My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis
Norwich City – news, comment and analysis
Don't ask why, but every time Stan thinks of City at this precise moment an image springs to mind that he can't rid himself of. It's a scene straight out of Das Boot…
A German naval uniform bedecked PG is stood at the periscope of U39 with a surly looking Duffy stood stoically beside to his left. The news isn't good, the hunter has become the hunted and the mood of tension is so thick it could be cut by a frankfurter.
A destroyer has been spotted, …
If I was Granty, the biggest date in my diary right now would be Saturday, October 20.
That's the one you pencil in with big, fat red marker pen on the office calendar. At home to Bristol City. Saturday, October 20.
Get there and I'd be breathing a big, big sigh of relief.
Because at certain stages in any manager's life, you've got to try and second guess the board's intentions and look at the world through their eyes.
And given …
It's something a of a surreal situation looking ahead to tomorrow's clash with bottom club Sheffield Wednesday with a genuine sense of optimism after the Canaries have just lost their fifth game in seven matches.
Anyone present at the City of Manchester Stadium on Tuesday night though will share exactly the same feelings, because what we witnessed from the Canaries against the team currently sat third in the Premier League table was everything and more that we have been …
Now Stanley has never claimed to be an economist – the E he got in his A-level Economics would testify to that.
In Stanley's defence he would say that was partly caused by Julie Palmer dropping Economics to do History, but that dear reader is definitely a story for another day. However Stanley, like all City diehards always takes an interest, albeit an ill-informed and slightly baffled one, in the annual publishing of the club's accounts.
Now Stanley grew up in a …
Hang on a minute, Stan has found a pulse.
Having thought a combination of clogged arteries, seizure and complete collapse had rendered the patient DOA, Dr Stan can report that there is life in the old club yet.
And that, Stan suggests, is why we all love football and Norwich City FC – there must always be hope to bolster the faith.
Now, having got a bunch of mixed metaphors out of the way, let's get to the crux of it.
Norwich went to Man City – …
It's hardly ideal when you find yourself down the proverbial bare bones barely a few weeks into the season.
And especially so after your team has desperately struggled to find its feet to date, has just delivered its worst performance for many a year and is pitched against one of the form teams in the Premier League… But that was the situation facing Peter Grant at the City of Manchester Stadium last night.
Now it wasn't as though this was solely a case of …
Let's not do what's happening on the pitch. It was God-awful last Saturday; let's wait to see what this Saturday brings to work out just which way that wind is blowing.
Let's do what's happening off the pitch and the two, different lights in which the club's latest set of accounts were viewed.
'Bleak' was the word on many a lip and headline as the club's executive – those charged with the day-to-day business of making sure that …
Now there's an interesting one. An East Anglian club admitting to be on the trail of a strapping Scottish centre-half.
Or rather a strapping English centre-half playing in Scotland.
But, no, it's not Granty. This time it is Town boss Magilton taking the High Road north in a bid to plug the gaping hole in his own back line – the player in question being Hibs skipper and centre-half Rob Jones.
“We had heard a lot about him and I went to see what all the …
So where does City boss Peter Grant start when he sits the Canaries down for their final team-talk five minutes before they go out against Manchester City tonight?
Well, if he intended to go through each and every single thing that was wrong about his side's performance at Wolves on Saturday then he'd still be talking long after the game was due to end, so it'd probably be best if he concentrated on getting just one simple message across.
And that's for …
OK, here's a question for all you Championship train-spotters out there. Who is Santiago Aloi?
Here's a clue. According to one report, he is “a holding midfield player with great passing vision and who never stops running.”
The sort of player that, presumeably, Huckerby was muttering about at Molineux on Saturday; the sort of player who might be able “to get on the ball and control the game.”
Here's another clue. He arrived at a pretty unfashionable …
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Woeful, embarrassing, gutless, hopeless.
If Stanley was in a joking mode he would say we were lucky to get nought.
Perhaps that's wrong, City were actually lucky that Wolves, who took us to the absolute cleaners, weren't good enough to convert any more of their countless chances.
Because let's get one thing straight from the start: Wolves aren't particularly good.
Maybe with the Charlton game you could …
With just seven points on the board from their opening six league games, the Canaries would have viewed the trip to Molineux with a certain degree of trepidation considering the manner in which they were out-played at Charlton on Tuesday night, as well the fact that they have clearly struggled to find their form this season.
But did they ultimately go onto the pitch on Saturday with genuine conviction and belief that they could put pressure on what had been an equally unconvincing …
I think we can take it that insofar as battling spirit, dogged determination and good old honest toil are concerned; the Canaries won't be found wanting on any of those counts on many occasions this season.
Norwich can hold their heads high on that score – and it's not every side can do likewise.
But no-one needs reminding that those type of qualities will only ever take you so far.
To be in with a genuine opportunity of winning a fair proportion of your …
It wasn't quite how Dion Dublin would have chosen to celebrate his Carrow Road anniversary.
Virtually a year to the day since arriving in Norwich, his all-round contribution to the club deserved so much more than the humiliating finale to City's match at Charlton.
Dublin's seen it all in more than 20 years of professional football, but surely he can't have witnessed many worse decisions than the red card that was brandished in his direction after little …
The point of this story might be quite simple.
Not that Christian Dailly isn't coming to Norwich – and why not? Rather the fact that the 33-year-old's exit to Southampton today means that it is now even more likely that no-one else from West Ham United is heading this way.
Do the numbers.
Before today and Curbs had six centre-halves to call on – Rio's kid brother Anton, the ex-Cardiff pair of James Collins and Danny Gabbidon, plus Matthew Upson and, …
The point of this story might be quite simple.
Not that Christian Dailly isn't coming to Norwich – and why not? Rather the fact that the 33-year-old's exit to Southampton today means that it is now even more likely that no-one else from West Ham United is heading this way.
Do the numbers.
Before today and Curbs had six centre-halves to call on – Rio's kid brother Anton, the ex-Cardiff pair of James Collins and Danny Gabbidon, plus Matthew Upson and, …
Whenever mangers, coaches and scouts are assigned the task of going to watch a team and compiling a report on their main strengths and weaknesses, they'll usually simplify things by breaking their observations down into three categories.
Technical ability, tactical ability and physical ability.
So purely for arguments sake, let's imagine what the report might read like from the Wolves representative say, when his written findings on the Canaries from last …
The Valley has never been one of Stanley's or City's happier hunting grounds, in fact make that south London, full stop.
Indeed on the trip down, with the inevitable reminiscing of past trips to this part of south London, the question of best games witnessed at The Valley was raised.
If, as a non-neutral, you can allow Stanley to ignore the goal-fest 4-4 draw a few seasons ago, with City needless to say snatching a draw from the jaws of victory, then Stanley …
It's always a case of knowing where to look; for those little gems of news that can make all the difference.
And there it is, on the official FA website this afternoon.
Not just the fact that Dion Dublin was dismissed for violent conduct in last night's 2-0 defeat at The Valley, but beneath that lies the more significant line. 'Claim for wrongful dismissal received.'
Simple, matter-of-fact stuff, but proof that the legal wheels are …
There is a danger of course, that Saturday's victory over Crystal Palace might paper over the cracks of City's performance as far as some people are concerned.
But only a small danger mind, seeing as surely only a fool could ignore the blindingly obvious fact that the Canaries were struggling desperately at the weekend, and all set, it seemed, for a point at best?
Give the team their dues, they kept grinding away and were rewarded for their efforts when David …