BFTG Norwich

[Royal91]

https://soundcloud.com/user269120409/le ... -interview

Le Fondre not happy!

[paultheroyal]

Think he is talking more about his computer game not loading correctly.

[Sanguine]

'Sound not found', or something.

What's the crux of it?

[windermere_royal]

'Sound not found', or something.

What's the crux of it?

Not happy he isn`t getting a game , Brian didn`t start him often either

[paultheroyal]

He will be off to a promoted club with my guess being Hull.

[andrew1957]

Some of you guys are worryingly short-termist in your thinking. I fear Adkins is going to have to bear Rodgers-like criticism before he comes out the other side...hopefully Anton will be braver than Madejski was.

I supported the Rodgers regime and even said on one thread that we should stick with him even if it meant a trip to League 1.

However, the club proved gutless when faced with difficulty and the same will happen again. If Adkins starts losing matches, he will be sacked by Christmas and we will in all likelihood go back to the Reading way again - which is at least successful at Championship level.

Unless Anton is willing to buy a completely new squad which will cost 50M plus I do not believe we can change the style of football successfully in the Championship - better to have stuck with Brian - who would have had every chance of taking us back up. We have to accept that unless vast amounts of money are gambled (and lost) at RFC that the best we can hope for is to be a yo yo club.

[Westwood52]

TBF today Adkins was sorting out the wheat from the chaf-problem is there are four times more chaf than wheat !

Expect a major exodus of players next season.

His transfer budget and who he buys will dictate the level of the Club's ambition next year.

[Sanguine]

I think the realities for ALF are:

- he's proven he can score in the Premier League
- he's got most of his goals as a sub
- when he's started he hasn't looked terribly effective
- if he doesn't score he doesn't do much else (like Cureton, and nothing wrong with that)

- he's exactly the sort of striker that a Hull or a Palace or a Cardiff will be looking to sign for a few million (prob 2 or 3) in the summer

Bit of a no brainer for all parties.

Sadly for ALF though, I think he'll only end up playing a similar role wherever he goes, at PL level.

[Esteban]

Some of you guys are worryingly short-termist in your thinking. I fear Adkins is going to have to bear Rodgers-like criticism before he comes out the other side...hopefully Anton will be braver than Madejski was.

Short term thinking has been the problem at this club for far too long. Yes, there are very good reasons for that, but the time for change is now. Brian wanted to win games however he could, which is fine, he was very successful. Until this season. The PL has exposed us for what we are. A Championship club in everything we do.

I truly believe that Zingarevich wants to change that, which is why he went for Adkins and Poyet. This is a long term project and I think we'll be better for it.

[winchester_royal]

FGS Andrew, it's only his 4th game and we competed very well against a Norwich side that are very solid at home, and if it weren't for a dodgy 3 minute period at the start I fancy we might have taken something.

No way do we need to spend £50m for Adkins to get us playing decent football, what a daft thing to say.

[paultheroyal]

People moaning at Adkins is just laughable.

As poster stated above he is quite clearly stamping his style of play on the team, whilst spotting players who are in and out and want to be apart of it next season. If it meant we made a push for safety then bonus but that quite clearly has not happened.

Absolutely obvious there will be a mass clear out and in same way an influx of new players coming in. We will spend a fair sum in the summer. For him to of taken this job he would of insisted on considerable sums for next season.

I for one am quite excited about it all.

[One Beer is never enough.]

I can't wait for this pre-preseason to be over.....

Roll on next year, and here's to using the next few games to determine who stays and who goes.

On that note I'm off for a beer in the sun..

[Para Handy]

Some of you guys are worryingly short-termist in your thinking. I fear Adkins is going to have to bear Rodgers-like criticism before he comes out the other side...hopefully Anton will be braver than Madejski was.

I supported the Rodgers regime and even said on one thread that we should stick with him even if it meant a trip to League 1.

However, the club proved gutless when faced with difficulty and the same will happen again. If Adkins starts losing matches, he will be sacked by Christmas and we will in all likelihood go back to the Reading way again - which is at least successful at Championship level.

Unless Anton is willing to buy a completely new squad which will cost 50M plus I do not believe we can change the style of football successfully in the Championship - better to have stuck with Brian - who would have had every chance of taking us back up. We have to accept that unless vast amounts of money are gambled (and lost) at RFC that the best we can hope for is to be a yo yo club.

Not sure if I've done this before, but yeah, I basically agree with you. Too many people on here with short memories, lack of knowledge, unrealistic expectations etc. etc.

[Norfolk Royal]

Thought we were a shade unlucky not to get a point and were it not for Norwich's purple patch for 15 minutes at the start of the first half and what looked like a wicked deflection for their second goal, we may have just sneaked one.

It was very clear today how Adkins is trying to change the way we play. Morrison and Mariappa immediately run out to the corner of the area to receive the ball when it goes back to McCarthy and McCarthy's goalkicks being slung out short.

The trouble is, it was heart attack time when Mariappa, in particular, and Morrison were playing the ball to each other. However, some of our passing in the midfield area was quite effective, without ever looking like a killer ball would put anyone in on goal.

It was a predicatable result in truth and clear there will have to be changes in personnel in the closed season. Couple of Norwich fans I spoke to after the game were very surprised Le Fondre was not introduced late on, and so were most of our fans. Not sure what's going on there.

McCarthy: Our stand out peformer again for me, made some cracking saves, particularly one in the first half from Kamara - 8.

