Pretty football and the current climate ...

... For me, the reason why I'm particularly annoyed about the hoof-ball in the current position is precisely because I don't think NW's teams have always played terrible football.

Yes, NW's team always relied on Gary Holt to do the ugly work in midfield, and there was always a big striker to aim for, be it Iwan, Nielsen, Abbey, Crouch, Svensson or Ashton.

But he's always had some flair and skill too, in the form of Libbra, Bentley, Huckerby, McVeigh, Nedergaard, Helveg or Mulryne. Which makes it hard to understand why NW has so unreservedly opted for players like Thorne, Hughes, Etuhu, Robinson, Jarrett, who don't appear to possess an ounce of skill between them.

In the post-Crook years, we all knew that the club didn't have a penny to spend, so it was (just about) easier to tolerate the terrible football. We found the odd skilful player on a free - Anselin, for example, had his limitations but he could actually play football - but on such a small budget we tended more to accept the more limited players, appreciate the more skilful ones (Rocastle, Cedric, Mulryne) and really enjoy some special home-grown talents (Eadie, Bellamy in particular).

These days, the club has some money, particularly immediately after relegation. But the squad looks as threadbare as it did six or seven years ago, and good money has been thrown at players who - in my and many others' opinions - are no better - and certainly no more technically skilled - than those signed by Rioch or Hamilton.

Let's face it, the money spent on Hughes, Etuhu, Robinson, Jarrett and Thorne would've have bought highly skilled British players (although Blackburn apparently signed Bentley for just ?500k) but it would have gone a lot further abroad, had we had a better scouting network and a manager who didn't seem so suspicious of foreign players.

So at the end of the day, it is perfectly possible right now for Norwich City to be playing decent football, especially when Green, Drury, Safri, Huckerby and Earnshaw are all in the side. Yet they have been complemented not by passers or technically adept players, but simply by cloggers. Entirely out of choice. And this - to me - is not really acceptable, or (more importantly) fun.

And we all want to enjoy watching our club, whatever the terms - don't we?

Posted By: Ottosson Foxtrot, Apr 10, 23:16:59