Transfer Rumours Arrivals / Departures lounges, Summer 2023.

At 32 if he wants to leave and someone is willing to pay us at least more than Hugill cost us then let him go .

No point in holding onto players that don't want to play for us

 

Can't see us getting promoted without Teemu and any striker we attract now is unlikely to be PL quality.

 

I know I said I wouldn't comment on Smith again, but here I am, like a bad penny. Sorry.

First, I just want to say that I predicted this. I don't say this to prove that I am very clever, but to prove that posters who patronised me are not as clever as they think they are.

The word Smith was reported by the Pink Un to use about Pukki and next season was that he 'envisaged' him being here. Not he hoped, not he really wanted, not he would do everything in his power to make sure that it happened, but he 'envisaged'. Such enthusiasm! When he read that, it really must have made Pukki want to stay and help get us back up to the PL.

IMO, Smith will be delighted to see Pukki leave. Pukki's style of play requires a level of sophistication in terms of tactics and formation that is way, way beyond Smith. Once Pukki goes, the next step will be recruiting a 6ft 4in lump of English lard, a couple of wingers who are fleet of foot but not of mind, and hoofing it up or across to the big boy. Welcome to English football of the last century.

Please, please, can we sack him and get someone with vision before he totally ruins our club?

 

Brentford were regarded as entertaining under Smith and Villa were pretty easy on the eye too .

Not sure where you get this Sam Allardyce hoofball Stoke impression from ?

We were terrible last season under Farke and Smith .

It would be bonkers to sack him now 3 days before our first pre season friendly, having to pay him off and desperately trying to find a new coach.

At the very least give him until Christmas and reassess then.

Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean you should flounce off btw .

A top 6 finish this season or pack your bags would be my choice unless we can see real progress in his first full season or goodbye

 

Deano stat attack

On 22 April 2019, Smith led Aston Villa to break an 109 year old club record for longest winning run after defeating Millwall 1–0 at Villa Park to make it 10 successive victories in 10 matches. The record had previously been held at nine straight wins.

He took over with Villa in 15th place got them into the play offs and promoted .

Premier League Records
label.tablePlayerRecords
Matches 114
Wins 32
Draws 22
Losses 61
Goals For 128
Goals Against 191

 

I'm not flouncing off because people disagree with me - I'm flouncing off because I feel I'm just repeating myself and there's nothing more to say. I think Smith is useless and I wish we'd sacked him at the end of the season, or, better still, hired someone else. How many times can I say that and how many times can I produce the same reasons for my thinking? I'm bored with myself, so other people must be even more bored.

I get my impression of aimless hoofball from last season. I prefer to believe what I saw myself (admittedly only on streams) rather than what someone reports about Brentford half a decade ago. And this wasn't five games when he was finding his feet, it was 27. Without any visible sign of improvement or even joined-up thinking whatsoever from Game 1 to Game 27.

I didn't intend to be quiet about everything - just about Smith. But that's hard, because almost everything is related to the manager eventually. For example, this news that Pukki may want to leave.

(BTW, although we have had a couple of spats, I have never thought you patronise people.)

 

Purely on a financial basis I don't want to hand Smith a big bag of cash in severance like we did Farke.

I wasn't impressed with anything Dean did last year and he and Shakespeare have the look of two middle aged chubby men on holiday in a Spanish resort .
Neither look like geniuses or athletes .

Farke and his German staff looked like they knew what they were doing even if they didn't.

Let's not write off the season before it's started and give the useless fat idiot a chance eh ?

 

Well, as I've also said many times, he's here to stay, so I'm pis*ing in the wind.

 

Best agent slap-down ever was Huckerby saying he wants to stay at Norwich. I could understand Pukki wanting to play at the highest level, but equally stay with Norwich

 

https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli...utm_medium=ShareButton&utm_campaign=GetSocial

I think this is the article that TNC are turning into clickbait. Google translate isn't ideal for nuance, but to me it reads like Teemu's agent is being pretty fair. It says Teemu will be completely professional about the situation, there's no chance of him going on strike to force a move, and there's also a recognition that the value Teemu has to Norwich far exceeds what another club is likely to consider a fair fee for a 32 year old. My read of it is that Teemu is looking for a Premier League move, rather than overseas, which feels realistic because no club overseas is likely to want to pay a fee and match his £50k p/w wages.

