Silly Season in full swing!

"The New Boys settling in before heading off to the states"

So with "Silly Season" now well and truly in full swing I thought it would be worth doing a little wrap up of everything that has happened so far and discuss what might happen next.

It's been a busy summer for us Canaries and dare I say it one of the most exciting transfer windows ever for Norwich City FC.

Let's start with a little re-cap of our movements so far:

Departures:

Firstly the club announced that 10 players had been released from the club. This is one of the biggest clearing out's we have seen in recent years. Some were to be expected, they had never really cut the mustard at Premier League level so with a heavy heart we said our goodbyes to the likes of Chris Martin and Marc Tierney. However a slightly more shocking release was that of Simeon Jackson. I have always been a fan of "Cinnamon" and it was a shame to see him leave, especially on a free. However if we look at this decision with no emotions of sentimentality you would have to agree it was the right move for both parties. He never really cut the grade in the EPL. A fantastic championship striker and a man with blistering pace but his height and lack of final ball quality always hindered him in the best league in the world. He has since found a new home in Germany and we wish him all the best.

James Vaughn was a player whom I had hoped would be given a chance to prove himself in pre-season. However the speculation surrounding his potential departure had gone on for so long that his departure was almost a certainty. He had been plagued with injury since signing for the Canaries 2 years ago and I do think we have to look at him as a missed opportunity. I feel that had his first season not been spent almost entirely on the sidelines we would be speaking about him being a great striker. He always looked to have great potential but life is cruel at times and unfortunately for him, his injuries slowed his development with our great club. On a positive note we do seem to have at least cashed in on him, a fee of around £1.5mill over a period is thought to be the money received. Given that he was surplus to requirements and hadn't exactly had a great time since joining you would have to say that's a good bit of business.

Jed Steer's move to Aston Villa was a shock to me to be honest. We all know that while Lambert was at the club he never really took much interest in the Youth Players, leaving their development to the Youth Team Managers etc. However his admiration for one Jed Steer could certainly not be questioned. In Declan Rudd and Jed Steer we had ourselves two future number 1's. Inevitably one was always go to leave in my opinion. They're both of a similar age and would both be graduating to the first team around the same time, so there was always going to be one sat on the bench. So in terms of a career move I do not begrudge Jed one bit. Declan has always been favored above him in recent years and so I suspect he saw this as an opportunity to fight for first team football elsewhere. Again we wish Jed all the best at Aston Villa and I can't wait to see him pulling on the number 1 jersey in a few years, as I proudly say "he was a product of our youth team". Additionally because the player is under 24 we will receive compensation for the move. Having talked to a few people around Aston Villa and Norwich it would appear that fee could be in the region of £2 million over a series of payments based on appearance etc.

The big man Grant Holt joined Wigan Athletic for a fee of around £1-2mill and if I'm totally honest I didn't see this one coming. I thought after signing his extension that he would finish off his career at Norwich before moving on a free to Carlisle. It was certainly sad to see the big man go and was a bitter pill to swallow but again we should not be angry with his decision. Firstly it takes him closer to his family and no man can begrudge another man for that. Secondly the big man has earned his right to play in Europe and at Wigan he will get that opportunity next year. I'm pleased Grant got his move and I'm pleased with how he handled it. I'm also pleased that in his last home and away games for City he scored on both occasions, signing off in style. Good luck Holty and score a few more past the scum for us will ya!

Leon Barnett has now been told he is free to find himself a new club. I think everyone would be lying if they said they didn't see this coming... The guy was impressive at Championship level but is nowhere near good enough for the EPL. I hope he gets his move and contrary to some fan speculation we WILL be getting a fee for him when he moves. Cardiff seem the most likely suitor although Doncaster Rovers are also said to be interested. Personally I think any championship team would be an idiot not to go for him. He is a great Championship defender and will certainly help with a push for promotion.

So we have said our goodbyes to some of Cities previous stars but we have also said "Alright Boy" to some new faces.

Arrivals:

We all had to take a step back in March when the club announced they had secured the signing of Dutch international Ricky Van Wolfswinkel from Sporting Lisbon. He had been a great success at the Portuguese club and in his previous spell in the Eredivisie. His goal tally speaks for itself 45 goals in 87 appearances for Sporting. That's a ratio of over 1 in 2, exactly what the club needs. At 24 he is the perfect age, he's still young and developing, he is level headed and humble and seems exactly the right type of player for our club. We have payed a reported £8.5million for him. This was paid for out of the remaining budget from the January window. When you consider that at one point Tottenham and United were looking at him you have to agree that this signing is a massive coup for The Canaries.

