This season’s transfer dealings in the Championship were never going to be straightforward.
The presence of Newcastle and Villa, with their super-rich owners essentially buying themselves a completely new team with vastly inflated fees and salary packages was always going to put everyone else, including Norwich, on the back foot.
David McNally’s bolt out of the blue exit, leaving a gaping hole which needed filling wisely rather than quickly, also provided an unfortunate obstacle.
Mr Moxey is now in position. Whatever rumours emanating from the old gold part of the West Midlands you care to believe about him, he will have the best interest of his new employer at heart. Why wouldn’t he?
A section of City fans have bemoaned the fact that the club didn’t do its transfer business early in the summer and avoid the mad last gasp scramble that’s inevitably happened over the last few days.
Maybe, maybe not. But where the hell’s the fun in that scenario?
It’s not like we were the only ones.
Bigger clubs than ours (Chelsea, Everton, Spurs etc) were all scrabbling at the death to get deals done before 11 pm last night.
Every season, Tony Pulis seems to pop up last minute to squeeze incoming through his current club’s door. If it’s good enough for track-suit Tone, then it’s good enough for me.
I appreciate I’m in the minority here, but I think we’ve had a good summer with reasonably-priced incoming talent and having held on to one or two who most thought would be out of Norfolk faster than you can say Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Canos, Pritchard and Oliveira all offer exciting potential that Alex Neil and his team needs to gel into the first team and get the most out of. Always easier said than done.
Getting those unfortunate early season injured in key positions back to match fitness will be a huge positive over the coming weeks.
Pinto and Jerome have been excellent while Olsson’s return will stabilise the defence and allow Brady to express himself more positively in the opposition half. We’ve missed that badly over the last three/four games.
Plus, Alex seems keen to blood some of the young talent bubbling away in U21/23, B and reserve sides. That’s what most of us wanted to see wasn’t it?
Periods between signing announcements seem to be thought of as periods of total inactivity, with relevant figures at the club just not trying hard enough. Plain silly.
Ross McCormack wanted too much money in his back pocket for us and Britt Assombalonga and Forest never seemed keen to part.
The last day interest of Sunderland in John Ruddy and Steven Naismith provided an added complication in terms of juggling possible ins versus outs. Figures had to be re-calculated.
Ruddy’s offer was insulting and Naismith’s personal terms didn’t suit – City fans will welcome the former staying put more than the latter. Naismith has some damage repair to do here on in.
While the Premier League and Sky Sports slapped each other on their chubby cheeks at having crossed the £1 billion barrier, and the evil Ashley-Xia axis vastly inflated tier two talent beyond the reach of the rest, City have been prudent and, in the words of chief new wheeler and dealer Moxey, “shrewd”.
This phrase only served to irritate those of the Yellow Army who seemingly couldn’t care about (or just don’t understand) the financial practicalities of the club when gazing longingly at events further north.
Personally, I’m reassured by such blatant common sense.
Whichever side of the fence you sit, happy or not with the squad we have, the window is closed until January.
The dice has been rolled and no one knows what’s going to happen in the rest of 2016.
It’s time to give the playing squad and management the benefit of any doubt and get fully behind them through the inevitable highs and lows to come.
Get a grip everyone.
I’d like to get a grip-on whoever was responsible
for shipping out Maddison!
Good attempt, but I think this transfer window is even worse than last year and I’m really not sure how they managed to do that. What they have done is antagonise the fans even further which I didn’t think was possible. It’s made worse by seeing players like Chris Martin & Rickie Lambert, players who would have improved us, joining Championship teams weaker than us. Perhaps we should have targeted those types rather than players only interested in PL football. Alex Neil has been criticised for giving extensions to the likes of Whittaker & Turner but with our track record of bringing new players in, you can’t blame him.
Shame the board of directors didn’t give their full support to the manager & players, yet more apologist rubbish from a website thats continuously making excuses for under performance. Get a reality check yourself
Let’s see what we all think of this by xmas
Absolutely agree. Unfortunately the 12 year olds who frequent the message boards are a little slow on the reality check.
An apologist for a failing and timid regime.
I agree, we have brought in some great signings. I really despise this mentality that the transfer window is all about what happens on the last day (not helped by Sky’s hyper, OTT coverage). We have kept Olsson, Brady AND Klose, that’s incredible business for a Championship side.
