Transfer goss and rumours, Summer 2016.

You missed Josh Murphy and Turner.

I'd agree based on that we shouldn't need much more in terms of squad depth, however I still think a new CB and ST are going to be a must.

 

The whole squad needs an injection of freshness, impetus, va-va-voom, rather than plod on for another season with all the same battle weary participants, in my view. It's tired, staid and frequently runs out of ideas creatively in the final third (even more so now Redmond has left and Brady is on several 'most wanted' lists.)

 

Next new signing?

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Bah!

 

This is the thing, our squad is pretty good for the championship. If we keep Klose, I would argue the only position we need to strengthen is striker as I really don't want to see us with jerome as the only option the manager would appear to trust. An upgrade on Jerome should be our primary target and then replacing any other leavers.

Bah!

 

I'm hoping that some of the youngsters can provide that "freshness, impetus, va-va-voom". I don't think we really lack the creativity to unlock championship defences. I still think Wes at that level will be the envy of most champ clubs, add to that a Murphy, Canos or even Naismith and I think we'll be OK.

Bah!

 

And if Klose leaves, we're left with the same defensive personnel that have 'yo-yoed' their way up and down the leagues over the last four seasons or so!
I'm hoping above all else that Klose stays but would like to see a solid, reliable CB next to him for a long spell instead of Bennett 2 matches, Bassong 3, Martin 2 etc.
Hark back to the days of Malky and Fleming - which we've never again come close to emulating and with the Redmond and maybe Brady money, we certainly should. Build from a solid defensive base, for a welcome - and long overdue change
Edit - the more ambition we show in this, the more likelihood there will presumably be in Klose staying.
He must have been heartbroken to see all the basic defensive errors his CB partners made last season but if he can see steps being taken to remedy this it may influence him to stay and give it another crack?

 

So I did Suffolk! Strangely, I was thinking of Josh as the most likely to break through and then left him out. Corrected version below:

GK Ruddy, Rudd, Kean (McGovern?)
RB Pinto, Martin, Whittaker
CB Klose, Bassong, Bennett, (Martin), Turner
LB Olsson, (Brady), Toffolo, (Whittaker)
CM Howson, Dorrans, Odjidja-Ofoe, McGrandles, Godfrey
DM Tettey, Mulumbu, Thompson
WL Brady, (Jarvis), Josh Murphy, (Hoolahan), (Naismith)
WR Jarvis, Canos?, Jacob Murphy, (Odjidja-Ofoe)
AM Hoolahan, Naismith, Maddison, Andreu
S Jerome, RvW, Lafferty, Morris

I think new players will come in, but that would be aimed at 'freshening' the squad rather than out of actual 'need' except in the case of striker, IMO. If Klose stays, I don't think we'll be signing another CB, except perhaps on loan from a PL team.

 

That was my thinking as well General. IMO, there's a good chance that they could bring that 'young and hungry' element that Lambert used to like.

 

Dorrans in talks over a two year extension
But - and I know it's only Vital Norwich before anyone pulls me up, from this the Canary future may not be so bright for Turner , Bassong and Ruddy? Yulumbu, to be fair is largely irrelevant as we've never seen much of, or anywhere near the best of him.
http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=451793

 

Dorrans is a useful and versatile player who did well for us in the Championship and could do so again. He did look much less the part in the PL though.

As for the rest, we should consider that the blog was just quoting a rather dubious Mirror article. Lazy journalism?

 

But James Nursery writes for the Mirror, and we all trust him implicitly, don't we.

 

If Klose leaves yes we have our yo-yo defense, but they have yo'd up each time from the Champ so why should that be such a concern? In Timm we have a PL defender (We all think!) in Martin, Bass, Bennett we have good champ defenders, who allong side Timm even looked OK PL defenders. So if Timm stays, why should we recruit a good Champ defender when we already have plenty? A PL defender won't come to us, so better to use what we have and go all out on promotion. If Timm goes, then we spend everything we can for the best replacement we can find. But they will not likely be PL quality because they would not come to us!
And as much as i like Flem and Malky, did they not spend the entirety of their partnership in the second tier? The final season that they spent together resulted in promotion before Malky was foollishly cast aside. But I'm not sure that you can say that they were wholey better as Martin/Bass and Bennett have two/three promotions and some top flight time together. Yes they always look like our weak link in the PL but they have done as well as Flem and Malky.

Bah!

 

Typically defending is about building a strong partnership, I think our best chance of that is with Bennett partnering Klose. They seemed to forge the best understanding last season, give them a full pre-season to develop that and I think they could be a pairing that we could take into the PL (if we get promoted and if Bennett can stay injury free for the best part of a season)

 

AN on Dorrans' 2 year contract extention:

“The last time we were in the Championship Graham had a big part to play in getting us up,” he said. “It’s good business because he’ll be an important player for us this season. We want to get a balance between guys who have been there and done it before while also freshening things up. If you look at other sides, most teams in the Championship would want a player like Graham so it was important that we hung onto him.”

 

So who do we believe?
http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=451829

http://readnorwich.com/2016/07/08/norwich-set-to-let-go-of-ruddy/?

 

I certainly don't believe the Daily Fail article - lazy journalism for sure.

 

FML, My apologies for not responding earlier. I don't know what figures Bruce was throwing about, our first offer was £2 mil I think. If the report is true, then we'll either keep Brady or get a lot more than £12 mil for him. If we sell him then we can get a top championship striker and a top CB to challenge Bennett, who I rate, but would like another in case of injury/suspension.

 

Is this complete hogwash or could there be something in it?
Ruddy might raise an eyebrow if it comes to anything, but I suggest none of the others would?
http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=451829

 

If we got £20M for Brady, we'd more than likely only spend 10% of that on a replacement

#prudencewithnoambition

 

Sold Redmond for 12 spent a fortnight trying to haggle for 2.