Insanity Day

[rbf]

Insanity day

The day to stay

Away from the Mirror and Mail,

And internet sites

Where all the sound bites

Will be, should they succeed or fail

Last minue deals

And furious appeals

Will fill up this lunatic day,

Some will go mad

While others have had

Enough now to last them till May

And panic buys

Aren´t always that wise

When looking to strengthen the team,

`Today Going Cheap`

Bargains by the heap

May not be as good as they seem

Whether A.Neil

Will notch up a deal

Or two, still remains to be seen,

So far, though he´s tried

Most of them have died

And results have been pretty lean

Brady´s the one

Who still may yet stun

Most here, by deciding to stay,

But should he go

Then our transfer show

Might finally get under way.

 

[rbf]

As no-one else has much to say on the day

I have a few thoughts of my own,

We came relatively unscathed yesterday

Through the aftermath, but have we grown

Olsson, Canos and Brady all out

While Wildschut and Dijks have come in,

It´s different, certainly, but I´m not sure it´s better

Defence still seems a bit thin

Especially if Pinto or Klose go down

Good cover is quite hard to find,

Cover is there, but the question remains

Whether it´s a satisfactory kind

And if Dijks loan comes with a clause to buy

Then it´s a far, far better deal,

Than purely a loan, where there would be no need

To go and impress Mr. Neil

At least we avoided the tantalising bait

The elderly, overweight McCormack,

His wages alone would have broken the bank

With nothing to cover our back.

 

[dj161]

Moderately happy with our deals, we've let both of our left sided players go in Olsson and Brady, but have brought replacements in, questions remain whether the two that have come in are any better than the two that have gone out, which I very much doubt particuarly in Olsson's case as he's constantly top class, the most peculiar one to me though is us selling Canos, not so much that we sold him as we never played him, but why on earth did we sign him in the first place if we had no intention of playing him, such a strange deal all round that one, hopefully the deals work out for the better come may time.

 

[Canaryboy]

Could have been worse, but could have been better. 

Left wing and left back were clearly the priority, hopefully the replacements are adequate. Its quite nice to see that we've just become a team with a bit more height in it. Hopefully make us a bit better at defending set pieces? 

Ideally we'd have signed a centre back and somebody would have taken a chance on Bassong, but I'm not going to complain too much about that position because at least we've held on to Klose for now.

People see the transfer fees in, and the transfer fees out, but don't consider our wage bill which is probably still massive. 

Ruddy, Bassong, Mulumbu, Lafferty, Whittaker and Turner all out of contract in the summer, and wouldn't surprise me at all if all 6 are released. That's probably £7m+ a year in wages right there. 

So the centre back will probably have to wait for Bassong and Turner to get off the pay roll? 

I'd still be sad to see Ruddy leave, but I bet he'll be asked to take a big pay cut if he wants to stay beyond this season. Mulumbu has the chance to nail down a place I guess. 

All speculative of course, but think its common sense that we've got to get to this summer to trim the fat before we can really freshen up. 

 

[rbf]

Moderately happy with our deals, we've let both of our left sided players go in Olsson and Brady, but have brought replacements in, questions remain whether the two that have come in are any better than the two that have gone out, which I very much doubt particuarly in Olsson's case as he's constantly top class, the most peculiar one to me though is us selling Canos, not so much that we sold him as we never played him, but why on earth did we sign him in the first place if we had no intention of playing him, such a strange deal all round that one, hopefully the deals work out for the better come may time.

Could have been worse, but could have been better. 

Left wing and left back were clearly the priority, hopefully the replacements are adequate. Its quite nice to see that we've just become a team with a bit more height in it. Hopefully make us a bit better at defending set pieces? 

Ideally we'd have signed a centre back and somebody would have taken a chance on Bassong, but I'm not going to complain too much about that position because at least we've held on to Klose for now.

People see the transfer fees in, and the transfer fees out, but don't consider our wage bill which is probably still massive. 

Ruddy, Bassong, Mulumbu, Lafferty, Whittaker and Turner all out of contract in the summer, and wouldn't surprise me at all if all 6 are released. That's probably £7m+ a year in wages right there. 

So the centre back will probably have to wait for Bassong and Turner to get off the pay roll? 

I'd still be sad to see Ruddy leave, but I bet he'll be asked to take a big pay cut if he wants to stay beyond this season. Mulumbu has the chance to nail down a place I guess. 

All speculative of course, but think its common sense that we've got to get to this summer to trim the fat before we can really freshen up. 

I wouldn´t disagree with either of you. I think, whether we stay in the Championship or get ourselves promoted, there will have to be a massive clear out in the summer. Wildschut apparently has a reputation for hitting the target just about as regularly and successfully as Jerome, so it´s not as a goalscorer we should expect too much. Dijks sounds a good prospect, but will he stay if we´re not promoted? Goodness knows what happened to Canos, he was given a few chances to show what he could do, but he always came up well short. Despite that I think I would have kept him, as one for the future.

 

[Canaryboy]

Don't blame Canos for wanting out to be honest, must be tough having your breakthrough season and then going straight back into the U23 league. 

He left Liverpool for first team football. If he's not happy being a Liverpool reserve player then he won't be happy being a Norwich reserve player. Actually respect him a bit for that, same with Cameron McGeehan who went to Luton because he just wanted to play competitive football.

Jacob Murphy is the surprise package this season, Canos the unfortunate victim of that. 

We never have much luck with Spanish players anyway. 

 

[Canaryboy]

Robbie Keane is a free agent if we fancy a gamble. 

 

[rbf]

Robbie Keane is a free agent if we fancy a gamble. 

<yikes> - we must be in a bad way.

 

[Fenway Frank]

Ruddy has a decent value and is our best keeper, why would you just release him ? 

 

[Canaryboy]

Ruddy has a decent value and is our best keeper, why would you just release him ? 

He's out of contract isn't he, so either he agrees a new contract here or he becomes a free agent.

But he's often rumoured to be one of our highest earners. With one season of top rate parachute payments left if we don't achieve promotion this season it is unlikely that he is going to be handed a 3 year contract offer on the same terms.

So the offer on the table from us would be reduced terms, or to go and get more money sitting on the bench somewhere in the league above. That's just the reality of our situation. Wait until summer 2018 for the real carnage, if we still haven't got out of this division.

 

[morty]

I think it will be enough to get Bassong, Turner and Lafferty off the books. I would rather keep Ruddy.

 

[Boyerboy]

So much emphasis has been made on social media of us not getting rid of the usual suspects that I think we've lost sight of the good news that mirrors this disappointment.   We've kept Klose, Pinto, Howson, Naismith, Jacob and others who were potential targets. Most of our best players remain and that means a lot at this stage.

It may be that Dijks and Wildschut are not as gifted as Olsson and Brady but they may be more reliable. I rather have good players who play consistently than very good players who have catastrophic bad games. 

 

[Din]

Not mad about our business to be honest. All we've done is replace the players who have left, apart from the fact that Brady can play left back or left wing, whereas his replacement can only play on the wing. We still haven't signed a centre back either which should've been our top priority in the summer let alone this month. 

That all said Dijks and Wildschut do seem like good players. Not at all happy with Canos leaving, feel like we might really regret that in a couple of years time. I certainly don't think we're a more quality side after this window.