The trouble is each time we make that step back the step forward gets bigger. Stay up and we build and become more likely to be able to compete in the PL, go down and we will likely regress or at best stay still. OK the championship will be more fun (Well hopefully!) but if we are promoted again then what? the same if not worse struggles after missing the increased pay deal start point? The intermediate league or PL shawn of the top 6 is an interesting one, but would it ever feel like anyone could really win the top division any more if all the top teams had gone to a higher ranked competition. If the 6 were: Arse, Chelsea, Manure, Citeh, Loserpool and Spuds I'd imagine it would be a fairly open playing field, although a heavily tax payer subsidised Wet sham might have a chance to dominate, but how could they crow to a Gooner or Spud if they didn't take part? It would be like a second division of sorts. It's the damned either way scenario, Can't win won't win in the current set up, probably won't win in the new set up but if we could would it feel like the same achievement? Our binner friends wouldn't allow us to see it that way! If we stay up , recruit well, I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to compete and beat teams as the PL is, so I really wouldn't want to see a breakaway, cheapens the whole thing like united not entering the FA cup. Bah!
Yes General I guess we're damned either way to dine on the crumbs from the 'top table'. I've just seen that the new ManUre manager will be given a 'war chest' in the region of £300M. We would do well to spend 10% of that!!!!
Stay up and with the new deal, then I think £30M would be the bare minimum I would expect us to spend (Or not spend through incompetence). There has been money unspent in each of the last two windows and we need to start setting the bar a little higher. Whether spending £12-15M on each of a couple of players is mearly getting you last years £10-12M players that must be the aim if we are to truely improve and live in the PL. All bloody big if's on actually being in the PL of course Bah!
Totally agree that we have underspent (or spent wrongly - Naismith in particular!!!!) in the last 2 transfer windows and one thing that needs to change is for us to stop going in with ridiculously low starting bids, as I just feel it makes it seem as though we're not serious about trying to sign the player we're after.. I know I'm not alone in wishing we'd got Afobe in the summer and we could easily be safe now, instead of finding ourselves in the bottom 3, as I'm sure he would have converted some of the scoring opportunities that CJ has squandered!!!!
The fact we went into this season with Jerome who has always failed to impress in the Premier, and an untested Mbokani was a serious mis-judgement.
True but I think who ever we signed would have been something of an unknown, like Afobe. If Mbokani had come in impressed straight away and scored 12+ we'd all have thought it was a shrewd piece of business. Might he have done if we hadn't persisted with Jerome? and started the season with Mbok?things could have been very different had a few more chances been converted and draws and defeats upgraded to wins. Had we have signed Defoe at the start of the season, I'm certain we all would have moaned and been disappointed but he may well have kept us up! With signings there is a lot of luck involved, but with our business we weren't giving ourselves too much of a chance. Bah!
I don't think we generally overlook that, we recognise that not all players will want to come to Norwich as a small provincial city with little long term pedigree as a club. But I do expect us to be able to identify targets that will accept our wage structure and want to play for us in the PL. That we contiually fail to do so is poor recruitment in my book. I don't think Afobe didn't join us on account of wages or location (He was in Wolverhampton for God's sake!) but we appeared interested but unwilling to meet Wolves's valuation. Or they would not sell at that point, it is unlikely we will ever know what we offered, but the rumours were very close to that which seemingly successfully prised him away in January. So it looks like a fail even if we don't know the whole story. To defend the summer recruitment you would have to believe that the manager and club were happy to go as was with the defensive players we had. That might be worse than just cocking up the window! Bah!
But we haven't payed peanuts! Not in all instances anyway. "Pay premier league wages, you get Naismiths!" I think the Monkeys might be better! Bah!
We still need a controller in midfield, a ball player, someone with vision to get the ball forward quicker for a striker to run onto. We have huffers, and puffers who run 11 k in a game but it's wasted mileage it gets us nowhere! We can't score from crosses or corners so need to change what we're doing! That's just not players coming in but a new vision of the way we play! Manager take note!
The thing is, I think one of our main problems is that we lack the huff and puff in our team, at one stage earlier this year I'm sure we were presented with a statistic that suggested that we were doing a lot less running than practically every other club in the PL. I believe it is because of the managers belief that you can work harder not smarter, well too often we seem second best and do not seem to press the oposition enough. So I'd take a 12-13K huffer who can pass a little please! Bah!
That doesn't surprise me, since we got embroiled in our long winless streak I think there was a change in emphasis that meant we pressed the ball more and O'neil in particular is working a lot harder when we haven't got it. Bah!
Sorry but I couldn't disagree with you more, we are clueless in midfield and up front, we look like a amateur Sunday morning team most of the time, can't pass, lose possession easily, play sideways, end up running around like a team of 8 year olds and with 8/9 in defence still concede goals. We need someone to hold the ball look up hit the killer pass forward, our best players are having to play too deep to have any effect when we get possession, then it's huffing, and puffing trying to get forward, it's not working!!!
