JG, we've added a striker which spurs seemed to want, and a lot of teams are gobsmacked came to us, fought off other PJ sides to sign a bright young winger, and appear to have signed a DM that Everton definitely wanted in January, to me those are huge steps up! As to the foreign vs domestic debate, try naming players of the quality and age of Fer and RvW, on affordable wages and who won't cost the earth, and you'll probably come up with a very short list! For sure, none of these players are 'proven', but the likes of Danny Graham arguably are, and look how he's flopped! Yep, we're still at least one striker light, and other positions could be strengthened if funds are there, but considering the window has been open less than a fortnight, I'm very happy with progress so far, and nothing from the club suggests we're finished in the market yet.
Seriously? We are 11 days into the transfer window and have signed RvW plus picked up Redmond who is an excellent English prospect, got Olson,the Swedish international left back and made Garrido permanent. On top of this we have a Dutch international midfielder on the cusp of signing and Hooper on the back-burner. I reckon that CH and the board are doing pretty well so far. What makes you think that we won't sign more quality up front? Do you honestly think that our management team are so hare-brained as to sell our top scorer without a replacement lined up. Remember we did not have to sell Holty, we chose to.
Someone on the pinkun and on twitter (same person) is claiming to of seen McNally with someone who looked like Hooper at Carrow Road. He is claiming he is not trolling. Not saying I am 100% buying it but he does post often on the pinkun and it would maybe explain why the Fer announcement has been held back. Well that's one way of looking at it anyway!
On twitter someone said that maybe this bloke mistook Toby Alderweireld for Hooper, I think that's possible, on twitter Dutch football said earlier in the week he was due to go to Norwich for talks with CH. I think Toby Alderweireld would be more likely to sign than Hooper.
so let me get this straight. jeremy wants big names but also wants players who will have heard of norwich city and want to play for us? not asking for much are you i do not know how old you are but trust me when i say the business we have done so far and are apparently planning to do will take some beating for a club of our size. huge improvements being made with the additions of young and exciting players* who all want to play for the club. they wouldn't be here if they didn't. *and carlo nash. bless him
Is the PJ league something to do with Supers?? There are plenty of players we could look to sign within the prem that would be a step up. I recon i could name quite a few. It shows ambition to try and lure away other teams strikers. Redmond surely won't get a look in next season. Olsson is cover. Has Fer signed?? RVW totally untested. I hope your right that CH has something in the pipe line, as if Hopper really wants to sign for us he would have by now. It's no secret we have been keen on him so you would have thought it would have been one of the very first deals done if it was ever going to happen.
I can kind of see where jg is coming from. Of the signings we've made so far, only RVW is a serious improvement, and as it stands we've sold four strikers since we bought him! Redmond is promising but one for the future, Nash will probably never play, and Olsson isn't too much of an improvement on Garrido. However, the other names we've been linked with are very exciting. If we can sign Fer, Alderweireld and Hooper on top of what we've already got I think it could well be the best summer Norwich have ever had, transfer wise.
Nah remember Celtic don't really want to sell Hooper, they want to try and sweat a few teams get a bidding war going so they at least get a good price. No one panics an bids big at this stage. I've heard several rumours that Hopper is genuinely interested in joining, it's all about Celtic at the moment.
RvW - holt (improvement) redmond - no other left winger (improvement) garrido - garrido (equal - obviously!) olsson - tierney (improvement) nash - steer (neither would have played) fer (when he signs) - tettey (improvement) if they sign: hooper - jackson/martin/vaughan (improvement) alderweireld - turner (improvement) i fail to see the issue.
