The 2018-19 Season

Stuart Lewis's take on City's current position makes an interesting read:

http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...pposite-elsewhere-its-all-rather-paradoxical/

 

Jamal Lewis has signed a new contract! Keeps him at the club for several more years! (Or improves the fee when we sell him...)

 

Louis Thompson has also signed a new contract with our medical team! Contracted until 2022, with a club option to 2023.

 

The Pink Un‏ @pinkun
Norwich City will reportedly complete a contract hat-trick and sign right-back Max Aarons to a new deal – with Premier League giants Arsenal and Chelsea said to be tracking the teenager. http://www.pinkun.com/aarons-also-set-to-sign-new-canaries-contract-as-links-with-arsenal-and-chelsea-surface-1-5731172… #ncfc

 

Great to see the club agreeing new contracts to the emerging youff players, who are obviously going to be the future of the club and bring a sizeable fee when sold. I doubt we’ll be good enough to seriously challenge for a play-off place this year, but I’d be happy with finishing in the top 10 and REALLY pleased to be entertained once again at CR on match days.
It should also help us to recruit any up and coming players from all areas of the country now that we have made a commitment to keeping our Cat 1 Academy status and have raised the necessary funds to upgrade the facilities there.

 

All 3 have signed new deals I believe keeping them with the club until 2022 in terms of Louis and 2023 for Max and Jamal!

GREAT BUSINESS!

 

It's now confirmed that all three are now contracted until 2023 (Thompson has a one year option as well). All three of these, plus Cantwell and Godfrey will improve with playing in the first team and Buendia is another. The new signings will also hopefully develop through playing as Leitner, Srbeny and Hernandez have since the second half of last season. All of that contributes to potential to push on for the rest of the season and beyond. With few older players, the overall potential for development throughout the squad is impressive. Full credit to SW and DF for that.

 

I DEFY ANY true NCFC fan/supporter to say they are unhappy with our prospects and that is something that has been missing for several years.
OK, I'm not very happy that D&M if anything have increased their power with SS 'abandoning ship' - at least, that's how I see it, but there's not much we can do about it.

Edit - Superb article by Will on today's MFW and I urge you all to read it and the comments that follow - http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...inally-look-capable-of-uniting-their-fanbase/ -
PS - and ancther excellent article - http://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwic...ity-column-enjoyment-at-carrow-road-1-5732150

 

While prospects look good, there is also an unpredictability about such a young squad in the short term, though in the long-term things look good.

Both articles bring out the positives, but they also mention the decline last season after a similar good run ended. From now until Christmas will tell us much more about the potential of this squad. If we can stay in or around the play-offs places then we'll have a real chance to push on for the rest of the season.

 

The main difference is that this season, we have some real depth in the squad and that has been evident in the players selected for the Carabao Cup games and if you compare that to our run last season, DF selected first team players to compete against the likes of Arsenal and they must have been both physically and mentally drained after that momentous game at the Emirates which was the catalyst to our abysmal run IMO. As you point out Rick, we have players to come back from injury and in the meantime, those drafted in as replacements, have probably more than ‘stepped up to the plate’.

Let’s just hope that when ‘normal service is resumed’ on the 22nd that we can come back to Norfolk with all 3 points!!!!

 

I'm more happy with our prospects than I was at the start of the season. but overall I'm not that happy. With D&M at the helm we will always be little Norwich and unlikely to reach the PL.
Oh yes we've had a good run, yes we look better than last season but it will take a good run from now till Christmas to convince me we havd a genuine shot at even the playoffs.
Bah!

 

I've always seen this as another rebuilding year. A tenth or better is what I hope for. The excitement of the last month and the rise of the young ones has been a bonus. Making the playoffs would be a huge achievement.

 

Except we've spent 4 of the last 8 years in the PL with them at the helm.

 

And none of the most recent 3. We now have a prohibitive budget that makes it unlikely to return, not impossible, but what is extrordinarily unlikely is any stay beyond 1 season because we will never under Delia have the resources to stay up again.

Bah!

 

But we would, in that scenario, have resources in the form of around £100 of premier league payments, and maybe a better bunch of people to use that sensibly.
Edit: £100 million, that is - a hundred quid wouldn't go far!

 

I'm not convinced about resources being so important. Back in the 1990s we finished 3rd and 4th in the top division with similar resources as we have now. We then got a 'rich owner' in Robert Chase and plummeted down the table. Buying in expensive players is always a gamble, as we've seen to our cost recently. I'd much rather we develop players through the academy the way we're doing now and pick up bargains where we can. That's what we did under Lambert and McNally to reach the PL and survive. IMO, SW and DF are following a similar development plan which has given us a lot of potential for doing the same. I'm happy with that

 

Fair comment Rick, but I can’t think of MANY teams in the PL/Championship which don’t have wealthy backers!! If you discount NCFC, then I’m sure it’s possible to count the number of teams which lack ‘financial muscle’ on the fingers of one hand.
It would be unbelievable if we were to even make the play-offs in the next 2 seasons and anything is possible. Even the optimist in me doesn’t believe we can stay there though

 

Getting to the PL and staying there will be a slow process. We've embarked upon the right path, I think, by controlling expenses and bringing on the youth (which fortunately is working out). Step by step is the correct way for NCFC.

 

I don't think this was mentioned on here yesterday: Kenny McLean had an operation earlier this week. All the best to him. I hope this takes care of his ankle problem and he's back soon.

 

Totally agree, CS. I think we've now embarked on a long-term development plan similar to the 7 year plan created by McNally and achieved by Lambert and then Hughton. That went south when we tried to be big spenders on RvW and others.

The current plan is to build the squad around a sophisticated tactical approach based on possession and passing and we've seen that working well in recent weeks. Huddersfield did that from a low base and made it to the PL in the second year. Cardiff on the other hand tried to take Colin's Championship tactics to the PL and look lost already. It may not be this year, but it could be. As long as we're improving and in with a chance then I'll take that, especially if we can keep bringing on young players the way we are.

Here's Conor Southwell's views on this:

http://talknorwichcity.com/opinion/...-next-move-could-prove-to-be-season-defining/