I would however offer some words of advice to fans, let's not put too much pressure on the guy. Yes he is the biggest signing we have made in recent history, yes he is a club record signing and yes his goal tally speaks for itself, but the dutch league to the portuguese league to the prem are very different animals. He has a big step up to make and I am more than confident he can do that, BUT I don't think it will happen over night. It will take time and we should all remain patient with him and the club during that time. It would also be silly of us to rely solely on him to provide us with all the goals, despite the fact that that is precisely what Sporting did. Chris Hughton and the board MUST make strides to bring in attacking players quickly and I have no doubt they are doing all they can to achieve that.

Leroy Fer or #TheBouncer as he is now being called by a section of the NCFC faithful is in my opinion one of the most exciting signings of the entire window. He is a dominant force in the centre of the park. As I said in my previous blog his performance against San Jose on Sunday morning was nothing short of exemplary. His skill and movement on the ball is assured and calm, his passing is full of pace and precision. He's young at 23 and has a very bright career ahead of him. You can see that Hughton is trying to work on "the spine" of the team. With Ruddy no doubt still number one choice in goal followed by Bassong at CB, Leroy Fer in the centre and RVW up front we have a very strong spine. The fee is undisclosed as always but reports suggest around £4.3mill which given that Everton had a agreed a £8.7mill deal back in January before the deal fell through it's another great bit of business by the club.

We also saw the arrival of Nathan Redmond from Birmingham for a reported £3.2mill with £2mill up front. This undoubtedly has the potential to be the buy of the decade! With people like Tom Ince being touted with £8-10mill moves and Wilfried Zaha's big money move to united. As well as the absurd £10mill price tag currently sat on Will Hughes' head, we have gotten ourselves one of the best wingers / attacking midfielders in the country. If the guy continues developing as he has in previous years there is no doubt in my mind that he could eventually be sold for in excess of £15mill, making our £3.2million investment in him a fantastic bit of business for the club. Aside from the financial gain involved in this transfer Redderz is exactly what we need. He is unbelievably quick, has an eye for goal and can play anywhere across the front line, although has been used primarily as a winger up until now. His movement on and off the ball is sublime and his pace in attack fills a massive hole that we had last year. As I've said before I would not be surprised to see him being played in a more attacking midfielder role, giving him the freedom to move around and find space. He will draw defenders off position with ease and is a great asset to have against teams adopting the offside trap. He is also great cover for the wings if Snoddy or Pilks get injured. He can also play just behind the striker like Hoolahan did last year when needs must. I would say this is the most exciting signing we have made. He has already settled in very well and in the San Jose game he looked on fire. I predict very big things for this lad and can't wait to see him in action next season.

We also completed the signing of Martin Ollson from Blackburn Rovers. His transfer didn't get quite the same fan fair but the value of this signing is no less important. We had no left back cover whatsoever after releasing Marc Tierney and signing up Javier Garrido on a new permanent contract so his signing was vital. He also provides us with another option. Garrido is a good left back but he struggles with pace. Ollson has pace in abundance and so will give us another dimension especially away from home when a counter attack is our most likely chance to score. He can also play on the left of midfield so provides good competition for Pilkington. The fee was a reported £2.5-£3.5mill which in my opinion is good business. Garrido's fee was reported to be somewhere between £2-3mill.

Finally we have also acquired the services of ex-Stoke Goalkeeper Carlo Nash on a free transfer. Fan's had differing views on this transfer due to Nash's age. Some seemed to think he was a replacement for John Ruddy, it's fair to say that these same people were convinced Ruddy was going to Chelsea which I have said from the start was NEVER going to happen, certainly not in a World Cup Year. My personal opinion on the Nash deal is a positive one. My understanding is that Nash want's to get into coaching, and so the draw of working alongside the best GK coach in England, Dave Watson, was the immediate draw. From the clubs point of view its a smart bit of business. He will provide us with experienced, quality cover for both Bunn and Ruddy. It's also being reported that he will be working with the youth players and Dave Watson in a training capacity. So for me this was a good bit of Business and welcome to NCFC Mr Nash.

