LEON Barnett has joined  City on a five-month loan deal.  The defender's spell  will expire on January 4 - the day after we visit Middlesbrough. The deal is a standard loan meaning  there is no recall clause allowing Albion to ask for the player to return before January 4th.  One good thing to come out of this situation is that Barnett and Elliot Ward have played along side each while Barnett was on loan at Coventry, so they won't be total strangers.

Welcome to Norfolk Leon and we wish a speedy recovery for Michael Nelson, who has been already outstanding this season.

We read that City old boy Jamie Cureton has signed a permanent deal with League One outfit Exeter.  Good luck to both club and player.

Sky Sports believes Paul Lambert is close to sealing a deal to bring WBA Defender Leon Barnett to Carrow Road on loan, Lambert is thought to be taking this route after the injury to Michael Nelson on Saturday. Nelson is thought to be sidelined for several weeks.

Lambert is quoted as saying:

He (Nelson) is going to be out for a few weeks," said Lambert. "He will be out for quite a long time.

"We will try and get somebody in and hopefully Michael will be back sooner or later.

"I can't buy anybody so we will need to get somebody on loan - we have only really had Fraser (Forster) so this one will be a loan if it comes off."

So much travelled City old boy Craig Bellamy has signed for another club today, signing on loan for Cardiff City on a season long deal. While it may look like a bit of a coup for the welsh side,  Scottish club Motherwell do not share in the joy anybody has for this transfer; Motherwell  have threatened to issue a winding-up order on Cardiff City as they still owe the SPL side money for the transfer of Paul Quinn. The Fir Park club are still owed £175,000 of the £300,000 fee for the defender, who moved south in June 2009.
Cardiff, who were paying the fee for Quinn in instalments, missed a payment in January and to date have not sent any further cash to Motherwell, with the Welsh side previously battling a £1.9 million amount owed to HM Revenue and Customs.
Having settled that bill in June, the Bluebirds are yet to forward any further money to Motherwell but found the cash to take on board some of Bellamy’s reported £95,000 a week wage packet. To say Motherwell aren't that happy about the situation is an understatement; speaking on their official web site chief executive, Leeann Dempster, outlined Motherwell's position.

,  “It is critical that clubs work constructively with each other to ensure we can manage a very difficult financial climate for the game," the statement read. "We have given Cardiff every chance to do the right thing." and “Given all these circumstances and with legal and moral weight behind us, Motherwell FC have no option but to immediately pursue all legal routes to ensure this significant sum paid to us as quickly as possible."

Perhaps it is a bit easier to undstand Motherwell's stance still owed a fair bit of money they stand and watch while cardiff add not only Bellamy but Jason Koumas, Tom Heaton, Danny Drinkwater, Seyi Olofinjana, Martin John as well.

In a previous item I was rather scathing about Darel Russell’s second departure from Norwich.

I withdraw those remarks and apologise to Rusty.

I suspected that there may have been opposing views over the terms of a contract offer but allowed myself to be influenced on what Rusty was reported to have said about Preston playing with a better approach to the game than Norwich City.

For a man who must consider his future, Rusty had to weigh up the options. Unfortunately for him, by the time he had done so, the Norwich City offer was gone.

Under the circumstances, I wish him every success and hope he doesn’t look me out and boot a ball in my face...

Ours not to reason why, and all that, but it was noticeable that Korey Smith was absent from the Watford game.

Korey may be young and untried at this level, but he has the benefit of last season and his ball distribution brought Wes Hoolihan into play a considerable amount of time more than he was when at home to Watford last week.

Korey Smith also ran about the pitch as though he is out to claim the title of “Three Lungs” from now Academy coach, but one-time midfield regular, Gary Holt.

The lad closed players down by getting in their faces, not standing yards away and playing like he is a space invader from the old computer game.

For a youngster, Korey Smith shows a maturity on the field, and is not afraid to go shoulder to shoulder with the bully-boy tactics employed to put him off his game.

  City's Carling Cup game away at Blackburn Rovers will take place on Tuesday, August 24.

 Grant Holt  didn't turn up for the magistrates hearing at at Market Drayton Court today, the magistrate therefore found Holty guilty of a motoring offence committed as he signed for City. 

Did Holty place more importance on playing for his club than rushing up and down the Country for magistrates who wouldn't simply change the day of a hearing into the matter, if so he is going to be a bigger legend than I thought.  Kudos

...Don’t turn around ‘cos you’re not welcome any more.

So goes the words from that Gloria Gaynor number, “I will survive”.

Darel Russell has walked away from Norwich City twice in his career.

The first time was allegedly due to a falling out with Nigel Worthington over disciplinary matters. Although, collecting an injury at about the time he refused a contract, the Club did continue to pay him until he could legally walk away to Stoke City in the end.

The latest saga saw his head turned again by some unknown lure, but money is usually the draw. During the last season he was the engine room in our push to get back to the Championship at the first attempt.

It looked, to all intents and purposes, as though he would be a prime mover for the coming season, but he refused a new contract.

It would be understandable if he went to Preston North End because they offered a three year contract as opposed to a two year deal or less. But no...

Russell is reported to have said: “"It was a no-brainer decision from a footballing point of view.

"It looks like a club that are trying to play in the right way which is a big thing, and they have the right mentality of trying to bring the young lads through and progress that way."

That gives the impression that Russell had a fall out with Lambert. Over who should play? Is the lunatic trying to dictate terms to the asylum superintendant?

As for “the right way”, it is hard to understand what was wrong with a team that refused to accept defeat and steal a victory just as the early leavers were starting their cars in the car park.

One good thing to come out of this, last time Russell ran off, we got promoted to the Premier League very soon after. And how ironic for Russell that, after dumping Stoke City to come back to Carrow Road, they went up. It would seem that Russell is his own destruct button.

He could have chosen to go without firing a parting shout about the “footballing point of view” and “playing the right way”.

Russell was a popular figure here at Carrow Road, but has he said too much and eroded the welcome he would have received?

From where I sit he has...