So we have a Lafferty who wants out, a Naismith that was excited by a move to the premier league yesterday, an injured jerome and a player forest fans laughed at us for shelling out money on up front. We have a disinterested Brady who obv wants out and olsson who seems to be wanting out at every window. Then we still have players like ruddy, martin and bassong on board. This manager is weak and cant cut the dead wood adrift on top of a board that don’t want to spend money. You start your piece by making excuses for the board by pulling Newcastle and villa into it. Funny how we had £12m slapped down on maccormack before we were out stumped. We had money then, so tour point makes no sense. We also had the lowest wage bill in the premier league since getting back there, so the money has hardly vanishedor been wasted. I suggest sir, its you that needs to get a grip.
Us moaning Norwich fans are aware that we don’t have the resources to compete with other clubs that isn’t the issue. What I have an issue with is that with proper scouting and a little bit of nous there are players to be found for the right fee. You say we’ve done some decent business and I partially agree but was an injury prone Pritchard really what we needed for £8m when you consider the midfield talent that we already have? No… Me neither.
At least Alex Neil now knows what he has to work with. Let us now see how good a coach/ man-manager he is.
It is unfortunate that the Club made it known that they wanted two strikers and only got one [not very successful at that]. It seems City always identify targets who are out of our league or who can only be released if the potential selling club can do their business.
It is hard to understand that City paid so much for James Maddison and he is already out on loan. Buying young players and then sending out on loan is not a good model when the Club has only limited resources.
City definitely have a great deal of talent but need to get it motivated and firing as soon as possible. No one expects that promotion will be easy but what City fans do expect is an organised motivated team giving it a good go. If Chris Hughton can do it at Brighton, why not Alex Neil at City. OTBC
I cannot share such an optimistic outlook on a window that has, given our stated priority at its beginning, completely disappointed. Yes, we have done well to keep hold of some of our top players but our priority- as has been the case since January- has been to bring in a proven goalscorer. There were plenty available for us to go for- Rhodes, Ulloa, Wells, Fraizer Campbell, Vydra (before Derby signed him) and, perhaps less likely, Assombalonga.
I don’t buy Moxey’s claim that we have been “shrewd” either. Neil clearly wanted a proven Championship goalscorer, hence the interest in McCormack, and I remember him talking of a desire to follow in the steps of Burnley in signing a player similar to Andre Gray. The board have not delivered. You can sugar coat it any way you like, but the fact is that we have only 2 strikers that Neil seems willing to play…
I’m staggered that we’ve still got Olsson, Timm and Brady. Can AN get them motivated enough though, Naismith too?
Jeff (8): Sorry to quibble, but a few little points.
If Lafferty is so keen to go, perhaps he shouldn’t have priced himself out of a move.
If Brady “obviously wants out”, perhaps you should remind him, and get him to stop telling people he’s happy to stay.
Within three sentences you manage to say we don’t want to spend money and that we offered over £10m for McCormack. Which is it to be?
The money that’s vanished is about £30m, the difference between our income last year and this time round.
I agree it would have been nice to get more in the this window, especially depth in the striking department. Not sure why a Rickie Lambert would have come here to be third choice, though (even if we’d wanted him).
nicely spun. Clearly you have your view of the board. You prefer the cult of celebrity, the warm fuzzy, nicey nicey, family run line they always spin. You speak of Alex Neil’s keenness to blood young talent, not mentioning he is blooding Maddison and toffolo in someone else’s team. Maddison in particular had been a rare positive in a sea of negative news from carrow road for fifteen months. Moxey is concerned for moxey, he is a bean counter. You dismiss the views of wolves fans who saw him operate for sixteen years, simply because he’s delias man, ergo, he gets your seal of approval. The evidence of a few short weeks has him already cast as a villain amongst many supporters. The current archaic model, handing the club down through generations of smiths yet unborn, while we surfs tug our grateful fore locks as we prepare to welcome Doncaster rovers for a big FA cup first round tie is done for. You and your ilk will not admit this. As a result Norwich city slide deeper in tHe mire. Jeromes injury is rumoured to be a mid term one, so Oliviera is the only gun in town. Let us hope then, that Alex Neil has had a rare good judgment call. Lafferty and Naismith openly disprespect the club and thereby the supporters with their utterances and performances. That will not end well. The Cardiff game is now of monumental significance. Patience has worn thin since relegation and toleration of more garbage is unlikely. Supporters will demand a performance and a win.
I’m not delighted and not incandescent over this window. It seems to me that the fundamental dilemma of the relegated club is to build 2 sides at once. The first side is the one to get you out of the championship. To that end Villa signed McCormack, a hugely successful championship goal scorer but one who is 30 and who they are reportedly paying £45k pw for 4 years. Fine if you’re willing and able to write off the investment as a one off expense. Newcastle also have invested in champ players with nouse in this league.
