The vast majority of the squad are, at best, good Championship players but lack the additional quality to be Premier League players and as such apart from Brady, Klose, Redmond and maybe Howson I can't see any interest from Premiership clubs in any of our players which means that the "spine" of the squad will remain intact. We need to shift a couple on - Whittaker for sure (we have Pinto now), Mbokani won't stay anyway, and I suspect that Dorrans or Mulumbu may be moved on for some fresh legs. With the departures (hope Klose stays though - I'd build the team around him if he does) I've listed above offset by some good acquisitions - another CB, another AM (although this might be Maddison) to challenge an ageing Wes and two proven strikers (who know where the net is and show the necessary composure in front of goal we should be fine and a definite challenger, especially if we give some of the kids (Toffolo, the Murphy's, Loza/King) a bit of a chance.
I imagine either of them may have scored more than Jerome if given a run . Freezing out strikers seems to have backfired as Jerome has been pants. Hooper ignored then sold Lafferty ignored Bamford ignored Wolfswinkel ignored Naismith played almost every game and other than his debut one of the worst players every time . Grabban ignored then sold Mbokani played well against Liverpool and Watford but will be off next week. Jerome played way too many games and missed more attempts than a drunk Grabban. Very very bad choices by Neil.
It's funny how we all see the same things diferently and we all think our way is the right way. RvW was ruined by poor management and Snoddy's jealous selfishness, Lafferty has scored ONE (1) goal at Brum, Hooper was overweight and unfit, Bamford had already gone off the boil when he faced us at Wembly, Grabban is not, never has been and never will be a striker, Naismith has been a good performer since he finally shook off his injury!
The following seems to me like a very down to earth, honest assessment of the situation we find ourselves in, and of the season just passed and the season(s) to come. He´s certainly aware of the restrictions and restraints the club are working under, and, on the surface, is content to carry on working with them in place. To me, that sounds like very good news. http://www.canaries.co.uk/news/article/alex-neil-norwich-city-relegation-reaction-3110823.aspx
Lafferty may have scored 1 (ONE) goal but from SIX (6) games and mostly in the last TEN (10) minutes of the game at Birmingham England's SECOND (2ND) City.
Perhaps more to the point SN, you should be considering why Lafferty was only playing the last 10 minutes of games, for a mid-table Championship side, if he should be deemed good enough to be starting PL games for us.
He suffered an Injury after his second game on International duty and nearly didn't even go to Brum . http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/birmingham-city-team-news-gary-11120471
I actually agreed with all of that Dave, then I read the last sentence. Naismith is ****ing **** and one of the worst players to ever pull on a yellow jersey. A complete waste of money, Everton have ****ed us over bigtime. Needless to say, I hope he leaves in the summer and good riddance to bad rubbish!
Having read through this thread it's clear that your hurting and understandably so, but you will bounce back, it seems to me you have just been unlucky with some of your players, who are clearly not PL standard. When you look at Swansea we too have had our first tough season, this season has been bizzare to say the least, and for us it nearly cost us our PL status, Gomis was our problem, totally inept striker who was clearly not of PL quality, what our Chairman was thinking when he signed the donkey only he knows, but we managed to pick our feet up after getting shot of Monk, and can now rebuild this summer. I'm sure you will get the quality players soon enough to bounce you back up, you seem a well run club that has just lost focus, so wish you all the best next season and please take 6 points off Cardiff........
I don't buy all this anti-Naismith sentiment (and I use the word carefully). Last night was a very solid performance both getting forward and getting back to defend. Not many AMs do that. He's very good at finding space and exploiting it. I think many people are expecting him to play as a striker, but that's not his main game. Like Wes, he's a linking player and his understanding with Mbokani has been very good in a short time. The injury did hamper him for several weeks but IMO he could be a very important player for us next season. I hope he stays.
Well I don't get this pro-Naismith sentiment. Playing ok against Watford when it doesn't matter is hardly cause for a slap on the back. He was woeful against Sunderland (when it did actually matter) and pretty much every game before that. I'm with KIO on this one, we were mugged off big time. He may do a 'bit of a job' in the Chumpionship. I would bloody hope so at that price tag.
I just want to make sure Bassong never plays for us again... I mean his concentration is terrible, does he have ADHD?
Equally foolhardy to buy an injured player with no match fitness and little game time then expect him to be the catalyst to keep us up . That can't be given as an excuse he was crocked before we handed over the money.
A cynic may say that Mbokani Redmond and Naismith were playing for the shop window rather than the shirt or they would have tried harder 10 games ago
