That’s it! Summer all done and dusted. Seems like only five minutes ago that we saw the Premier League trapdoor slam shut. Following our demise last season and the surprise appointment of academy guru Neil Adams, the forthcoming transfer window could have ended up being a calamity. A number of our better players were targeted by Premier League clubs and coupled with the drop in around half the clubs income, the potential for a tumultuous window was hovering over us like a bad smell. But where do we stand on 2nd September 2014? In my opinion, I don’t think the summer could have gone much better. Yes I was (and still am a little) concerned about our manager but he has hit the ground running on the pitch and I don’t think you’ll find a single Norwich fan disappointed with the dealings in the market. Out have gone: Snodgrass - for an OTT fee of £7m. Fer - has left for close to £10m (though we will probably only see about £8m of it). van Wolfswinkel - has joined St Etienne on loan for the year with view to a permanent exit. Pilkington - now with rivals Cardiff (arguably the most controversial departure of the summer). Surman - rejoins Bournemouth for a fee of around £1m (good business). Becchio - has gone on loan to Rotherham (god knows how we managed that - I assume we are having to subsidise most of his wages). One or two others have gone but the above were the headline deals. In have come: Hooiveld on loan - a top, top Championship defender, great character, excellent signing. Miquel from Arsenal - ok, I’ve slated him already because I’ve seen a fair bit of him and I think he’s far too weak to be a centre half. I honestly don’t see him getting in our team but he’s a Norwich player now and he certainly adds more depth to the squad in a position where we were weak. £1.5m mooted? Thompson - straight back out on loan so irrelevant this season but one for the future. £600k. McGrandles - up and coming talent, possible long term successor to Hoolahan? Probably won’t see much of him this season but could see fleeting glimpses of his potential. £1m mooted. Odjidja-Ofoe - if he’s as good as we’ve been led to believe by the likes of Kompany and Lukaku, he’ll tear the Championship to pieces with his power. £3m. Jerome - truly excellent signing at this level for an absolute snip at £1.5m. Cuellar - jury out as he’s not played much football in the past year but there’s no question he was a top defender and reads the game well. Free. O’Neil - Championship nous, a controlled, clever footballer. Could prove a vital signing as the season goes on. Free. Grabban - already scored five times and at £3m looks like great business when compared to over-inflated prices elsewhere in this league. Lafferty - a real character, something we’ve lacked for more than a year, and decent on the pitch. £4m. (Apologies if I’ve missed anyone!) All in all, I think that’s some seriously good business for a club who has just been relegated. The only signing I am unhappy with is Miquel but who knows, he might prove me wrong. Let’s face it, everybody has different views of players. I mean, some managers hilariously rate Franck Nouble! Difficult to say where we sit financially on the summer deals as so many were classified as undisclosed, but I think we are slightly in profit on fees, maybe by £3m (not taking into account wages). It could be argued that the best business we’ve done is to keep hold of Ruddy, Redmond, Hoolahan, Olsson, Hooper, Tettey et al and I think there’s a lot of truth in that. I would expect Bassong to move on loan at some point - there was definitely some interest in him but wages will have been a stumbling block. Bunn, once he returns from injury may also leave. Looking at our squad on paper I think we should all be very confident of a top two finish. Adams has crafted a great blend of youthfulness and experience, Championship nous with Premier League know-how, power, strength and pace, with skill, technique and class. A job well done Mr Adams and a job well done Mr McNally. Let’s make sure we don’t blow this opportunity at an immediate return to the Premier League. OTBC
I think our squad is much stronger now than it was at the start of the transfer window. It seems clear to me that with the players we have we have every chance of getting back to the PL, but I also think we've bought for the longer term as well. Key to our long term future is our youth set up and the ability of whatever manager we have to mix experienced players with younger one's. I think the board recognise this and this is probably the reason why Adams got the job. Now we just need to build on our early results. I'm much happier with Adams appointment now than I was and I think McNally has shown once again what an excellant operator he is.