OK so that's all the confirmed business out the way now on to the fun part... SPECULATION!

"I'm hoping this isn't Hughton signing us up another striker... not sure how he's what we need!"

As I'm writing this blog I'm getting messages telling me Gary Hooper is NCFC bound, well according to ex England Cricket Skipper, Michael Vaughan. Personally this whole Hooper saga is driving me bloody nuts. I like Celtic BUT I have to say the way they have handled the whole Hooper situation is idiotic. They turned down almost £8mill for him in January, sighting that he was not going to leave Celtic. Then at the start of this window they said the same, turning down a reported £5.5mill despite the fact that Hooper has still not signed a new contract with them. Reports came out last week that Mr McNasty (David McNally) had given Celtic a deadline to either accept our offer of £4mill or we were moving on. Personally I think this was a bullshit, nothing story made up by the national press to give a non story some excitement. QPR are reportedly interested but I can't see why Hooper would chose Championship football over Premiership football in a World Cup Year, unless he is solely in it for the money and nothing else. Same goes for the reported interest from Reading, I don't know how many bloody times I have to tell Reading fans that Hooper WILL NOT JOIN READING! I'm gonna look like a total twat now if he does, but, if he does, which he won't, I will be the first to say, I'm wrong... but I won't have to! Celtic and Neil Lennon, who is really starting to rub me up the wrong way, seem to have finally come to terms with the fact that Hooper will be moving, but the question still remains WHERE?

I wouldn't be disappointed if he didn't come to Norwich but having said that I would also not be depressed if he did. I'm fairly indifferent about the player. Yes he has a great scoring record, but it's in the SPL. I see him on par with someone like Charlie Austin. My other issue is that I don't really think he offers us anything new. We require pace up front, The Wolf has some pace but not bucket loads. We need a pacey option and for me he doesn't really fit that mould, He's more like Grant Holt but with a much more clinical finish. Time will tell on this one, the minute I hear anything I will post, so keep your eyes peeled.

The obvious targets right now are Strikers, with only two in the squad Hughton and McNally are working hard on signing them. I have long been saying that I expect the arrival of at least 2 strikers. I was laughed at for having this opinion right up until the last few weeks. Now, all of a sudden, the national media seem to all be going with the line "Chris Hughton looks to bring in 2 strikers" really... I've only been saying that for 4 bloody months!!!!!

So who are we looking at? Well as always with Norwich it's hard to tell, we keep our cards so close to our chest that we never really know what's going on.

SSN have us in for ex Barcelona star Maxi Lopez from Catania. I concede that I know very little about him, his goal tally of 4 in 17 is not great reading but this was while he was on loan at Sampdoria, so can we take it at face value? Probably not. I have asked around about him and most people who do know a little about him suggest again that he doesn't have much in terms of pace but that his finishing has been fairly good in the past... Helpful!!! I personally can't see this transfer happening... for me it's another Ola Toivonen... I said from the minute that Ola was mentioned that we wouldn't sign him. I was abused left, right and centre. People were so happy, saying he was gonna be the second striker and was exactly what we needed. Right, aside from the fact that OLA TOIVONEN is NOT A BLOODY STRIKER, his attitude is the last thing we need at Norwich. To be honest the board would never agree to him joining with that type of attitude, and no this has nothing to do with him not knowing who Norwich are, it's to do with him deciding that we can wait for a few weeks while he suns himself on a beach waiting for a bigger offer... fuck off Ola hahahaha! Also his on the pitch attitude stunk, he looked like a dirty dirty player and red card waiting to happen so for at least this was a lucky bloody escape.

Fortunately I'm not one of those fans that gets a massive erection at the first sign of us signing a player! I like to think I try to be analytical about it, I way up the pro's and con's I look into the player and quiz people on his style, how he plays, you know - do my research! Then and ONLY then do I form an opinion. I don't claim to be #itk and I'm certainly no expert but people seem to agree with what I say so as long as people keep agreeing or disagreeing constructively I will keep voicing my opinion.

Reports also suggest that we are in for 30 year old, out of favour Juventus striker Fabio Quagliarella. This report seems to have more traction but I would question his age. His abilities are not in question, a phenomenal pedigree and would no doubt rip up the premier league BUT at 30 you have to think about value for money. Reports suggest it would cost City around £7.5mill to secure his services, and that is a lot. There is no getting away from that fact... especially for a 30 year old! We would also be apparently looking at 40k a week wages! Personally I'm not sure, but for now at least I would put this in the maybe pile.

