Transfer goss and rumours, Summer 2016.

Reports saying wages were the clincher, he will be on an eye watering £45k/week at villa! Can understand why we baulked at that tbh. I'm in the 'dodged a bullet' camp here. Understand he isn't the kind you would want in the dressing room either. Badly need a quality striker now though.

 

But we have got pritch and a new keeper to boot. Both official now. Good bit of business

 

Thing is though, had we actually agreed a price with Fulham 3 weeks ago, we may have got him for less wages than that. Don't know what Fulham were paying him, but I can't imagine that we would have kept going back if we didn't know we had a chance of affording them.
I agree we may have dodged a bullet though. Bullet or no bullet, it still is a sorry episode in our ongoing recruitment saga. Come on recruiters, show me athe striker!

Bah!

 

Agreed, Pritchard is good enough to want him even with so many attacking midfield options and a 3rd keeper who with any luck will never be needed is a necessity even if an unexciting one. You never know, he might actually be better than what we currently have!

Bah!

 

Totally underwhelmed by the rumour of N'Doye on loan! Prichard seems a step forward but is he in the Naismith mould? It seems that we lost McCormack so hey lets spend £8+ on another midfield player? Like many other fans I am very frustrated with the inaction on the striker front where we seem to be concentrating on just one striker. Sorry, but I am not optimistic about our away game at Blackburn on Saturday. We rarely win opening games of the season and I see no other outcome at the moment.

 

I perhaps foolishly still feel positive for the Blackburn opener, I know we don't really do opening days, but We have a very good first XI for this division and Blackburn are/were not a great side, 15th last year, lost there capt/best player? Hanley, little incoming talent. 3 points and a Jerome hatrick would be just what the doctor ordered! A clean sheet with an imperious display from Klose would also go a long way to adding to my belief that we could just win this thing!

Bah!

 

Glad we have got Pritchard - he has been on my wish list since I saw him tear us apart a couple of seasons ago - class player, great signing and I am pleased with that. The signing of Paul Jones is a curious one - bit like the Carlo Nash and Jake Keane signings - no real chance of them getting game time unless both Ruddy and McGovern get crocked (did happen though when Ruddy and Bunn were injured and we had to play Lee Camp for a couple of games) so I suppose I can see the logic although lightning would have to be pretty mean to strike us twice like that again.

Let's get Britt and/or Kodjia and tell McCormack to stuff his £45k a week up his ass !!!.

 

I have to say I'm very happy with the Pritchard purchase though it hard to see where he fits in and my only issue with not getting McCormack is we are so short on strikers. Personally I thought the asking price was always too much for him and he may score goals but I have to wondered what else he contributes to the team. Add to that the less than pleasant personality he apparently has, then I'd say we are lucky Villa are so happy to throw their cash about.

 

Villa got it done by paying what Fulham were asking for - a £12m fee and £2m in add-ons. We did much the same with Pritchard and Spurs and got it done overnight - even quicker. We have a really strong attacking midfield now with Pritchard's versatility and I can see us playing Wes, Naismith and Pritchard all at the same time, ending the need to play Howson out of position on the right and providing goals as well. The Murphys and Maddison will also get their chance from the bench and it's up to them to take it.

I don't think we'll see a new quality striker until Brady leaves, if and when that happens. N'Doye could provide another option at a reasonable loan fee.

 

You have an advantage on the rest of us as you seem to know what is going on at Carrow Road and that we have not been pursuing other options. As for the transfer dithering I agree that it is a disgrace - 18 hours to nick Pritchard from under the noses of Brighton and complete the deal - disgraceful dithering!! Bah - or words to that effect.

 

It could be worse up front. Obviously Jerome will start but we've got Lafferty who's still really to get a proper start in his preferred position rather than out on the flank. I'm quite keen to see what Josh Murphy can do up front as well. We've got options at least and I've not mentioned Naismith playing at the front or giving Morris a go.

