Pretty much agree with all of your post Supers and Hooper and Jerome support each other well on the rare opportunities when they have played together. Yes, I would have liked to see another quality striker join the ranks, but AN has reiterated that he wants someone who won't disrupt the team morale and who doesn't cost the earth. By my calculation, there are still 12 days left of the transfer window and after our efforts in the opening two games, I wouldn't be too despondent if we failed to add to the squad.
It's not just about the club though, Supers, as Afobe will have his own view on his career, which is very short after all. If he stays with Wolves and they fail to gain promotion, his career could be stifled. The same is also true of Redmond if City are relegated, which is why AN is saying so publicly why he thinks he should stay for his own development as a player. I hope he does, as Wolves and their fans hope Afobe does as well, but players do have a say as well. The days of clubs 'owning' players ended long ago. It isn't about 'understanding', it's about the reality of the game today.
Alright, I'll bite. I think the window's been rubbish simply because we have been eminently sensible. We've not taken any risks, nor signed anyone you'd consider beyond us. We've just quietly got on with making an already solid squad a bit better. And as someone who likes seeing signings come out of left field, and teams signing players you'd never think they could, we've been dull, whilst the rest of the League appear to have gone utterly mental. I don't think we've done badly at all, but there's been no Quagliarella, Toivonen, RvW, or other vaguely ludicrous rumours with apparently a hint of truth in them. It hasn't been a rubbish window in terms of the business we've done, it's about what I expected. It's been rubbish as a spectacle, and as something to read about over lunch. And the sanctimonious, "holier-than-thou" crap does you no favours.
And that's exactly what I meant in a nutshell. People get different things out of following football.
We haven't signed a central defender or a forward so it's been ****e in my opinion, but I'm more then happy with the midfield and goalkeeper options.
I see what your saying supers but there are a few things that unless they change I will see as a bit of a failure this window: 1) We need a centre back, a proper one and have done for the last 2-3 seasons. 2) We need a forward in case CJ gets crocked and to give us a bit more flexibility. 3) We need to shift a lot more players than we have so far or at least come to some compromises with wages to get some of them out on loan and get our wage bill down. I'm not after the spectacular and some things have been done well with Molumbu, even though I don't rate Dorrans as much as you do he was a good buy at £3m. I think we do need a bit more though because if CJ gets injured we could be ****ed. As for a centre back, maybe we could make do with Martin but I feel we do need a forward.
No offence, but I think you've completely missed the point. It has been a rubbish transfer window. Even Alex Neil said as much. It's been immensely frustrating. That doesn't mean that the business we've done has been poor - even though I've made no secret of the fact that I felt we overpaid for Brady and he's done nothing to change that, he's good going forward, but gives the ball away frequently and is clearly fragile defensively and weak positionally, but generally speaking he is a safe bet with nothing much to inspire. Equally, I agree with you on Mulumbu and Dorrans, both very good acquisitions and I'm delighted. Though I do think Dorrans needs to improve - he's also been shaky on the ball at times though getting better, I certainly accept that it might make no difference to where we finish in the table. But to pretend everything is hunky dory is to stick your fingers in your ears to what even our manager has admitted. We simply have not had the transfer window we've wanted. Now there are any number of reasons for that, almost all entirely out of our control, but the overriding factor has been that our club is playing it very safe. That's commendable, but it's not exciting. And I don't mean by that I want us to be throwing money around, etc, but there comes a point where you do have to take at least some risks, some punts. The likes of Swansea have got ahead by taking risks, buying small and selling big. Yes, they've got it right and they've been both exceptional and lucky. But by contrast West Brom have taken our approach with constant safety buys and I don't see much progress at all. Maybe me saying it has been "rubbish" isn't the most helpful thing, because it sounds like I'm blaming the club, thought I'm most definitely not. I'm just trying to voice the same frustration that Neil did the other week - we simply have not had the rub of the green with new signings. Whether that damages our chances of staying up, who knows, but it has certainly made for an incredibly frustrating summer.
Yes Rob, AN has said that he has been unable to persuade some of his targets to come and play for Norwich which must be intensely frustrating and whether it's because they feel that we'll be relegated or they just don't fancy living in this area of the country, we'll never know. Edit - just seen this on the BBC Gossip website - "Mourinho's crowning glory was to apply a final, feminine touch to sign Pedro. Fabregas's partner Daniella Semaan sold London to Carolina Martin, Pedro's other half, and the deal was done."
I think also the fact that so many of our rivals have gone out and bought some absolutely (potentially) brilliant players hasn't helped - who'd have ever thought Palace would sign Cabaye, Stoke Shaquiri, West Ham Payet, West Brom Rondon etc? I think a lot of our fans have got carried away by all this and expect us to be competing for these sort of players, despite the fact our manager has actually come out and said how difficult it has been to attract players to a club of our (current) reputation - plus the fact we just can't compete in terms of what kind of financial package we can offer. I think everyone knows deep down that any pursuit of DVD was likely to be a non-starter as soon as Southampton were interested, so why even kid yourself that we have a cat in hell's chance of signing him? It's also obvious our overseas scouting network is currently miles behind that of our rivals which certainly doesn't help. I totally, 100% agree with Supers on this as well, some people probably could do with having other things to worry about if they are so disappointed with our dealings in the summer transfer market.
