The game is changing season on season. With the even bigger PL pot next season you will see another jump. When Fulham bought McCormack for £11M the stakes were raised, now all the top championship talent is suddenly realising market worth of close to £10M (£9M for Gray) Championship clubs know that they can get that sort of money from PL clubs or even those with parachut payments. It was reputed that Blackburn turned down £13M for Rhodes. So Afobe at £12M probably rates at about market rate. Madness? yes but those from the PL can generally aford such madness. Those with an adequat or even good scouting network, can and will find more value abroad, but young, moderately talented and English, costs plenty of spondulicks! Bah!
This is where I feel we're missing a trick. OK, we can't compete fee-wise or wages-wise with the top PL clubs, but we could and should invest in a more pan-European scouting network, to unearth a few gems before they become household names and therefore highly valued assets In other words, pull yer finger out, Lee Darnborough! Edit: If they need somebody to scout for talent in Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, I'll happily volunteer I love the Balkans with a passion
I think we're adopting the policy of: the big clubs have advanced scouting networks, so they will unearth all the best players, they will inevitably then discard a number of those who won't make it at their level and thats where we come in, snaffling the rejects. In a way it is a policy that can work, we just need to be able to snaffle the right rejects at the right time. Forlan did rather well after Manure offloaded him but was still gonna be byond our reach, Brady and Bradley Johnson have also done well after early set backs and we have benefited. I'd rather get the great foreign and domestic gems first but where do you go that isn't already having the sh#t scouted out of it already? Bah!
Spot on Cromer and I'm sure there are gems to be had for sensible money if our scouting network was improved!!!
I don't know. Although he hasn't set the world alight this season, he clearly is a very valuable prospect, so after getting burnt for not believing we would end up essentially spending £7m on Brady I can see us spending that on Afobe. I think he's worth it tbh
I would wholeheartedly agree with you for transfers in the summer, but at this stage of the season I don't think we can afford to have dead weight acclimatising themselves to England - we need someone who knows the leagues and the style and is ready to fit in straight away. I.e. Naismith or Championship players. I know that's not glamourous, but with the primary objective being staying in the league, I think that is essential and we should save bargain hunting to when we can afford to take a risk in the summer
I have to agree Rob and let's hope we get at least a couple of players in before we host Citeh!!!! Just read an excellent comment on the EDP website from someone who now has 5 generations of his family all committed Canaries fans and I'm sure he speaks for all of us - http://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwic...otting_manchester_united_s_downfall_1_4354570 If you don't want to read it all - "I'm sick of hearing people say the club has to be careful ,look what happened to this club or that club when they spent this or that , we'll look what happened to our club when it didn't spend and look what's likely to happen again if they don't ,the club is not broke , the club can raise ( has ) money . After 60years of support and delighted to see a fifth generation of our family now committed supporters it makes me so frustrated to be asked the same questions about negative transfers negative board negative finance "
I personally disagree that that is an "excellent comment" myself, I actually think it's a rather short-sighted one and sadly having 60 years of support doesn't necessarily make somebody right - in fact from my experiences it can quite often have a rather inverse effect
I'm quiet pleased the Naismith rumors are back. I wasn't totally sure about him when linked in the summer, but he's looked decent when I've seen him for Everton, and he works his bottom off. We need work rate, fight at bottle, and I think he has plenty of it.
Superman doesn't rate him but as an ACM he gives us a decent and different alternative to Wes. I like his directness and energy and I think he would give a lot to the team.
He is an AN type player. Him, Jerome, Brady, Tetty, Mulumbu. All them working hard together in the same team would be something I'd be happy with traveling away against bigger teams.
Afobe update (I didn't realise Wolves were looking for a new owner - that surely 'moves the goalposts'?) http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=426926
Although I like Afobe, I also feel there would be a high degree of risk in spending £10-12m on a player who has never played in the PL. I'd prefer a more experienced player like Naismith or Walters in our present situation. Brady has certainly lived up to his £7m fee, but he was already proven in the PL. Afobe is not and we can't afford another RvW type disaster. His scoring record looks good, but that is likely to be reduced to around 60% in the PL (eg. Holt dropping from 24 goals in the Championship to 14 in the PL). Naismith is also more versatile, being able to play as a striker or AM, which is also an option we need.
Maybe I'm just greedy, but can't we just get them both? If we can flog two of Grabban, Hooper, RvW and Lafferty. Two lots of wages are available and particulaly if we get from Bournemouth what was offered in the summer for Grabban, a good proportion of the transfer fees too. Bah!