Gunter: One of the best games I've seen him have. He seems to have embraced the Adkins style quite quickly. One shocker of a pass but also one superb headed clearance from a dangerous cross - 6.5

Kelly: Difficult to judge him too harshly out on the left as he is clearly unsuited to that position but not one of his better games - 5.5.

Mariappa: Seems to be having trouble coming to terms with the new style and several misplaced passes - 5

Morrison: Didn't dominate but quite tidy today - 6.

McCleary: Scored a goal with a helping hand from the Norwich keeper, couple of good runs, drifted in and out of the game - 6.

Guthrie: Exerted a decent level of control over the game for 30 minutes or so before half time and generally looked our most composed outfield player - 7.

Karacan: Better than he has been of late but doubts over whether he can adapt to a passing game - 6.

Blackman: Surprised he stayed on and was getting a bit of stick from fans around me. He had around four shots I think, at least three of which ended up wildly into Row Z. Think Adkins probably wanted to give him 90 minutes to see what he could do. On that evidence, improvement is needed - 4.5.

McAnuff: One of our better performers again without really hurting Norwich, but put in a good shift - 6.5.

Pogrebnayak: Once again looked capable of troubling Norwich with the right ball into his feet or just ahead of him. Sadly those passes never came and reduced to fighting for scraps as usual - 6.

[winchester_royal]

People moaning at Adkins is just laughable.

As poster stated above he is quite clearly stamping his style of play on the team, whilst spotting players who are in and out and want to be apart of it next season. If it meant we made a push for safety then bonus but that quite clearly has not happened.

Absolutely obvious there will be a mass clear out and in same way an influx of new players coming in. We will spend a fair sum in the summer. For him to of taken this job he would of insisted on considerable sums for next season.

I for one am quite excited about it all.

Indeed, madness that on a day where we completed the most passes we have done all season, had the most possession we've had in just about any game this season, had 14 shots (9 on target) which is the most we've had in any away game all season...we are instead talking about the fact he didn't make any subs.

Complete madness.

[Biscuit_Boy]

Slightly worrying quote from Nigel "we'll learn the lessons from this game and get ourselves ready for the next one."

[LoyalRoyalFan]

People moaning at Adkins is just laughable.

What an impact those subs had, aye?

[RedRum]

McCarthy - 7 - Solid, some good saves and gathering but should have done better with the 2nd goal really. At least he's less likely to go in summer
Gunter - 6 - some poor passing at times but one very good headed clearance
Morrison - 7 - very solid
Mariappa - 6 - great battle with Holt today
Kelly - 7 - Great getting forward combined with McCleary
Karacan - 7 - Our top passer today, kept it ticking in midfield.
Guthrie - 7 - Felt him and Karacan bossed midfield ( ) at times today
McAnuff - 6 - Felt he was quiet today
Blackman - 4 - Pretty poor. Didn't nothing really useful other than a few good balls.
McCleary - 8 - MoM. Superb bursts forward, constantly took on his man and got a goal. Best in a Reading shirt so far.
Pog - 7 - Had a good game today I thought.

Other than not taking Blackman off for Hunt, I'm not getting the criticism for Adkins today. I thought the 1st half today and parts of 2nd half was some of the best football all season. Our movement was much much better and Adkins has managed this in just 4 games. Really looking forward to next season on this performance. Brief panicking (which is to be expected after just 1 point in 8 games) lost it for us today, and we were down anyway. Not sure ALF would have made a difference against a very physical Norwich side, not do I see the argument of bringing Carrico on when he isn't an attacking player. Bringing hunt on is the only change I would have made. All in all I think we deserved a point if not a win today.

[Haag Royal]

Will people get over the fact that McD IS NO LONGER THE MANAGER

FFS - I am tired of hearing the cr*p people are coming out with. Get over it. Adkins is the manager and let him get on with the feckin job.

Too many people on here play FM 2013 and think hey can do a better job.

[P!ssed Off]

Some of you guys are worryingly short-termist in your thinking. I fear Adkins is going to have to bear Rodgers-like criticism before he comes out the other side...hopefully Anton will be braver than Madejski was.

I supported the Rodgers regime and even said on one thread that we should stick with him even if it meant a trip to League 1.

However, the club proved gutless when faced with difficulty and the same will happen again. If Adkins starts losing matches, he will be sacked by Christmas and we will in all likelihood go back to the Reading way again - which is at least successful at Championship level.

Unless Anton is willing to buy a completely new squad which will cost 50M plus I do not believe we can change the style of football successfully in the Championship - better to have stuck with Brian - who would have had every chance of taking us back up. We have to accept that unless vast amounts of money are gambled (and lost) at RFC that the best we can hope for is to be a yo yo club.

"£50 million needed", bet you don't get many job offers on Football manager.

Look at Norwich City's midfield today. Howson, Pilkington and Snodgrass all signed from Champ or League 1 for between £2-3 million each + Johnson from Champ on a free.

This is really the max amount needed per player to build a side capable of competing in the Prem. The fees for pretty good lower league players Marriappa and Gunter in pre-season, both £2.5 million (+ got McCleary on a free) were pretty standard, we should have done about 5 more tho.

If I was manager during the transfer window I'd look to retain 5 or 6 key players, and bring in 5 or 6 quality League 1 or Champ players that are around the £1-3 million mark. Keep a few fringe players and try and sell most of the dead weight first team.
Transfers in: ~ £20 million
Transfers out: ~ £5 million

Really, imo we need about £15 million investment in the Summer to build a very good team. £50 million would be ridiculous.