We are also reportedly in for Dame N'Doye from Lokomotiv, the 6ft 1in, 28 year old Senegal striker scored 79 goals in 123 appearance between 2009 and 2012 while at Copenhagen before moving to FC Lokomotiv where he has scored 11 goals in 27 appearance. He has also scored 4 goals in 13 for the national Senegal side. Lokomotive reportedly want £10mill for him which seems a little high. However I think the stumbling block will be on his wages. Russian Teams pay a lot in wages and I do mean a lot. You think the EPL is bad it's nothing compared to Russia. Unless he is willing to take a definite wage drop I can't see this happening. My favourite reporter "James 'I know nothing' Nursey" seems to be suggesting that Lokomotiv are being "difficult" with Norwich over the fee. There is no clarification as to what "difficult" means exactly and of course he offer's no source. His opinion changes daily, at one point he suggested that Norwich were intending to focus the "REMAINDER" of their budget on Gary Hooper... So clearly he knows fuck all and should probably quit and get a job that he'd be better at... like killing himself! (sorry it really is a deep hatred for this man hahaha!). Dame N'Doye for me goes in the unlikely pile unless the draw of the premier league turns his head.

Personally I would like to see us go after John Guidetti from Man City, the Swedish 21 year old has been prolific in recent years scoring 20 in 23 at Feyenoord whilst on loan. Since joining Man City in 2010 he hasn't made a single appearance for the club, instead he has spent his time on loans at Brommapojkama where he scored 3 in 8, Burnley where he scored 1 in 5 and then finally Feyenoord. He also been capped at every level of the Swedish national team U17 (8 in 11), U19 (5 in 5), U21 (4 in 10) and has had one full cap for Sweden. He is unlikely to feature for Man City next year and the possibility could be that he is loaned out once again. It is unclear at this point whether Hughton is even looking at him, although his name has been doing the rounds. I think it's fairly unlikely that Man City would want to sell him BUT a loan move might be an option. This in itself presents a problem, I can't really see Hughton going in for a loan. The only way I see Hughton bringing in a player on loan is if he secures us at least one more striker on a permanent deal.

Finally I would also like to see us go in for Alfie Finnbogason from SC Heerenveen. The 24 year old Icelandic international has again been prolific in recent years scoring 12 in 17 while on loan at Helsingbord and then 24 in 31 last term at Heerenveen. He also has a good return of 4 in 15 at international level. Aston Villa were in for him last summer before they signed Benteke and for a moment during the whole Benteke transfer saga it seemed they might make a move for him again. Now that that incident has been "resolved" hmmm... I would suspect that Aston Villa will turn their attentions to other areas, this could leave room for us to swoop in. I could see this guy being a big hit in the EPL and personally would love to see him given a chance to prove himself in the best league in the world. I suspect he would cost us around £7-9mill, I do think given his age and pedigree this is a price worth paying, at present though, there are no reports that we are in for him bar the occasional wishful remark on the fan forums.


Right, I'll leave you all to ponder... I assure you not all the posts will be this long, BUT I do have a fair bit of catching up to do.

Don't forget to leave me a comment below, let me know your thoughts... If you have any questions ask away and I will try to answer them as best I can in the next blog entry. Will try to do a Q&A blog once a week should their be a demand for it.

Make sure you follow me on twitter @chrisdeighton or #asklondoncanary for any questions...

ON THE BALL CITY!

Do you know the way to San Jose?

"the mexicans attempt to get one up on the opposition by making them feel sick with this carpet and table cloth set"

Reporter: "You look a little pale Chris, are you feeling ok"

Chris: "No, No, I'm fine, just very glad to be here, ANNIE change in my colour is merely down to the heat and not this VARY homely interior design"

"from mexico to san jose"

So we are now two weeks in to the #ncfc pre season. It should be remembered that pre season is more about fitness than it is about results. Results are, when they go your way, a nice by product of the process.

Having said that it doesn't mean you can't critique or make observations from what you have seen.

