He's not calling for the manager's head (yet), I whould imagine that he's just pissed off like many of the other players with the way the team are being asked to play ATM, especially away from home
On the subject of the story, I read nothing there to say JR didn't want to leave! He said he was happy to stay but that's not quite the same thing!
ruddy would have joined chelsea had an offer been accepted but he's happy to stay, he signed a new deal and understands that the offer wasn't enough to tempt the club. he's just being honest about it. i'm sure he'd have loved to go there but he's a sensible guy and has time on his side. he'll get his big move when the time is right
My passion for NCFC is such that sometimes I open my mouth, (or type for that matter) without thinking everything through. But, for the record, I am geniunely concerned that CH may not be able to appease the fans for much longer if the football doesn't improve. Losing is one thing, I didn't really think for one minute we would win at WHL despite my prediction of a 3-2 victory on the other thread, it's the way we are losing that's pissing me off. Although I don't travel to away games anymore (thank God), several of my mates and colleagues do and they're getting totally fed up and asking themselves why the hell they're bothering. Put it this way, if City had really gone for it and perhaps lost 3 or 4-1 creating chances along the way fans can accept that. However, when they are served up the same turgid football every away game they won't. IF our home games continue to grind out results and we survive in this division once more CH will probably keep his job, who knows. Fact is Superman, if we are still putting in the same performances and languishing in the bottom three at Christmas, the fans will probably force McNally's hand, rightly or wrongly, don't you agree? Where I work up until recently, I was the only one really giving CH the benefit of the doubt but the Hull and Spurs performances have now started to convince me otherwise. Regardless of the opposition mate (and we have some really tough fixtures coming up over the next month), performances have to improve IMO. There, that's my fourpenneth worth
I have a horrible feeling that he was settled and now his head has been turned and there is almost a "come and get me" underlying sentiment.
i have to take issue because this is precisely why as a club we could end up blowing the best chance we've probably ever had of sustained top flight football if a section of our fan base continually fail to understand what is going on at the moment. i keep saying the words 'transition' and 'patience' because that is where we're at right now. do you want us to get better, push on, get bigger and maybe even win things or is watching 'good football (whatever that is) all that matters? or would you ideally, like me, prefer all those things at the same time? this is an incredibly difficult league to stay in but a very easy one to be relegated from. long term strategy is the only way forward for clubs of our size and unless fans are prepared to be patient we will always drift and eventually fall straight back down and have to start all over again. it is a complete fallacy that fans are satisfied if their team 'go for it' but end up losing by 4 or 5. i know this - i've been at games, and not just with our club, where the team has gone for it but got thrashed and all i heard is 'why aren't we tighter, why aren't we more streetwise'? - cos that's what it is - we've started to morph into a stable mid table club who are more streetwise - we don't go into games naively anymore. is it fun? not particularly - sometimes it is - i reckon there has been slightly more poor games last season than the year before but only by two or three. but if we want to get any better in the long run its a stage of our development that we have to go through. christ, even man city, when they spent all those millions, at first they were dull as dishwater, drew about 8 games 0-0 i think, but that was because they had a long term plan and maybe the fans bought into that more because of the money involved, i don't know. thankfully i do not believe david mcnally is a rash man and he has his head screwed on and won't allow the fans to sway his judgement in any way. i will say this right now - if we are in the bottom three at christmas i do not think the board will act because they appointed hughton as the LONG TERM MANAGER with a LONG TERM PLAN. obviously there would be a caveat for such events as losing ten on the trot or the like, but all fans are going to do is rock the boat. they won't tip it over though, instead they'll create more problems that the club don't need.
I think it's time you gave up explaining the concept of a long term plan or transition Supers, they all want instant success.