 

I really don't want N'Doye. He just doesn't look good enough when Iv seen him. He was poor for Sunderland. A non-event. He might do better at a lower level, but I think it's an uninspiring target and more of a risk than other options out there. Surely go straight in with a 10 mil bid for Britt, see if that pricks Forests ears up.

As for CB's I'm running out of ideas. Newcastle have done very will getting Hanley and Clarke.

Dunk obviously, is Caulker still at QPR?

 

As a founder member of the ' Happy Clappy Club ' can I say straight away that I accept we clearly need another striker on the books and we need him quick. Jerome, A N Other, Lafferty and Morris should then be adequate cover for the one up front role. Any further incomings are, IMO, only necessary if other players leave. We have a large experienced squad and some promising youngsters as back up but we will need them. 46 league matches, cup games, injuries and suspensions will all take their toll and, as an example, you won't get 40 or 50 games a season out of Wes. Our squad should be good enough to challenge for a top 6 place and we should concentrate on that and only worry about Premiership if/when we get there.

 

We could be the surprise package here - with Wes, Naismith and Pritchard measuring 5 foot 8 inches standing on top of each other our strike force could be them and they'd fool everyone by running underneath the legs of all those lumbering CB's who proliferate in the Championship.

#inspiredlogic

 

I don't profess to know the inner workings of what's going on at carrow road but I do know that we need a striker, AN has said as much, so to go into our first game of the season without one signed represents a failure in my book. And if we have been actively persuing other striking options, it would appear that we have been handling them every bit as welll as our seemingly main target McCormack. The Pritchard signing is something of a coup, but is it really what we need? ANd can you honestly say we have not dithered and been generally ineffective in the transfer market over this and last summer?

Bah!

 

Why do you think that Klose and Bennett backed up by Bassong, Martin and Turner are not adequate for this league? All of them were playing regularly in the Premiership or the Championship last year. I agree we need a new striker but our recent history of high price failures means caution is needed. £14m and £45k a week for a 30 year old disruptive influence would have been a disaster but hopefully AN has his eye on a better option.

 

I think that should be could, not would. If the manager believes him to have been the best option for how he wanted to play this season, then missing out on him could be a disaster. Agree about the defense though.

bah!

 

I am happy with Bennett and klose. Bassong was awful last season, I'd rather not have to rely on him when one or both get injured. Turner I'm amazed is still here and we didn't just release him. He was too slow and clumsy 2 years ago, he definitely wouldn't have learned to run in the last 2 years. I just think we need a 3rd decent CB option.

 

I "think" with the midfield we are creating and Jerome upfront we have a good chance of being very strong and scoring goals.

The problem is depth, if Jerome gets injured then we are screwed really unless Lafferty is going to get a proper chance, for me though he works better as part of a front 2. As our midfield options are so vast I don't think we will playing a front 2 very often. especially away from home.

For me, our real weak link defensively is Whittaker and if we play him we will concede goals. Where has Rusty gone? Is he injured or something?

I think Rusty playing RB with Klose, Bennet/Bassong and Brady/Olsson (if they stay) isn't such a bad defensive line up mixed with attacking intent down the left.

I would like to see a quality striker and I would be happy if we can keep either Brady or Olsson.

Thinks this would do us in the Championship. I thought we should have gone for Andre Gray last season in January but we didn't, think we would of got him then for £12m easy considering he went to Burnley for £6m.

This is the problem with us we always miss out because we allways want to pay less. It happens time and time again.

 

Like you I do not know what has gone on, who they went for, why their attempts failed and whether what you see as dithering was the reason for the level of activity in the transfer market. All I can say is that ever since I started going to Carrow Road 66 years ago Norwich have had problems attracting players - probably because of our location. As far as Pritchard is concerned - we play 5 in midfield and with the number of games to play plus injuries and suspensions we need a lot of cover in that area. IMO, one more front player and no departures will leave us well equipped to mount a challenge.