Those expecting anything other than an afternoon of turgid football on New Year’s Day were always destined for disappointment.
Think about it. Selhurst Park; wet and windy; Tony Pulis; a quagmire.
If ever there were a recipe for ninety minutes of attrition surely that was it. And so it proved.
To be fair, for much of the first-half City made a half-decent fist of trying to play some football but the sucker punch on the stroke of half-time was the signal for a second period of ‘Pulis ball’.
Pretty it most certainly wasn’t and if part of Cameron Jerome’s knee wasn’t still embedded in Joe Hart’s eye socket we may been looking at a defeat. Luckily for Norwich it appears it’s still there and explains why when presented with the afternoon’s two best chances he missed.
So, an ordinary performance, but another point from a tricky away day that helped City limp to 20 points at the season’s half way stage.
Typically such a result merely served to entrench the positions of ‘inners’ and ‘outers’.
For those with beef, how on earth could we fail to beat a newly promoted side that has spent virtually all season in the drop zone and who we managed to beat at home only a few weeks ago? If City are to win away from home “these are the sides that just have to be beaten”.
But flip it 180 degrees and City ground out a point from a game that could so easily have slipped away, a la Fulham, and have now gone three away games without defeat. They are still on target to reach the much vaunted 40 point mark and with the transfer window now open Chris Hughton has an opportunity to strengthen and improve in areas he sees fit.
Regular readers of this site know on which side of the fence I sit and without wanting to mull it all over yet again, and accepting it’s a game of opinions, it is saddening when some who demand change do so via a mixture of four-letter name calling and borderline abuse.
Football is an emotive game of course – and for fans to disagree is completely normal – but there is nothing remotely healthy with the impasse at which we find ourselves.
Hughton announces his starting XI – he’s got it wrong. Hughton rests players for the Fulham game – he’s devaluing the FA Cup. Hughton targets a winger in transfer window – it should be a centre-back. Hughton makes a substitution – he should have done it sooner. Hughton sneezes – he needs to ‘man up’.
In truth I can see no scenario from which a lasting peace will break out. The die is cast for too many. The tipping point has already been reached.
All of which makes for a fairly miserable few months with there being little realistic chance of managerial change between now and the summer.
City win, the inners make hay. City lose, the outers find their voice again. And so the cycle continues. Doesn’t sound like much fun to me.
As compelling as some find the argument for managerial change I can’t help but think back to the Wolves scenario, with the similarities between their position three seasons ago and ours now a little too close for comfort.
Mick McCarthy – a manager for whom I *used* to have oodles of respect – was effectively given the ‘Hughton’ treatment culminating in him being hounded out of the job. His replacement, Terry Connor, did nothing but take them down to the Championship with barely a murmur of resistance.
The image of Wolves fans – wide-eyed and frothing with venom – castigating McCarthy as he made a Molineux substitution is my abiding memory of that time; presumably his crime being to swap the wrong player or make the change too late.
And to think we derided those from the Black Country for acting in such a spoilt, childish and unreasonable way. From where I’m sitting we have become the very thing we once despised.
Wolves of course have no divine right to play Premier League football – despite their supporters thinking otherwise – in the same way City’s place at the top table is not theirs by right . Far from it. And for it to ever become one of comfort is going to take one seismic shift in off-field infrastructure.
Whoever manages Norwich City will invariably find himself embroiled in a battle to keep us out of the bottom half; mid-table mediocrity regarded a success.
For Hughton to be on the receiving end of similar angst strikes me as a parallel of scary proportions. Both he and McCarthy are (were) likable characters who are generally courteous to those who question them, but who have found themselves strangled by expectation (just imagine if Glenn Roeder were to receive similar brickbats…)
But… regardless of my inane waffle, nothing is about to change any time soon. Perhaps I need to realign my own expectations and brace myself for a weekly battle, because that is where we are heading. A winter and spring of discontent.
Ultimately it will come down to a choice for the City board.
How bothered are Alan, David, Delia and co about discontent on the messageboards and social media? Does it make a difference to the business model if derision from the stands greets decisions from the technical area? Should they contract Ban Ki-moon to kick-start a peace process?
Whatever the answers – if indeed there are any – 2014 is destined to be a little fraught for the Yellow Army, with frayed nerves, chewed nails and petty arguments the norm rather than the exception.
I doubt if a FA Cup win over Fulham will serve to right too many of the wrongs, but it will be a start and will exorcise one or two Boxing Day demons. Also, if Ricky would care to chip in with a goal or two and kick-start his City career that would be good.
