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Reply | Terry Butcher and Nigel Farage
at 10:44 19 Aug 2022
At least this provides conclusive proof that a career distinguished by frequent heading of the ball does indeed cause brain damage. |
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Reply | Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t)
at 13:28 16 Sep 2021
"What you say is completely untrue" really? I guess you could take a look at which teams have achieved promotion from the champs in the last decade and have another think. As for Barnsley, they never remotely looked capable of beating the other teams in the play offs. And if your aspiration is for us to emulate Barnsley then that is another sad statement about just where we are as a club.
As for the claim "Rome wasn't built in a day", that's rather the point of my whole post. I want to see evidence of a long term plan based upon building a strong club from academy level upwards. The lot up the road had F'all money but invested what they did have in building up a category 1 academy. All I'm saying is look where it has got them and tell me we couldn't attempt to replicate that success. I just don't see what other long-term plan could work. |
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Reply | Morsy interview.
at 13:43 15 Sep 2021
I think it would be madness to change managers again so soon. Cook has a proven record and you just feel that at some point he will get this squad ticking. But he does need to give us something to sing about very soon or else I fear the despondancy experienced by the fans will spread to the squad like a malignant tumour. |
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Reply | Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t)
at 13:32 15 Sep 2021
Of course you're right that we wouldn't attract top end championship players at this stage, but that's not my point. My main concern remains that I don't see any long-term plan for how we would progress once (increasingly, IF) we gain promotion. A pension fund is NOT going to be chucking tens of millions at the club for transfer fees, so where will we generate the cash and players to take us to the position where we become competitive in the Champs?
My personal view is that we should have put a massive emphasis on developing an academy and scouting system to rival that of the lot up the road. They were under threat of administration just a few years ago but were able to sell Maddison for £25m. That enabled them to bring in other emerging talent like Buendia etc, and subsequently they sold Buendia, Godfrey and Lewis (the latter 2 Academy players) for something like a combined total of aroud £80m. That sort of money enables you to invest in players at the top end of the champs, and seriously compete for promotion, which, if successful, brings in serious PL money. I see absolutely no reason in principle why we couldn't replicate a similar system.
I just don't see any of the current crop of players at any level developing into a multi-million pound player (I hope I'm wrong but doubt I am). Currently when we do have an academy player showing genuine signs of serious talent they are quickly and unsuprisingly seduced away by teams with a much better academy system (as was the case with Gibbs). Of course, the approach I'm suggesting would take a few years to develop and require a bit of fan patience, but personally I would rather face that than the very real prospect that we spend God knows how many more frustrating years stagnating as a mid-to-bottom champs club. |
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Reply | Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t)
at 11:07 5 Sep 2021
Cheers MH! I'm used to getting hostile responses to my "realistic" take on the club's situation, so I appreciate your considered response.
I actually agree with everything you say. It would indeed be foolish to think we could have recruited a better calibre of player in this window (indeed I'm very pleasantly surprised we have managed to attract some of the ones we did (Morsy for example)).
I think my real worry is that having recruited 19 players in one go it is pretty clear that they will form the majority of the squad for several seasons to come, and they do all look like bottom half champ/top league 1 level players. It's becoming clearer with every passing season that to stand a chance of moving into a position to challenge for promotion from the champs requires the acquisition and/or retention of multi-million pound players that make up the bulk of teams who are serious contenders in that league. The nub of my concern is that I don't detect (as of yet) any evidence of a strategy regarding how we might acquire such players in the future. I would have loved to have seen a top to bottom rethinking of all aspects of the club with an emphasis on vastly improved scouting networks, and a category 1 youth policy. Like it or not, that's how the lot up the road managed to transform their position and I see no reason at all why a similar strategy wouldn't work for us. Indeed, I think it is the only realistic strategy that might achieve our ultimate ambition to rejoin the PL. Gamechanger is not going to be stumping up for several £5m+ players when we make it to the champs, so how else are we going to acquire the players we will need to compete in the champs?
It may be that my "realism" tends towards the negative, but while I welcome the departure of Evans and the squad development this year, it does strike me as a very short-term approach. It looks like someone has said, "Let's make sure we get promotion this year then worry about the future once we're in the champs". That is a bit too Rotherham for my liking. I would very much welcome somone to show me why my take on the current issues is wrong, but other than a load of abuse about me being a closet budgie I have yet to see anybody say anything rational in response to my worries. |
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Reply | So Nodge
at 10:08 5 Sep 2021
Please provide your evidence for that rather obviously unfounded claim. Which one of our players would make it onto their substitutes bench or even get into their entire squad?
