Must admit I don't know much about him but was scoring a good few goals in the Championship a few years back. I also didn't know we were after him in January either. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/norwich-set-table-new-bid-9055596
Am I right in thinking we were linked with him around the time that the rumours/news about Dorrans surfaced?
Yes his name came up in Jan too. Is he keeping Pilkington out of their team or is he injured yet again?
Back on topic: Noone has made 35 appearances this season (4 as a sub) He's scored 1, made 1 assist, and been Man of the Match once He averages just under 2 shots per game, with 0.4 of them on target (the rest shared equally between off target or blocked) For every 10 passes he attempts, roughly 4 are unsuccessful He attempts on average 3.6 dribbles per game (2.2 of which result in his dispossession) He attempts an average of 6 crosses per game (4.5 of which fail to find a teammate) He's not really had a brilliant season eh?
I have been reading the Cardiff board and there are two theories in place. 1. His form has dipped since an injury 2. His form has been quite poor since the offer made by Norwich in January (and the injury), and his mind (and possibly heart) is no longer with Cardiff. Generally speaking, the Cardiff fans rate him quite highly but are split as to whether the club should keep him or not now.
Depends what league we're in to me. If we're a championship side this summer then possibly, it is an area we could do with someone, he'd be a reasonable option at a sensible price. A signing to support a promotion push, should we hold on to all bar perhaps one of our current first team. If we go up, I think we'd be looking for a higher calibre of signing.
To clarify, I'm not against signing him. I think he's a decent player, and obviously his age is a plus. However, I was going over his stats this season, and it seems to me that he's had a sub-par one. You could probably say that about quite a few of the Cardiff players though.
Agree on the going up point you make. If we stay down, as seems increasingly likely, I doubt if anyone will be coming in. This years budget will have been completely blown out of the water so next years will be a double whammy. We cannot afford to maintain anything like the current squad so it will probably be 10 out and none in.
The parachute payments are the same for years 1 and 2 after relegation, so our financial situation should be unchanged from this season. I'm not naïve enough to suggest there won't be any need at all to lower wages, but wholesale changes shouldn't be necessary.
Even with the parachute payment we were budgeting for a loss this year and were also hoping to make £15m in savings. Rather than savings the budget has been blown out of the water and those losses have got to be recovered before the parachute payments finish otherwise there is a danger that, financially, we end up where we started. It will be interesting to see what the losses this season are and, if we don't go up, what the budget will have to be next year. As stated I fear that extreme belt tightening will be needed.
You obviously work in the accounts department at Carrow Road to have such an inciteful take on our financial situation. Or you have no idea of the facts that you are spouting and are full of negativity.
It is common knowledge not negativity. The budget was clearly set out by McNally and equally clearly has not been met. The parachute payments do not last for ever and so we cannot keep running at a loss and to do that belts will have to be tightened which will include cutting our massive - by Championship standards - squad. Do you think we are immune from financial reality?
This seems a bit harsh. Even without knowing the financial details, I'd expect McNally to be planning further ahead than one season. After the next payment we will have had two-thirds of the parachute money and, whilst the annual payment isnt dropping, our longer term ability to fund players (who will typically come in on 3 year contracts) has to be affected. The whole point of the payments is to allow a gradual transition over four years so there's nothing negative about anticipating that change.