Happy New Year folks…
Thanks again Gary for your sensible insight into a desperate situation. In many ways I’d like to lose in the cup to ease any future fixture burden and allow us to concentrate on the league, but confidence would be harmed ant the “outers” would never let us hear the end of it.
Let’s just hope that we see something against Fulham that can start to bring the two sides of our fanbase together! OTBC
Need to brace ourselves for relegation. Guardian summed up Hughton’s Norwich perfectly yesterday – “ambitionless”. Board seem happy to bury their heads in the sand.
Yeah. Nailed it again, Gary. Thanks. Wondered why I was feeling gloomy :-). Spot on about Ricky at the end as well. Pretty please!
A great read as always Mr G, i can think back to an FA Cup game not so long ago when Mr Roeder was in charge Charlton at home in a replay i think and the venom of some of the fans now matches what was being thrown about then. Any lets say “real” fan knew this season was going to be just as hard if not harder than last season because of the turnover of staff on the pitch, it is going to take most of the season for the players to settle because this is first season the club have ventured abroad on such a scale. We know Mr Hughtons style, yes we don’t like much of it but if it gets us to the magical 40 points who cares because the club can grow further and he can start to allow the players to express themselves more. I expect a backlash for my comments but i truly believe that I’m right so sorry to all those fans who think I’m a numpty! Keep up the great work Mr G!!
After losing the likes of Snodgrass and pilkington to injury in the cup I would be far hapapier resting the few fit first team places and giving fringe/youth players a chance. RVW needs game time but outside of that an injury to anyone else would be tough to take.
I fear a roeder like conclusion to the season where we sack our manager and appoint a city legend who isn’t up to the job and takes us down. Realistically I don’t see it happening as the time for change has passed. If Hughton is goes it will only happen with relegation or survival determined before the end of the season .
For all the disagreements over Hughton what really needs sorting is booing during the match as that won’t help the team at all. Boo at end if you have to.
Wolves were going down with McCarthy or without – they were an awful team to watch and had just got thrashed by their local rivals. Wolves were not foolish in getting rid of their manager (who was playing terrible football, had lost the crowd and was getting extremely poor results) they were foolish in not having a better replacement lined up.
Claire…agreed. Outsiders can see a trend toward abject failure and downright boredom. Is PL survival all we look for now, is that what being a supporter is about. Perhaps we should tell all the kids to support Chelsea, manu, manc as at least they’ll be winning games. Support your local team and you will be happy with 17th and be thankful for it, just don’t expect entertainment as well. If we manage to avoid the drop by a few points this season, by what miraculous wizardry will it be different next season. The team is built in the
image of the manager and that won’t change.
If my end of year targets were just met i would be removed by now as my bosses expect tangible progress.
Finally is changing a manager so wrong? worst that can happen is we remain strugglers but we may improve. Keep the manager are we being blind in expecting a massive improvement??
Anyway no opinion is not valid and no one is a “numpty”. Everyone suggests good points of view and…we ALL care about NCFC.
Great piece.
We will win tomorrow with a swashbuckling performance that befits the FA cup, and from there we will rampage up the table as CH throws caution to the wind and starts every game with three strikers. Mark my words.
Agree with all of the article. If change were on the cards it should have happened by now so we have to unite behind what we have and cheer the team to safety. A cup run is a distraction (Lambert is right on that one) but while we are in it we have to make the best of it and give the fans something interesting to watch. RVW scoring would be a huge boast and a start for a Murphy (or 2) would make for an interesting watch. Better still perhaps we could experiment with playing RVW and Hooper together. I always think 2 goal scorers are more of a handful than one.
Interesting to compare Hughton with Roeder
Roeder managed a 13 match unbeaten run which kept us up in 2007-8.Hughton’s 10 match run kept us up last season.
Check the stats for Roeder’s 2008-9 ‘sacking season’
After 20 matches we had…..20 points, just before a win over Ipswich.
To prolong the discussion whether we would ‘Do a Wolves’ if we sacked CH, I recall one of the worst games I have ever watched, Birmingham 0:0 Wolves, when Hughton and McCarthy were in charge – neither of these managers are good enough for the Premier League IMHO. In fact, a lot of Wolves fans are/were adamant they simply sacked McCarthy too late as the rot had already set in earlier in the season. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16371501
For the sake of accuracy, at the half way point we were at 19pts and on target for 38pts.
I remember lots of ‘let’s judge ourselves after the next five games’ comments in late Nov. Well, those games have passed and the games we expected to pick up a good points haul from, we didn’t.
@11 to be fair to Hughton he was a league below wolves at the time, juggling European football and rested a number of first team players and then won the replay.
