Norwich City vs Fulham(home) Friday 14th April.

[Canaryboy]

Din, I noticed on the highlights how terrible that defending was for the 3rd goal, didn't even register that he'd given away the penalty too. 

It can't be easy being a defender in this Norwich team (you defend as a team, and we need to improve defensively all over the pitch - the entire XI),but we need to accept the fact that Ryan Bennett is a player who didn't fulfill his potential and write off whatever we paid for him by releasing him this summer.

He'd probably do a job in a scrappy / physical team which sits deep, under a primitive old school manager of the McCarthy / Allardyce / Pulis / Warnock ilk, for a team with a limited budget which doesn't even attempt to play football the right way, but that isn't going to be part of our plan (I hope),time for him to move on for our good and his own good. Actually disappointed because I always thought there was a chance he could establish himself once he was getting more regular football. Didn't happen, run out of chances here. 

 

[GJP]

Ryan Bennett is a player who didn't fulfill his potential

What potential?

There has never been any sign there is anything to get excited about.

 

[Canaryboy]

Paul Lambert signed him as a 22 year old England U21 international with 217 club games under his belt, for £2.5m, he was playing regularly in the Championship as a 19 year old under Darren Ferguson.... he was Grimsby captain at 18. And when we signed him there were other Premier League teams in for him, didn't we snatch him from Swansea?

Clearly he was very highly rated, but perhaps going from a weaker Championship side to the Premier League was a step too far and too fast, and that what he should actually have done is gone to one of the stronger Championship sides. Stepped up too soon I suspect.  

He has shown some glimpses of quality here, had some good form, but this year he has been terrible and rather than finally going forwards like many hoped I actually think he has gone backwards.

 

[GJP]

To me it was obvious pretty soon we'd wasted our money on him. A rare error of judgement from Mr Lambert.

 

[Canaryboy]

In Hughton's first season (Bennett's second season),2012/13, everybody talks about that successful Bassong-Turner partnership, in a season where we finished 11th and only conceded 58 goals (only one other team in the bottom half conceded less).... but Turner actually only played 25 games that season. Bennett came into that side a couple of times when Turner was out and played 15 games, and he was decent. He was 23 then. 

Just that he's gone backwards since. 

 

[GJP]

I've just never seen anything about him. He's not physically dominant, he can't do anything with the ball and he's not positionally savvy.

The worst defender at the club. By a distance.

 

[Canaryboy]

To me it was obvious pretty soon we'd wasted our money on him. A rare error of judgement from Mr Lambert.

Played 90 minutes of the Liverpool and Spurs wins in that 2012/13 season. I thought he looked like a decent prospect and good backup for Michael Turner (similar players, and Turner was class until his legs went). Problem that was by signing for us he sabotaged any real chance he had of development because 10 starts in that season and 14 in the following season isn't enough football for a 23/24 year old. He walked away from regular football at the exact point in his career when it is probably essential.

This season he looks like a player who wouldn't look out of place back at Peterborough (and perhaps that would be the best thing for him, guaranteed mainstay of their team). 

 

[GJP]

Played 90 minutes of the Liverpool and Spurs wins in that 2012/13 season.

Is a bit like when Ryan Jarvis scored that goal against Liverpool. 

 

[Canaryboy]

A rare error of judgement from Mr Lambert.

It was only £2.5m. 

Neil Adams wasted about £10m on players who barely kicked a ball for us, including £1.5m on that Ignasi Miquel kid from Arsenal. Now plays for a team which gets attendances of around 3000 a week (which would be the bottom third of League Two attendances). 

 

[Canaryboy]

Is it a bit like when Ryan Jarvis scored that goal against Liverpool. 

If we found ourselves having to give a new contract to one out of Bassong, Bennett, or Turner this summer... which would you choose? 

 

[GJP]

If we found ourselves having to give a new contract to one out of Bassong, Bennett, or Turner this summer... which would you choose? 

Bassong.

 

[Din]

Bennett certainly had potential when we signed him, and was good when given the opportunity both in Lambert's final half a season and in Hughton's first campaign. Whilst we were in the Premier League he did have a couple of problems with injuries which probably didn't help him, combine that with the fact that, as pointed out, early on we had a solid centre back pairing in Turner and Bassong, meaning he could never get a proper run in the first team, and that in later seasons when he did start to play more regularly, most notably Hughton's 2nd season, we were quite frankly a dire side. Since then when he has had the opportunity he's never played regularly with a proper centre back partner. A mixture of all those things means that any potential he likely had has well and truly gone.

