Transfer goss and rumours, Summer 2016.

Rusty is injured I think you will find that Pinto is first choice RB with Rusty as back up and Whittaker being given a 1 year contract to be 3rd choice cover for both RB and LB

 

Yes,

Pinto looked decent when he came on against Hannover. I am relatively happy with that.

Then we need a striker definitely. As usual I think we have put all our eggs in one basket. But time will tell.

 

The problem with any ' decent CB ' you sign in this division is that he expects to play and will not sign to just be cover. It seems that Olsson is reluctant to sign for West Ham because he realises that he won't be first choice. Turner is quite clearly 5th choice and has only been given the extra year on his contract to cover an unlikely injury problem - who else would be prepared to accept that role? It's like the 3rd choice GK role - last resort to get a job. Anyway - it is sunny and in the 30's outside and I have just finished my 3rd bottle of Kwak in Bar Magnan. Time to close down and wander to see the the sights on the beach.

 

I'm happy to see our club recruit quality players whenever they're available, and that's undoubtedly what we've got in Pritchard. He may not be like-for-like, but I see him as the replacement for Brady in our squad.

How do you keep Hoolahan, Maddison, Pritchard, Canos, Josh, Jacob, Jarvis and Naismith happy with 3 places between them each week? That's AN's job, and good luck to him! Pace, guile, youth and experience there in equal measure - I don't think anyone in the league can rival that set of attacking talent. If they can gel then few defences in this league will live with them.

The striker issue remains, but I think Dame N'Doye would be reasonably sensible. A loanee as third choice, with someone else coming in to rival Jerome would be a reasonable set of options, with Lafferty presumably leaving. N'Doye is probably on reasonable wages, but we'd not be committed to him beyond this season if he flops. In any case we'll probably have to address our striking options next summer whichever league we're in.

Jones as third choice 'keeper is probably not costing us anything extra. Rudd's wages are probably covered by Charlton (at least in part), and the difference is what we're paying Jones. An experienced head to mentor some of our U23 keepers is no bad thing, and I suspect he's joined with the intention of getting into coaching.

 

No idea who that other keeper is.

On to the next target. Another GK!

 

Josh Murphy was Player of the Season for MK Dons in the Championship! Maddison and Murphy shone for Coventry last season, the latter scoring nine goals and quite a few assists. Morris scored 8 in the Scottish Prem in a struggling team. All have played very well in pre-season and probably been some of our best performers through pre-season. They offer something different to our senior players.

 

Better stats than Redmond in the Champ last time around I believe, and I think we all thought he was good enough to start games

 

I doubt the problem was our side. Its very obvious mccormack (or his family) had very little interest living in the sticks. Norwich fans dramatically underestimate how hard it is to sell the city and the area. Its sleepyville, the end of the line..... Its a very small place to spend 3 years, I'm 58 and I wouldn't fancy it.....

 

Yes, Birmingham must seem very attractive compared to 'end of the line' Norwich

 

In my opinion he is a potential starter - has never looked out of place in the brief number of times I've seen him play and would be more effective at "tracking back" to cover the backs than Redmond ever was.

 

To be fair, Birmingham does have some positives:

1. The Genting Arena
2. The Barclaycard Arena
3. The O2 Academy
4. The O2 Institute
5. The Symphony Hall
6. The Asylum

All great venues for a gig.......... errrr ..... that's about it ...........

 

Hop on the sleeper train from Thorpe Station, and you can be in London in mere days!

 

I'm personally not a fan but we still have Martin who curiously made it into team of the year at CB last time around

 

One up front? We're in the Championship, not the Premier where we needed to combat a good me 4 with less capable 5.

We'll play 2 up front with plenty in behind, we'll not defend our way to promotion

 

I very much doubt that, Neil from the start has favoured 1 up top and I don't see him changing that now. If we are in ascendancy it will look more of a 3 up top as we push on. and Pinto and Olsson (A.N.Other if Olsson goes) will provide the width. This I believe is the Neil way of playing, he lost his faith in it last season, because the players were not up to it in the PL, but back in the chump I expect to see it return.

Bah!

 

I don't think we have the players to play 2 up front.

If it's a choice out of having Lafferty and Jerome upfront or sacrificing Lafferty for an attacking mid and keeping midfield higher up the pitch for me its the second choice. Unless we get a very good striker in I can't see us playing 2 up front very often at all.

 

No chance we'll consistently play with a striker partnership. Wes, Maddison, Pritchard or Naismith just behind a striker maybe, but anything other than a 4-2-3-1 would be a real surprise. Firstly because of the squad we've got (all the depth is in attacking midfield roles, we're thin on strikers), secondly because we've not played two strikers together throughout pre-season, and thirdly because the advantage of a 5-man midfield in the championship is not to match up a dangerous opposition, but to be able to use the ball well and make sure there's always a midfield player to receive the ball.

When was the last time we regularly played 4-4-2, with 2 central strikers rather than one being a winger? Even Elmander and Hooper wasn't a classic 2 up front, and that's going back some as it is!

 

Well with the exception of Klose none of the others were PL standard, indeed it could be argued that the regular errors and gifting of goals made by Martin & Bassong cost us being in the PL. As for Turner as far as I'm aware he was never a regular starter for Wednesday and he hardly impressed them enough for them to bid for him to join them on a permanent biases. We hardly got knocked over in the rush of PL or indeed Championship teams wanting to sign any of them including Klose. In my mind a strong solid CB pairing is the key to any team and we don't have one. We should have pushed out the boat and bought someone like Dunk and sold Turner & Bassong to help finance the deal.

 

I'm not sure everyone thought Redmond was great last time we were in the championship, but even if you think he was he clearly couldn't have made the make the step up to a PL title challenging team. So why would we expect youngsters who did ok, but not fantastic in league 1 to step up to play a key role in a team challenging for championship promotion space. Anyway the championship has moved on considerably since we were last in it and I'm not convinced we have.

 

Turner started 11 games for SW last year which is not bad for a back-up CB (or 5th CB in our case).

This is right IMO. AN likes a lone striker who can either score himself or lay the ball off. I doubt many opposition defenses will fancy their chances with Pritchard, Hoolahan and Naismith piling in on them behind Jerome or even Lafferty while Olsson and Pinto provide the width. That worked a treat two years ago in this league and Jerome (and to a lesser extent, Lafferty) are very adept at it and Pritchard, Hoolahan and Naismith will provide better options than we had back then. Canos and the Murphys provide alternative options as well, especially using their pace when they come on as 'impact subs'. A 5-man midfield will also allow City to dominate possession and control games much of the time.