If Naismith is available for £8m in Jan then we need to go and sign him. He is about the most proven player we are going to be able to bring in and if it wasn't for Lukaku at Everton he would surely have had considerably more playing time for them. £8m is not a lot of money for someone who will improve our team - yes it is a lot of money but not in relation to Premier League transfers. even if we get 2-3 good seasons out of him then it would be worth it for me. He fits the bill and is spoken about highly by Martinez and has conducted himself well even when thinking of leaving Everton.
Any striker we bring in would only need to score enough to keep us up to repay a sub £10m transfer fee. Naismith has to be worth a punt - plenty of experience and in theory at the peak on his career. Much as I like Jerome and admire his work rate and what he gives to the team he is just not going to score sufficient goals to save us.
Agree with this reluctantly, as I really like Jerome and thought he'd do better this year. I like Naismith as well but the new rumour today is Sebastien Haller, a 21 year-old French striker who plays for Utrecht for £6.5. A bit more risky but could be worth a punt as well.
Bearing in mind that we're 3 games shy of half way through the season and our top scorer is a wide man who drifts in and out of games tells everyone connected with the club one area that demands urgent attention. Some of the shambolic - and quite simply, often non-league standard individual mistakes being made at the back surely highlights another? But then, the experienced Cuellar wasn't the answer last time around - nor was the 'up and coming' youthful approach of Ignasi Miquel! So WTF is ? And, apart from rats wishing to join a sinking ship, how do we convince whoever to give it a whirl in the yellow shirt??
Cuellar and Miguel were also cheap options - in relation to what you need to be paying for players who are Premier League standard. Our issues as a club with transfers are that we aren't prepared to spend the amount of money to bring in a players who would potentially come here and some others are. As our wage structure is smaller that the vast majority of club most establish premier league players are out of our reach even if we can afford the initial fee. At some point, we will need to push our budget on a few players to see if we can become more comfortable in the league. I would suggest that this is something our board have decided not do so far - I am sure they only have the interests of the club at heart so I cant blame them for this. My only criticism is that our net spend this year on transfers is so small - I wonder if we could have really pushed the Naismith transfer sooner or for more wages ect? Obviously we will never know the answer. Similarly Brady has turned out to be great business but did we spend too long trying to get the deal done? We may have been able to pay fractionally more and get him in the door sooner allowing us to focus in other areas. I am not privy enough to know the ins and outs of the above just food for thought really and my opinion. I feel we need to change or transfer tactics in the upcoming window but I am just not sure how and if we are going to be able to do that. If not, i think we will definitely be a 'yoyo' team for some time if we continue with the same sensible policy. Maybe that's not a bad thing - exciting attacking championship football followed bu a season of few goals and potential relegation. One thing is that at least our club is in a good position financially.
I'm not so sure we are in anything like a strong position financially, certainly not when compared with the other 19 teams in the Premier League anyway. I had the game on telly yesterday when the Tesco delivery bloke showed up and we got into a brief conversation about football. When I said I was a Norwich fan he told me they're his 'second team' due to the fact his best mate used to play for them. Only turns out his best mate was none other than Bradley Johnson! I had to ask him if he knew anything about the circumstances of his move and whether it was Bradders who wanted the transfer and apparently not. he had no interest in moving on, was happy at Norwich and the only reason the deal happened was because of the money as we couldn't afford to turn down the £5m or whatever it was. Doesn't sound particularly ambitious to me that, and I fear our summertime prudence might well come back to bite us
I think as we go about our transfer business the club are going to be very aware of the fact we're the least attractive team in the League, when factoring in league position and budget. Perhaps only Villa will struggle more. We'll need to keep deals very quiet, and perhaps take risks to prevent being usurped. We're probably capable of attracting anyone from the championship outside the top 4 teams, but there's not a lot of individual quality in those teams that would help us. Joe Mason, Lucas Joao maybe? I'm struggling though. And then they'd probably only be squad options not starters. Otherwise we're looking at outsiders at other Prem clubs, and overseas. In the first category, Kevin Mirallas, Andros Townsend, Joel Campbell, Matt Targett are perhaps available, then I'm struggling. And not all of them suit us anyway. Business is going to be very difficult, so let's hope the board can pull some rabbits out of the hat.
James Chester on loan from WBA anyone? Not heard anything, just speculating that he might need a move to get some game time as he's having a shocker under Pulis so far.
I'm not sure he necessarily falls into the category of improving us significantly, but he'd certainly add the necessary depth at a reasonable price, and free up money for stronger signings further forward.
Interesting - just had a read about his situation as you posted this suggestion as he wasn't on my radar. It sounds like he is really frustrated with not getting game time (even speaking to the press...) It's not clear to me why - from the news articles it sounds like Pulis was keen to use him as a RB (presumably because he's pretty short for a CB) but interestingly Craig Dawson has made the RB berth his own (despite naturally being a CB). Assuming that is the real reason - just simply Dawson keeping him out - then I think he'd be a good signing. I don't think he would come cheap though, as West Brom would want their £8m back which they paid Hull. His wages might be quite high too. I imagine some on here will be put off because he isn't quite the massive dominant CB people would want though
Wouldn't expect us to sign him, certainly not for what they paid, but maybe a loan deal would work for both parties?
RvW has scored ... twice, for Real Betis in a 3-3 draw away at Sporting Gijon. Our problems are solved Edit: Hooper has scored for the owls... we have a veritable embarrassment of riches up front
Sounds like he's got a bit of a soft spot for NCFC? http://readnorwich.com/2015/12/15/naismith-i-liked-hearing-norwich-fans-sing-name/?
Highlights of the Betis game below. Wasn't too convinced by Ricky's finish for the first, but he showed good desire and technique to convert the header. If you're in a rush his goals are at 1:10 and 3:15.
When I saw him go through on goal for his first, I thought "Go on Ricky, fire it home!". When I saw his resulting finish, I thought "Yep, that's the sort of finish we expect from our Ricky!". The 'keeper must have been gutted.
No great surprise to learn that Turner would like to make his loan move to the Owls a permanent one. Would he be valuable as back-up, though, if we fail (once again) to get somebody in? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35094109
