My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis
Norwich City – news, comment and analysis
It was plain enough for virtually the whole of last season; namely that the Canaries simply didn't have a good enough squad to achieve the consistency and standards required to give themselves an opportunity of challenging for one of those coveted top six places in the table.
On paper though, and assuming that Peter Grant was able to field his strongest XI, City should have had more than enough talent to have given any team in the Coca-Cola Championship a run for its money.<br …
Our old pals at The Mirror this morning suggested that the 'Safs to Baggies…' story wasn't quite as done and dusted as everyone might have assumed.
According to them, there was a three-way tussle for his services going on with both Southampton and Charlton now locked in battle for his services.
All of which comes as news to one or two people behind the scenes who have yet to hear a peep out of either club.
No surprise there, to be honest.
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Is there anything worse as a football fan than being out of the loop?
I returned from holiday the other day and switched on my mobile phone for the first time in a week. I quickly found myself under a barrage of text messages from fellow Canaries.
Within 30 seconds I was informed that Rob Earnshaw had gone, we'd signed Jamie Cureton and my mobile phone provider could have offered me cheaper calls had I needed to phone home while I was abroad. It's a lot of …
It's one of those stories that just niggles away under the surface. That every now and again, pops up. It never goes away. Always ringing in old Ferret's ears.
Usually, to be fair, it appears in the pages of the Birmingham Evening Mail and this weekend was no exception.
“Meanwhile, Norwich are expected to pave the way for Youssef Safri's move to Albion early next week,” was the Mail's verdict on a story that has bubbled quietly away for much of the …
What a week! Ten days ago little seemed to have changed around Carrow Road and Colney since the season limped to its inglorious end at Hillsborough in early May.
Then – all of a sudden – it's a full-scale changing of the guard.
Five major signings – including David Strihavka – join the already sealed signature of Jon Otsemobor, Earnie bows out, and a summer that was lacking what Stan has already noted as the necessary sense of momentum needed to hit the ground …
Delia Smith has started filming her new television cookery series and, at the same time, Andrew and Sharon Turner have begun stirring things up at Carrow Road.
So, as the Turners scrutinise every aspect of the football club's business, and Delia apparently turns her concentration elsewhere, are we witnessing the end of one era and the start of another for Norwich City?
The short answer is 'No…' But the longer answer is certainly significant for the club we …
So at last the 'phoney war' of speculation and idle internet chatter is over and the rebuilding of McCity in Grant's image has begun in earnest. Granty has started bringing in the new pieces he needs with which to build his promotion jigsaw.
At one point Stanley was convinced that Grant would be forced to look down the back of the settee for the those frustrating missing pieces, but it now seems that McCinders will go the ball after all, thanks of course to …
This must be the worst time of the year.
Having to put up with Wimbledon, when the start of the new football season still seems light years away. Sorry, but Federer and Nadal just don't do it for me.
And as much as I love to see a young British driver on the podium, Hamilton just isn't in the same league as Huckerby. You can keep your Formula One; football's the real deal.
Maybe it's me, but the last football season seems ages ago. I just wish I …
Right now you sense that Peter Grant's head must be spinning.
And little wonder that he chose this morning's official arrival of Jamie Cureton to (a) pay tribute to the work of his backroom staff in making sure that every call was answered and (b) stressing just how much he was looking forward to 31 August when the transfer window finally slams shut for another summer.
“I cannot wait – I cannot wait until the 31 August when every door gets slammed shut,” said the …
So what signal does allowing your top scorer to leave for only a marginal increase on the fee it cost to bring him in send out to supporters of a club intent on making its presence felt in the Coca-Cola Championship this season?
…And especially so after what can only be described as a nightmare campaign last term?
Well, hold on, just hang fire a little and let's look at this from a realistic viewpoint.
First things first, and Robert Earnshaw himself made …
Actually I've been meaning to dump you for ages.
I never really fancied you.
And you're frigid.
However hurt and rejected you feel, there are some things you just shouldn't say at the end of a relationship.
However justified you feel, you're the one who ends up looking small.
Better by far to retain some dignity by smiling and displaying as much magnanimity as you can muster.
By and large, the football world …
This is where the fun really starts – Ferret's mates on the Birmingham Mail where today insisting that Baggies boss Tony Mowbray was having a little look at Youssef.
In fact, they slapped it in the paper this morning.
“The Baggies have also made an inquiry for Moroccan midfielder Safri. Although no official bid has gone in, there has been some discussion between the two clubs to establish the feasibility of a possible transfer,” said the story, on the official …
To be fair to my old mate James up on the Star, he had it nailed at the start of the week.
That every Blade in the city knew that Sharp was a done deal – if United ever decided they wanted the lad back.
The kid is a United nut; his family are all Reds. The Academy boss Ron Reid is this nigh-on father figure to him; with his 'apprenticeship' at Glanford Park served, it was time to bring the boy home.
They could sit there, watch everyone else run this way …
So, are we any closer to knowing, exactly, where our Billy is going to end up?
Nah, not really.
He could still end up at Norwich; he could still go to Wolves; he could, equally, stay firmly put up north as Sheffield Wednesday come a-calling again.
One thing is for certain – that his fate is now outside the hands of Scunthorpe United. It's not exactly a case of money in the bank; job done.
But chairman Steve Wharton can be reasonably confident …
Amid all the fuss and performance that is the 'Will he? Won't he..?' saga of Billy Sharp, Freddy Eastwood and Co, that little link between Wigan and City coach Martin Hunter almost got over-looked.
It popped up in the People on Sunday and with the Canaries issuing the traditional 'We don't comment on speculation…' denial, it was left to the Manchester Evening News to push the story on.
To give the whole tale a few more legs, as Ferret's pals …
Now then, this is something that Stan has long since mused about, not debated at length with the boys, or declared in a bar with fist banged down on table, but has pondered long and hard and ultimately convinced himself that it is fact.
It's the importance for a football club to have momentum?upward preferably!
It's an odd concept that something as unquantifiable, in so may ways, as a football club can gain a palpable momentum but Stan believes it can.
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There are certain traditional rituals that accompany the production of the fixture list.
And, hand on heart, some that are born simply out of doing the job for 15 years – like looking forward to a mid-week trip to Blackpool in the back end of November. Still, at least the Lights might be on.
And I always think that Turf Moor looks at its best on a Tuesday night at the end of October.
Other dates revolve around Christmas and New Year. So while there is an …
I'll quote the first paragraph of Michael Walker's piece in The Guardian today in full. And I'm not about to name names. But it is utterly crucial to an understanding of where we all are right now.
As for the player concerned, I can think of someone that fits the bill.
Anyway, Walker's opener reads:
“It will be dismissed as anecdotal but within English football, and specifically among agents, the following story is circulating and generating …
It will, old Ferret thinks, be a fascinating few weeks.
Because suddenly the world is awash with 5ft 10in-type strikers – all of whom are itching to get away and make rather more of their goal-grabbing talents.
And just as there is a clutch of boys looking to cash their lower league chips in this summer, so there are also a clutch of clubs looking to bag themselves a new, good little 'un before the summer is out.
For some, they need to get one in before the …
Stan hates the summer. The weather's alright (most of the time), there's a chance to have a beer outside, and life slows down a bit.
But, in the footballing world, the rumour-mill goes into overdrive, the papers are filled with names and clubs linked in the most tenuous fashion, and we have to make do with England games against semi-made up countries to pass the time. (As for alternatives, just don't let Stan anywhere near the subject of tennis…)
With …