The international break – don’t we all just love it? And on top of our horrendous injury list, Jamal Lewis didn’t travel while Kenny McLean and Todd Cantwell were sent home before they could kick a ball in anger. Surely this is unprecedented – nine players out and three more who will need the kid-glove […]
Your favourite City manager? Mr Grumpy? Mr Mousehold? Mr Unmentionable?
During the previous international break, MFW asked our readers for their suggestions regarding “who is your favourite Norwich City player of all time – and why”. We got some cracking responses from all concerned, including one from the great man himself, Darren Huckerby. This time around we want to know who your favourite City manager […]
Cold semolina… Singapore noodles… herds of wildebeest… and a Carrow Road hiding
Anybody of a certain vintage [I was born in 1957] will remember the original concept of school dinners. The inevitable piece of grey meat covered in bright orange breadcrumbs. Dessert [I hate to disparage a word] almost always consisted of a bowl of semolina with a teaspoon of strawberry jam in it. We’d all eat […]
VILLA PREVIEW: Spending shedloads… JPA… hitting the ground running… and HRH
It’s the Villa up tomorrow and one we’re surely all looking forward to. I know I am. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have been there when we clinched the Championship title but I know many of you were Of course, that will count for nothing tomorrow – as Villa manager Dean Smith says, although we […]
So, how have the summer signings fared so far? Early days but Martin P takes a look
Us MFW folks thought this might be a good time to evaluate our summer signings and I drew the short straw… To kick things off, Ibrahim Amadou and Sam Byram became Heroes, even just for one day. Any Bowie fans [I’m one too] can wait until the end of this article for a link* – I bet most of […]
More injury woe for the Canaries as the 16-year Selhurst Park famine continues
Well that was all a bit too predictable really, wasn’t it? Off we go to the graveyard of our ambition aka Selhurst Park and the inevitable happens. Anybody surprised? No, I thought not. But surely we must have expected it. Gary G mentioned our ever-increasing injury list yesterday so I won’t repeat it here except […]
Crashing and burning in the north-west… Webber’s contract… and a prickly Zaha
A week is a long time in politics said Labour PM Harold Wilson famously in the late 1960s. And it is a bloody long time in Premier League football as well. Most of the football nation outside 95 per cent of Suffolk have been in love with us since we triumphed over Manchester City. We […]
Aguero? De Bruyne? Silva? No, We’ll stick with Pukki, McLean, and Buendia, cheers
Sometimes you just run out of superlatives, but I’ll do my best. Things do not get better than that. Eight players out, two keepers on our bench and we still notched a thoroughly deserved win. Blue Moon? I never heard it on Saturday. That has to be one of the evenings of our lives, it really does. […]
MAN CITY PREVIEW: Bravado aplenty from the Citizens, sadly with very good reason
Would you ever consider marrying an Ipswich Town supporter? Possibly, I suppose. But luckily for us, Mrs P and I are both City through and through so that issue has never concerned us. So spare a thought for Sean and Debbie Tilsley, who live a few doors away from us in the city. Sean is […]
Peters? Keelan? Forbes? Bowen? Hucks? Who is your greatest Canary of all time?
A couple of weeks ago one of our commenters, Cyprus Canary, suggested that Martin Peters was arguably the greatest player he had ever witnessed wearing yellow and green. So, most appropriately as Man City are up next for us at the Carra, let’s follow up Cyprus’ comment in the spirit of the constantly arguing Gallagher brothers, Noel and […]
It wasn’t defeat at West Ham that rang the alarm bells, it was the manner of the defeat
I guess it has happened to all of us in one form or another. You buy a new shirt, clean your shoes, have a longer shower than usual and for once in your life look in a full-length mirror. You then spray on slightly too much Aramis or whatever and decide tonight is the night […]
No disgrace in City coming up just short against the Europa League Champions
So we came up short by the depth of the Barclay crossbar against the Europa League champions where despite a transfer restriction of sorts they still have well, erm, quite a few handsomely-remunerated young gentlemen in their squad. And we gave them a bl00dy good run for their money, we really did. We struggled at […]
Thunder and lightning on a glorious Carrow Road afternoon when the planets aligned
Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening. Donner und Blitzen – and I’m not talking about Rudolph’s mates in Santa’s once a year all-star reindeer display team. Or in the words of Daniel Farke: ‘In the first half we [were] like a thunderstorm. We created so much lightning.’ And how true. Possibly the best 45 minutes of […]
A clear philosophy on the pitch, played some very entertaining stuff, even in a 1-4
Well I’m not getting my Calvin Klein’s in a twist after the 4-1 reversal at Anfield. For starters, we were missing two key centre backs as in Christoph Zimmermann and Timm Klose. Already some people are leaping on Grant Hanley’s back, but he was (not arguably but factually) our only available centre back on Friday […]
Four days and counting, and then City’s Premier League adventure begins…
That was an impressive way to end the phoney war, as our very own Connor Southwell described it yesterday. Sure, les Violets should have been put to the sword more clinically than they were but it’s no bad thing to go into a Premier League season with a win under our collective belt. So, what clues […]
Just two trips to Carrow Road to mix with our European friends, then it gets serious
Well, if Carlsberg made friendlies… we couldn’t have asked for much more. No injuries. I repeat no injuries. And there was also the small matter of a 5-1 win against a side who strolled to a well-deserved promotion last season against the odds. Does that remind you of another team we all know well? Apart […]
German tour over and now it starts to get real, with the Bees and Hatters up next
Well, the half-time whistle has blown and it’s time for a (very) brief period of consideration. Our pre-season tour of Germany is over, but the action will resume on home turf very soon. Was our Westphalian excursion successful? Yes, I would say so and for several reasons. In the simplest of terms, we return to […]
Chase out… the Battle of Naseby… pigs bladders… and the 16:45 to Liverpool Street
During this off-season, we’ve experienced many ups, as in sensible, cost-effective recruiting, the impending departure of Nelson Oliveira and the announcement of very appealing home friendlies against Atalanta and Toulouse. A temporary, short-lived down was relieved by the discovery that Ben Godfrey’s ankle injury is not as bad as first thought and Adam Idah, Patrick […]
NCFC vs ITFC: Divergent paths (for now) and two *very* different models of ownership
A dozen doors away from me in the city there dwells an Ipswich supporter. I have had many conversations with him over the years but I can truly say I do not know his name and he probably doesn’t know mine. That’s urban life for you I guess, but he’s a really nice bloke and […]
New kit… top German keeper… new, quality Under-23s… classic vid… what’s not to like
It was quite a week for all us Norwich City folk. A clutch of new arrivals, including what to me looks like the release of the best kit I’ve seen since the classic Asics one from the late 1980s. Players must be at the forefront of consideration of course. In comes what appears to be a Webber/Farke […]