I'm Getting VERY Pissed Off With...

The rumours surrounding Ashtons future.

Not that people are discussing or bringing them up, making them up, whatever. Its part of the game.

No, its the thought behind them, if they are, or have, an element in truth in them.

We took the chance on signing him. He had done the business for Crewe for a few years, there had been a lot of talk about him moving on, but thats all it had ever been, talk.

We took the punt. Spent a fortune on an un-tested (at that level) player. Spent the sort of money we won't be shelling out again for a while, spent the sort of money that we could equally have put aside to spend on 3-4 players now.

No-one could say for certain that Deano was going to show his quality at the highere level. Plenty of examples of players being awesome at one level, getting the move, then not making it at all-Crewe had that themselves with Hulse, he was the Deano of last summer, got the move, couldn't crack it at WBA, now back in the CCC with Leeds. Fuller at Preston another example, moved onward and upward, but didn't seize the opportunity. There are countless examples of this happening in football, especially with forwards, remember us and Darren Beckford, nearly ?1 million then, banging them in all over the place over a few seasons at Port Vale, he's now only remembered as a possible contender in peoples "Worse Ever Norwich XI"!

So yes, we took a hell of a risk with Deano.

Imagine if he had have been a flop, struggled, didn't score goals, didn't ahve the quality, ended up with injury problems, loss of confidence, started getting stick from the crowd, a ?3 million flop that we would not ahve got any sort of return on, maybe it would have ended up like Rivers and he went back to Crewe on a free, that would have done our finances and financial reputation a lot of good, it might have cost Worthy his job!

Unthinkable now, obviously. He has proven himself, and looks as if he will certainly go onto much bigger and better things-eventually. And good luck to him, I only hope he decides (and not his agent) that it will do him no harm what-so-ever to stay with us for a year/year and a half, THEN move onto an Arsenal, a Tottenham, wherever.

Yet to look at some clubs, its as if he's an easy picking now. Norwich took the risk, Norwich splashed the cash on the unproven youngster, Norwich invested in the potential, now we can look to step in there and lure away whats now proven quality, not potential, and just like that-spread some rumours, get people to hawk about unrealistic fees, turn the players head, we'll have him now thanks, thanks for the risk, thanks for being the finishing school, you've just been relegated, heres ?2 million for him, he "wants" to join us, you can hardly hold him back, can you....?

I bet more than one club watched him, saw him join us, decide, at the time, not to put in a bid themselves, but see how it went knowing that, if he did flop-well, it wasn't their problem-but if he did show the signs he is making, well, its "only Norwich", we'll step in, and do the taking candy off the baby thing, they'll be powerless to resist...

I'd like to think we showed Dario and Crewe some respect in our dealings when we bought Ashton, I doubt we'll get much of that from people after Deano. It might be how football works, but that doesn't stop me feeling pissed off that it might turn out that way.

Sorry, long post, thanks for getting this far.

Posted By: Martin Peters on June 3rd 2005 at 12:48:30

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