HolteExile

So you've seen his contract have you or are you believing the Sun ? I think you'll find that he didn't have a clause saying he could talk to other clubs, hence why hes now on gardening leave until you guys come up with compensation that is acceptable to us. So you've seen his contract have you? No but our CEO said yesterday in an interview that we're still trying to agree compensation and if he had a clause saying he could talk to other clubs, then we wouldnt have been able to refuse him permission to talk to you would we ?? That's why paul and others on our side of this are more than a little pissed off with narich. Your club have not acted well in all this and despite all the talk from your fanbase about the relative sizes of the two clubs, naaaarrrrich have shown themselves to be small time and lacking a bit of class and honour. Shame as I always had a bit of time for the club But harsh that. Were they supposed to make it easy for us? That Redscouse bellend that came on here saying similar about Barry in 2008 was rightly ridiculed for a similar stance. Oh, and welcome Paul!

If it's anywhere close to £7 million Sunderland can have him. Let them eat up their budget on older players.

Wasn't there talk that part of the reason he wanted to leave Norwich was due to a falling out with Lambert? If so, it's unlikely he'd follow him to B6. But then I also heard his transfer request was down to not getting the pay increase he believed he deserves, so who knows.

In isolation it wouldn't be a terrible deal (for anything under £4/5 million) but I wouldn't like to see us go the route of packing out the squad with ageing players. Holt's success has come relatively late in his career, and he might thrive if given the opportunity to join what is still (just about) one of the big clubs. Lambert will know him and how to utilise him effectively. I could see Sunderland being in for him as well though, and if they offer mental wages (which-lets face it- is MON's modus operandi when it comes to older players) good luck to him. He'd be closer to home, and Norwich will probably want to sell to anyone but us.

Evening KA. What are you expectations for next season now PL will be your manager? Just to win a few home games and to actually have a go will be nice. Depending on how other sides shape up and on how much we spend, mid table> 7th. What do you want to see from him? To go through the current squad like a dose of salts. There are some genuine pisstakers there, players who have coasted since MON's time at the club. Some might surprise us and respond, others will need to be moved on pronto. By the end of the season, I'd hope we have a shape and a way of playing that sets the platform for the next few years, with young, hungry players at the core of that. What would cause you to lose patience or turn on him? Believe it or not, we can be a pretty tolerant bunch. The matchgoing folk anyway. Messageboards are always a bit more reactive. In O'Neill's first season we went on a horrible run of something like one win in twenty. No calls for the tin tack. We weren't a million miles off the drop in 1994/45, a season that you probably don't recall with any degree of fondness, yet we didn't turn on Little. This is inconsistent with the perception of Villa fans, and the digs constantly vomited out by the likes Talksport, and O'Neill's golfing buddies at the Beeb and elsewhere. We weren't crazy about Houllier's constant references to his former love though, or throwing an FA Cup quarter final. McLeish went one better and actually started to throw league games on a regular basis. O'Leary -like McLeish (and Houllier to a certain extent) made disparaging remarks about our history and past successes, to mask some of their own deficiencies. So - in short- if Lambert plays to win and avoids some of the foot in mouth tendancies displayed by the above, he'll do just fine.

yeh, he played over 300 games for them, was in the team that beat Inter I think in the 90s... So not a given he'll move. That should actually be a genuine concern. There was talk at one stage about us going the Director of Football/ Technical Director route, with a young coach working under them. From what I understand, PL (like MON and GH) effectively IS the DoF, he leaves the training and such like to others and oversees the whole operation. Culverhouse doesn't just lay out the cones, he is crucial re coaching, tactics, defensive set up and so forth. We struggled when GH didn't get his first or second choice coaches, and if Culverhouse feels a greater sense of loyalty to Norwich than he does to PL (or if he's offered the top job) that could be a problem for us.

