Possible January departures: Rowe, Sara and Gunn? Money talks in football, so £20+m for each of Rowe and Sara would be very tempting for the joint owners. Gunn is, in my view, destined for top league football. His save to deny ITFC a winner on Saturday was exceptional.
None of those will be sold. FACT We will be strengthening in January. FACT We don't need to sell in order to do so. FACT (My credentials as a fact checker are impeccable; it's even been suggested I apply to the BBC for a job.)
I think we will have a fairly quiet transfer window, perhaps a defensive minded midfielder would be welcome or is anyone wants to take Giibson off our hands to reduce the wage budget a bit
Clearly and emphatically our financial position is better than I expected. Is the American co-owner stumping up some cash?
I think it is more that a lot of the transfers that we made over the summer are feeding in money now allowing us to pay off the debt and were not in previous statements
I can’t see us buying a defensive minded midfielder, we have Forshaw and Lungi who fit the bill, although both have rarely been fit this season.
As for what players, I think we need another option for playing behind the striker. I like Barnes and his all action play, but we floundered when he was injured. A playmaker like Hoolahan or Maddison could make a big difference in attack, especially against teams packing their goalmouth. We've tried Núñez, Gibbs and Sara there without much impact, though Gibbs is young and growing into the role. We need to concentrate on quality not quantity to get players in who can make a difference. Here's Paul Lambert's view on long term recruitment: "I think Norwich need to do their homework on recruitment if they're serious about shedding their 'yo-yo' club image. They need to know exactly what type of player and person their signings are before they decide to get them. The club needs to know if this player is used to winning games, and is capable of turning them around. They also need to know if he is used to having pressure on their shoulders. Players always perform better under it, but top players need it to do their best work."
Isn't that exactly what we have always done, at least since Stuart Webber was appointed? How come we recruited Pukki, or Buendia? And does he think Knapper doesn't know what he's doing? Talk about teaching granny to suck eggs! It isn't that there's been a failure "to recognise what type of player and person" our signings are -- weren't Pukki and Buendia, and this season Duffy, Barnes and Stacey, all recruited precisely because of the "type of player and person" they are? The main reason we've struggled post-Farke is because we've failed to settle on a sufficiently well articulated, EPL-ready, style of football to replace Farkeball. How can you brief the recruitment team about the "type of player and person" you want if you haven't a clear idea of the football you intend to play? Farkeball wasn't created by Webber, and Futureball won't be created by Knapper. It will be the creation of whoever Knapper backs as Head Coach once he's had time to properly weigh things up.
Who said we did, Suffolk? £15m for a youngster who'd barely broken into our first team doesn't sound plausible to me.
Charlie Wyett football editor at The Sun, so not the most reputable. Also reporting Aston Villa showing interest
With most players now coming back to fitness, I feel like we may need to sell before we buy on a purely squad numbers basis. We have a good number of options for most positions, sure some areas can be improved but we don’t have unlimited resources for wages, so for someone to come in someone needs to go. For example I’d like improvements at CB however, I believe we have some good quality youngsters coming through and wouldn’t want to block their growth (Warner, Hills, Tomkinson) and we also have 4 senior option in Hanley, Duffy, Batth, and Gibson, with McLean and Sorensen able to cover. I also understand the calls for a DM but for me Forshaw and Sorensen are capable of doing that role. We already have a ton of wingers. Number 10 is probably my choice of signing, I prefer Sara, Nunez and Gibbs as CMs. A proper technical CAM would be ideal
How long do the contracts last on the 4 senior options? Gibson's is running out at the end of the season as far as I remember, when do the others expire?
I get a feeling we won't be buying instant first team players, I can see us spending more on better quality younger players who have potential to become first team starters in the next year / 18 months.
Batth and Gibson, June 2024 Hanley, June 2025 Duffy, June 2026 Not sure whether there are options to extend in the case of any of the four.