Let's be honest shall we, the ideal situation would be a manager change (if only for the style!) and Hughton to remain as Director of Football, in charge of transfers. His record here at Norwich is nothing short of stunning in terms of the calibre of players brought in. Just seems to have no clue as to how to best exploit those undoubted talents. I'm willing to give him time; Spurs spent £100m, a defeat was inevitable, especially as it was Eriksen's debut! Everton - draw against a very good team Hull - very disappointing (the only bugbear so far this season) Southampton - good win Spurs - expected defeat
i'm just wondering but does the impatience of fans come from the club's lack of information? we all bought into the famous '7 year plan' back in our league one season. if i recall correctly the plan read something like this: year 1 - promotion to the championship year 2 - consolidate in the championship year 3 - top 6 finish in championship year 4 - promotion to the premier league year 5 - relegation to the championship year 6 - promotion to the premier league year 7 - consolidate in the premier league obviously that plan was binned and replaced with a more ambitious plan but do the club perhaps need to inform supporters of what that plan is? i imagine it to read something like this: year 1 - stay up and improve the squad (remember, this is the stage we've just completed as the first lambert season was included as part of the original plan) year 2 - stay up and improve the squad year 3 - stay up and improve the squad year 4 - stay up, improve the squad and add capacity year 5 - stay up and improve the squad year 6 - stay up, improve the squad and win something! year 7 - stay up, improve the squad and play in europe what would have happened had we not blitzed the initial 7 year plan? would some fans now be getting itchy feet because we are in year 5 and back in the championship? even if we were on course for the targets of that plan, i'm sure it wouldn't be good enough for some fans. are we now paying the penalty for being too successful, too quickly? according to the old plan we should be at level two right now - we are doing remarkably well, all things considered. ok, the football isn't always brilliant but name a season when the football HAS always been brilliant? some seasons are better to watch than others - its just a stage you go through. its like travelling along a long road - eventually you'll see something of interest but you have to go through boring bits to get there. you get poor games no matter who you support or who the manager but when we have one it seems to be highlighted more under hughton than anyone else i can remember. what makes anyone think any other manager would set us up differently?
In the eyes of most supporters, there is absolutely no point is spending tens of millions on attacking players, if you don't adapt your tactical strategy accordingly. Totally agree with Ruddy, we have the players to open up the opposition defence, but we persist in a defensive-style, which knowing that we concede in every game virtually, is a disaster as we always have to chase a goal or score 2 outright. Everyone hoped that having signed RvW and Hooper, with Redmond and Fer, that we would see a much more attractive brand of attacking football. It remains to be seen... Coming summer, assuming we survive, the midfield department is due a revamp: Surman, Fox, Tettey, Bennett all will be upgraded
You're right mate, but I'm bored of reading about/discussing this now (not that I'm blaming you - you're just defending my viewpoint so well that I don't feel the need to post). Yeah yeah, I know I don't have to come on this forum if I don't want to but I don't understand why this has come up this season. We've played 5 games so far: 1. 2-2 vs. Everton - a very entertaining game, as always against the Toffees. 2. 0-1 vs. Hull - yes, a disappointing outcome but I refuse to believe that we didn't give our all against 10 men, looking for a draw. Do you think Hughton'd been happy with a loss? I believe the result stemmed from a lack of fluidity between our several new players. 3. 6-3 vs. Bury - 9 goals. 6, was it, in 20 minutes? 4. 1-0 vs. Southampton - we played well, we won. Great! 5. 0-2 vs. Spurs - we were simply played off the park by a side that clicked on the day. It says absolutely nothing about Hughton's desired style of play. For goodness sake guys, get off his back and show him some support. He's going nowhere fast no matter how much you, the minority, whine!
Sorry Goldeneye, I didn't realise you'd already given pretty much the same summation of our matches this season as me!
you've basically answered your own query. the midfield needs revamping as it doesn't create enough chances for our striker(s). had hughton had £50m to spend during the summer we may have been able to do something about that but it'll have to wait until next summer now. he has been told to revamp the personnel and that is what he is being criticised for, even though everyone thinks he's done it well! eh? i mean, had he worked on the midfield this summer everyone would be moaning that we've nobody capable of taking the chances they create! the poor sod can't win. and you seem to be getting confused with lambert's team. hughton's team is pretty good defensively and actually give us a platform where we only need to take one chance to win or draw a game rather than have to score two every game, so i don't get your point with that at all. 12 clean sheets last year (with a 2nd choice keeper for much of the season) compared with 3 the season before. i prefer to see my team in a position where i know that if we get a chance and take it, it might be enough to win the game. maybe not as exciting but certainly a better way to manage a team.
