Robbie will be Robbie

What a lovely way to start the weekend, the ever informative Michael Bailey tweets..

@michaeljbailey: Fantastic Cowling story in Sat’s @eveningnews – Honestly, you can’t miss this. Surprised we’ve got the OK to print it…

He’s such a tease, what could it possibly be? Your mind automatically goes to the most extreme, Cowling caught dogging, Cowling ejected from X-Factor audition, Cowling called up to North Korea world cup squad, Cowling caught urinating on Castle Meadow whilst setting fire to Delia Smith books. Surely it can’t be anything that misguided though. Surely Robbie has been on high alert recently, he’s not going to do anything that is possibly going to call his reputation into question is he? Well, yes. Yes he is.

Robbie Cowling decided it was wise to reply to an email this week, sent by a city fan with pretty simple and obvious intentions. Keith Armour, a season ticket holder of 26 years objected to Mr Cowling’s continued resentment of anything yellow when he brought the whole issue to the foreground yet again earlier this week. Mr Armour’s email was quite blunt and to the point, mixing tone between jovial and occasionally more sinister. As illustrated by

Mr Cowling,

Isn’t it about time you stopped being a complete t*t head and let the whole Paul Lambert saga rest.

And

I do hope that the potato field of a pitch at your stadium yields a good crop of spuds this summer. You’ll need all those potatoes for all the chips you have on your shoulder!

What is most important here is the conversation wasn’t the type of constructive argument or query that you would expect somebody in Cowling’s position to even think about getting involved with. But he did, and he went out of his way in his reply to prove that he’s unlike most football bosses in this country. He tried to strike a tone, casual, blokey, a king of banter if you will. I doubt there are many chief exec’s that would sign off an email in the following way.

Despite the tone of your email message I certainly wouldn’t wish any ill fortune on you. I mean you have the ill fortune of supporting Norwich City to deal with and that must be a fate worse than anything I could suffer.

Up Yours

Robbie

Any “banter points” gained by the cheeky chappy though were wiped out by the paragraph that has taken the headlines. Where Robbie Cowling outright accused, albeit in a non serious fashion Norwich City’s bosses of being worse than Hitler and the Nazis.

I am sure the Germans were overjoyed at Hitler’s early successes but I wouldn’t want to label your 2 clowns in the same category as Hitler and the Nazis. That would be unfair on our European neighbours.

This part of the email confirms what we all really thought about Robbie Cowling, it’s possible that we all were biased towards our own club and its bosses and that we unfairly turned him into our own pantomime villain. But the relief is here, we were right all along, the real clown in this story has revealed himself. How anyone can expect to be taken seriously as a businessman or an executive when they spout such drivel is unfathomable.

Norwich’s comment on the story was minimal but said an awful lot. Chairman Alan Bowkett saying only.

“Oh dear, oh dear. Robbie will be Robbie. It would not be appropriate to say any more on the matter.”

I’m sure he was laughing his professional head off.

The Evening News article was subtle, simply stating the facts that really didn’t need elaborating to make their point. Except when they said that Cowling…

went on to compare them to “Hitler and the Nazis” in a tirade that will today incense Norwich City supporters.

The statement is so ridiculous that it will struggle to incense or infuriate city fans as suggested. Instead I imagine city fans will greet it with the same kind of reaction they would give a celebrity scandal or a drunken story of an old school friend, humour at first followed by a widespread chorus of “tut, tut, when will they learn.” Forgive us for not agreeing with your pathetic ill thought out opinion Robbie, but we don’t believe that the crime of being overzealous in the pursuit of a new football manager before later accepting punishment without complaint, is in any way more reprehensible than the leading of an attempted genocide of an entire religion.

However in the spirit of neutrality and fairness, if and when Alan Bowkett agrees and the FDC’s findings are made public, maybe we will change our minds.

Fox hunt successful, as Robbie watches on

At the beginning of the week I genuinely thought that we we’re done with Robbie Cowling, but after his tease of an appeal on the FDC’s ruling it seems were not so lucky. The scamp will be taking every opportunity to drag our once good name through the mud, over and over again, with more insanity with each press release, until he is inevitably eventually sectioned.

We’ve not helped matters though have we, because paraded at Carrow Road this afternoon was summer signing number four. Now I know what you’re thinking, surely that’s the heavily rumoured capture of Cardiff’s Solomon Taiwo? According to Michael Bailey via twitter his car has been outside CR this week, every time we hear of a press conference it has to be Taiwo. Well it wasn’t on Wednesday, and it wasn’t today. Enter David Fox.

If the name rings a bell then it’s because you’ve still got our embarrassing open day defeat to Colchester still embedded in your brain. If you remember in specifics then it was Fox whose well struck free kick sailed past a poorly placed Michael Theoklitos (remember him) someway through that horrible first half back in August. 10 months on and Colchester’s manager at the time is introducing said goal scorer to the local press as a Norwich player.

The joy Lambert has in bringing in Fox is obvious; he rates him as a midfielder who can move the ball without problem. They have a rapport that is instantly noticeable. Their conversation is respectful yet relaxed, they’re clearly friends and we can see how pleased they are to be reunited. The best punch line of an already very informal press conference is when Paul Lambert jokes that the undisclosed fee agreed with Colchester was in fact “a bottle of coke”. One can only imagine the reaction of Robbie Cowling should he watch that video. Lambert has taken one of his players, making it in his best interests to sell the midfielder.

