2006 is a year which will live long in the memory of the City faithful for all the wrong reasons.A decent experienced squad on paper, repeatedly failed to meet our entitled expectations.

2006 is a year which will live long in the memory of the City faithful for all the wrong reasons.

A decent experienced squad on paper, repeatedly failed to meet our entitled expectations. Constant under-performing resulted in great unrest with fans and ultimately a change in management.

Let us all hope that now the transfer window is open Peter Grant will be able to strengthen the squad and, at the same time motivate those here at present, whom we consider worthy to wear the “yellow and green” to fulfil their potential.

2007 must also be the year when Peter Grant lives up to his promise to give younger players a chance, Michael Spillane, Rossi Jarvis and Chris Martin are prime examples, on recent performances they can do no worse than their “illustrious seniors”.

If our great club is to go forward I consider it absolutely essential that we retain the services of Dion Dublin and Robert Earnshaw. Dion may be 37 but age is no barrier to class as he has already shown us and is proved by people like Teddy Sheringham and Gary Speed. Dion is a total professional and if you go to watch training at Colney, you will see exactly what I mean. His mere presence within the club rubs off on other people, particularly the younger players. I would certainly sign him up for at least another year and combine his playing duties, even if limited, assuming we get another “big man” in with that of reserve team manager/coach. Earnie is simply a goal scoring machine and without him I would fear for our immediate future. His ratio of goals scored to chances given is not the best but his ratio of goals scored to games played is second to none in our Division and better than many in the Premier League.

Despite the above, we all know money talks in football but if it were left to me I would reject any offer for Earnie under £8m. Such an amount would at least, give us a chance to buy a decent replacement and provide additional funds for further team strengthening.

I sincerely hope that no such offer does come in as I am sure most supporters like me would prefer him to stay and build a new team around him.

So as we look forward, after last year's trials and tribulations, I urge all City fans to put the past behind them and look positively to the future under Peter Grant. We all realise full well, that it takes time to get rid of the “dead wood” in order to build a new team capable of meeting our expectations. It might well take beyond the end of this season to achieve that objective.

On a personal note, on January 4 it will be 60 years since I saw my first game at Carrow and “got hooked”.

Many supporters will have been coming much longer than that while shareholders, directors, managers and players come and go we, the supporters are, and always will be, the life blood of this club through our loyal, constant and unselfish support. The future is bright, the future is yellow and green. Have a good year. Keep the faith.