GrahamC

Yes, we have. But this year we have got far, far more in than we’ve spent. Semenyo was £10m, then small fees for Towler, Wilson & Low. Bentley, Klose, Martin, Baker, Moore, Dasilva, Kalas & now Massengo all off the wage bill, as well. The small matter of £25m for Alex Scott. Even at high end estimates of fees paid it was £1.3m spent in January & about £4.5m prior to Gardiner-Hackman’s £700k. Not exactly like for like, is it?

Certainly is harsh on Williams. Think he’s done well in the games I’ve seen, looks leaner to me & using the ball better than last season. You could well be right about Gardiner-Hickman, after doing ok in the first half Tanner seemed to kick the ball off the pitch more often than he found a team mate in the second. He did ok at Hull against a tricky opponent in Twine but was really poor v Brum.

He’s far too raw & inexperienced to start. Fair play to the kid, he gave their defenders a few issues but he was only 17 recently & he’s nowhere near ready to play 90 minutes yet. There are about 8 who are certs to play & Gardiner-Hickman will certainly come into contention. Personally I’d persevere with Naismith at CB, he’s left footed & has looked comfortable there but not too many decisions to make, possibly the RB & Vyner or Dickie if Kal does play at the back.

Wouldn’t they have to name their 25 man Prem squad for the period up until January by then? I get he’s technically not under contract but unless they had a gap they couldn’t include him otherwise, could they?

Nice message. I liked the bloke, like Nathan Baker he always put his body on the line & was a top defender. Hope it works out well for him in Germany & he gets better luck than of late on the injury front.

In the scheme of things worrying about who commentates on us when we’re in the Prem is pretty low down my list. Probably because in all likelihood I’ll have been dead for decades by then.

Loving the blind optimism on here. We have just sold someone for £25m & Pearson has only been allowed to spend £700k. Why does anyone seriously think he would get any money to spend now if we get another £1m?

No longer, no. Think there was a time when we certainly were. Was thinking about the first retained list NP had, in addition to those I mentioned before (the likes of Bentley, Kalas, Baker, Wells, Palmer etc) we then also had Diedhiou, Paterson, Hunt & Lansbury on board. Our side now is littered with Academy products & signings from League One, just can’t see it.

I think there is a level of confusion about Andy King’s likely wages. Probably not helped by his illustrious career, which with the greatest of respect to him, was fairly long in the past when he joined us. When we signed him he was without a club, trained a week or two with us pre season to even earn a contract & in the previous season had only made one sub appearance in the Belgian league. I would be surprised therefore if he’s on any more than circa £6k, he’s effectively in a dual role, a coach & a back up player if we have injuries or suspensions. James is probably on at least double that, Wells we know took a sizeable pay cut in exchange for 2 extra years but again similar ballpark figure. I reckon we are all looking for something that’s no longer there, a Kalas type wage earner.

Especially if you gave the job to JL & Mark Ashton, because their answer would then be Dean Holden.

Hard agree. Just to add we are using Andy King in the squad & he’s just signed on for another year on what I’ll bet is the lowest wage he’s earned for the majority of his career, basically because he’s a coach padding out a small squad. We have been unlucky with McCrorie but I would still be very surprised if he’s on any more than Knight. Naismith too we signed from Luton who are historically very low payers, I doubt he’s on more than £12k at the absolute top. Contrast this with the wage bill that Pearson inherited, Wells & Weimann on far more than now, Kalas, Palmer, Bentley, Jay Dasilva, Baker, HNM, Nagy & Martin. In every sense it doesn’t add up.

That Weimann he re-signed? Not the same bloke who scored 22 the following season? Can’t be, because some are now saying we should have moved him on last season. There’s constructive criticism & there’s Donald Trump levels of delusion & alternative reality. Weimann is now in the last year of his deal, he clearly needs to come back fit & deliver to get another deal but along with the Clarke-Harris nonsense (9 goals in a full season last time he played at this level & that included penalties), there’s absolutely no perspective here.

Revelatory stuff. We sell Semenyo for £10m, replace him & Chris Martin (based on your logic he’s better than them then?) for a combined £1.3m in Mehmeti & Cornick & you’re apparently surprised?

Williams played well yesterday & in the games I’ve seen he’s done ok. We are talking here therefore about trading someone who has featured in every single game. See the problem? Basically NP is shuffling the same 15 or 16, so even if Williams moved on, we are still at the same number. I can’t see a logical case for anything that leaves us with exactly the same squad size, the bottom line is we are 2 light of what we need.

It’s the bullshit that must drive him mad. SL saying he could spend what he raised, comments from the club that we have a top half budget. I’d really like to know who is earning that then. 13 gone since January, only 7 in & loads of high earners off the wage bill & £35m brought in by way of fees. At least if SL was honest & admitted Ashton & LJ had him over I would respect him more. I really don’t think Pearson is the type to walk but he’s been put in a very tough position by an owner who as his truly embarrassing Luton comment showed, really doesn’t understand football at all.

I thought we were good first half, poor second. Norwich are a very decent side with obviously far greater squad strength than we possess. Yeboah did very well after coming on but calls for him to start are ludicrous, he’s still raw but looks a talent. With the exception of the back four it is very easy to predict Saturday’s side after that, Mehmeti showing exactly why he doesn’t start. Pring will certainly come back in but on last night’s evidence only Naismith of the rest of the defence made a case to do so.

Agree about the Bentley comment, but that was some save last night by Max.

We have about 16 players in serious contention, so rotated Knight, James, Williams & Sykes. Mehmeti was poor so had to come off. Genuinely don’t know what else we could have done bar bring on Vyner & move Naismith forward. Think King is only playing to give others a rest & he did ok. Yeboah hugely encouraging, going to get a lot of sub appearances based on that.

I’ve not changed my view on Max, he’s plenty good enough to be one of two senior keepers, our problem here isn’t him, it is that we don’t have a second one. Nige is no fool, he realises there are no funds available to him to alter this so is going public with a massive show of faith in Max to give him a boost. He’s also brought Bajic back into the picture because however he does, he’s by far the most experienced deputy keeper & he realises he might need him at some point.

What was that? 5 games? Looked useless to me far more often.

He started 19 games for them last season, so hardly integral to Coventry making the playoffs. Think Gyokeres & Hamer might have just had a bit more to do with it. Norwich local paper has also said there is nothing in this. Robins & Viveash like him, good for them, absolutely scandalous waste of money for us.

Not seen it mentioned anywhere but the under 21s played at Birmingham today & lost 3-0. The side included Wiles-Richards, Leeson, Araoye, Knight-Lebel, Idehen, Wood, Taylor-Clarke, Francois & Sam Pearson. Fairly obvious but with Palmer-Houlden on loan at Newport (another assist at the weekend) they do look very short of forwards.

Admin read OTIB, don’t they? ?

Doubtful. Think we were already aware that Kalas wasn’t re-signing when we brought the West Brom lad in & the Irish kid would be on first year pro terms so he won’t making much difference to what we’re spending.

Not sure about that. Was allowed to bring in Alfie May who was prolific at Cheltenham & Edun who was a decent Blackburn squad player & Terry Taylor who a number of sides were after at Burton. I just don’t think he’s a very good manager.