I really don't understand why so many fans allow their patriotism to the club to blind them to the realities right before our eyes, that we need to accept if we are ever to move forward. Things look better now than they have done for some time but let's not get into the ridiculous game of denying we are worlds apart at the moment (see the transfermarkt squad values posted above). Not that long ago we finished above them in the champs; is it really such an act of treason to suggest we ought to see what lessons we can learn from such a rapid and radical transformation in our respective fortunes? Seems a good number on here think precisely that, and would rather we entrench the divide rather than bridge it. Personally I would rather see us return to the glories of the sort of team I watched on The Big Match Revisited yesterday. |
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Reply | A quick breakdown of your posting history.....
at 17:28 3 Sep 2021
typical knuckle-draggers response to someone pointing out the reality of our situation. You're right that I don't hate that lot, because I don't hate any team or any player. I do rather like football. I actaully have quite a bit of affection for all the East Anglian teams, so clearly I'm Satan.
Thanks for your analysis of my few posts (few because of people like you who refuse to grow up and just want to throw around abuse like a particularly thick teenager), although why you should be so obsessed I'm really at a loss to explain (have a word with your psychotherapist). I would analyse your posts in return if I could bother to read them, but from your responses I have surmised I really shouldn't bother, picking ticks off the dog would be far more pleasant. |
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Reply | So Nodge
at 16:31 3 Sep 2021
I get local rivalry but never have gone for the view that you have to viscerally hate the local rival and trash everything they do just because they are your local rival. Only a few years ago we were pretty much on a par with them up the road, now take a look at the current transfermarkt values of the two squads: NCFC £170.60m, ITFC £20.36m ( https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ipswich-town/kader/verein/677, https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/norwich-city/marktwertanalyse/verein/1123)
Anyone familiar with European football would realise they have actually done exceptionally well to pick up some genuinely top-tier talented footballers, and I suspect that this is what has enabled them to encourage other quality players into the squad. Hard as it may be, we would serve our own cause much better by analysing carefully what they have done to get to this situation rather than make comments that look exceptionally silly when viewed from an objective stance. It's a sobering thought that they now possess several players who are individually valued at twice our entire squad. |
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Reply | Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t)
at 16:10 3 Sep 2021
some truth in what you say here, but perhaps you're being just a little too open-minded. What concerns me most is that we lack a clear longer-term strategy to push for a top end championship challenge. We've brought in 19 players, the vast majority of whom are destined to be with us for the next three years at least. Yet an honest assessment would suggest none of them (with perhaps a couple of borderline cases) are better than lower half champs/upper half league one in quality, and I don't see any of them looking that likely to improve significantly beyond that level. There's a real danger that we are far more likely to become the next Rotherham rather than the next Brentford.
The current level of recruitment really should secure promotion this season, and we are right to be thankful for the work done to put us in that position. However, I just don't see any real evidence that there is a current plan about how we signficantly develop beyond that short-term aim. Of course that is by necessity speculation, but it is speculation based on current evidence. I hope I'm entirely wrong and someone will come along here and explain what I've missed. |
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Reply | Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t)
at 08:49 3 Sep 2021
The problem is such behaviour all looks a bit too false and forced. The time to high-five the fans is when promotion has been achieved. Given what Bristol and Watford fans have almost unanimously said about MA it leaves me concerned that he's a bit of a well-suited Del Boy. Given the Brizzle fan's comments I'm just a bit concerned that the 19 signings that have got us all very excited is MA's attempt to buy short-term popularity at the expense of long-term success.
Having said that, the squad assembled ought to be good enough to secure promotion once it begins to click. But then I fear it doesn't look like one that would make any real in-roads on the champs, and we will be stuck with this squad for a few years given they have only just arrived. Hopefully they will be able to consolidate in the champs for long enough to develop a more refined long-term policy of developing younger talent in a similar vein to the unmentionables up the road. We are the big spenders in league 1, but in the champs what we have spent on the whole squad won't buy us one decent top six team level player. We desperately need a strategy that shows how we might plausibly compete at that level because I don't see a pension fund coughing up for several £5m+ players to buy us that opportunity.