Lol its the natural thing that happens with Players and managers, Look at villa, we have had to accept players like Young wanted to go to a bigger club than Villa.. Same thing with managers Villa are a much bigger club than Norwich lol.. Im sure you will be able to get someone from the Championship maybe simon Grayson :crylaugh: I hope Norwich get a manager with good pedigree.... :crylaugh::crylaugh::crylaugh: Priceless.. Pissing myself laughing at the thought of AM being paraded around Carrow Road. With his dashing wee smile "3 Year contract you say Delia ma man ?" (rubbing his crotch in glee) Bit out of order, that. I wouldn't wish McPish on my worst enemy.

You've been very vocal about how he absolutely positively wouldn't join us, so I understand your frustration and sense of loss (if this actually goes through of course - it's not beyond us to make a balls of it, even at this late stage ) But, when the dust settles, maybe there is some consolation in the fact that he achieved his objectives with you. Probably 90% of managers don't do that. Had Martin O'Neill came in, gave us 3/4 good years that ultimately resulted in CL qualification and then moved on to a bigger job, after the initial disappointment had subsided, most would have been grateful for the job he had done. And understood his reasons for leaving. When you were in League One, a return to the topflight would have seemed like a pipedream. Yet you've done it- in double quick time, too. Even if you struggle next season and ultimately go down, you will be in better shape financially to come straight back up. A decent appointment like Poyet or (much as I dislike him) Holloway could see you build on the solid foundations already in place and defy the odds once again to stay up. I think most neutrals (incl Villa fans) would like to see that.

Forget the 90's, most of it was before the 20's! As much as I love the Villa, I don't consider a lot of our honours remotely relevant to the modern game. Anything more than 30-40 years ago is no longer relevant, even if it is nice (and it is) to have it in the history books. If you want to ignore everything before the 20's (and that is normally the depths that the Bitter Birds and SHA desperados have to resort to) there is still the little matter of a league title, an FA Cup, five League Cups and an EC. Still far more than most clubs outside of the very elite. Why did Ramsey, Rinder and McGregor lay the foundations for all that success if our fans can't take pride in it? Also: there has only been about three decades (four, counting this one -so far) in our long history where we haven't won at least one major trophy. Nowt against Norwich and the like, but that might indicate we are just a wee bit bigger than them. Maybe.

Agree. Maybe we're doing them a disservice, and they've put the spadework in in a very diligent and hush hush manner over the past few weeks. But if one club could make a complete pigs ear of this, it's us!

That was 3 long years ago mate, and I'm pleased you seem to know our budget......because sure as hell we don't! You're absolutely right Wiz, I don't know your budget. But didn't Lambert say in your promotion season that most of your players were poorly paid even by Championship standards? And didn't he say last season that there were longstanding financial constraints hanging over the club from before his time as manager? So what's changed?

Not only do I think he would come to us should we make a concrete offer, I think he'd seriously consider at least 17 other sides in the division too. That's not a dig at Norwich, who I am quite fond of dating back to the old First Division days. But clubs like Olbiyun are way ahead of them now revenue wise, and would probably provide him with a better opportunity to progress. West Ham- if Fat Sam has a bad start- could be looking at a new manager, Southampton have decent financial backing and so on and so forth. Let's not forget, the core of that Norwich side was with them in the third tier not so long back. And their best player last season was a jobbing, journeyman CF who had the season of his life. PL would have to ask himself can he realistically get a similar reaction from that squad of players again this season. That would seem to depend heavily on continued good form from an aging forward (and isn't Morison 29/30 too?) to get them the goals they need, as -even in a season where Norwich exceeded expectations- their defence was suspect, shipping 60+ goals. The romantic in me would like to see him stay there and re establish Norwich in the topflight. But Lambert -like MON- seems to be a political animal. It's unlikely sentiment will come into it when he feels the time is right to jump. It didn't at Colchester.

Fixed.

He has had ample opportunity to flat out publicly say the Villa job doesn't interest him -whether we've approached him or not. Not only has he done that, but in a number of interviews directly after the end of the season he spoke about his association with Norwich in the past tense.

