Youth contracts / comings and goings.

[Canaryboy]

24 years old and hasn't played above the 3rd tier of German football and has most recently been playing in the 4th tier of German football, which itself is split into 5 divisions. 

Presumably he's here as a squad player? Will be much cheaper than Bassong was last season for doing not much at all.... but I hope centre back is one position that we actually go out and spend some money on a bit of proven quality this season, a real leader at the back. Kyle Bartley would be an amazing signing if we could find the money. 

Sorry to be the glass half full person again... but just smells like the Tony Andreu signing, didn't he come down saying that he dream was to get a move from here to Marseille  :lol: :lol:

 

[Fenway Frank]

If we were signing the U23 captain of a top six side here would you be happier ? It's pretty much the same thing. I'm not saying he's going to be brilliant, just hoping it might fill your glass a bit more ??

 

[Canaryboy]

If we are going to sign 15 players then it was obvious that a load of those were going to be from the bargain basement, and I'm sure a few of those bargain basement signings wil turn out to be real gems and a few will swiftly return to their natural level, I don't have a problem with that at all.

Just hope that we've got 2 or 3 bits of proven quality to come. We must be getting about £70k a week in wages off the wage bill on the 1st July when Turner, Bassong and Bennett are formally released, so would hope that we've got at least one known name like Bartley on the way, somebody who has been around the block a bit. 

 

[Canaryboy]

Wonder whether he is a distant relative of Bob Dylan, knew I recognized that surname from somewhere. 

 

[dj161]

Birmingham are interested in signing Mitchell Dijks, surely if they have the resources to bring him in, so do we, lets not let him go to a rival

http://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwich-city/norwich-city-transfer-rumours-birmingham-city-interested-in-signing-mitchell-dijks-from-ajax-1-5066357

 

[splutcho]

Doubt we have the resources if we're not signing him. I think we really do have to slash our wage bill.

 

[Fenway Frank]

£3m plus wages ? No thanks

 

[Canaryboy]

Djiks wasn't anything special anyway. 

 

[Canaryboy]

Impressive turn of pace and nice to have a player who looked up for it when some others didn't, but there is a reason he isn't drowning in offers from the Premier League, doesn't have a Holland cap, and isn't the number 1 left back at Ajax. 

 

[hogesar]

He's not a top, top left back but he is certainly worth £3 million in todays market.

We just happen to not be in that market for the foreseeable future!

 

[Canaryboy]

What are the odds on Birmingham City becoming the new Rangers then? Sounds like they've got a strange ownership structure where they are owned by a secretive holding company which took the club out of administration, the new owners only promised £10m additional to the playing budget, then they've gone and got Redknapp and have offered a contract to John Terry..... feels like they could be the new Rangers, spending money they haven't got! 

Redknapp must have been offered a fortune to take a job that far away from his favourite golf course. 

 

[Din]

To be honest I'm annoyed we didn't take the option on him at £3m plus wages. Who are we going to get of his quality for less than that? I can't think of any. Plus he's only 24, not that young but certainly has potential still. Are we really that skint that we can't afford £3m?

Like the sound of Zimmermann, and I imagine he has been bought in to be first choice. Assuming we sell Klose, that leaves us with Martin, Zimmermann, and the imminent arrival of Bielik. That leaves us with just one centre back spot still to fill, and I can't see Martin being first choice going into yet another season (surely?). So that leaves Zimmermann and Bielik, so one of those will be first choice, and if I had to put money on it I'd go with Zimmermann.

 

[GJP]

To be honest I'm annoyed we didn't take the option on him at £3m plus wages. Who are we going to get of his quality for less than that? I can't think of any. Plus he's only 24, not that young but certainly has potential still. Are we really that skint that we can't afford £3m?

Like the sound of Zimmermann, and I imagine he has been bought in to be first choice. Assuming we sell Klose, that leaves us with Martin, Zimmermann, and the imminent arrival of Bielik. That leaves us with just one centre back spot still to fill, and I can't see Martin being first choice going into yet another season (surely?). So that leaves Zimmermann and Bielik, so one of those will be first choice, and if I had to put money on it I'd go with Zimmermann.

It sounds to me like there is just a lot of game playing going on with Dijks from his camp, ours and others. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up in a Norwich shirt but I wouldn't lose sleep if he didn't.

Having never seen Zimmermann play it's hard to say much on him but it appears he hasn't played at anything like Championship level football. Sounds like it's going to be a big step up for him.

 

[Canaryboy]

Are we really that skint that we can't afford £3m?

It was reported that we couldn't come to an agreement with Djik's representatives, so sounds like it wasn't the fee which was the problem but his wages. If he wanted more than we thought he was worth then fair enough. 

Personally I was a bit concerned about his discipline, we've just shipped out a player who always looked like a red card waiting to happen. If you want me to back that up with stats then Djiks is statistically more likely to be sent off than Joey Barton based on his red cards to appearance ratio in his career so far, and Joey Barton has the joint 6th most red cards in Premier League history. But Joey Barton got more red cards per minute than 2 of the top 5. 

Djiks has 22 yellow cards and 3 red cards in 108 games. Adam Drury got 44 yellow cards and 0 red cards in almost 500. Either Djiks is overly aggressive or can't time a tackle. 

 

[KIO]

Didn't really know where to post this but I reckon this won't sit well with the Derby fans

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/derby-county-midfielder-bradley-johnson-open-to-norwich-city-return/story-30399505-detail/story.html

P.S. I wouldn't want him back btw

 

[morty]

Oh right, I read the EDP story and was under the impression that Derby had released him!

Not so sure I would want him back either, he never really recreated that season form at Derby. In fact he has looked pretty average since he left us.

 

[GJP]

Think he's still got a house here.

 

[OldRobert]

Rudd sold to Preston.

 

[morty]

Rudd sold to Preston.

Probably for the best, I don't think he was ever going to be quite good enough, probably mid table Championship at best (Not where we aspire to be) and if he was going to be good enough, at 26, it would have been before now.

Good luck to him though!

 

[OldRobert]

Probably for the best, I don't think he was ever going to be quite good enough, probably mid table Championship at best (Not where we aspire to be) and if he was going to be good enough, at 26, it would have been before now.

Good luck to him though!

I think that's right Morty.  There seem to be more than a few who are of the opinion that Matthews is a better long term bet than Rudd.  Happy to go with that.