If MA is not to be considered a fly-by-night we need to see some real evidence soon that he has a genuine realistic long-term strategy for progression of the club to be competing for a place in the PL. His record to date is not encouraging, but we have little alternative other than to hope that he has changed his ways significantly from his previous clubs. |
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Reply | This is undoubtedly the best transfer window I’ve seen as a Town fan
at 10:50 1 Sep 2021
Without a doubt the best league 1 squad we have assembled. But that you're so ecstatic about the signing of this particular group of players only emphasises just how painfully far we have fallen. Once we were the team of Beattie, Mills, Muhren, Wark, Gates, Woods, Mariner, etc, etc. None of our present squad comes even close to those players, or near a starting place in that team. Have you watched the Big Match Revisited on ITV2 lately? In so many ways we are so far away from those days when we truly had a team to be proud of. Let's hope this is the start of a revival of former glories, but let's also temper that hope with a bit of realism. |
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Reply | So Nodge
at 10:34 31 Aug 2021
Same here, I follow European football and it will no doubt irritate many blues to know they have bagged some genuine talent at real bargain prices. Tzolis, Normann, Kabak, Rashica were all strongly linked to top third prem teams. Not that long ago we drew 1-1 in an evenly contested game, yet within a few years we are worlds apart in the quality of our players. The harsh reality is that you could take pretty much any one of their best 11 and he will be worth more than our entire squad. We need a serious assessment of how that could have happened in such a short period of time. Here's hoping the new regime will learn a few lessons. |
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Reply | A Norwich fan on WOTB*:
at 17:13 29 Aug 2021
Obviously not, but we would do well to move on from the constant "look at our history" narrative. We now have fans approaching early middle age who have experienced little but dross for most of the time of their support. Or do we want to end up like Bolton and Blackpool etc who all have a great history (more so than Town's) but very little prospect of remotely achieving anything of note in the future. |
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Reply | Norwich 6 Bournmouth 0
at 15:28 25 Aug 2021
Probably more happier with that model yo-yoing between the champs and premiership, than the model of consolidating in league one I suspect.
It's really pointless having a go at them for being in a position as a club that far exceeds our own. Yo-yoing between champs and premier league has just enabled them to spend £50m + on new players. Are you really suggesting you wouldn't want us to be in that position? |
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Reply | Where will Norwich finish this year be realistic
at 17:19 3 Aug 2021
Let's suppose we both find ourselves in the championship next season. Do you honestly think there would be a single player in Town's squad that would make it into theirs? the gulf in talent will be huge. |
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Reply | Attn: cyclists
at 14:10 30 Jul 2021
How many car driver "pricks" are prosecuted each year for hit and run deaths? Indeed how many deaths of any kind are caused by car driver "pricks" compared to cyclist "pricks"? Suggest you just stop being a prick. |
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Reply | If we're prepared to let Gibbs walk...
at 14:05 30 Jul 2021
WTF with spaced out ungrammatical sentences? Are you a child?
Perhaps you need to take a grammar lesson so that you have something remotely sensible to say about what determines the length of a paragraph you illiterate buffoon (I'll give you a clue, it has nothing to do with the number of words, but rather the subject matter). |
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Reply | If we're prepared to let Gibbs walk...
at 18:56 15 Jul 2021
How eloquent you are. Can't face the reality of how low this club have sunk. Nothing will improve with fans like you burying your head in the sand. |
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Reply | If we're prepared to let Gibbs walk...
at 15:21 15 Jul 2021
Not that long ago we were in the champs and that lot were in league 1 with big debts and owners who had a fraction of the wealth of Evans. Yet here we now find ourselves miles behind them in virtually every footballing respect. Not one town player would get close to their first team yet most of their reserve players would walk straight into ours. How this happened is a digrace, but we are where we are and it looks like a long road back to any sort of parity. Like it or not we could learn an awful lot from their transformation from our inferiors to where they now are literally out of our league. One stand out fact is that they didn't buy their way into this position. They seem to have achieved this by building from the bottom to top rather than your suggested top to bottom. By which I mean they significantly invested in the recruitment and development of academy players. That's why the loss of Gibbs should not just be seen as the loss of one over-blown prospect but as a failure to recognise the value of investing in youth as the foundation of future prosperity. |
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