In terms of tactics it's hard at this point to really tell what the nice man of football, Chrissy Hughton, is looking to go with for next term. This is made even harder by the distinct lack of options up front currently available to him. I suspect that upon their return from the states we will see some more dramatic movements in this area [see my Silly Season blog next for more details on potential ins and outs]. In the mean time Chrissy boy will have to make do with Luciano Becchio and The Wolf, which due to the pre season being all about fitness would therefore indicate that for the Portland Timbers game on Wednesday evening he will play with one up top so he can afford both players 45 minutes each as to not take unnecessary risk with injury.

Dorados de Sinaloa 0 - 3 Norwich City

This was the first of our pre season friendlies and with all due respect to Dorados it was more of an exhibition match than a testing 90 minute friendly.

The first note on this is that the game was played on a baseball pitch, obviously turf was laid to make it into a football pitch but in terms of pitch quality it wasn't of the highest standard.

The second note is that Dorados de Sinaloa play in the 2nd Division of Mexican Football which if we are to be honest would be like us facing a non league english side.

However they were around 6 weeks ahead of us in their pre season schedule so their fitness was very high and the mexican game is a very fast paced, intricate passing game so they were, at least for the first 45, a reasonable test on our fitness. With fitness and game time being the main objective this was a good opening fixture for the boys in Yellow.

The Wolf, Hoolahan and Leroy Fer were left out of the line up, Chris Hughton chose to rest them a little longer as they had all been involved in international games over the summer.

On a personal note it was nice to see some of the younger youth academy guys get a run out notably Josh Murphy and Adel Gafaiti. It was also good to see Becchio final net his first goal in yellow and green since his January move from Leeds United or as our fans have now dubbed them "The Feeder Club" (sorry Leeds but it is kinda true!). As this match was unavailable for live streaming (despite my best efforts and a 3am wake up to try and find a working link) I can't really evaluate it all that much other than to say it's always nice to kick things off with a win.

It is also worth taking a quick look at a wonder strike from Josh Murphy to complete our 3-0 drubbing of Dorados de Sinaloa:

[video courtesy of Canaries Player]

I predict very big things for both the Murphy's and can't wait to see them get their run out in the first team in the next couple of years. Personally I feel that at the moment it is too soon for either, I would prefer to either keep them running riot in the U21 team or ship them out on loan to a mid table championship side to get them game time at a truly competitive level. I also think it might be worth splitting them up, which is why I suspect Hughton has opted to take just Josh with him to the states. As twins they will inevitably understand each others movements on and off the ball very well but we do need to see how either behave on their own and with others.

San Jose Earthquakes 1 - 0 Norwich City

This friendly was always going to be a different animal, not least because we were facing a team who are in the middle of their competitive MLS season. The Quakes are a pacey outfit and as this is an area we really struggled against last year, especially when facing counter attacks from teams like Aston Villa and Tottenham to name a few, this seemed on paper good opposition for us to face and true true to form they certainly gave us a run around.

They put our guys through the paces, evidenced by some very sweaty, tired looking faces come the final whistle. In terms of a fitness exercise you would have to deem the game a success, Almost the entire squad that travelled got game time and this is the most important factor at this stage.

Unfortunately there isn't much to write home about in terms of team performance however there were some noteworthy individual performances.

Nathan Redmond played the first 45 minutes the same as he did against Dorados and JESUS CHRIST this guy is quick, his speed and movement off the ball is a joy to watch and his movement and creativity on the ball is just as good. He was running rings around San Jose, my only criticism was that his final ball tended to let him down a touch. Having said that this is still very early pre season and he is no doubt finding his feet. I can see this guy being the buy of the decade if his early performances are anything to go on. He seems to have fitted in great with the squad, him and Elliot Bennett in particular seem to have a little bromance going on! Awww bless 'em! This guy will end up costing us £3.2mill if reports are to be believed and for that we have gotten ourselves not only a future England star but also a very smart return on our investment in 3-4 years. It would not surprise me to see this guy eventually be sold for 15-20million, he really does have THAT much potential!

Leroy Fer made his debut in Canary colours, he didn't see a whole lot of the ball, however when he did pick up the ball he looked dangerous with it. His passing, bar a terrible cross field ball that smacked an unsuspecting Alex Tettey square in the side of the face, was superb. His passes were hit with pace and precision which, as any Norwich City fan will tell you, was an area we really needed to address after our poor possession stats from last year. I have long been saying that what we needed was a midfielder who could not only hold up the ball in the centre of the park, intimidate midfielders and defenders but also a strong and creative passer of the ball, in Leroy Fer we have certainly, based on what I have seen so far (albeit very little), gotten ourselves exactly that. He held up the ball brilliantly and in almost the polar opposite to Alex Tettey (whom I will get to shortly) was positively in control of every situation, he was calm, collected, unpredictable without being erratic, and creative to boot!

