Even Franke I understand writing him off.
I really don't understand though how you can write off Srbeny
So I'm allowed to write off Franke after precisely 8 appearances but writing off Srbeny after 8 appearances is ridiculous?
or Stiepermann. Stiepermann did a good job filling in at left back earlier in the season, and was our first choice left back when we went through that run that too
Stiepermann did alright defensively at left back but fans got a bit over excited because we were comparing him with Husband who was having a nightmare and literally being targeted by opposition players. But what's his role now? Third choice left back? With 2 years left on his contract?
I mean, if we could find a taker for Husband and then kept Stiepermann as our backup left back then that would suit me, but I'm pretty sure Stiepermann was brought in to play in midfield (where he has played for his entire career) and yet he looked completely out of his depth in midfield.
Even the club website announced his signing as...
"Norwich City have made VfL Bochum midfielder Marco Stiepermann their ninth first team signing of the summer transfer window". I mean perhaps he can be third choice left back and second in reserve defensive midfielder or something. Really hope he isn't on serious money though, because he is one who actually came from one of the more serious Bundesliga 2 outfits.
And that's far from his natural position.
What is his natural position then? Looked clueless getting forward both when coming on as a sub out wide or when getting forward as a left back. More clumsy then Whittaker. I mean alright, perhaps he can do a job as an occasional utility player.
Plus we've had young players really step up to the plate this season. Maddison is our best player yet wasn't even involved last year and no-one could've foreseen him being quite as good as he is.
People were crying out for Maddison last season? Credit to Farke for throwing him in at the deep end in centre midfielder and making him work on his stamina and earn his number 10 shirt. But he was a player who the national media claimed several top 6 sides wanted before we spent £3m on him, not some big unknown. And this is about our transfer business under Webber and Farke, not about players they were fortunate to inherit. Lambert was fortunate to inherit Holt and Hoolahan, which I did say above, even if he deserves some credit for getting them ticking.
Why can't the likes of Ben Godfrey and Remi Matthews, who are expected to be part of the first team next season, do the same?
I'm not saying they can't, but neither of them are Webber/Farke signings either? Off topic? Godfrey and Maddison are BOTH signings from the McNally/Alex Neil era, and Webber seems happy for people to bash that regime for not building a new whatever at Colney and for the Jarvis/Naismith signings, but isn't exactly going to give that regime credit when his regime is bailed out by a £25m cheque for Maddison is he... off of the back of a near £5m investment in young lower league midfield talent (Godfrey £1m, Maddison £3m, Thompson £700k).
If we miraculously kept Maddison for next season and Thompson made a full recovery it wouldn't be entirely outside the realms of possibility that a midfield three of Godfrey-Thompson-Maddison would become our first choice midfield, and only Trybull has the quality to disrupt that.
It was pretty clear that we only signed Trybull after Thompson was crocked.
So can we claim that McNally had no foresight? Looks like we were building our new spine years ago.
When we receive £25m for Maddison that £22m profit is enough to run an academy for a decade.And we've still got the possibility of Godfrey an Thompson establishing themselves and becoming valuable players too.
That's a huge ROI on that £5m in a few years. Is our £5m academy bond going to yield a similar ROI for the club, or was McNally actually - perhaps correctly - accepting that there weren't many gems to unearth in our catchment area and that we'd need to be buying up talent at 16/17/18.
When our academy was at its most productive most of the stars were coming out of a satellite academy near Bristol which trained players until they were 16, at which point they'd move to Norwich. Eadie, Cureton, Akinbiyi, Shore (huge talent who got crocked when medical science was still lagging),Llewellyn, Bellamy.... all came out of that satellite academy. That was the last time our academy was highly productive.
Delia closed it to save money I think. Southampton established one in that region and then brought through Gareth Bale.
Webber is going to achieve by far the biggest fee we've ever received for any player in our history, thanks to the foresight of the McNally regime who went out and invested some serious money in a few lower league talents.
Just like Delia's first regime benefitted from Robert Chase's investment somewhere near Bristol, when they inherited and sold Bellamy and Eadie.
And we're signing Adam Phillips from the dole queue who can't get in the Cambridge United team and making a big deal out of it in the press because he once got named in a 35 man squad by Brendan Rodgers.
Lets cut through all the bullshit and stay on topic.... which is transfer business by Webber/Farke, which seems to be very hit and miss at the best.
The Maddison fee is probably our saving grace, and that's a huge slice of good fortune for Webber and Stone irrespective of whether Farke deserves a degree of credit for his development. Lets not pretend otherwise.
I just hope that McNally's NDA is one with a time expiry so we can get a book out of him at some point, he must be chomping at the bit to back his corner.