I would hope we are all coming round to the idea that maybe Adams is not necessarily the unmitigated disaster that we feared he was! For the record, I never doubted David McNally was an excellent CEO, we all make mistakes and as far as I'm concerned his only mistake was allowing CH too long in the job, but even then, we don't know all the reasons for that happening!
kyle lafferty @ryanbennett_22 mate why did you let surs out your boot. I told you he didnt need the toilet. Should of let him piss himself Ryan Bennett @LaffK played me a treat mate, van was getting full we done well keeping hold the rest, had to let becks out aswell his breath was honking
i think the term 'unmitigated disaster' can be officially 'ruled out'. we've given ourselves a great chance of bouncing back and we've made a start on the field which shows promise, if a little rusty around the edges. nothing that a few tweaks here and a bit of polish there won't fix in my opinion. With new players to come in and big names to return from injury, if we don't get promoted (or at the very least finish in the top six), there will need to be a serious inquest because that squad, on paper at least, is exceptionally strong for this level.
Lafferty and Benno are class, just show the spirit in the squad. Have not seen all the transfer activity from our rivals, but I would be very surprised if any of them have come close to our quality input.
There's been a lot of unnecessary sniping about the boards and now they're proved in this window that they seem to have placed things together very well and deserve to be commended. I do think Bowkett can be quite ambiguous when he speaks which is frustrating but McNally always come across well and I'm still very pleased he's in charge.
we can all trust them to run the club very well financially. we trust them on that matter, so we have to trust them on the football front too. they definitely made mistakes last season but this season has to be a clean break, a fresh start in my opinion.
When you have a title like that you just have to play the song! [video=youtube;T88fbHOmvRk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T88fbHOmvRk[/video]
Glad someone has done that, I've had that bloody song in my head all bloody day since I first saw this thread!!
I thought you said you weren't coming back? Fan. 'Being optimistic at start of season' shocker! Literally nothing has changed in my opinion. I still trust the board financially and that gives them leeway on the football front, though I still feel they've made two serious errors in the past 12 months. You seem to have a vendetta against me so I shall just stick you on ignore - I have no interest in anything you say anymore.
In fact, reading it back, it just shows how poorly we've performed so far this season. We did good business in general this summer. We need to start winning this weekend and get ourselves on a decent run
When the OP was written, things in the garden were comparatively rosy. That was before the current run of one win (1) in 12 matches. So, naturally there is much cause for concern now where there wasn't in early Sept.
Your OP reflected quite rightly the optimism fealt at that time back in September although things look a bit different today following a pretty poor run and yet I cannot really work out why the two half seasons to date have beeen do different.We have only had two 'no shows' - Wolves and Middlesbough (one in each of those halves) it is just that we are now conceding saoft goals and not scoring as many as we should from the chances created despite still dominating most games. I really hope that the input and influence of MP will make a diffference and that a win on Saturday will help to turn the ship around once more, it is all about confidence at the end of the day. I also hope that Ruddy sharpens up and does not let any soft ones in which has cost us recently. Finally, this might be a strange comment but if our season to date was in a rugby league, we would probably be 1st or 2nd because the possession that we have would have reflected into points on a more proportional basis. In football as scorelines are so tight normally one great save or mistake invariably impacts on the resultant scoreline.
All I am saying is give Adams a break he has only had 4 months with his team and yes we are on a bad run and results are not going our way lately but to fire him now is not fair. I got the hump yesterday when Supers said he would give the captaincy to O'neil . Yes O'neil is a useful player but he hasn't played enough games to command the respect from players who have fought their way up to the Premier league and kept us there for 3 seasons. Martin has just hit 200 appearances and a great servant to Norwich. I bumped this because we were in agreement that we had made some good signings, out of those £4m for Lafferty looks pretty dumb at this point but he may come good. We have to trust the club financially in football matters and give the manager a clean break. No vendetta Supers I just don't share your gloomy outlook and find it tiresome with all the negativity . Many posters just wait for your posts because they can't construct an opinion of their own that is obviously not your fault. I am pissed off with the run we are on but I am confident we will turn it round. PS I have no problem with you ignoring me whatsoever this is a free forum.
You do talk some absolute twaddle 23. You're on a football forum - a game of opinions - how can you go full mental should someone, who is able to articulate their point better than yourself, not agree with you? Worse still apparently, when that poster very patiently replies and explains their stance to you, it sends you apoplectic. You then trawl through months of threads, to find one that you think makes aforementioned poster look unreasonable, reactionary or muddled in their opinions. Someone definitely looks silly, I'm just not sure it was your intended target. Anyway, all that said, I quite enjoy a good meltdown from time to time.