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel got his first outing in green and yellow and whilst I can assure you all that he looked very sharp, there is unfortunately not much more I can tell you as we weren't really given a chance to see much of him. His movement off the ball looked good, on a couple of occasions he found some space. The predictable hoofed long ball over the top found him on one occasion but his shot at goal was brilliantly blocked by the incoming Earthquake defender. He did seem to be getting a little frustrated at one point with a couple of San Jose defenders, it would appear that Mr Wolf can indeed be a handful (remind you of anyone). Moments later he drew a freekick in a dangerous position affording us a corner that Anthony Pilkington wasted with a heavy ball in that ended up rolling back out of play for a throw in. The service to him was poor, our midfielders at this point seemed more intent on passing the ball backwards to Mark Bunn, and our back four. In fact it was a sloppy back pass from Russell Martin (or Russ Martinez as the commentator called him) that lead to the San Jose goal.

I will also give a special shout out to two players I thought had an excellent game. Firstly Daniel Ayala, I was a fan of this guy when he arrived under Paul Lambert and I was disappointed to see him shipped out on loan last year. He does in fairness have a little way to go yet but I was very impressed by how assured he looked at CB. He was calm, his pace and movement was good and he looked in control of most of the San Jose attacks. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of him over this pre season period. Secondly Adel Gafaiti really impressed me, again much like Nathan Redmond, his pace and movement were sublime. I couldn't really figure out where he was playing to be honest but his performance was a stand out one and worth a mention.

Finally although it's a pre season friendly I do think it's worth picking out some of the negatives from the game:

Creativity: Literally non existent... sorry but it's true. Snodgrass and Pilkington tried to get a couple of crosses into the box but the former was more intent on falling over the minute someone came within a metre of him that he spent more time arguing with the linesman and ref than he did trying to forge passes into the box or through the middle.

He did this a lot last season and it really bugged me! Unfortunately for me though, more often than not the decision would go his way and we would have a set piece in a dangerous position, which we often scored from. HOWEVER... this season it will be different, teams will know how to defend against our set plays and we can't simply rely on them for our goals. We must be more creative in the middle of the park.

Hughton brought Wessi on in the second half presumably to get him some match time as well as to give us some creativity in the centre of the park. Now before you all start attempting to jump through your computer screens to kill me. I like Wes Hoolahan BUT for me he isn't anywhere near consistent enough. With a creative midfielder like Wes you expect that they will not complete every pass and that their dropped pass percentage will be higher than others. Wes suffers from the same problem that Snodgrass does, because from time to time he has these glimpses of genius on and off the ball, people seemingly forget all the passes he has wasted and the amount of times he has given the ball away in the last 10 minutes. There is, in his defence, too much of a reliance on him. Having said that, when you are playing in the Premier League, possession and keeping possession is absolutely key! If you have the ball, the other team can't score it's as simple as that. Wes is the biggest culprit for this and for me his time on the pitch next season will be limited. Redmond has better pace and movement and his crossing, and passing ability is much better, he has played in the hole behind the front two before under Chris Hughton at Birmingham and I would not be surprised to see him edging Wes to the bench this season.

Finally a very short word on Alex Tettey... I bloody love this guy! No one can fault his desire, drive, enthusiasm, and energy... but if I can offer one tiny little piece of advise Alex, just slow down a little bit ok :) JESUS he is soooooo irratic, chases every ball [great], goes in for every tackle [great], but his movement and final ball let him down. He certainly has some speed on him and I personally think he works best as a defensive midfielder although I'm sure he would describe himself as box to box. He reminds me of a puppy chasing a stick... the problem is once he gets it, he's so quick to get rid of it so he can chase it again that he drops it in the river and someone else then has to wade through the used condoms, beer cans and poo to retrieve it (sorry that is a bizzare analogy but you get my drift). Someone on twitter put it perfectly... "Alex Tettey, definately the most unpredictable player at Norwich City FC"...

Hope you have enjoyed this diatribe. See you next time and don't forget to follow me on twitter @chrisdeighton and let me know your thoughts by commenting below!

ON THE BALL CITY!