Very true. Though it must be said, in our home game last season they were as bad as any side I'd seen at VP. Including us. They have been on the end of some absolute beatings in the past few years too, though (from memory) against Tottingham and Chelsea away they did have a number of key players out. Past the starting XI, Wigan probably have even less depth than us. I can wear some of that though, some absolute horror shows or games where we don't turn up. Providing there are enough positives in all our other games.

He will probably spend but (and this isn't unreasonable at all) he'll want more value for that investment than he got under MON and the last two botched appointments. So whoever the next bloke is, he will have to make £15+ million (don't think we can spend any less than that) stretch much further. This will (hopefully) mean we move away from relying on the overpriced domestic market.

I wouldn't be unhappy with Martinez. I'm not naive enough to think he'll come in and a degree of success will be ours as of right in 2/3 years, be that CL qualification, trophies or whatever. In fact, I'd say both scenarios there are unlikely. Unlikely, but not impossible. What we do need is a definite change in direction though, to move towards a more progressive style of football. This can only happen with an overhaul in the current playing staff and time. Time being the crucial aspect there. It might be the next guy in charge reaps the benefits, but it's important we start the process. Wigan might have struggled at the arse end of the table for the past few seasons, but - for a club of their size and resources- that (in a weird way) is success. Little over 10/15 years ago they were in the bottom division. And their style of play has more in common with the top sides than it does the strugglers. We might not get to where we want to go playing the game with more emphasis on passing, movement and so forth, I accept that. We DEFINITELY won't be anywhere near top 4-6 following the Pulis or McLeish template, the limitations of which have been well shown up at this stage.

Laudrup was the bloke who the Swedish consortium wanted to bring in in 2006, had their bid been successful. So if he was keen then, who knows.

Why? What happened specifically today?

Owen Coyle isn't a good enough manager for the Barclays Premier League.

Had that been 12 months ago, I'd agree John. But then the names touted were the likes of Ancelotti, Hughes and Benitez. They'd have been far more reluctant to lose our better players to the wage bill down - indeed, they'd have most likely insisted on even MORE players for big fees and big wages. Their reputations were such that they could reasonably demand that too. I think most of the managers who we've approached this summer are in a different bracket. Plenty of promise, certainly. And -in time- they might be better than the above three. But they aren't yet in a position to demand big budgets and manipulate the powers that be into bloating the wagebill further. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. A manager like OGS might know the Scandinavian market well enough to back himself when it comes to finding replacements for our bigger earners- players the equal of (or better) than our current lot, for a fraction of the cost.

He's the perfect age and ability to warrant a 3 year, £65k p.w. contract. Maybe you should read this first: http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/grant_holt_s_agent_speaks_as_meeting_agreed_with_norwich_city_chief_executive_david_mcnally_after_transfer_request_1_1383514 Another one who seems to have missed the sarcasm Didn't miss it mate, just keeping you up to date with Norwich issues as it seemed relevent re. Lambert staying here. So that's your star forward putting in a transfer request allied to your manager remaining positively non commital every time the subject of his own future is raised? I can definitely see a scenario where both remain at Carrow Road, but that will be as much to do with lack of interest from elsewhere, rather than your Chief Exec playing hardball.

I never realised how good he was until he played for us this season. He always looked decent for Ireland and Newcastle, but he has been top class for us. There are not many keepers in the topflight who I'd trade him for- and I'd include most of the GK's in top 5/6 sides in that. I'd far rather have him than De Gea, Szczęsny and Friedel, for example.

Could see this coming off, unfortunately. Tottingham could do with a top class keeper too. Given, Ireland and N'Zogbia could all be vulnerable this summer, all on 60k+ a week and it might be felt that we could get far more room for manoeuvre with those three alone off the books. Whilst the latter two probably haven't been worth the financial commitment made during their time with us, Given has.

I agree OVF. Wouldn't be unhappy with him at all.