confirmation of loan-signing on canaries website https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/city-sign-aaron-ramsey-from-aston-villa-on-loan He plays central midfield, but can also play attacking midfield
You must be very happy, Robbie. Clearly Smith has been given carte blanche to get rid of players he doesn't like and bring in those he does. So if you're right in your assessment of him, we're in for a glorious season and a magnificent future. If you're wrong, we've just tossed away yet more of what it took five long years to build. But at least there are no excuses any more. No appeals to his record at Brentford and Villa, no claims that he hasn't been given a fair shot. There will probably be squabbles about how much time he should be given if he isn't an immediate success, I guess, but there will come a time when his record is there for all to see and there aren't any arguments any more. All we can do is wait.
My concern also is that we may be sacrificing long term development for short term measures. I am pleased with the first 3 signings, but I also recognise that Sara and Núñez represent a gamble, as does not replacing Zimmerman. Time will tell on whether that comes good. Ramsey is less of a gamble but still constitutes risk of demoralising our young players. Yes he may be another Skipp, but he may also be another Passlack who comes in and fails to impress but has to be played anyway or Gerrard will be annoyed. That makes me uneasy as well.
Passlack was rarely played, Aarons came through that year and became a permanent fixture, understand what you are saying but surely Gilmour would have been the pertinent example
He’s hardly been given carte blanche, who has he got rid of that we should have kept? Smith has brought in 4 players - all of which play the same position (different roles) to replace Gilmour (loan), Normann (loan), Rupp (end of contract). We had been desperately short in midfield and he has brought in players to cover that. Arguably Farke tossed most of what was built of the previous 5 years away at the start of last season, but that doesn’t fit your agenda. Give DS a chance Gozo, if you had only known Farke for 1 season of his Premier League record I am sure you would be saying the same thing about him.
I used Gilmour higher up. I have difficulty seeing what Smith is building, Suffolk. He wants a 4-3-3, but Ramsey is an AM when we already have 3 of those (Cantwell, Dowell and Sinani). If we see a 4-2-3-1 today at home, it's a bit clearer but I'm very willing to give Smith a chance. Last season and the Cardiff performance undermined my initial hopes but Hayden, Sara and Núñez have restored it for me. I just don't see the point of Ramsey, but I'll wait and see.
Perhaps he sees in Cantwell what I see and hear. A lad who has lost his way by thinking he is better than he is and has become fed with the game and NCFC in particular. Ramsey is the cover for that if after a month DS says enough is enough and dumps him.
As MFW writes yet another midfield player when there is a need for defensive reinforcements and another striker.
We need a defender and a striker . Yet more midfielders linked . We will need to loan out some more midfielders to make room though
I'm not sure we need a striker, if Pukki is here and we follow the pattern of the last few seasons he will play almost every game. I'm not the biggest fan but a lot of people are calling for Hugill to start after his good pre-season, so he is a decent enough back up. Adam Idah is coming back to fitness and for me should be ahead of Hugill - we should be looking to increase his game time to find out finally whether he has what it takes to be our striker moving forward. Then you also have further options in Sargent, Sinani and Rashica - all of whom have player up front - in the case of Sinani and Rashica both play as Strikers for their respective nations. There is also Dickson-Peters, Omotoye and Kamara as youthful options. I agree we don't need any more midfielders, my main concern would be back up in the full back areas, as has been said earlier Byram is an unreliable back up due to his injury issues
We went with Pukki Idah and Hugill 2 seasons ago and the other 2 scored a couple of goals . We went with Pukki Idah and Sargent last season I believe they scored 3 or 4 between them. If Pukki gets suspenjured then we are ****ed as even our attacking players only registered 1 or 2 goals. Pukki is too old to keep relying on him especially if we go up again , he appears to have lost pace and sharpness too. To be so heavily reliant on one player for all our goals is a big gamble
Yet another midfield player rumoured to be DS target. A Bosnian lad Amer Grojak seems he can’t get a work permit? Plays in Croatia.
We don't know the timings of the NCFC interest, only that it fell through this summer for work permit reasons. Might well have been someone targeted early in the window, but we moved on to Sara/Nunez, etc when it became apparent we couldn't sign him. Doesn't necessarily mean we want another midfielder.
Interesting insight into how well suited Sara and Núñez are to the English leagues and their potential PL quality. https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwi...-vickery-marcelino-nunez-gabriel-sara-9202446 I think they could well be the key to our chances this season.
I don’t see any indication that Pukki’s lost his motivation. He’s never been super fast and has always been slightly less than ruthless in front of goal - he has always had spurts of being unable to miss the back of the net, amidst normality of missing quite a few. That’s even in his best Championship seasons. And also at other clubs. What he has is incredible movement, but movement only helps if you have the teammates to see it. He got into double figures last season despite a lack of Buendia, but no-one was regularly finding him - Normann managed two assists (Aarons also assisted Pukki twice, no-one else managed more than once) and came closest to replicating that Buendia understanding, but of course we lost Normann for half the season and he never re-found form. So what we really need is for one of our midfield (and it can be Cantwell or Dowell just as much as the new boys) to start to find that understanding. Nunez has shown the clearest indication yet. If he can do that, Pukki’s age won’t matter too much. He’ll still miss plenty, but he’ll score a hatful too. (And we need that player to stay fit…)