This season has been by far his worse in a Norwich shirt, being terrible almost every time he's played, and his time here is well and truly up. That said it would still surprise me if we actually released him in the summer, considering 2 of our centre backs, Bassong and Klose, are pretty much guaranteed to go. It would leave us with a lot of work to do over summer in bringing in 3 new centre backs, and you have to wonder whether everyone behind the scenes want to put so much focus into finding new centre backs when realistically we need to improve all over the pitch. If given the choice between releasing Bassong or Bennett, I'd release Bassong, purely because he's probably earning double what Bennett is, plus we could probably find a couple of suitors for Bennett in the bottom half of the Championship, I don't think anyone would want Bassong. No matter what the situation is with Bassong though Bennett needs to leave too.

 

[Canaryboy]

Bassong.

In his 8 league starts this season we've lost 6 of them, and he's not been given a league start since December (by Neil or Irvine). He's done. 

If I had to give a deal to one of those three I'd still choose Bennett. 

Although the idea of any of them getting a contract makes me feel a bit nauseous. All three need to leave. 

 

[GJP]

In his 8 league starts this season we've lost 6 of them, and he's not been given a league start since December (by Neil or Irvine). He's done. 

If I had to give a deal to one of those three I'd still choose Bennett. 

Although the idea of any of them getting a contract makes me feel a bit nauseous. All three need to leave. 

Oh yeah, he's definitely finished at Norwich. But he's still a better player and defender than Bennett. The smartest move Alex Neil made was to restore Bassong to the defence for the promotion run.

As for Turner, at least with him he's never let us down. Injuries just took their toll. 

 

[Ben]

Bennett surely one of the many being shipped out in the summer. We'd definitely sell if someone came in with some money for him. Too many players like Lafferty and Turner just picking up their wages which can't be good for the squad's camaraderie. 

https://canaryreport.wordpress.com/ 

 

[morty]

I think regarding the likes of Lafferty and Turner its not just about the fact they are picking up wages, its the fact that they were likely signed on wages that someone in the first team would expect, as opposed to a lesser player who was just here for cover. 

There always has to be cover unfortunately, a squad should be roughly :-

16 or 18 players who are genuine starters

4 players who are happy to be cover in the squad

6 or so youth players pushing for a first team place

They should know their place, and be paid and contracted accordingly. Thats where the balance of our squad has been got very wrong in the last two or three years, the whole thing hasn't been managed very well.

 

[Canaryboy]

Bennett surely one of the many being shipped out in the summer. We'd definitely sell if someone came in with some money for him

He's out of contract, so we either extend his contract or release him. 

 

[Canaryboy]

Can't really blame Turner for writing off a year for the half a million quid or whatever that he'll earn. Its not good for our club of course, but we'd all do the same if we had any sense.

 

[morty]

Can't really blame Turner for writing off a year for the half a million quid or whatever that he'll earn. Its not good for our club of course, but we'd all do the same if we had any sense.

Oh definitely. But lets hope we learn from things like this, we really can't afford to be wasting money in this way.

 

[Canaryboy]

Oh definitely. But lets hope we learn from things like this, we really can't afford to be wasting money in this way.

Indeed, but it looks like we've probably done the same with Matt Jarvis. That one is actually a little infuriating because he'd had 18 months of injury problems before we gave him a 3.5 year permanent deal.

We have to hope that we can squeeze something out of him over the next two years I guess, because nobody is taking his contract over unless we partially pay him off. Lets hope we can get a good six months out of him next season or something, if he can contribute towards winning us a £120 million promotion then I guess we can cope with paying him to do nothing for another year afterwards. 

The fact that we only signed him on a permanent in that window to open up a loan spot for Patrick Bamford, who proceeded to offer us absolutely nothing, makes it even worse. 

In his case you would have thought that having a clause would have been beneficial, where its 2.5 years and he gets his final year if he makes enough appearances in his final season or something. He should have got the deal that Turner got where that final year was triggered by meeting certain criteria (puts a new twist on the Turner deal I guess, at least he only got that extra year due to a promotion that he played a part in).