I don’t do Canary Call. And despite building that #ncfc Twitter feed into MyFootballWriter way back in December, 2008, I tend to avoid Twitter in the hour or so after any game in which Norwich hasn’t crushed yet another Premier League rival underfoot.
By a four-goal margin. Playing the kind of open, expansive football that only a Real Madrid can aspire to.
Because, by and large, there is always someone who isn’t happy.
And – so I’m told – there were plenty after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Fulham. There were – I’m led to believe – those that were calling for the dismissal of Chris Hughton. Enough, apparently was enough. He had to go.
OK. I think there is a big point here that people tend to miss. Or a bigger picture that in
the heat of the post-match moment, tends to be forgotten.
At the end of this season, a new Premier League TV deal kicks in. One that, when combined with mobile video clip and foreign TV rights, dwarfs anything that has gone before.
If you thought that Norwich had been playing in the land of milk and honey of late, next year it is double cream and Queen Bee jelly. It is a near-bottom-less trough of TV and Internet cash being sluiced in this direction.
If, of course, City don’t throw away their five-point advantage in the course of the next three months and find themselves dumped in the Championship.
Personally, I think there are too many teams cluttered beneath Norwich for that to happen; teams with more to worry about form-wise. As ever it is glass half-full or half-empty time, but it is now three games unbeaten. Which is no mean feat at this moment of the season.
The point, however, is that given the prize that lies at the end of the rainbow, you just get there. However you can. Dig in and throw nine behind the ball for the remainder of the season and get to 40 points, one point at a time, and suddenly your world changes completely.
So, the trick is to keep one eye on the big prize; like the really big prize.
But the other point about the Premier League is the constrictions placed upon a manager in terms of what, exactly, he can do mid-season in terms of shaking a squad up.
That chance has been and gone now with the closure of the January transfer window.
If you’re QPR, you give ol’ H millions to throw at the problem; and you lose… Or ‘merely’ draw against Norwich.
But otherwise, if you stick with the manager through the transfer window then if you change boss now, he has no opportunity to work with anything new. He could loan an ’emergency’ keeper, but that is as far as it gets.
He will be left to play with the same cards that Hughton currently holds in his hands. Minus the kid from Spurs, who proved more a three of clubs than a queen of spades.
And there is nothing that I’ve seen from City’s performances of late to suggest that the current squad of players are not digging in for their manager; putting in big shifts.
You know when a dressing room goes bad; it stinks.
This one doesn’t. And what is even more telling is the fact that Hughton hasn’t steered away from the ‘leaders’ that Lambert placed his faith in – Grant Holt (back and hamstrings permitting), and then Russell Martin.
Nothing has changed on that score.
All that has is the stakes – they have never been higher.
Which is probably why every manager in the bottom half of this division – at this moment in time – will take a point every weekend.
It was the Lambert mantra; if you can’t win a game, make damn sure you don’t lose it. That way you still get one point. And one point can make all the difference.
Is Hughton unduly negative? No; he might be more cautious – but then he has every reason to be. And arguably until now he didn’t have the right tools to do the 4-4-2 job.
In the little that anyone has seen of him, Mr Kamara does not look like a ‘negative’ player; he looks full of positives – on and off the field.
Is it likely to get any prettier over the course of the next two or three months? Probably not.
Hughton banked his big points in the autumn with huge and unexpected home wins that will, eventually, go down in folklore. Digs out a couple more and Norwich will be home and dry.
And up to their necks in Premier League cash – mission firmly accomplished.
Spot on Mr Waghorn, City might not be winning the battles right now but us fans must remember winning the war is the most important thing. NCFC is evolving under new stewardship and i’m confident if we the fans are patient (and don’t drive Hughton out with our torches & pitchforks) next season we will see a much more positive & attacking City with added gems!!
I would like to think you are right Rick, but our struggle to score goals and dominate games makes me think that we are still in quite a bit of trouble. Fulham at home was a game we had to target a win from. The next two games may very possibly give us nothing, and by the time Southampton visit, the situation may not look as rosy as you suggest.
I don’t think there are any meaningful comparisons with Lambert; he was much more attacking minded and would often look to win games in the last ten minutes.
You condemn the fans’ emotional responses after the game, but the truth is we are awful to watch at the moment and some fans (myself included) will start to wonder if the pursuit of the Holy Grail of premiership survival is worth selling your soul to the devil for.
I think you are totally right here, Rick, but fans are having trouble absorbing this on a game by game basis, especially when like Fulham a game we could and should have won, we don’t seem to be fully up for it.
It is clear that Hughton’s project is incomplete, and this I think is also the point that people are missing. We were far too open last year. I used to hate watching the end of a game where we were trying to protect a one goal lead, since we never seemed to be able to close up shop competently. Now we can, and it is a vast improvement on the nerves.
It still means we retain a problem at the other end, but Hughton knows this, and he is starting to work on this with his Jan signings. It will take time. Our midfield is a work in progress too, and we don’t have sufficient capacity yet for incisive passing. But if the defense stays solid, I am sure we will see gradual improvements here. Like everyone, I’d be very relieved to see a couple of ones, but otherwise I also see this as a season where we just want to get over the line – and not on the last day.
Looking longer term the shed loads of Premiership cash may actually weaken our position on the field while strengthening it as a business. If the board remains as conservative with the new riches as they have to date we could well find ourselves with less funds (as a percentage) made available to the manager than many of our “Lower Premier” League rivals and then it won’t matter how good a manager Chris Hughton is, we will quickly become the new Wigan.
The Canary Call rants were heartfelt on Saturday, yet somehow continued to avoid the real “elephant in the room” – the fact that Norfolk has, for whatever reason, failed to take Chris Hughton to it’s heart. Nice guy? Undoubtedly. But somehow he just hasn’t reached out to convince City Supporters that he’s here for the long haul.
Spot on Rick, I have been a season ticket holder for over 20 years and there is absolutely no way I want to see Championship football next year.Premiership survival is our number one priority whatever it takes. We can then build in the summer.
If Premier survival is so vital why did City not move heaven and earth to get a marquee striker in the window ? The ‘all the eggs in one basket’ pursuit of Hooper was foolish when it was clear Celtic weren’t going to crumble…
City have taken a massive gamble that somehow this collection of goal scorers will drag us over the line
When Lambert Jelavic,Michu,Le Fondre,Benteke and Lukaku turn up at Carrw Road in the remaining home games I hope City have enough firepower to match…somehow I doubt it
I am a season ticket holder who lives near Liverpool and make the long trip to home games. I do agree with Rick to a point but after sat I wondered why I keep making the effort spending £80-£100 per match round trip travel to watch luton then newcastle then fulham and witness such poor attacking footbal and no goals again!. We want to stay in premiership but I also want us to have a go especially against teams like fulham. And it does irritate constantly hearing hughton say how good the opposition team is after we get a draw.. Both Newcastle and fulham were on very poor away form .. We should have gone for the jugular… Yeah don’t lose .If we can’t win . But where are these elusive wins going to come from?? We seem to play too not lose rather than win… We Norwich fans are realistic in our lot and our financial and squad limitations . But we wanna see teams come here and get a bloody nose and know they been in a tough scrap … a point is Ok .. Just make the opposition fight for it hard!!