I like Thorup and what he wants to achieve, my concern is whether he will able to achieve those wants with what we have now and after any star player sales. I'll be delighted if we do, but I'm concerned about what happens if we don't.
There’s always another star player RER, admittedly they’re hard to find but even in recent years we’ve gone from Maddison to Buendia to Sara
And then there were Gilmour, Norman, Rashica, Lees Melou, Kabak, Hayden, Marquinhos, and Sinani to name but a few.
All transfers are a gamble, but I think that list just highlights how we've generally done well at identifying talented players, the issue has been whether they were right for Norwich at that time. Brighton (and their excellent recruitment team) clearly rate Gilmour, Norman has clearly demonstrated he's talented but a mercenary, Rashica & Kabak both played significant roles in their respective teams qualifying for European competition this season, Hayden was good but never fit. Our recruitment has been at its best building a championship side, when there's a clear profile for what we want in a new player. Signing players with limitations but the appropriate attitude. Trying to find well-rounded, £20m players on a £5m budget has meant compromises on attitudes and fitness, etc, and those gambles have backfired more often. Hard to know what our transfer budget looks like this summer, and what sales are expected, but the Cordoba signing for around £3m is the type of transfer we've had better luck with lately.
No, you're just making that up. He wants to stay and play in Thorup's more attacking system and get us promoted next season.
He's spent the last four seasons playing for four different clubs -- Alaves, Real Zaragoza (on loan), Giresunspor and us.
Rick is the new Doom Goblin. As far as I can see, there's far more positivity around the club now than there has been for several seasons.
Ha! I'm not predicting doom, I'm predicting uncertainty. We have evidence of what Thorup wants to do but no evidence of how that will be achieved or what players he will have to achieve it. If we had a poor season last year it would be different, but we didn't. We achieved the playoffs in spite of one of the worst injury seasons I can remember with Hanley, Sainz, Sargent, Barnes, Rowe out for months not weeks. I want it to work, but I think a lot of people who are excited now about the change will come down with a bump if we start losing games. I'm lowering my expectations to something like the 14th place finish in Farke's first season. We are likely to lose some of our best players and replace them with new players who will need to adjust, especially if they come from overseas. Our only indication of Knapper's recruitment so far is van Hooijdonk and that isn't much to cling to. I'd like to be full of hope and confidence, but I'm not.
I’m under no illusions that everything will click straight away and yes we may have a very up and down season, but I am excited to get behind what feels like a project again, hopefully we will be able to see progression and get behind some youth talent
Last season was painful to watch. Yes we scraped into the top 6 mainly because the teams beneath us fell apart even more than we did and everybody knew that we would be hammered in the play offs no matter who we played. We do not know how good Van Hooijdonk was because Wagner refused to play him - a final dig at Knapper perhaps as Wagner knew he was a goner. Another season like last season would have been the final straw to many supporters because of the poor entertainment, poor coaching and lack of effort.
I'm not one of those who see football as 'entertainment'. It's a competitive sport which requires teamwork and physical commitment. I disagree that the coaching was poor or that there was a 'lack of effort'. What Thorup says sounds good but the challenge of achieving it will be great. I like the stress he puts on winning, but the test will come when we don't. Results matter. I hope it goes well, but at the moment it seems a shot in the dark.
You need to take into account the circumstances in which van Hooijdonk was signed. The transfer window was already open when Hwang's departure was confirmed. That problem coincided with Idah's discontent and desire to go out on loan. To which should be added the paucity of decent, available, talent in the January transfer window AND the financial constraints within which Knapper had to operate. Our data people and scouts will have been in over-drive looking for a solution. Wagner's lack of adaptibility and aversion to selecting anyone he didn't 100% trust, also have to be factored in (away at Wednesday, despite having both Aboh and SVH on the bench, when Sargent had to come off, DW went, in the first instance, with Gibbs). Finally, Knapper wouldn't have brought SVH in off his own bat. Wagner must have agreed to the loan, despite it being obvious to everyone, including DW, what type of player he is.
Disagree. Lots of assumptions about what Wagner thought or didn't think. We were involved in a fight for a playoff place which we won in the end. That is not the time to blood youngsters. At Wednesday we were leading 2-0 when Sargent went off. Gibbs was brought on to help see the match out. Unfortunately he then went off injured moments later and Fassnacht came on to use his experience to help see the match out. Vaulks came on as sub for Wednesday and scored two goals in the last 12 minutes. Wagner had a right to expect more from our defending. It wasn't Wagner who conceded those goals, it was the players. Thorup won't have that playoff pressure once the season starts, but should we lose a few games and fall down the table the pressure will mount and we'll see how he responds. Many of those fans who are excited now will become impatient for their expectations to be realised adding more pressure. The Pinkun and MFW are going overboard about the excitement and what Thorup will be able to do. I think it will take time and more than one window to be able to achieve his aims and we should allow for that and cut the hype and lower our expectations.
Rick, I didn't say Wagner was to blame for the result; I said his choice of Gibbs illustrated "Wagner's lack of adaptability and his aversion to playing anyone he didn't 100% trust". I don't know of anyone who expects Thorup to have instant success in achieving his aims. As far as I can see the dominant message is "It'll need time". The positivity is not based on any unrealistic belief e.g. that 2024--2025 will see us back in the EPL! Suffolk's take on it is the dominant one:
Apparently Trabzonspor wants to sign Marcelino Núñez: https://sportwitness.co.uk/offer-ma...-canaries-tough-stance-negotiations-continue/
