from my point of view the club on the pitch is at a cross roads. we've had to replace one of the best managers we've ever had whilst also aiming to insure against relegation having achieved so much in such a short space of time. hughton's brief was a simple one this year - stay up. anything else was always going to be a bonus because this season was always going to be a massive fight for survival for us. i personally think we've done slightly better than i had anticipated, although i did think we'd stay up. the only gripe i have is that he is often way to slow to make subs. i suspect that he would be a bit more ambitious with his changes if he felt he had better quality to use from the bench! we have not played badly this season, but i will concede that there have been a few games, especially recently, which have been poor fair. not sure if anyone has noticed but we've been on a poor run - to stop this poor run he appears to be getting back to basics, defending deep and making sure we are difficult to break down. i see no issue with that. next stage is to bring a bit more ambition back again, starting with fulham. stogy football does not bother me. it would bother me if we were someone like everton or even stoke - a team that are fairly sure to be safe each year. but we are nowhere near that stage yet, and to get to that stage, unless you have had years to perfect your style (a la swansea), you have to go through a stage of more rigid, robust football before you can add the quality going forward which we will require to play the way WE ALL WANT TO SEE. cos that's the point isn't it? we ALL want to see great football. but i do think some people forget where we are right now. you only need to look at the type of players the manager wants to bring in (hooper, van wolfswinkel, biglia etc) to see that he himself knows how to change the current team into one which will a) be better on the eye and b) be higher up the table. trust him - he knows what he's doing!
I expect us to continue to strengthen the squad in the summer, as we did last summer. If we add 3 or 4 quality additions - i think we all know the areas we need to improve on - then you've got to hope that next season will include some more attractive football. I think we all expected a struggle this season, but that doesn't make it any easier when you are going through it. Whilst we don't know the exact ins and outs of the finances of the club, it's common knowledge that the external debt and interest repayments for the Jarrold stand will be gone by the end of May, and there is going to be a material increase in TV money. So the playing staff budget will be much bigger next season ( but then so will eveyone elses on the latter point). We stay up - the priority for CH and co - and things look a lot lot brighter, if we can attact good players to Norwich.
My point wasn't saying that we need to go out and buy more flair players with greater technical ability in the summer, rather that we shouldn't stifle the ones we already have and we should allow them to play and express themselves in a way that they don't appear to have the freedom to do just lately.
I think that you have hit the nail on the head. I think we do have decent players. As I have said on previous posts, Pilks and Benno are attacking players but they appear to be just filling in at the moment. I will concede that we can be dire away from home but surely with 4 of our next 5 homes certainly winnable, we can risk two up front to get those wins and make next season a certainty. By the way, the 13 decades was just to show that this football club has been a part of me for so long. I first started reading the Pink Un in 56-57 season and first game was 59-60. Couldn't wait for the sound of the letterbox at 6.30pm on a Saturday when the Pink Un arrived. PS Would American generals get agitated by a Pink UN?
i agree - just lately. are people unable to recall games from before the recent poor run? we played some lovely stuff in many games and although we have never been as gung-ho as we were last term, we still passed the ball well and created opportunities. lately, he is making sure we go back to basics (much like we did after the previous international break - i think even one or two players have alluded to this recently). the biggest issue lately has been that the players have been off-colour and can't pass to one another! being unable to hang on to the ball for more than five seconds is inevitably going to lead to pressure being put on us. our forward play on occasion has been great this season - swansea away being arguably the best half of attacking football i've ever witnessed played by a norwich city team - spurs away was similar - but we do not have the most creative forward players. it wasn't even that creative last season, but because we threw so many forward from all over the pitch and played with the full backs up the pitch, we overran teams. problem is, we can't play as naively as that anymore. in fact, what we DO need is a little more guile and i don't see that in our current forward players other than snodgrass and hoolahan who can both drift in and out of games. throw in two or three better forward-thinking footballers and the dynamic of the whole team changes immediately. staying up will give us the opportunity to bring these guys in. that is why i don't understand the criticism because by taking a step back and thinking more long term, its easy to see that there is a plan in place.
Your final "if" is something that those who have been fantasizing about Wolfswinkel, Biglia and such like have simply overlooked. If I was a Wolfswinkel and in the January window my agent had told me Norwich were interested in signing me I would have said to him "Not yet thanks". My reasons would have been: Norwich City (a) are not yet safe from relegation this season; (b) their current wage structure is still constrained by having to pay off their debt this year; (c) their squad -- for all the deserved success they've had (relatively speaking) -- is a bit too short of skill; when I move I want to go a club where I'll be playing with team mates of a similar or better standard than myself. Come the summer the first two reasons for not joining this January will no longer apply. But the third will still cause potential quality signees to hesitate. I am sure we will be able to improve the quality in the squad to a degree this coming summer, but my own feeling is that it will take somewhat longer before the type of player we all want to see wearing a Canary shirt will sign for us in their prime.
Robbie, that's a fair point and a bridge we need to cross. on the flip side, southampton have done it in signing Gaston Ramirez - he must be on a reasonable wage, however Saints are of a similar standing to us as a club and squad-wise.
