Marching On Together

January approaches.

Rumours start.

Bielsa has suggested we dont need new signings (he's wrong).

But he hasnt totally said NO!!!.

He has said about how its difficult because they have to get used to the style and things.

But if a player is better then what we have he wouldn't be totally against it, also recognises those types of players are expensive.

So its unlikely but not impossible.

Personally id be surprised and disappointed if we dont make a few good signings.

Cb, gk and maybe a winger or a striker.

Our rivals will strengthen, Villa, Stoke, WBA, Derby, Boro.

We have stood still before or made the right signings at the wrong time and its cost us.

Bielsa is right, the players must be better then what we have, but those cost.

Think it'd be very wrong not to take advantage of the position we are in.

We dont know if Bielsa will be here next season.

Jansson, Roofe, Klich, Douglas, Philips, Clarke etc.

They could all go if they continue to impress and we dont get promoted.

Cant stand still again in January while our rivals improve.

We are already at a disadvantage individual wise to a number of our rivals, cant let that get wider.

If money is as tight as we are lead to believe I can only see a keeper coming in. If MB thinks his squad is good enough to get promotion AR will run with it and blame MB if it doesn't happen.If we do get up then AR has no choice but to splash the cash on even more expensive signings. AR is as tight as they come so he'll go with whatever MB says ...I just hope he's right.

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We kinda have to run the club on a sensible business footing ...throwing away millions on unnecessary players would not be good for a team that hasn't already earned those millions

CJay wants a forward - 10 Mill gets you a Bamford and we have a Bamford, 8-10 gets you a poor mans Roofe and we have one of those too, 2-5 gets you a back up we probably already have in some of the U23's. If we add another striker he has to be better than Roofe and Bamford so the minimum spend would be 12 mill and you'd have to start him relegating your system tried and tested striker to the bench and your 10M guy to maybe 5-10 minutes per game every 4/5 matches.

Makes no sense to me

I take it we're not happy with PJ/Cooper/Halme/Beradi/Phillips as a CB 5, Diaz as a group, I think Beradi is in training, Halme has drawn praise.

Who is Norwich's CB 5 and is he really good?

I would have said a CB 3 is needed but with Halme playing well maybe that is no longer the case.

Alio right, Pablo left, Clarke as or third winger, Shackleton can also play there, Roofe at a push can play left wing with Bamford inside

I'd add a journeyman keeper and the one position that worries me in lack of cover is left back so maybe add there. But he'd need to know he wouldn't be starting

I only expect to see a new keeper, who that will be, I've no idea.

This is going to be a very short thread.

I think it could be a long thread if we post all the rumours, as we'll be linked with plenty over the next 6 weeks, but short if it sticks to signings only.

gessa wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:13 pm I think it could be a long thread if we post all the rumours, as we'll be linked with plenty over the next 6 weeks, but short if it sticks to signings only.

I'll pose the question :

How many of those we were linked with last summer did we sign ?

Who put up we'd sign Douglas & Bamford plus Baker, Blackman & Brown on loan ?

Hands up please

1964white wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:30 pm I'll pose the question :

How many of those we were linked with last summer did we sign ?

Who put up we'd sign Douglas & Bamford plus Baker, Blackman & Brown on loan ?

Hands up please

Based on that list, if you are going to have a wish-list, you'll be best wanting a player whose surname begins with a B

please teacher.... I did.....

Id be happy with a defender half as good as pontus. A keeper would be a bonus too.

faaip wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 6:42 pm We kinda have to run the club on a sensible business footing ...throwing away millions on unnecessary players would not be good for a team that hasn't already earned those millions

CJay wants a forward - 10 Mill gets you a Bamford and we have a Bamford, 8-10 gets you a poor mans Roofe and we have one of those too, 2-5 gets you a back up we probably already have in some of the U23's. If we add another striker he has to be better than Roofe and Bamford so the minimum spend would be 12 mill and you'd have to start him relegating your system tried and tested striker to the bench and your 10M guy to maybe 5-10 minutes per game every 4/5 matches.

Makes no sense to me

I take it we're not happy with PJ/Cooper/Halme/Beradi/Phillips as a CB 5, Diaz as a group, I think Beradi is in training, Halme has drawn praise.

Who is Norwich's CB 5 and is he really good?

I would have said a CB 3 is needed but with Halme playing well maybe that is no longer the case.

Alio right, Pablo left, Clarke as or third winger, Shackleton can also play there, Roofe at a push can play left wing with Bamford inside

I'd add a journeyman keeper and the one position that worries me in lack of cover is left back so maybe add there. But he'd need to know he wouldn't be starting

Not suggesting we should throw away millions on unnecessary players.

Just that cream rises to the top, there are better squads in the league and id expect those sides to find form (indeed Stoke and Villa are starting to).

And our rivals will strengthen (god knows how Villa can) but they will, Stoke, WBA, Boro, Derby youd expect especially the first 3 to spend.

We have been in good positions before and failed to do that, under Monk, under TC and under Grayson.

We know that Berardi and Ayling are out till late January, we know that Philips isnt a cb and BPF is a liability at corners (i dread the villa game for those reason). Villas attack really could give us a kicking.

Cooper will forever be average, he will always have a mistake in him.

Even if we spent on a quality goalie and cb then thats enough.

