As there is nothing much football related happening just now, I thought I would start a new thread!! Who would you like to see leave CR at the end of this season – Ruddy Whittaker Martin Bassong Bennett Mulumbu Lafferty Tettey Naismith They’re my choices – over to you and feel free to add any others. Klose may well choose to leave after some of his comments of a few weeks ago. I’m not convinced that McGovern is good enough to be our first choice keeper. So our new SD+HC need to identify targets and get them in EARLY, so that they can join in pre-season and NOT be bringing them in a couple of weeks before the window closes. Even allowing for SOME of our youf to be capable of moving up to the first team squad. I reckon we need the following – A first choice GK A proven CB A proven LB (as I don’t think Djiks will be staying) IMO, we have enough cover in our youf to fill the midfield, with Howson to be captain and marshal them and I expect both CJ and Basil to stay, so with Morris, we probably have enough strikers. As there is nothing much football related happening just now, I thought I would start a new thread!!
I will add Hoolahan to that list JM. Stopping JM's progress to the first team. He and Pritchard, with Cantwell as back up, will be enough next season (unless a miracle happens and we win the play-offs).
Glad there are multiple choices because I'd like to see most of those leave! Not Wes though. How has he stopped Maddison's progress? That's rubbish. Much as I like him, he'll get there when he's ready, and Wes can help with his development IMO (that's 'in my opinion' to the acronym challenged DD )
Excellent comments GE and gandy and I was unsure re Wes, as I've said many times before, he would be useful to have on the bench and I can see JM being the focus of some 'robust' tackling with little protection from referees, especially as we are most likely going to be in the Championship next season. The voting so far is quite interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops over the coming days/weeks.
I really don't get all this Hoolahan can help Maddison develop. What coaching qualifications does Hoolahan have ? What skill's ? Why do people think he's able to assist in player development. Other than playing in the same position and being Norwich players what do they have in common. None of us even know if they like each other. Typical Norwich not being able to let go of players who have had their day attitude. This is the type of thinking that has for years and still is holding our club back. We need to keep players that earn a place in the squad in their own right not find excuses to keep players that have passed their sell by date because we can't let go.
WOW carrow - that is one of the best posts that I've seen in a long time. I've been saying for a few months now that players such as Martin and Hoolahan are past their 'sell by date' and need to be released
Of your list, I'd be inclined to keep Bennett and Mulumbu and Tettey - but only if an upgrade is not possible. The good thing about this structural shake-up is that the new guy, whoever and whenever he ends up being has no 'history' with any of our squad, so can be (hopefully) ruthless and objective when wielding the axe. Unlike AN, no personal favourites, 'teacher's pets' etc
There wasn't really 'all this' it was just my opinion. I like Wes, have no idea if it would help, but it might. I'm certainly not one who advocates holding on to the deadwood. If he's one of those to be culled, so be it.
Completely agree. It needs to be a shake up, but some of those guys are experienced players on the wane, rather than complete deadwood. Experienced players are important. I'd argue for Ruddy and Martin to stay too, but try to keep them from playing too much...
Shift the lot. Restructure from the bottom up this time. Bed in the nippers next season. You can't win the league with a bunch of kids, right?
Some really good posts - especially this comment - "no personal favourites, 'teacher's pets' etc!!" Interesting to see how the voting is going so far. I'm pleased to see that Martin (76'9%) is featuring quite highly, but I expected Naismith (61.9%) to have more votes.
And didn't several posters state at the time that he was a complete waste of money - in the same mould as RvW. Certainly AN's most ridiculous signing and i guess he is on an outrageous salary as well.
I think there's an interesting distinction here between who I/we would like to never see pull on a Norwich shirt again because they offer nothing, and those worth keeping for other reasons. Turner, Whittaker, Bassong, Lafferty...if any of those are still on the books next season then heads should roll! Honestly, I want none of those players starting next season, and given their respective wages the fewer on our books the better. But I think it's clear that Martin does a lot more than just turn up to training and play games, and it's important to have people like that around the squad. I'd much rather he was a utility player from the bench covering CB/RB rather than first name on the team sheet, but he does care about the club and numerous players have remarked how he personally helped them settle in, etc. The Wes debate is an interesting one, and I think comes down to what he sees as the future of his playing career. If he wants to be playing week in, week out until he's 40 and slide down the divisions as he does so, then I can't argue with that desire and I'd like to think he'd leave and do that, rather than sit disgruntled on the bench here and be a disruptive influence. However if he sees his future in coaching, then there's certainly merit in Dave's Player/Coach suggestion. I would hate to see him promoted to that right away (NCFC have enough jobs going to old boys...) but if he wants to take his coaching badges alongside a diminished wage and playing commitment here, then I'm all for it. He's vastly experienced, and the attributes he stands out for (footballing brain and ball skills) are things youth players could benefit from. Purely based on playing style, he's a better fit for a coaching role than (no criticism intended) Huckerby who often relied on his pace to make things happen. I obviously don't know whether Wes would make a good coach, but I think there needs to be nuance in any summer clearout.
My mind keeps going back to the Villa/Lambert incident in which Wes fired an extraordinary diatribe at the club. I find it hard to think positively about him these days, best he leaves completely in my humble view.