Welcome!

"... and so the story begins..."

I have finally been worn down by my friends and family who have long since been advocating that I need to start a football blog!

I suspect this has less to do with my 'OBVIOUS' skills in Football Journalism (something James Nursey cleary doesn't have - my hatred for him will become clear in the weeks that follow) and more to do with them getting sick and tired of me going on and on, especially now during silly season!

As the terrible blog name would suggest I am indeed a loud and proud Canary! I have been for as long as I can remember.

My first ever match was at Carrow Road on the 8th April 1994 at the age of 9 to see us play Southampton in the good old days of the Premier League. We lost 4-5! In those days the EPL had 22 teams in it! That year the relegated teams were Swindon, Oldham and Sheffield United the Scum missed out on relegation by 1 point! We on the other hand finished a respectable 12th on 53 points!

It was a fantastic first game for a young wipper snapper like my self. My dad in tow taught me all the songs, encouraged me to tell the ref he was a fucking idiot! Bought me my first yellow and green scarf (still got it as well, I have no idea what they made it out of though, itches like crabs!). I even remember the walk across the bridge with the site of Carrow Road in front of me, my eyes wide with excitement.

Dad stopped on the Bridge to get us a program. I then listened intently as he started engaging in deep conversations with complete strangers... I remember thinking to myself "I didn't realise Dad had this many friends!"

I couldn't believe the amount of people... all unified in yellow and green... the friendliness of everyone around me, "first game is it boy?", my dad as my elected spokeman replied, "yes it is"... the old chap bent down put his hand on my shoulder and said "remember this feeling boy, you'll need it in the bad times" it took all of 2 hours for that saying to make sense to me.

As we approached the turnstiles my Dad handed our tickets to the rotund gentleman in the booth as he ushered me through the turnstile. Finally I took my first step on the hallowed ground of the Barclay! I remember the walk up the steps to the lower tier as I got my first glimpse of the Carrow Road turf, a sea of yellow and green smiling faces... we made our way to our seats just to the left of the goal... we shuffled and tripped our way along row J till we found our seats. Seconds seemed liked minutes as the anticipation grew... finally it seemed that everyone had took their seats. The dull hum of people talking echoed throughout the stadium... the Southampton fans in good voice to my left in the old South Stand started their derogatory chants towards the yellow and green army of the Barclay.

All of a sudden the roar of the tannoy overshadowed the chants as the official announcements were made, my anticipation grew. Then the teams started to make their way on to the pitch welcomed by a deafening roar of cheers and clapping... I remember not being able to see a whole lot, my dad picked me up so I could see... "kick it off, throw it in, have a little scrimage, keep it low, splendid rush, bravo, win or die... ON THE BALL CITY, never mind the danger, steady on, nows your chance, hurrah we've scored, city... city... city" echoed throughout the ground as the whistle blew...

I concede the rest of it is a bit of blur... I know we were leading 2 or three times... and I know Southampton drew level in the 90th minute and went on to score the winning goal late in injury time... What I do remember is the feeling of hurt and pain on the ride home... the rollercoaster of emotions of one minute being overcome with joy and happiness and then seconds later having it torn away from you... the mixture of anger, impatience, frustration, elation, bitterness... truthfully I know of no other thing that can give you this range of emotions!

I remember crying like a baby when I got home to our house in Peterborough... the drive seemed to take forever... I laid down on the couch, still sporting with pride my yellow and green scarf, and cried... unashamedly! Very soon I fell asleep, the range of emotions had tired me out. As I fell asleep the old chaps words range around my head "remember this feeling boy, you'll need it in the bad times!"...

And so began my now 28 year love affair with our boys in Yellow! I like to think I have seen it all now... I was just old enough to remember our fur-ray in Europe... followed my relegation, years of championship obscurity, the chase years, the bellamy and roberts years, the ashton years, the worthington years, the hope that period gave, our short and sweet return to the prem... our subsequent relegation back to the Championship, the dark days of Glen Roeder, the unthinkable relegation to league one... the lambert years, Grant Holt, consecutive promotions, we are premier league say we are premier league, the amazing first year, the dark summer of lambert's departure, the frustration of last year and now the anticipation for what could be the most exciting year in Norwich City history... and that brings us up to date...

Join me on this, the most exciting of #ncfc journeys!

ON THE BALL CITY!!!!!!!

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