"With the highly-regarded full-back taking City's total of summer signings to seven, Lambert confirmed the deal concludes his planned transfer activity in the current window: "We said we were looking for six or seven lads to come in and lend a hand in various positions and it's pleasing we've now managed to do so. Kyle will come in and join his new team-mates on Monday and the whole group can then work together on continuing our pre-season preparations."" Seems our squad is complete for the coming season, personally I feel another centre back with experience is needed but with this flood of attacking options, we should simply look to go out and outscore the opposition.
Do you comment on the pink-un GHPLS?? Im more than happy with the defence we have got, i know wardy looks a little shakey at times but like the rest of the team as last season progressed so did he and many of the others... I think with Barnett, Whitbread, Ward and De Laet we should have sufficient defensive options in the middle. As many have said is there any need to bring in a over the hill crock that is just going to disrupt the harmony of the team spirit that lambert has worked on over the last 2 seasons. All in all i think we have a fantastic squad, i would say the best since stringers days and i cant wait to see them in action... Though we must allow them time and not expect instant results which no doubt some will! OTBC
The way I see it. Signings are principally done. The squad looks tight, a few will leave now (hopefully Cody!!) and we'll see. But lambert won't be "not looking" put it that way. Like he said Saturday "you never stop looking" If lambert sees an opportunity, he'll take it as I think there's 2 spots left in the 25 Pssst, henners wouldn't even could as he's under 25. But shhhhhhh
i really don't see the need for another centre half! how many do you want!? we've got four... five if you include r.martin who can play there
You have lost me. I think we now have at least 30 over 21's which means that we have got to get rid of 5 - not get 2 more in. Why has Henners got to be under 25?
lansbury deal is not going to happen, at least, not now. it may happen in january depending on how much game time he's had and if we even need him! 1950canary, beefy is right - assuming you discount deadwood such as hughes, s.smith, cody mac, tudor jones etc. we have about 22/23 players that need to be registered in our 25 man squad - the rest are all under 21 so needn't be registered. doubt we will sign anyone else now, except maybe a keeper - we have been linked with hahnemann (maybe cos i keep mentioning him!) so its not impossible but i think unlikely. lambert seems pretty happy with his lot...
Question - does anybody know if the 25 man squad is fixed for the season - what happens with the Jan transfer window - assumably you can move people in and out if you have named 25 in August?
After the initial squad is named (after the Chelsea game I think) its fixed until the January transfer window. Once the transfer window opens teams are free to move players in and out again. Once the January transfer window closes the squad is fixed until the end of the season. I think emergency loans can be added if the league ratifies it. Thats my understanding of it anyway
I think there is two more players in the pipeline. Lansbury and then a Goalkeeper. I am not taking the "seven players" seriously and we all know Lambert keep his cards close to his chest when it comes to the media. Plus, maybe he has ten targets and you don't want to disappoint the fans and not get them all, so maybe he was holding back a bit to keep the fans happy. I sort of agree about the centre half, saying you want a experienced centre half isnt a "has been". It's someone who has more experience playing Prem football, like James Tomkins. More Prem experience then any of are centre backs yet he is still 22. But he would be pricey I reckon.
i just don't see why people think lansbury will be coming now! where on earth will he fit in to lambert's plans? i know he is a good player and will become a very good player, but he didn't even get regular football with us back end of last season!! it isn't going to happen... at least, not this summer. by the way, tomkins had an £8m valuation on his head to put off liverpool who were rumoured to be interested!
I think Lansbury would be a welcome addition, I know it's a lot of players there already but last year he was brilliant, he was slightly inconsistent but definately a cracking player with a bright future. And I thought Tomkins would be expensive, but that was an example of the experienced but not a has been. OR what about Richard Stearman, probably going to struggle to get in the team this year with Roger Johnson signing for Wolves. But like I said, I don't believe it is now essential.
Lansbury just Has something about him that screams premier league class. I believe he would be very effective in a centralised creative midfield role and give time I think he could overtake hoolahan. He has an eye for a pass I've never seen in a player wearing a norwich shirt and I just generally want the lad to do well. I feel he'll never climb the ranks at arsenal. There loss can be our gain! But as I've said. He's a luxury, and while I still feel he is coming here (just a feeling) I also believe we are ready without him We are looking at nothing less than the greatest Norwich team of my generation. Goosepimples.
What about Paccheco though? With Liverpool's transfer activity surely he won't be first team, so maybe we could have him on loan?
Ah dani Pacheco! I would love to see him, he loved his time at Norwich and he still talks about it on his twitter. Respectful and very talented. He's unlikely to get a stab at Liverpool with the money they've spent on their midfield, especially with no Europe for them this year. He'll definitely be loaned I'd say. If he'd come in earlier like henners did I'm pretty sure he'd have made the same impact. Quality player!
We will only be allowed to get Pachecho for 3 months, you are only allowed 2 long terms loans a year in the Prem and we already have two. We are allowed short term though, but that is 3 months for each player. I do agree though, Pachecho would be top.
Sorry to keep on about this point but allowing for the 4 mentioned we still have 26 or 27 left. Who are the other 4 to bring it down to 22/23? I can think of a couple but then I start to struggle. I then turn to another point I have mentioned before. As was set out in the Smith/Aberdeen saga our players are now on Premiership contracts and out of the price range of most lower division clubs. These players only have to be at the lower end of the Premiership wage scale to be on good money and with all the add ons such as pension,NI,expenses etc it is not too hard to reach a figure of £2.5m per annum for 8 players. We are not in a financial position to pay £2.5m for 8 players to turn up for training and sit in the stands on matchday. I hope that some of the players move on but I suspect that others will be happy to just see out their contracts and then leave on a free transfer. I suspect that our buying is done and that a couple of the players we would rather sell will end up in the 25 man squad.
I think as far as the squad goes, Lambert had his six or seven priorities that he wanted to address. That's now done, and we have a pretty good squad. If he spotted a juicy cherry or two to add to the top of his cake before the window closes, he'd be only too pleased to grab them. If not, we're good to go anyway! As for the unwanted players and their contracts, there's always a deal to be done. Say for instance someone went on a season long loan, the loan club could pay the standard wage for that league with City picking up the remainder. Not ideal I know but better than us paying full whack, and they wouldn't be sitting here doing nowt. I still think that while a player obviously won't want to give away a chunk of money, they would still rather be playing somewhere than sitting around here with no future.
I just wish we could start this new season right now, I'm absolutely buzzing and counting down the days to go, no doubt we'll have to find a new gear if we are to stay up, but we have a really exciting team and I just want to get going before some of our other rivals get the chance to make some signings (Except QPR who seem to want to go down)!
Speaking of our rivals, did any one else have a little look at the top and bottom predictions on here? As you'd expect, we featured heavily for the bottom three (fair assesment for any promotoed side). But, we seemed from what I saw to often be tipped to fair worse than Swansea and QPR. A fair number of times, we were bottom three without either of the other promoted teams featuring. As far as I concerned, good, the more that people don't rate us the better. It helps to create 'Lambert territory'!