Unless someone with more money than sense, Newcastle or maybe West Ham, want to throw £20m at Norwich, I think he stays until at least January. He'd then be free to negotiate with other clubs as a free agent, or wait and see if Norwich are in the promotion picture.

In terms of playing style, I think this has been discussed before but I don't see Pukki necessarily being a poor match for Smith. Ollie Watkins isn't a dissimilar striker to Pukki and he thrived under Smith at two clubs. Smith's Villa pressed hard from the front - the top 2 strikers for pressing last season were Watkins and Pukki. Smith has previously preferred to play a fairly asymmetric 4-3-3 at both Villa and Brentford in the championship, and I don't think we're that far from being able to use a similar system at Norwich.

That 4-3-3 generally had one "true" winger who would maintain width, and one who acted as a second forward and attacked the box. One full-back who would provide an overlap and get towards the by-line, one who would be withdrawn and focus on crossing more. The midfield three was compact with everyone capable of contributing defensively, with one assigned a true DM role, with the others adding ball carrying ability and creative passing.

We're really only a central midfielder away from that system being usable at Norwich. If Aarons goes, I wouldn't be surprised to see a more defensively solid RB with crossing ability recruited for that role, with Giannoulis/McCallum more able to get forward. Idah/Sargent start wider and support the striker, one of our abundance of left wingers provide width the other side.

I think our midfield last season was so weak and badly constructed, it was nearly impossible to make any kind of system that relied on the midfield work. The only time we looked ok was when we basically played 4-2-4 and gave up on central midfield.

 

Yes TNC released a short video discussing the quotes, all of which appear to be fair for someone in Pukki’s position. The EDP has an article with direct quotes.

Pukki deserves to play at the top level but at 32 he is unlikely to draw bids of £8-12m that I think the club would want for him.

He does only have a year left on his contract so it could be his agents way of pushing Norwich to engage in talks over a new deal.

 

Reading through EDP/Athletic reports, seems club are fairly relaxed about Pukki's situation and aren't interested in selling unless the offer is a massive overpay. Norwich have also started contract discussions with Pukki over an extension.

 

I agree about Pukki's situation and you're spot on about the 'asymmetric 4-3-3' formation which Smith favours. It's more balanced than a 4-2-3-1 and therefore stronger defensively. Hayden has already filled the DM hole we had last season and McLean and Lees-Melou can provide the flank cover with hopefully a quality CM to strengthen the midfield further and play the long through balls Pukki loves to run on to.

As you say, Teemu and our other attacking players are well suited to that type of 4-3-3 supported by the midfield and FBs. My guess is that Smith is looking for a deep playmaker CM to provide creativity and killer through balls to the attacking players as well as pushing forward to score goals himself. That's the key signing we need now.

 

The Athletic have an interesting article today about the importance of June 30th, the end of football's financial year.

The key point was that a lot of clubs need to sell by that date in order to avoid financial fair play penalties. Most notable were the likes of Everton, and plenty of Spanish clubs.

I'm curious how this impacts NCFC. If we were in a position to buy, then this feels like something which you can take advantage of. A club might prefer to accept a £5m bid on June 30th than hold out for £8m in July, because of the FFP implications.

On the other hand, perhaps our own FFP situation isn't perfect, and the implications of this could be a keen need to sell by tomorrow, or that we can't bring players in until the new financial year.

 

I'm sure I am not the only one to have given up trying to work out how the FFP rules are applied a
while ago.

 

There are rules?

 

Ask Everton and Man City

 

And they'll say of course there are rules, but there are special cases where they do not apply.

 

FFP punishes clubs that can't afford the fines basically

 

Notts Forest looking at buying Toffolo, his career has really kicked on the last couple of years