City on the other hand were faced with a different challenge. They are in possession of the majority of a squad who proved 2 years ago that they are capable of getting out of this league and have gambled that with the help of a few additions they can do it again.
The problem is the 2nd team. The one that can keep you in the Premier league. The current squad have proved twice now that they aren’t good enough. That, I think,is why investment has been focused on youth. Pritchard, Canos, Maddison, Godfrey et al are meant as the building blocks of a better premier league team.
Either way it’s a gamble. If Villa fail to go up in the next 2 years they will be stuck with players on terms that the championship can’t sustain and will be forced to rely on the patience of their owner when he realises the magnitude of the task.
If we fail this year we still have next year with a developing squad.
I’m not blind to faults or risks but I am cognisant of our reduced circumstances and the realities of Football finance.
We do not have a sugar daddy owner . We are a “proper ” football club, and I for one am proud of that.
Dan R (12) and also Jeff (first part of 8): the main thing now is the window’s shut and those players aren’t going anywhere. They know that now for sure and I think they will re-focus accordingly.
A week ago their agents will have been saying to them “I might be able to get you a move back to the Premier league – whatever you do, don’t get injured”, and the three who played at Birmingham certainly made sure they didn’t. As far as I can see nobody in the Birmingham team was in that position.
I think those who were hoping for a move will switch back on again now – of course it shouldn’t be like that, but the way the transfer window works it’s always likely to be so. Only Lafferty seems to be desperate to get away, and that’s simply because he’s not playing.
We don’t know exactly who Neil wanted – apart from McCormack – but just as we clearly made it difficult for anyone to take Brady, Klose, Olssen, Brady or Naismith off our hands so it would appear others have made it equally difficult to sign the likes of Rhodes or Assombolonga. So whether the Board have not managed to negotiate what he wanted or he was himself unwilling to pay silly money we don’t know.
I certainly don’t get the feeling Neil is a “buy at all costs” manager in the Redknapp or Steve Bruce mould, paying ludicrously inflated prices and wages (look at Bruce’s spending record at Birmingham, Sunderland and Hull and then look at the league positions he “achieved” and you’ll see what I mean.)
Appreciate all the comments.
There’s clearly a lot of heat been generated but not sure a baying mob mentality towards chairman, owners and CEO is the way forward. The air of relentless negativity generated by PL bouncing is truly depressing.
Some may want a foreign sugar daddy to buy the club (I don’t) but until that happens, I just don’t see the point of abusing all and sundry at the club for running it sensibly.
I remember QPR & Cardiff (and others) giving it the biggun with stupid fees and wages being paid for ‘big name’ transfers. Still went tits up.
One more striker would have been ideal but Ricky Lambert or Chris Martin were not the answer. Most others suggested were either not sold to anyone by their clubs despite having multiple offers or wanted PL wages having never graced that level.
With 3-4 first teamers missing at the same time (i.e. at Brum), any club would struggle. With a fully fit squad, I would argue we have one of the best (top 6) first teams in the league.
Time to prove it is now..
While I largely agree with #11 Jack, we should still have enough to do the job on the pitch.
What worries me the most is that, even if we leave Lafferty out of it and give Brady the benefit of the doubt – if he says he wants to stay, fine by me, I don’t know any different – surely it would have been better to get rid of Naismith?
Surely Sunderland could have matched our wages and if we took a hit on the fee so be it – this appears to be a guy who most certainly does NOT want to be here and that’s no good for collective morale, now is it?
The best thing about MFW is that these are all opinion pieces and I don’t detect an enforced bias from the writers that exists in certain other media. These guys write what they like and we don’t have to agree with them. Nobody from NCFC sits on their shoulders, I am sure.
To counterbalance that, the lack of communication from Carrow Road is appalling. I can understand a “news blackout” during a transfer window, but now the window has been shut and locked either our Chairman – can’t be bothered with dancing references – or CEO should give us fans a few words. Even if it’s just the usual bovine stuff, it would show they could be bothered.
I really question the Board’s lack of ambition and think sometimes the majority of fans settle for too little. But that’s just my view.
Oh well, another break-even transfer window has come and gone. Quelle surprise.
