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Paul Lambert again bringing positive attention to Norwich – May 23rd 2012
You have to hand it to Norwich, everything that’s coming out of their club at the moment is positive.
Paul Lambert has obviously been the subject of speculation recently, and he’s come out today to rubbish some of those reports:
“I never said I’m leaving. I’ve said I never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I absolutely love it here. I’ve loved my time here. Because I don’t say much, people want to go on message boards fuel things and make up absolute nonsense.”
Yes, he does stop short of committing himself to the club, but that’s actually quite sensible – making sweeping and overly emotional statements about future intentions is always hazardous. Because he’s right, he never knows what’s going to turn up in the future – there’s nothing wrong with honesty.
That being said, he has seemingly clarified his position regarding the Aston Villa vacancy – it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere near Randy Lerner. Rightly so too, because if you compare how Norwich and Villa are being run at the moment, you would have to say that the future looks a lot brighter at Carrow Road.
What’s impressive about how Lambert has handled this particular situation, is that he’s actively come out to quash the speculation. Compare that to some other managers, who – even when incumbent at other clubs – seem to really thrive on the attention that being linked to other jobs brings them. It’s unprofessional, and it’s actually very irritating.
I like the way Norwich is run, or at least seems to be run – nothing is over-complicated and there’s a reassuring transparency to their processes. It’s healthy.
Applauding Norwich for their handling of Grant Holt – May 20th 2012
We should all wish that more clubs had CEOs like David McNally.
In response to Grant Holt – or should that be Grant Holt’s agent – suddenly deciding that it’s time for a move, or at least time to gain some negotiation leverage, McNally took to Twitter to clarify his club’s position on the issue.
Apologies in advance for any errors in sequencing:
“We did receive a transfer request from Grant Holt yesterday. It was rejected immediately. At our club, we deal with the out-of-contract players first of all when each season ends.
We then deal with players where the club may have an option to extend their contracts. This season, there are several in this category.
We are almost at the end of this part of our end-of-season process but we still have some work to do.
We will then gladly meet with other players and their representatives, including those that may have time left on their contracts.
We haven’t had any discussions yet with any player/agent who has time left on their contract. This is entirely normal at this stage.
Players with time left on their contracts will only leave NCFC if we are happy for them to do so.
There has been no offer made to any in-contract player, at this stage. We have not had an argument or row with any player, including Grant. The club is very grateful to all of the players for another great year.
We are very relaxed with managing the end-of-season activities.”
Not only does McNally promote the clarity of process by which business seems to be conducted at Carrow Road, but he does a marvellous job in not reacting in the slightest to Holt’s posturing.
This is how it should be.
“Want a transfer do you? Good for you – get back in your box.”
Even if this isn’t quite the strike back against ‘player power’ that we’d all welcome, it’s a start. Thoughts on the prelude to this, for those that are interested, are here.
A big congratulations to Holt and his management team too, because they managed to turn all the collective goodwill to the player into the almost unanimous belief that he’s a bit of a tosser within a week. Outstanding work.
Thoughts on Grant Holt’s transfer request – May 19th 2012
It looks like someone got a little bit ahead of themselves.
Let’s get this straight, Grant Holt is a Premier League player because of Paul Lambert and Norwich City – the Scot has built a side that accentuates Holt’s positive attributes, and he’s thriving because of it.
But 17 goals this season, and all of a sudden Holt apparently needs a move to a bigger club? I understand his logic; he’s thirty-one years old, his stock is high, and he has a chance to surf the wave of hyperbole all the way to a ‘name’ club – but why turn your back on a club that has brought the very best out of you?
It’s not a coincidence that no other Premier League team has ever taken a risk on the player – he’s been around forever and he’s never been deemed good enough to play at the top level. Norwich have made him good enough by playing to his strengths and setting their side up around them. It would be incredibly naive for Holt to think that he’d prosper similarly elsewhere.
Hopefully this is just an example of a player being given bad advice from an agent looking to make a bit of a windfall, because otherwise it’s stained Holt’s reputation.
“Hand a transfer request in Grant – it’s your last chance to make some money”.
Stopping the silliness over Grant Holt and England – April 23rd 2012
Ah, the periodic clamour for a under-valued player in the England squad. How familiar.
Grant Holt, and Norwich, deserve nothing short of tremendous respect for what they’ve achieved in the Premier League, but suggesting that Holt warrants a place in the national side is a quantum leap.
In our infatuation with the Premier League, it’s easy to see it as a proving ground for international football, but really that’s not the case. Success domestically doesn’t necessarily translate globally – the criteria for success is so different, that it almost renders one completely irrelevant to the other.
Pundits and commentators have watched Grant Holt bully opposing centre-halves this year, and have got a bit swept away by the romanticism of a lower-league player scaling the footballing pyramid. I don’t blame them, it’s so very rare these days that we could all be forgiven for wanting to see an exception to the rule.
Realistically? Holt is a workmanlike player profiting from the lost art of defending in England – while his attitude would doubtless be the same if he played for his country, the standard of the opposition would not. World class defenders would nullify the Norwich forward with relative ease – it really wouldn’t be the same as harassing a crippled Ledley King at White Hart Lane.
This is a lesson that ought to have been learnt with Michael Ricketts, or with James Beattie, or Andy Johnson – a stellar league goalscorer and an international forward are two very different things. In the Premier League, rough and tumble forwards can always prosper – the speed of the game, the rate of chances, the preference of width over central intricacy – the style of football and the nature of the game are ideal for hard-working yet under-skilled players. Playing for England really isn’t the same.
It’s hard to make these kind of comments without sounding disparaging about Holt – that’s not the intention – he’s benefiting from being in the right place at the right time in his career, and hats off to him, but England is not a realistic next step for him.
The video launch of Norwich’s new kit – April 19th 2012
Not exactly an orthodox kit launch, but maybe that’s good thing – I think we’ve all seen enough airbrushed pictures of players for one lifetime.
So – featuring Stephen Fry – here’s Norwich City’s video introducing the kit that they’ll be wearing next season.
Grant Holt: Norwich Goals – April 9th 2012
All of Grant Holt’s Norwich goals from 2009 until the end of last season…
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