If I may add another "if" into this equation, that being IF we stay up. I think too many people are simply assuming we've got enough in the can already and merely need to go through the motions between now and May to pick up the points we need - which is definitely not the case. I'm confident that we will stay up, but to be honest if we play like we did on Saturday too many more times then better teams than koo pee arr (who are of course the worst team in the league, being rooted to the bottom as they are) are going to roll us over with barely a whmper. I'm fully expecting (well, hoping for at least) a much, much better performance going forward on Saturday against Fulham, where three points should definitely be our aim. However if we do turn out another limp, lifeless and bloody awful showing in the opposition's half like we did last week then I can see us maybe losing, which will surely set the alarm bells ringing in the dressing rooms of all the other clubs down there that we are ripe for the picking and right in the relegation scrap.
Yes, but I believe there were special factors that made that apparent coup possible. Saints are actually in a somewhat better position than us financially too. But you are right, it will always be possible that you land a big fish even if against the odds.
I don't think anybody assumes we only have to "go through the motions" between now and May. What they believe if that the squad have enough to get the required points. As CH has said time and again, City need to play at something close to their best to get anything out of a game. In that sense Saturday, dire as it was to many, provided a bonus, because we were certainly not "close to our best".
Now that I wholeheartedly agree with Let's just hope we see the Norwich City from before Christmas on Saturday against Fulham, even if we don't get all three points I just hope we have a bloody good go at it
Saints have quite a wealthy backer who felt that NA was not getting the best out of the players, hence why Nige got his P45. Also, same goes for Reading who since they got their wealth y backer were able to sign Pogrebnyak and pay him quite a decent salary. Personally, I'd rather be in the position we find ourselves and fight 'tooth and nail' to survive and stay in the PL!!!
Yes i appreciate both reading and saints have wealthy backers who have put money in, that wasn't my point. it was more following on from robbie's point about new players potentially only being attracted to a club if there are already 'quality' players in the dressing room. the ramirez case is i think an exception to that.
While I agree with the main point of your post, I do think a lot of people are deliberately falsely stating QPR's status and it's a weak point. Yes, we didnt play brilliantly, but to claim QPR are the worst team in the league is a little misleading. As we all know, form in football is what counts (our poor run contributing to our negative play...) QPR are 12 in the form guide over the last six matches, very hard to beat under Redknapp (as shown by their draw against City and win at Chelsea). Additionally, while I think their players are grossly overpaid, I think it's indisputable that many of them are of high quality. Allied to the fact that 'Arry is a good manager and still in his honeymoon period, I think it is a very bad example. So while, yes, QPR are the worst team in the league over the season so far, I really don't think they are the worst at the moment (whether it will be enough, I personally doubt). If we were playing Villa, Stoke or Wigan, I might agree with you. For that reason, I really don't feel our performance was that bad. Yes, it was turgid, but we created enough to score at least three (Hoolahan spooned one, and two very high quality saves from Cesar which I would not expect from every 'keeper in the league). Lest we forget, QPR did a very good job, as 'Arry's team have a habit of doing, of making our lives difficult. Fulham may well give us a bit more space. Of course, it's all very difficult to say, but I sincerely feel that Saturday's performance is not one to judge our season or even our current state given the fact that everything about QPR is completely mental and utterly unpredictable (and totally tasteless). If we play poorly (and horribly) against Fulham, Everton and Southampton, I will be very concerned, but in the meantime I'm just going to withhold judgment.
My point though, was prefaced by an implicit "other things being equal". The sight and sound of pound coins pouring out of the Loftus Road slot-machine makes all else irrelevant.
For me the best way to stay in this league (and for years to come) is to play football, absolutely nothing will change my mind on this. If this run of defeats and draws continues it will kill the team dead with nothing to develop. Where do you improve on winning free kicks, crossing from far and wide, confined to set areas, its just about as basic as it gets. Its not some special tactical insight that Hughton has, its a cheap and easy way to play. Even when we had our good run it was the same apart from a couple of games. Where Lambert had absolute faith in his players Hughton doesn't appear to have any and wants to interfere. I can see us turning into some mixed up doppelganger of George Graham's Arsenal, except we'll be losing 1-0.
If we are talking about quality players then where do we think they will come from? Do we have time to pick up a promising Championship player, Bridcutt for example, as we have with Butterfield we assume, and wait for them? Are there any players that fit that mould but are ready to step up to Prem football, and improve what we already have? If we look on the continent as we did with Tettey, do we move away from this Club Norwich attitude that appears to be what everyone, board, management and supporters wants? I know things have changed but we used to be able to produce or buy players who could control the ball, pass accurately and attack and defend with equal determination. Have these type of player disappeared? One I always use as an example was Dave Williams. We bought him from Bristol Rovers and everyone thought cheap, cheap. By the time we had got back into the 1st Division, the guy was getting 7's and 8's for his performances. He just did the simple thing but was accurate with it. But the play was progressive. Are there really no players out there who fit our bill? Was the only player available out there in the USA? Is every decent player out of our price range?
This is the point I have been banging on about for 18 months, there are hundreds of players out there we could by that are better than what we have to improve our style of play. You could practically drop a pin on any team sheet in Spain or Portugal and they will be technically better than 90% we have here. We are so lacking in this department of basic controlling a ball and passing accurately when under pressure. If I were the manager of an opposition team I would drum into them to press us high up the field because we are terrible at passing the ball when under pressure. We just can't do it, the ability isn't there. If we had signed Wolfswinkle, I really don't have a clue how he'd fit into our play because on all his highlight videos, I honestly don't think we could give him those kinds of chances without a total change in how we play.
carrabuh - I'm beginning to come round to your point of view - something I didn't think would happen. I think our inept display when under pressure in the 2nd half both against Spurs and QPR is something that CH and his staff need to work on before Fulham visit CR on Sat!!!!