Striker or winger was more a hope then a need ie if a Mirtovic like player becomes available.

Its not like we have spent lots of cash the last 3 years, our net spend is roughly 6-8million.

Wood, Cook, Vieira and Taylor thats about £35million in fees.

We have spent roughly 43mil.

We can lose £39mil.

Apparently we are £15-20mil in credit with FFP, we have never been in a better position league wise at this stage.

Isnt it worth a bit of ambition to try and make the most of it before even more parachute payment clubs arrive ?

Cjay wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 2:40 pm Not suggesting we should throw away millions on unnecessary players.

Just that cream rises to the top, there are better squads in the league and id expect those sides to find form (indeed Stoke and Villa are starting to).

And our rivals will strengthen (god knows how Villa can) but they will, Stoke, WBA, Boro, Derby youd expect especially the first 3 to spend.

We have been in good positions before and failed to do that, under Monk, under TC and under Grayson.

We know that Berardi and Ayling are out till late January, we know that Philips isnt a cb and BPF is a liability at corners (i dread the villa game for those reason). Villas attack really could give us a kicking.

Cooper will forever be average, he will always have a mistake in him.

Even if we spent on a quality goalie and cb then thats enough.

Striker or winger was more a hope then a need ie if a Mirtovic like player becomes available.

Its not like we have spent lots of cash the last 3 years, our net spend is roughly 6-8million.

Wood, Cook, Vieira and Taylor thats about £35million in fees.

We have spent roughly 43mil.

We can lose £39mil.

Apparently we are £15-20mil in credit with FFP, we have never been in a better position league wise at this stage.

Isnt it worth a bit of ambition to try and make the most of it before even more parachute payment clubs arrive ?

agree with most of that.
good post .

faaip wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 6:42 pm We kinda have to run the club on a sensible business footing ...throwing away millions on unnecessary players would not be good for a team that hasn't already earned those millions

CJay wants a forward - 10 Mill gets you a Bamford and we have a Bamford, 8-10 gets you a poor mans Roofe and we have one of those too, 2-5 gets you a back up we probably already have in some of the U23's. If we add another striker he has to be better than Roofe and Bamford so the minimum spend would be 12 mill and you'd have to start him relegating your system tried and tested striker to the bench and your 10M guy to maybe 5-10 minutes per game every 4/5 matches.

Makes no sense to me

I take it we're not happy with PJ/Cooper/Halme/Beradi/Phillips as a CB 5, Diaz as a group, I think Beradi is in training, Halme has drawn praise.

Who is Norwich's CB 5 and is he really good?

I would have said a CB 3 is needed but with Halme playing well maybe that is no longer the case.

Alio right, Pablo left, Clarke as or third winger, Shackleton can also play there, Roofe at a push can play left wing with Bamford inside

I'd add a journeyman keeper and the one position that worries me in lack of cover is left back so maybe add there. But he'd need to know he wouldn't be starting

Brilliant post, a keeper is a must, so that will happen, LB is an interesting one, but doubt we’ll add apart from a keeper and if we do it will be a top quality one.
Our team spirit is built on a close knit squad, non Bielsa signings will disrupt that, the ball is in his court.

radebe88 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:49 pm Cooper has literally been flawless this season. We would be worried about losing him to a premiership team in season gone past

Cooper is one of those guys who, unless plays really well, is considered average, when he makes a mistake it’s amplified, can’t seem to shake his reputation from the last few seasons, what would people give him out of 10 for the season to date? 7/10 for me.

dezzy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:26 pm Cooper is one of those guys who, unless plays really well, is considered average, when he makes a mistake it’s amplified, can’t seem to shake his reputation from the last few seasons, what would people give him out of 10 for the season to date? 7/10 for me.

100% agree. He would be amongst my candidates for player of the year this season.

radebe88 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:49 pm Cooper has literally been flawless this season. We would be worried about losing him to a premiership team in season gone past

Certainly improved but not flawless imo, just fortunate that his mistakes haven't been punished as much.

His sloppy pass lead to the Brentford pen.

Improved but we should aim for better imo, Jansson level.

For me the main difference to season's past is that this season we don't hear the manager suggesting he needs a couple of signings. If we go back to Grayson then he, and us, knew that signing a starting centreback was a must (not a back up like this season's requirement). With Monk it was clear he wanted signings but the club didn't make them (which I feel led to his first feelings that he would be better of by leaving the club).

I genuinely believe that Bielsa is happy with the squad and the cover/competition within it. We have Brown and Bamford coming into the squad now and they are almost like new signings. We have Halme fit and looking decent, we have Berardi and Ayling to return. We have youngsters like Clarke and Shackleton pushing for places and maybe others too. If any of the players had sustained season ending injuries then I would be expecting us to be looking for replacements but apart from Blackman it isn't the case. I would expect us to sign another keeper and likely that would be it unless we got long term injuries prior to the window shutting.

weasel wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 5:03 pm 100% agree. He would be amongst my candidates for player of the year this season.

really

weasel wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 5:03 pm 100% agree. He would be amongst my candidates for player of the year this season.

Not even close.
He's still clumsy with his challenges and sooner or later his shirt pulling and grappling will cost us a penalty.
Hernandez, Jansson, Klich, Phillips and Roofe will contest the player of the season award.