Do you really think it is possible for us to become "a force" in the PL in so short a time? What does "a force" actually mean? A club seriously challenging for Europe, i.e. top six? A team heavily backed to win one or other of the Cup competitions? Heaven's, Liverpool haven't been a real force for several years. Everton aren't really "a force". Newcastle thought they had become a force, but look where they finished last season. WBA have been in the league for how many years but are still not a force. Ditto Wigan and Stoke. I would say a realistic ambition for us this season is to be comfortably mid-table and have a good crack at the Cups. To do that we need to strengthen across the squad, not just to improve quality but so that injuries, international calls, staleness and lack of competition for places do not impact on performance week by week. That has to be done within the club's current financial constraints. Becoming "a force" will take considerably longer.
So in summary, all three outfield players above are improvements-to varying degrees - also it is perfectly possible for Redmond to become a regular starter in the first team (or at the very least an impact player with pace) Young players can develop in a exponential manner and given that he was one of the successes of the under 21 team then it is possible he could make a big impact, even if he doesn't this season it is likely that he will go on and improve. There is now more competition for places in defence - again another positive and I also think that Ryan Bennett could be akin to a star signing in the forthcoming season. I have no idea what people expect- when man city "inherited" some cash they had to pay massively over the odds in terms of wages to get players to come to them ; i.e. compensation for non champions league at that stage. If we are making improvements without breaking the bank then that is a MASSIVE improvement.
you make a good point robbie and i really fail to see where jeremy is coming from. surely the next stage for our club is to become a stable force in the top flight. with the signings we are making this is EXACTLY what we are trying to do. if by force you mean challenge towards the top of the league then you'll be waiting some time! a lot of rival fans are sitting up and noticing our work this window - there is a very good reason for that... good signings!
No, you've completely failed to see my point. RVW is better than Holt, but I already said that. However, as it stands, our strike force as a whole is seriously depleted. If Pilkington wasn't a winger last season, I don't know what he is, and I'd say he's currently better than Redmond (they just have different attributes). I wasn't comparing Garrido to Garrido, or Olsson to Tierney, I was comparing Garrido to Olsson, as Garrido was with us for the whole of last season. To me, there isn't much difference. As you say, neither Nash or Steer have played. The rest of what you said is completely irrelevant as I made it clear that I was talking only of our acquisitions so far. I'd like to make it clear that I am perfectly content with what we've done up to this point though.
I mean a force in the transfer market. We are an established Prem team now, and with the way Norwich is run and the type of team and youth system we are building I was just hoping we maybe able to have enticed a few big names. I'm not saying become the next QPR and bring in a load of nags on high wages.
our attack is depleted as it stands but we are still trying to sign more strikers so that point is invalid! if the season began tomorrow then you'd have a very good point!! we had no back up left winger to pilks - redmond means he now has competition! being different as you say is another plsu point, it gives us more options. olsson for me is better than garrido but there will be excellent competition now between all four full backs - again, only a good thing and if an injury or suspension should befall one of them we have an equally good player to replace them with. nash is pretty irrelevant in all this debate. i really don't think any of this is particularly complicated to understand...
but we ARE showing that we are a force in the transfer market! many big clubs were sniffing around redmond (though its up for debate whether they bid or not) but we did beat swansea to him (a team in europe next year). we also signed rvw ahead of many other teams in what was a really clever move by the club. fer looks likely too and again, linked with everton - their fans are furious that he could be going to 'little norwich'. we are competing against the likes of liverpool, spurs and others for some of these players. we might not get them all but we are showing we are in the market for this type of player. we are norwich city - big name players are not likely to come here. i think we've done bloody well to get RvW here to be honest. he is a big name player in europe and fer is well on the way to being so too. you're over ambitious.
Well how about Peter Crouch? Played for us before, we would have signed him if we haven't chose Huckerby. Proven goal scorer, target man that would suit CH down to the ground and would work well with RVW. I'm not saying that's the player we should sign, but its 'for an instance'. Seriously there are loads I can think of odemwingie? Nani lol
I can't remember being more excited during a transfer window in many, many (sigh) years of supporting City. It is said that a person winning a large amount of money on, say, the lottery, is ecstatic for a while, but quickly reverts to how they felt prior to the win. This is surely a good analogy for some of us at the moment.
