Norwich City v Man City (away) Saturday 31st October.

[KeiranShikari]

Also getting relegated would not be a financial disaster for us. We'd have even been fine if we hadn't been promoted last year. Of course staying up is better but the club is in a strong position whatever happens at the moment. 

 

[eatonparkboy]

I don't know what matey at Brentford is worth but no matter, Delia is still the least wealthiest owner in the top two divisions. But in terms of ability to balance the books, we are probably one of the cannier.

Subjectively, I don't have too many worries about what relegation brings other than we have probably not played very well in too many games (back to all the other posts). We can still always make it back. It can't be just money or else QPR and Fulham would walk it back up. It's about being good enough.

Objectively, there will be howls of bringing back capital punishment for anything or body above the tea lady should it happen. That is natural in today's football climate. The fact remains there are only 10 domestic trophies to had for the winners at all costs. Relegation for Yeovil is the end of the world not dropping into the Championship with a stack of cash.

So I don't think the amount of money we might get for staying up should be the main criteria. Staying up because we won ten games and drew another 10 is far more acceptable.

 

[Boyerboy]

And so it has a head of steam! 

I really can't believe that even Wiz is calling for Neil to be replaced. Surely we are more patient and loyal than this. More importantly, did anyone really expect that any manager would not make mistakes? Everyone gets it wrong sometimes especially an inexperienced manager. What counts is ability. Neil is like Redmond. He has huge ability and even greater potential but he needs to learn the craft to go with it.

We have seen Redmond come on in leaps and bounds this season and Neil would do the same.  The suggestion of Brendan Ridgers is laughable. The man has made ludicrous selections and repeatedly got his tactics wrong. Having managed in the Prem is not the same thing as being a good Prem manager. 

 

[Boyerboy]

On the buying a centre back point, Duncan Edwards says in his latest blog that he knows City bid eight figure sums ( that's more than £9,999,999 for the mathematically challenged) for two centre backs this summer and neither agreed to come. Given some of the strong rumours in the summer, I find that credible. I think we tried really hard to sign defenders in the summer and will go again in January. 

 

[morty]

On the buying a centre back point, Duncan Edwards says in his latest blog that he knows City bid eight figure sums ( that's more than £9,999,999 for the mathematically challenged) for two centre backs this summer and neither agreed to come. Given some of the strong rumours in the summer, I find that credible. I think we tried really hard to sign defenders in the summer and will go again in January. 

You might find the "The trouble with Norwich" thread interesting. Some good stuff in there that discusses similar to Duncan's blog.

 

[It's Character Forming]

On the buying a centre back point, Duncan Edwards says in his latest blog that he knows City bid eight figure sums ( that's more than £9,999,999 for the mathematically challenged) for two centre backs this summer and neither agreed to come. Given some of the strong rumours in the summer, I find that credible. I think we tried really hard to sign defenders in the summer and will go again in January. 

Well it's pretty clear we were in for van Dijk and lost out to Soton which was no surprise - he was a realistic target but we should've known he was likely to be in demand so we should have assumed we might not land him (especially after past experience in going for top transfer targets).  There has also been mention of another CB bid which we made at the last minute, I forget the name but think he is at an Italian club.  It was a late bid which he turned down (apparently).

For me that's not good enough for our key weak area in the squad and I don't accept it as trying really hard - for me that would involve pursuing 4-5 realistic candidates over the transfer window and certainly not waiting to the last minute before bidding on a secondary target.  I fear we were complacent and also, following the RVW debacle, have become over-cautious to the extreme on big ticket signings.

What's especially frustrating is that our weakness at CB last season was obvious even to us as fans, it was just that Champ level attacks were not good enough to take advantage of it as often as Prem teams have.

If you want to see examples of the problem, look at 1p5wich's equaliser at CR in the playoff semi - failure to defend a set piece.  Or for a failure to defend an attack on the break, look at Boro's attack in the final when they hit the bar - yes I know we'd just hit the bar at the other end so it evens out, but the fact is that they hit us quickly on the break, we had a chance to clear but failed, and they could easily have scored.  The only difference this season is that teams like Newcastle have players who are more likely to punish you when they're in those positions.

 

[Dubai Mark]

At the end of the day, in reality, no one on here really has a clue in respect of how hard or, how much effort was put in to sign a CB by the City management. Sure we could do with that extra bit of quality, but nothing is going to happen until January an the same could happen again if we are going for the type of quality other clubs, mostly more attractive than us, are going for.