On the Afobe thing, I'm guessing the deal of Mbokani is off? That's why we put in a big bid,which is unlike us to go big at first. Also, Jackett has been very firm that he is not for sale, adamant. Then towards the end throws in this little line: "At the moment we're not interested, we don't want to negotiate, it was turned down flat." From, He is not leaving. To at the moment. Everyone has a price, but I don't think we would spend the money that Wolves would want. Although Brady wasn't for sale at one point. Although more financial pressure on Hull than Wolves.
Haven't lost any players- couple of reasonable signings- overall pretty ****e Signed The football God ( so just accept the above statement as fact)
The way I see it is this. We are a comparatively small club in this league. We don't have a massive playing budget compared to virtually every other club in this league. We already have a large playing squad draining wages from that budget. We could potentially have a £20m bid for a player accepted, but if he doesn't want to come here, he won't come! We have an excellent, but novice manager. Alex Neil is proving himself more and more, but is virtually unknown outside the UK. I think that if we have a reasonable first half of the season, we will be able to attract better players here.
Completely agree, though if you don't mind me saying to me this is all pretty much obvious common sense, shame so many of our fans don't seem to get it.
I know there's still nearly two weeks of the window left, but I must say I'm more than disappointed with our transfer window thus far. AN says it's been frustrating and says it has been difficult trying to persuade players to come to us, well we've never had this problem in the past. So what is the problem ? Recently promoted ? Well this will be our fourth season in the top flight in five so that shouldn't be an issue IMO. Location ? In the past we've been told once we've managed to persuade potential targets to visit Colney etc. they've been more than impressed with our set up. Setting our sights too high ? Well if we are, which I for one don't think we are, then plenty have criticised the club in the past for not being ambitious enough so we'll put that one to bed. Making derisory bids for players who, in this 'new era', now command even higher fees ? Think Mr Bruce has the answer to that one but that has been debated to death on this thread. Not being able or prepared to pay the going rate in wages for our targets ? More than possible. Rookie manager ? Hmm, sorry to say but as much as we as City fans revere the man that just might be the one, who knows. I don't really know too much about the guy from Wolves who we evidently bid for yesterday but looking at his record in the Championship it's pretty impressive. Ok, so Wolves have said he won't be sold but how many times have we heard that said, fact is he IS for sale because every player has his price. If AN really thinks his goals could keep us in the division find out what that price is. How about making a public statement about how much we want the lad ? Try to turn his head, you never know it might encourage him to ask to speak to us, subsequently it may make his agent try to force a move, you don't know until you try. If at first you don't suceed ......................
I must say that I agree with you Munky and also the post from canary737. IMO, we have a team of hard working dedicated players who are showing signs of performing as a team. There is NO way we can compete with some of the other clubs for top players and I guess we also don't want to be paying massive salaries simply to attract top quality players. If we can keep playing in the same way as in our opening two games (barring injuries/suspensions), then I'm confident we'll avoid being in the relegation dogfight come next May.
Ok, then I'll bite back. So? Why is this a problem?? I don't get it, sorry. It's a big world out there, plenty of other things to get a stiffy from And again I'm sorry, but I've just re-read Supers post that clearly rattled your cage so much and I still agree with every word, and I certainly can't find anything as sanctimonious as this petulant little nonsense you've just come out with. I really hate that bullshit when people don't agree with or can't argue back with something Supers says, and I would have expected better from a mod to be honest, this is poor form if you ask me, and certainly does you no favours.
KJ confirms a bid - and also that further bids "are not welcomed". http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=410163
I see no problem why Norwich fans should expect more from the transfer window? We take enjoyment from watching our club play and we all want the club to be successful. Especially on the back of the great second half of the season we just had. During most of the window we aren't playing games so we don't have much to look forward to, so we do want to see good players coming in and we know that we need to sign good players in order to ensure we stay in the Premier League. I've always maintained that I won't be confident in our PL survival unless we sign a centre half at the very least - we were shaky are back even in the championship so I don't see us getting many clean sheets this season. Furthermore if Bassong gets injured I think we are in trouble. That said I'd say we're only one or two players away from staying up but it doesn't help when I see clubs around us going out and signing players who are too good for them: Cabaye, Wijnaldum, Thauvin, Rondón, Payet - and I could go on - yet we can only sign players who are, shall we say, 'unglamourous' (not sure if that is even a real word). In addition to this, didn't the management promise 6-7 signings - and quality signings at that? I don't consider Jake Kean for one to be a quality player so I sincerely hope there is more to come before the window slams shut. So yes, I for one am very disappointed with our business in the transfer window. You could call me negative or say I need to get out more but frankly I don't care, because I don't think my attitude on this is vastly different to most other Norwich City supporters. Whilst I'm not going to have sleepless nights over our lack of meaningful transfer business I can still express my disappointment on here and reserve the right to be puzzled as to why anybody else would be genuinely pleased by our club's dealings compared to those around us and what our expectations were at the start of the window.