Yes we would have all liked that 20 goal striker but of those that moved in past 2 days would any really fit the bill. Martin may have been worth another shot, Lambert (really?), Vydra (always gets sold if a team goes up), Murphy (!). Ulloa would have been good but didn’t move. Rhodes done nothing for Boro and didn’t move anyway. Would liked to have seen Big D in championship but he obviously enjoys relegation battles more than promotion ones. Our squad is still very good. Naismith needs to sort himself out. You’re here now so get on with the job and if goals go in off Nelson’s knee, nose, elbow, thigh I don’t care as long as they go in. There will be more ups than downs this season.
The last time we mounted a championship promotion push, we had 3 strikers who were classed as 20 goals a season players. Jerome, Hooper & Grabban. along with Lafferty. I look now and I see one Jerome. with a player who scores once the Smurf’s blue Moon rises and Lafferty who we all know will not get a fair shout with a run of games. Maddison the young lad that was going nowhere has ended up in scotland. The man and his little team of backroom staff have weakened the side and lost the plot with it I would imagine
#16 Keith B: good post. If they DO switch back on we might yet be okay. It’s solely up to Alex Neil and the management team to motivate and more importantly ORGANISE them between now and January.
#17 Russell S: good article as always but you must surely understand that in certain quarters people are not over-pleased about certain Board-related appointments. Strictly and book promotion does not give me and many others much faith in the Chairman. Yes I know he shouldn’t be directly involved in transfer dealings and I doubt he was, but I do question his priorities.
I’m not anything to do with a baying mob, but I truly believe his recent actions have been a little, erm, insensitive.
Anyway if we do Cardiff and Wigan we’ll all be a lot more positive again. If.
I for one was very disappointed to see Maddison go out on loan. He looks to be a super creative player and perhaps should’ve been on the bench at least by now especially in the absence of Pritchard.
However, whether we feel this window was shockingly bad, indifferent or relatively good needs to be archived. It’s happened, it was what it was and now we need the club united and focused on the extremely difficult task of promotion seeking.
Who would’ve thought Naismith’s second goal of the season would be in his own net! A lapse in concentration and an unguarded comment confirming his lack of commitment to our cause. Now the reason for his diabolically poor form has been so starkly revealed AN simply can’t afford to have him in his next starting eleven.
Just think 4 months and it all starts again,
Who ever at the club is responsible for targeting possible transfer recruitment should start now to identify what is needed and what they might cost.
One thing we don’t need is another late January purchase that will cost more than he is worth and over pay them so that if they want to leave a buying club will not match his wages.
AN needs to sort out problems with Lafferty and use his skills for the benefit of the club, According to quotes he is happy at the club and only wants to play games he has always scored double figures were ever he has played so Moxley get this problem sorted or give him a free transfer as he could disrupt the rest of the squad.
Naismith never a Centre Forward plays similar to Wes
that to me says that it will be difficult to play both at the same time, If he doesn’t want to be at the club find out the reason he signed for us if it was only for the money we must have offered more that Everton was paying him this could be another disruptive person in tha squad Moxley get this sorted even if it means losing money on him.
It would be an idea to be ready, cash in hand when the window opens. We all know what is needed. I suspect though that we will be more buy fending offers away for the better players. The Maddison move has really sickened me, certAinly not up to a regular start, but surely a good player on the periphery and one we could all enjoy. Being kicked up in the air in Scotland is not what he had in mind when he signed. Preposterous management. Looking at the Cardiff game, it is vital tHat both full backs are restored to fitness, then Brady can go forward and Whitaker can go forth and multiply, mulumbu should start, dorrans should be standing by as well. It is also about time we saw what Pritchard has to offer. Two must win home games coming up, time to deliver.
The bottom line is AN is not being supported – not that many Norwich mangers have. For example, Lambert was treated terribly for what he had achieved and what was in effect constructive dismissal.
If AN had more clout, he could of walked, but in this moment in time, he is not going to get another gig better than Norwich City. That said, it would not surprise me if he moved on.
The club is unbalanced in every sense and I cannot see any positives whatsoever from this window. It stinks.
We would all love expensive new strikers, but there is justified concern over lack of planning/strategy/value for money.
I would love answers to the following:
1 – Just a couple of weeks ago Alex Neil said Maddison would not be loaned out. He was learning from Wes. Fans were looking forward to watching him play at 1st team level or below. What changed?
2) Whittaker. He stupidly got sent off last year at Soton, and was binned for rest of season after becoming 4th choice RB. Why was he offered new contract? What did he do to warrant starting ahead of Martin at Brum? Will he be dumped again?
