Tom

Wow. Okay. 'He did well in the Championship'. He got us promoted. That's about as well as you can do. Whether or not we only scraped it is irrelevant. And besides, that's not really true. We finished just ahead of Brighton, yes, but that's more to Brighton's credit than our detriment. There just happened to be 3 very string teams in the league that year. For context, we were 6 points clear of the next nearest team, Hull in 4th. 'He benefited from us being consistent in the transfer market'. So what you're saying is that he combined some players we already had, some from the academy, and some that he signed himself to make a decent team. So kind of like... any other successful manager in football. 'He completely bottled it in the Prem'. We aren't in the Prem. 'Same football as Pulis'. Not even close. Karanka and Pulis were both pragmatic and defensive, but watching their teams was like chalk and cheese. Some displays under AK were excellent. Brighton away, Brentford at home (twice), Derby at home, that goal against Millwall. Aside from 4 months when we saw the best of Adama, there was barely a high point in the whole Pulis tenure. I was a Karanka fan, but I did agree that he was sacked at the right time. However, I'm now convinced that Gibson not only got that one wrong, but has been consistently off the mark with every big decision he has made since.

Pulis wasn't 'hounded out'. If you think Gibson would bend to the will of fans, then Pulis would have gone after Burton, or Newport. We couldn't afford Pulis anymore, because he was greedy, and we are skint. He gave the team a structure at the expense of ambition. We may have been better off with him this season, but we'd have been absolutely stagnating in mid table and playing absolutely dogshit football. I made the analogy on Twitter to someone else perpetuating this ludicrous notion of Pulis being 'hounded out' that if you leave the house and then walk in front of a bus, the bit that you did wrong wasn't the 'leaving the house' part. Just because Woodgate hasn't been very good doesn't mean that getting rid of Pulis wasn't the right thing to do.

Arsenal have Tojali Bola on their bench tonight who I believe is Marc's younger brother.

Get him in the first team! Just so we can have a potential midfield three of Sav, Kav and Tav. Edit: That's assuming he's a midfielder like his old man.

Two terrible points here. I mean, we should have had two penalties. Even if we'd have sneaked a goal in the end and won, people would still be saying that we should have had two penalties, because we should have had two penalties. So of course the fact that we didn't end up winning makes those margins more important, particularly after the two goals disallowed against Brentford. The reason people are talking about a transitional period is because it is. When Farke took over at Norwich, he lost 3 of his first 5, including a home defeat to the worst Sunderland team in 30 years. He took a team that had been coached into a pragmatic style by Neil and Irvine, and had to rip it all up and start again. And given that Pulis makes those two look like exciting managers, it is going to take Woody a lot more than a handful of games to make these players look like his team.

Safe journey Alan. Hope Teddy has a great time at the match. 2-0 to the Boro today.

Yes, I think he might be more of a Sheff Utd man in honesty, but it might be tempting for Norwich to panic and give up on the attacking football come December, and try to tighten things up. Enter Phoney Tony, stage right.

17 in the North usually, sometimes 19.

A few evenings back when everyone lost their collective *** that we were going to lose Fry and Assombalonga, I meant to put a question on and basically ask if people would be happy to have no further incomings if it meant we hung onto both and Randolph. I forgot to do it in the end, but I suspect most people would have been fairly happy with that scenario. We definitely look like we're still lacking, but I don't think any right sided winger that we could have signed would have made up for selling any of the three aforementioned. I think we'll end up seeing Tavernier used as a wide player now, and possibly Coulson too. The situation isn't ideal, but we have enough versatile players that we can cope with injuries in most positions (in terms of numbers, if not quality). That said, I hope we are scouring the free agent market. There are half-decent wingers still about. Even someone like Hutton on a pay-as-you-play would make a certain amount of sense. Edit: I agree with CT though - the squad is not definitively better than last seasons. But with the suggestions of financial restraints from way back in May, I was braced for sales that haven't really happened in a damaging way, and the players we've brought in are gambles, of course, but after 18 months of Pulis, a bit of dice-rolling is quite welcome.

Understandable, I'm not a very good one.

In my capacity as a moderator, **** off.

I'd desperately be looking for a CB right now. Wood has not looked anywhere near ready when he's played.

What does it say? A large percentage of the Boro population are blocked by Bailey.

Bristol City were linked with Charlie Austin too. Surely Saints wouldn't loan both out?

Flint Dimi Mikel Besic Lonergan Downing