If you class survival in the Premiership and not being involved in a relegation scrap with a month of the season to go as ' glass half empty ' then I suppose Robbie that your assessment is correct. If, however, you class such an achievement as ' glass full ' then mine is still 7/8ths full.
And the thing that gives us realists the most comfort Beefy is that, unlike the optimists, we can only end up pleased but never disappointed.
Go on take a risk, be optimistic! , I did actually agree with the bit in your earlier post regarding goal scoring opportunities(in bold), I think we are definitely lacking in that department, need a AM. I don't really like Toivonen as a person but I do hope he signs for us as we need someone like him.
Exactly, it's a massive cop out. Just remain negative and then if we do well just go along with everyone else
You seem to agree with the line promoted by Robbie that expecting next season to produce not only survival but also not involved in the relegation scrap during the last month - which is what I was predicting - is ' negative ' I don't think it is and I think it is a realistically positive assessment of our chances next season. All I did say following what I have seen in the 2 friendlies is that my confidence in that prediction will be reduced unless the system or squad is not tweeked.
if you're constantly negative or looking for the negatives, you never have any fun! that's why i don't understand the approach. i'm labelled positive on here but i'm actually very realistic if you read my comments. there's a time and a place to be negative and i don't see that time being a week before the season starts when we've just had a cracking transfer window and are about to play for our third consecutive season in the premier league. believe me, i was royally negative during the dark days of 'doomcaster' but some people do need to lighten up - how can you not enjoy what's happening to our club right now? if we go down, so what? its just football at the end of the day and we've just had a fantastic four years. when you see what is happening down the road compared to us, yet their fans are more positive than some of ours! it makes no sense...
I guess I'm with the 'pessimists' on this one, I was very unimpressed with the quality of service to RvW. I too kept a close eye on him, and his movement was very intelligent, and he kept trying to make runs, with little attempt to pick him out. The easiest way to conclude it is that he's too good for the rest of our team! I'm hoping Fer as a CAM was an experiment we won't be seeing again, as he was much better from a deeper position. The only advantage I saw from having him more advanced was that his height/strength meant he could be used as an aerial target, something neither Hoolahan, Howson or Butterfield offer. I really hope Toivonen signs, because by the sounds of him he's got the intelligence and creativity needed in that position, but with the height to be a route-one escape when the defence are under pressure. It's only pre-season, so there's bound to be tinkering and experimentation. However, we're only a week away from the new season, and several players looked a long way short of match fit, and that's a more pressing concern to me. I don't think physically we're ready to hit the ground running.
top post this superman that line hits the nail on the head for me, i can't be negative if the season hasn't even kicked off yet (and the transfer window is not closed). christ it could be worse, palace are in talks to sign chamakh"!
I just wish sometimes people would read what I say rather than what they think I say. I agree with everything you say so what have I actually written to contradict it? If you accept that the further progress I have predicted is success then we are in for a fantastic 5th year. To think that only last year I was rebuked by a couple of contributors for following the line of ' remember where we were 3 seasons ago!! The last 4 years have been the longest spell of pleasure I have had in my 62 years attendance at Carrow Road but anybody who thinks we will make massive improvement next year in terms of league place and points total is, in my opinion, in for disappointment
Whilst it would be beneficial to get another AM in, I don't think it is quite as vital as some are suggesting. I remember during our 10 match unbeaten run seeing a statistic which showed that Hoolahan was the 3rd or 4th most creative player in the league at that time. The way in which this was determined was by measuring the frequency with which players created goal scoring opportunities. Of course, this form tailed off and was probably partly due to the form of the team in general dipping. However, with the added movement of the likes of Hooper and RVW, I see no reason why Hoolahan, for at least part of the season, won't be able to be effective again this term. We also have a lot more options in terms of personnel and the associated change in formation which is entailed by these incoming players. We now have pace (in the form of Redmond and Olsson), the ability to play two up top (now that we have the protection of Fer and a better selection of strikers to choose from), the 'hole' can be filled with several different players (RVW and Hooper can drop in and alternate, Hoolahan, Butterfield, Howson), and we still retain the aerial presence (and indeed added to it with Fer and RVW) that was so vital to us last season. I think we are already in much better shape in an attacking sense and we may yet even add to it! I'm definitely in the optimistic camp at the moment.
As a balanced fan I would say it all depends on how the team gel, if Hooper can play as well with RVW as he did Stokes I can see us in the top ten.
But surely that is the whole crux of the discussion Fenland. Hooper and Stokes were given a constant stream of opportunities against fairly weak defences. If Hooper and RVW get the same diddlyshit as Holt & Co got last year against Premiership defences then .........
i also believe people who think we will suddenly be propelled towards the top 6 or assured of safety or are immediately going to have a faultless and/or beautiful football team to watch are living in cloud cuckoo land. its a gradual process and as i've said many, many times on here before, this stage of the development of our club will be painfully slow because we have hit a bit of a ceiling. ok, we can move up a bit but even a vast improvement wouldn't allow us to leap very far. we could be in store for a few years of mediocrity, albeit in the top division, but people will have to accept that because there is no quick fix from this point. it takes time, lots of time as well as money and better infrastructure.
why don't you just have a bit of faith for once? holt scored 8 premier league goals last season, despite limited service. we now have two better strikers in our squad so even with limited service they should both be capable of beating that. we have better players all over the pitch than we did last season - of course we aren't going to be perfect and there will be elements of our games which are still weak, poor even, but what did you expect? there's no magic wand. look how much we've spent, and still we've got issues to sort. it'll take ages to get right - why not sit back and actually enjoy seeing your team play in the top division. it hasn't happened all that often of late!
I agree with you there and that's why we need Ola Toivonen, I think he'll make the difference between us finishing in the top or bottom half of the table. I'm sure CH will be aware of that need though after the friendlies.