The Green’Un (which I have a growing dislike for) ran the story with the headline Fox in controversial Norwich switch when in truth there is nothing controversial about it. Even in the statement on Colchester’s website they explain the series of events that lead to the transfer and it’s clearly all legit. This will have Robbie seething again, he has lost any advantage he had and City are moving on. It’s at this point where Norwich have begun to play with Colchester and more importantly Robbie Cowling. We’ve paid our bill, we’ve been promoted and now we’ve taken one of their best players with us. Lovely.

Smith signs in

 

Another new summer signing, and another surprise. Instead of Paul Lambert unveiling the seemingly City-bound Solomon Taiwo, we were treated to the arrival of Rangers left back Steven Smith, signing on a free on a  two year deal. 

Smith is a left back who has struggled in recent years with injuries; at 24 he has only played 56 senior games which may be a cause for concern. He does however tick all Lamberts boxes. In his press conference he appears driven and determined to get his career back on track. It’s very interesting to note that he says he has watched a lot of Championship football, he went on to say that he hopes he can make the same kind of impact as another Rangers old boy, Charlie Adam. His performances after his move to Blackpool were one of the main factors behind the Tangerine’s unlikely rise to the Premier League. It’s perfectly reasonable to believe that behind some more cash hungry ex-Champion’s League players that pop up in the Old Firm of Scotland, there may well be some eager players with the quality to perform in the nPower Championship. The willingness to make the move south is often enough of an indication that they are raring to go.

I do hope he is over his injuries, the last thing we need is John Kennedy v2.0. Adam Drury is now 31 and is partial to the occasional fortnight on the treatment table himself. Let’s hope their competing more often for the left back spot than for the attention of the medical team.

 One of the best ways to appraise new signings is by gauging the opinions of the fans that the player has left behind. Rangers fans are seemingly conforming to the same opinion that Smith is a good player waiting to happen. A lot seem to believe he would’ve been Rangers’ first choice left back if it wasn’t for the combination of his injuries and the form of Sasa Papac. As a free transfer he seems to be a good acquisition, but I will reserve judgment until he registers a couple of months without a knock. Welcome to Carrow Road Steven Smith.

 Where’s Solomon Taiwo then? Who knows, maybe tomorrow.

What a way to send a message

In response to the compensation agreement City announce that Manager Paul Lambert, Head of Football Operations Gary Karsa, and Assistant Manager Ian Culverhouse have all signed new and improved deals. There is even a new deal for apparently sought after Chief Executive David McNally. The article on the clubs homepage isn’t heavy on specifics but its most definitely reassuring. The key off the field figureheads are happy to commit to the cause after a ruthlessly successful first term. Music to the ears of canary fans everywhere.

But we can’t be too optimistic can we? Surely after those contracts and the compensation, (which must come in over what city had budgeted for) Norwich, and more specifically Paul Lambert may have to tighten the purse strings. Wrong.

If you are to believe two fairly reputable sources, sky have us tying up a deal for Cardiff midfielder Solomon Taiwoo in the next couple of days. Whilst STV in Scotland have new chief scout Ewan Chester already earning his keep with city entering talks with recently released Rangers left-back Stephen Smith. Now I know very little about either player but I’d bet a wedge on them being described as hungry and hardworking. I’m happy to wait though, I don’t want Lambert spending all of his “competitive for this level” budget too soon. We don’t know what the summer might bring. That could still realistically be four signings already; this could be the start of something big.

More tomorrow if we get anything more concrete on Taiwoo and Smith. OTBC

425k well spent, goodbye Mr Cowling

Finally the last lingering issue of a wholly satisfying season is put to bed. David McNally and Norwich City’s eagerness to appoint Paul Lambert as Bryan Gunn’s successor last August, without even interviewing him has been deemed a violation of the now dreaded Regulation 20. Regulation 20 forbids clubs from inducing another club’s employees to break their contracts of employment, and Norwich City admitted their violation.

How much ‘tapping-up’ actually took place appears to remain a secret, the improper conduct of Colchester chairman Robbie Cowling is still pretty substantial. It seems obvious now that the delay and stalling of any compensation agreement had an ulterior motive. Any compensation figure decided impartially would increase the longer the season went on, and the closer Lambert edged towards a remarkable achievement. Winning the league with a team he battered in their own backyard on the opening day. His constant push for a points deduction, which hasn’t ended even now, is misguided. I can’t imagine for a moment that he really thought the settlement would be in favour of a points deduction, especially after his stalling and goalpost moving which is detailed on city’s homepage today. It still riles me that in the lead up to our revenge on Colchester in January he claimed he would rather have empty seats than extra Norwich fans watching the game. This type of language to me incites a bad atmosphere. There was plenty of evidence online of city fans who wanted to take those seats just to go against Cowling’s wishes, potentially creating an unstable spectator environment. I don’t think he’s very professional, and even though city’s powers that be are in the wrong and have admitted breaking the rules. I think they’ve come out of this with more credit than Mr Cowling. Still, with this we can draw a line under things; if you still haven’t formed an opinion of Colchester’s lord and master have a look at the picture below. Robbie Cowling, in a suit, outside.

What a tit.