First thing I have noticed is that RvW is no longer number 9. Insight into his future maybe? Or lack of it at this club? http://www.canaries.co.uk/news/article/norwich-city-confirm-squad-numbers-1710482.aspx
1. John Ruddy 2. Steven Whittaker 3. 4. Bradley Johnson 5. Russell Martin 6. Michael Turner 7. Lewis Grabban 8. Jonny Howson 9. Kyle Lafferty 10. Leroy Fer 11. Gary Hooper 12. Anthony Pilkington 13. Mark Bunn 14. Wes Hoolahan 15. 16. Jamar Loza 17. Elliott Bennett 18. Javier Garrido 19. Luciano Becchio 20. Ricky van Wolfswinkel 21. Josh Murphy 22. Nathan Redmond 23. Martin Olsson 24. Ryan Bennett 25. Jacob Murphy 26. Declan Rudd 27. Alexander Tettey 28. 29. Andrew Surman 30. Sebastien Bassong 31. Adel Gafaiti 32. Remi Matthews Martin moves to 5 and Bassong to 30, which probably confirms our suspicions. Strange that Olsson stays at 23, off as well? RvW dropping from 9 to 20 looks ominous as well. Good to see Hooper stays at 11 and Pilks stays at 12. Grabban takes Snods' 7 and Lafferty is 9 (not just making up the numbers then!).
Does anyone else think RvW reaction on Twitter is odd. Don't know how to take it: 'Yes, i have been given number 20 I guess it's just a number'
Seem's a bit weird that some lanky great big clugger stumbles through the doors and get's the number of last years main signing. The twitter response is perhaps there just to stop rumours though.
Van Wolfswinkel is surely off. The twitter response suggests he knew nothing about it, so if he is happy to stay I wouldn't appreciate any attempt by the management to force him through the door.
Huge marketing campaign for cheap RvW - 9 shirts last season, followed by changing his number 12 months later? If he doesn't leave now some fans have a right to be royally jarred off by that. For similar reasons, no idea why they've bothered changing Martin's kit number. Unless the players requested it, or the club felt 2 should be a RB and 5 more suited to a RB/CB. Bassong must be off. Surman not coming back to a higher number shirt (say 15) seems slightly odd too. At the end of the day they're only numbers though, as RvW rightly points out.
Think Martin's change indicates more CB time that RB time with Whits viewed as our main RB. This seemed to be Adams preference anyway. I'd hazard a guess that ricky change in number is partly because he's not certain he'll still be here but also might be because of the players coming in demanding the number, Lafferty does seem the type, and RVW not caring so much. Very concerned Olsson isn't still 3 must be looking to leave if we left it free.
Didn't think he ever had 3 did he? Agree if we were convinced he was staying you might think we'd move him though.
Sorry didn't mean moved, I meant that it's a bit unnerving leaving the number 3 shirt empty despite having two LBs on the list. It is good to see the list released at the same time as the shirt always difficult not knowing what changes will be made. The trick now is picking a player who will still be here.
Is it 'just a number'? The fact that he twitters about it suggests not. There may be things behind the scenes that we don't know about - for example, RvW has put in a transfer request and is pushing hard for an exit - but, unless this is the case, moving him 'down the list' does seem unnecessarily provocative and insensitive. This is a player whose confidence looks to be at rock bottom, and we won't get that confidence back by sending out a signal which might feel to the player like a public humiliation. Yes, this may be a trivial issue, but it looks like yet another thing that the hierarchy at City have got wrong.
It looks to me now that RvW, like Bassong, said no when Adams asked if he wanted to stay and fight for promotion. I can see no other explanation for the number assignment. I hope Bath is right and that he does stay, but I fear that he wants away, whatever he is saying on Twitter. Is it significant that in the Pink'un photo at Colney, he is the only one who isn't wearing the sports science gear on his shoulders? I actually think that he has failed to fit in because his game doesn't fit the players we have. Sadly I think that this will also be true this season. I seem to recall that CH said he would bring new midfielders in to help with that. Perhaps Fer was one, but even that wasn't enough.
i don't believe that for a minute. if he felt that way, he would have stayed quiet on social media, otherwise he's setting himself up as a fool and he is a bright lad, he's not stupid. this is more about the club and where they see him fitting in. they either wanted to kick him up the arse by giving him a lower number to see how he reacts, or they don't see him as part of their plans.
Yep, that reaction on twitter is about as clear as we're going to get on this one. This was clearly something of a surprise to RvW, or at least not what he wanted.
Well, we can agree to disagree on this one, I guess. He could hardly say 'I've asked to leave so they gave me number 20' could he? Does anybody know the context (ie. did someone ask him about the number)? If so, what else could he say? I stress that I very much want him to stay, so I hope he hasn't said he wants to go, but I still can't see him getting that number if he's said he wants to stay. Here's the Pink'un article directly about this: http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/no_outcasts_in_neil_adams_norwich_city_squad_1_3667013
he wasn't asked about it - he came out with it himself. which suggests even more so that he was slightly irked by it, or why mention it? if he wanted out, why would he care? he'd be leaving regardless. according to a friend of a friend (i know, not a good start) he'd spoken to ricky recently and he assured him he'd like to stay (said the same about leroy too) but although not reliable in any way, i have to say he's given no indication that he wouldn't want to stay and try and redeem himself. if he really did want out, he would say nowt. simple as that. that doesn't mean he won't leave if a decent offer comes in for him, or a good, solid loan move, but you could say that about ruddy, martin, fer... everyone has their price.
It still seems odd to me. Why not give him the vacant 15 shirt, if the sticking point with Lafferty was his wanting the number 9? I hope your friend's friend is right though, Supers, and that both Ricky and Leroy are staying.
