My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis
Norwich City – news, comment and analysis
In many ways (Yes, brace yourself, there's a list coming…), the return of the football season is like the return to school after the summer holidays.
There are lots of shiny new uniforms in evidence, though there are a few people hoping no one else will notice they're still wearing last year's slightly tatty one.
There are a number of unfamiliar names (or 'new bugs') on the register?
'Right everyone, we've got some new people …
Hopes of a fresh, healthy face popping up before boys board the bus to Preston look to be on the wane, that's the word in Ferret's ears.
Darren Carter – once whispered to be heading back here if Safs had gone off to The Hawthorns – and United youngster Ryan Shawcross are the two names doing the rounds of late; neither seems immediately imminent as both Sir Alex and Baggies chief Tony Mowbray figure out what they're going to do this season.
Likewise old Curbs at …
'Get Carter!' provided a headline or two in this neck of the woods today.
Well, someone has indeed got Carter – and he'll be at Deepdale on Saturday. Playing for Preston North End.
For as old Ferret wandered about tonight, there it was – on the Lancashire Evening Post website. As lifted, you suspect, from the official site. A big, Lilywhite welcome to Darren Carter…
And nothing undisclosed either – ?1.25 million. Or, at least, could be once every …
There's a word which appears to have become more and more common in the world of football.
It's a word which can answer one question and yet pose several more at the same time. This word also has the power to suggest something is more exciting than it actually is. It might even be the most used word in football's vocabulary at this time of year. ?Undisclosed…?
Is it just me or are more players than ever before moving to their new clubs for an …
So the friendlies are done and dusted, a new squad is almost in place, and the 2007-8 football season is baring down upon us.
Alphabetically we are mid-table; according to some ex-Man Utd flop writing in the Sunday papers, we are set to finish in the bottom third.
Amongst Stan's mates are those who think that the nucleus of a successful team is there and ready to go, and there are those who think we are heading for another campaign of mediocrity (and worse).
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Old Ferret has to be a bit careful about this. And it might be best if you digest the full implications well after your breakfast has gone down.
But the word on the street tonight is that that the proverbial has not so much hit the fan as the pan up at Colney and beyond – courtesy of a severe bout of food poisoning in the aftermath of the club's traditional pre-season barbecue.
The full details will become clearer in the morning. But it appears to have been quite a …
As one or two of the more observant among you will have recently noticed, there's been the odd tweak to the site overnight.
Suddenly there's a chance to comment; to have your say. Oh, and he now wants some money…
Less than the price of a pint, to be fair. And in an ideal world, you wouldn't charge; it would be access all areas for now't as Ady's Skips, Fincham Demolition and the British Army put the odd roll of bread on the Waghorn table.
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It almost made old Ferret's eyes water – even if he's never heard of it.
But there was something about a torn “rectus femoris” which sounded particularly painful. Not sure what it was; couldn't quite put my finger on it. Actually, not sure whether you'd want to put your finger on it.
Fair play to the boys on the Lancashire Evening Post, they did the decent and explained just what a rectus femoris is tonight – it's “one of the quadriceps muscles in the …
It hadn't been the greatest of weeks for the Canaries prior to last night's friendly clash with Vitesse Arnhem.
There had been the occasional fleeting moment of success in an improved second half performance against West Ham on Tuesday night, but by and large City had had most of their weaknesses laid bare for all to see and generally been given the run-around by Alan Curbishley's men.
Then 24 hours later fan's favourite and midfield lynch-pin Youssef Safri …
Most of the times headlines are done for fun; you try – and usually fail – to get something witty and pithy into the short space that the gods of website design have allowed you.
Which is why Safri's move to Southampton this afternoon was such a bonus; after Tuesday night's fun and games, it screamed out 'Sinner to Saint…' Thereafter, it's just a race to see who can get their first. Fair play to the official site. They won.
But, for me, the headline …
Now where do we begin? Not with Safs – that can wait for another day.
West Wam. Stan doesn't want to be overly negative based on one match, and a friendly at that, but whilst the Hammers were busy blowing bubbles, Stan was in the midst of bursting his. And boy-oh-boy did it go pop…
Stan has sexed up the positives of the last month or so and has even tried to spin positively the negatives. But it is when those 11 yellow shirted players cross that yellow line, in …
An incredible crowd of almost 23,000 fans turned up for last night's friendly and for the vast majority of City fans it would have been their first glimpse of this new look Norwich side.
And many, I'm sure, would have been quite pleased with what they saw.
After all, a 2-1 defeat against Premiership opposition is nothing to be ashamed of – surely?
Well, there were one or two plus points to take from the encounter ? I'll come to those in a moment, but …
To be fair, it's been one of the biggest 'Who-is-it's?' of the summer.
That No 5 shirt. Just lying there. Empty.
Today the gaffer dropped the biggest hint yet that it will be filled come August 31; the lad concerned might even make it in time for August 11 and the trip to Deepdale.
Well, just.
“I've still got a defender on the list,” confirmed the City chief, as Rusty signed in at Carrow Road this lunchtime.
“I've …
Pre-season results matter not a jot once you get down to the real business on the first day of a new season.
You can look like Real Madrid and smash teams all over the park in friendly games, only to be left with red faces when you find that it isn't quite as easy once the action gets competitive and really matters.
Similarly, pitching yourselves against a higher standard of opposition during pre-season to really test yourselves but continually being …
So pre-season friendlies are upon us once again. Not one of Stanley's favourite things, if he's honest. Whenever Stanley peruses the match reports of City games at this time of the year it always reminds him of Tosh.
Tosh was a fella Stanley used play football with when Stanley found himself, for a brief period of the 1990s, exiled in London. Stan would always play 7-a-side football on a Friday night at Coram's Fields on a three-quarter sized pitch but with full-size …
Never go back, they say (whoever 'they' are), but are they right?
Probably, in the case of a lit firework. Then again, what about Take That, who have reformed after a break of several years and are once again bringing their particular brand of music to millions and millions of people?
Actually, they're still right.
And the same goes for two other groups who have recently reformed: the ironically-named Verve and the Spice Girls, although the latter at …
A couple of my mates are Manchester City fans.
I'll never forget the look on their faces the day they suffered relegation to the old Division Two back in 1998.
Naturally, this woeful moment was even worse than the humiliation than the day earlier in the season when they were whacked 3-1 away at Stockport, the team situated just six miles from their home but always too tiny to consider as rivals.
I guess it was a bit like Norwich being beaten …
Granty's anger was understandable; these days it seems it's always the club that is last to know when a player – or a coach – is about to get away.
And, likewise, as soon as anyone reveals that their mind is elsewhere, then fair enough – get them away.
As much as anyone tends to distance themselves from any Worthy quote these days, he had a thing about bad apples in barrels; picking it out before the rest of the barrel festers. And Granty is of exactly the same …
Truth be told, Stan began his trip to the seaside in a bit of a foul mood.
Hucks, Dickson and Doncaster had combined to burst the bubble of pre-season optimism that had briefly floated up above Carrow Road with the arrival of six new faces.
It was not so much the fact of Etuhu – as a player – leaving. Stan had always rated the big man's potential and thought he was beginning to show signs of that all-important consistency in the latter half of the season; on his day …
Canary chief executive Neil Doncaster this afternoon found himself firmly in the supporters' sights as he sifted through some of 250 questions posted online on an hour-long webchat hosted by the club's official site.
Inevitably given events of recent weeks, two names figured large – Dickson Etuhu and Robert Earnshaw . That and their respective get-out clauses of ?1.5 million and ?3.5 million respectively.
Richard Chilver led the Dickson charge asking: “One, why …