team to start off with, if they ever want to reach the standards of the top 4. Survival will mean we could attract even better young and hungry players than we do now.
I agree that Macnarly wants it to be right on the pitch first an foremost as then everything else falls into line as demonstrated right now. You could argue that Chase was facing the same sort of position we are in now - trying to renovate the ground and surrounding area. The difference being that you sort of feel that we will do it without the chance of financial commupence as experienced by Chase who was trying to leave a legacy but became tarnished because of it.
Disagree with you there fella. Its all supply and demand unfortunately. Nobody should underestimate the power agents and players have over this league. All that will happen over the next few years if we stay in the PL will be that players will swallow up all the excess money in terms of wages unfortunately.
Football has always been a question of the moment for the majority of clubs. We must enjoy the moment we are in and not worry about our position within the hierachy. We always will have to sell our very best players because of our location , history, prospects and ability to satisfy the needs of players financially and ambition etc. Just as we had no real difficulty in buying Pilks, Bennet, Morison etc from clubs that were having their own share of success. I played golf with a Burnley supporter today and we discussed the old days when Burnley reached the semi final of the European Cup. And he reminded me that they had won the league the previous season of course, but had still had to sell players to "bigger" clubs. Stop worrying about if we have the right manager or players. We have at the moment. Thanks for the welcome as well. And Dave, I was drinking Cornish Stout last night. Not bad but not too strong. I could still light the fuses on the fireworks!
"You'll never win anything with kids" - Alan Hansen - c.1999. And we all know what happened next. Already mentioned and I still believe it was a one off. The fact of the matter is that, when we establish ourselves in the Premier League, and consequently make more money and become more financially stable, we will be able to afford better players. They will still be young, and they will still be hungry, but, in terms of skill level, it'll be much improved - instead of purchasing Huddersfield and Brighton players, we'll be buying Wolves, West ham, Wigan players etc. - depending on our progression as a football club. They'll still be young and hungry though, and our current players will have developed into more rounded athletes as well. Neither you or I are in a position to say that is what is going to happen unless you are privileged with inside information? Sorry Thai, but in my opinion your argument just doesn't stand up at all. I wasn't trying to make an argument, I was trying to ask a question