3) Naismith. What kind of salary did we give him if Premier League Sunderland cannot prise him away? I know we were desperate last January. Appears he moved to us for the money more than anything.
#26 – Maddison move in interesting. If AN is having his hand forced, then he should say so, however uncomfortable it may be.
Naismith’s salary last year was eye watering to say the least. There are unconfirmed reports that he did not have a regulation clause, which if true, you are looking at the kind of sums that Newcastle had on their payroll when they previously got regelated… That’s why Sunderland could not agree personal terms as they are unrealistic. That’s what happens when you do desperate stuff in January, we have a very overpaid player who doesn’t want to be here. Great.
This summer was a chance to clear out the dead wood, recruit some new talent (young and experienced) and create a new winning atmosphere at the club.
Yet we kept the dead wood, we didn’t bring in any known experienced quality, we have a first team that largely represents the team that relegated us (in some cases twice) and only marginally have we started to bring some youth into the fold.
Not inspiring.
While I don’t think the first team have been performing particularly well, despite the overall good results (think what happened with Adams), there have been the positives of the cup games with teams genuinely showing off some of our lesser seen and hungry talent.
But yesterday we managed to put a dampener on that by loaning out players we weren’t going to loan.
I’ve never bought the idea that Delia wants us to be a Championship side. But I can’t help but think she doesn’t have the vision to see us as anything else. We lost the winning, can-do mentality when Lambert left and I’ve not seen it since.
I get the feeling that if players we were keen to hold to like Klose, Brady etc had gone and we’d signed replacements people would be a lot happier, due to the ‘activity’ on show. Hanging on to players isn’t exciting, but i was resigned to losing Brady, thought Klose would probably go and thought we’d lose one of Ruddy or Naismith (say what you like about the latter but we’re better off with him available), so it’s a long way from being a total write-off.
I’m surprised Maddison has been loaned. presumably Aberdeen approached us though and I just wonder if Maddison himself expressed a preference for playing every week if possible.
It seems that since he arrived both Murphys and Canos have jumped ahead of him in the pecking order; I know they don’t all play the same position but they are all young and green. Pritchard isn’t that much more experienced either. However we set up it’s unlikely more than 1 of those 4, 2 at a pinch, will be playing at the same time.
I suspect Naismith won’t want to stick around for too long. Unless he shocks us all and pulls his finger out he will quickly become a focus of a lot of the frustration and anger bubbling under the surface around the club. When a clubs stock is so low amongst its own support, it takes a very unwise player indeed to show indifference and a rotten attitude. He will be glad to pack up and go in January. No sympathy for a non trier.
To Dave B (27). When Adams left we were 7th in the table (higher than we are now ….).
Many fans dont want rich foreign owners, but if we are still in the Championship in two years time with no parachute payments, and a host of clubs like Wolves and Bristol City are much richer than us, then it will be interesting to see how much opinion changes.
On Maddison, I believe Alex Neil’s statement about keeping him at Norwich pre-dated our acquisition of Pritchard. That makes a big difference to Maddison’s immediate prospects of first-team starts with City.
Keith B (30): not sure it’s quite right to say Pritchard “isn’t that much more experienced”. Pritchard has 5 Premier League starts and 51 in the Championship; Maddison has zero.
Dave B (28) and others: we tried to facilitate deals to shift out some of our dead wood (Lafferty, Naismith and others). Despite their protestations that they were keen to go, they weren’t prepared to compromise their wage demands sufficiently to let the deals happen. A very different situation to, say, Newcastle whose players were wanted by top teams.
A problem – as described by others in these columns – of the pay deals we did in the top division.
MFW reading more & more like an in-house NCFC publication. No informed analysis of Moxey’s CV to date, no recent view on what the Board reinvests vs what it pays its own members. Very safe. Am actively looking for writing on the club from a wider view point now.
Richard Clifford (34) – I’ve been reading MFW for the past 4 years. What you claim is piffle. The site features a whole range of opinion – if it differs from yours, you get the option of a free comment to put your alternative view point.
It occasionally gets tarred with the ‘towing the club line’ accusation – why is that? Maybe because some of the writers don’t go along with the hysterical nonsense being piped on Twitter or elsewhere.
What’s your beef with Moxey? He’s been in place a month, just had the first transfer window and hasn’t blown a hole in our finances. Time will tell on how he does but you seem to have bought into the Wolves’ fans taunts now they have a Chinese sugar daddy who wasn’t there when Moxey was.
You have every right to look elsewhere for information or an opinion which fits into your own view.