Dave B (12) – Fair point Dave; as an ex-accountant maths was never my strong suit 😉
But I stand by my comment that much of the angst is borne of unrealistic expectation. Football being of a cyclical nature for the majority means that for the majority ups will likely be outnumbered by the downs.
Doesn’t mean we should just accept it of course (why shouldn’t we aspire to be on a permanent ‘up’) but to demand year on year improvement when we’ve punched above our weight for some time is only going to end in disappointment.
At least that’s my opinion
Sorry Gary I do not agree. My view is that much of the angst is borne of the fact that the majority, based on results and performances, are now bracing themselves for relegation. Hence the depressing atmosphere at each game at Carrow Road.
I keep waiting for signs of improvement but regardless of what players are available we just seem to get worse. I guess that’s progress to some.
I believe the board are expecting us to finish 10th or better so I wonder if and when that target becomes, in all probability, unachievable, if they will sack Hughton? Clock’s ticking Dude! It is not just the ‘outers’ who believe Hughton is a disaster, more and more sports pundits in the media are commenting on the boring, negative football of Norwich City FC. Wonder also where the ‘inners’ will be if we are relegated? Despite a capacity crowd for every home game, they will probably blame the supporters for not getting behind Hughton.
Superb article. Depressing reading the comments though. Clearly too many have become complacent and have forgotten how far we’ve travelled in the last few years. Hughton is far from being a ‘disaster’. IMHO Lambert would have taken us down last season (lights the blue touchpaper and stands back). Hughton identified our weaknesses and made the improvements that gave us a league position way beyond reasonable expectations. The final league table rarely lies. Yes, it was touch and go at times but that is our lot in this footballing life. It will be touch and go every season we remain in the Premier league I’m afraid.
Whilst we are never regularly going to trouble the Top Ten (would love to be proved wrong) what you want to see is progression. That might not be in terms of league position but could be in terms of say improved finances or a player by player stronger squad. How can anyone honestly say that Hughton is a disaster on that basis? We have a far better squad than we had under Lambert and all done within budget.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to get to Carrow Road (and there are very many who can’t for many reasons) then SUPPORT the team throughout the match. Keep your moaning to the pub and do your booing on the internet.
OTBC
A long suffering Canary
One thing in all this I simply don’t understand – even if you’re an outer, why can’t you support the players and roar them on during a game as if you were an inner? Booing at half time or at a substitution, even if it’s aimed at the manager, is felt by the players. Expectation of some folk is absurd. Look at the championship and the number of teams who thought they were ‘established’ in the prem. The fact is 17th is success for the bottom 12 in the prem. 18th is disaster. Everyone thinks Roberto Martinez is a great manager, but he would have been hounded out by fans at Norwich if he repeated the feat of finishing about 17th year after year. Certainly our ‘supporters’ wouldn’t have given him enough time to go on and win the cup. I’m not an ‘inner’ by the way, I have huge doubts about Hughton – but I will always, always support my team.
You can’t compare our situation to that of Wolves, we have a Board who know what they are doing. If CH does have to go, and I think he should, they will have a replacement lined up already.
I’d get Malky in a heartbeat. And for those who say “but look at the way he played against us” I would say “look at the way Cardiff beat Man City”. They won because they had a go, something we never seem to do!
And, I’m sorry, but 17th place is not a success in my eyes, why can’t we aim a bit higher? Most agree we have a better squad than last year so why are we not pushing on? I’ll accept that some new players need time to adapt but that really only applies to Ricky. Hooper, Fer, Olsson and Redmond appear to have settled in OK. So, we either bought players that are not good enough or the Management Team is not using or setting them up properly. Either way, it’s time for change.
Congratulations SheffCanary (18) for the most accurate assessment I’ve read for a long time of City’s true status in football’s hierarchy.
Yes, Lambert might well have taken us down; yes, Hughton is very far from a disaster; yes, the squad is much stronger than before his arrival; and, yes, survival will be touch and go throughout the club’s life in the PL. IMO, the ‘fans’ who constantly undermine the players by booing do Norwich City a massive disservice.
18 & 19, terrific points. Would just like to add that this idea that some are proffering – ‘the management/board are happy with 17th’ – is surely nonsense? Just because some Guardian writer says we have no ambition doesn’t mean it’s true. Do people genuinely believe CH doesn’t want to do any better? He’d have to be a terrible masochist to put up with all the flack coming his way if he really is happy with no ambition.
I really don’t know if he’s got it in him to make us any better but to suggest his lack if success is almost deliberate is insane, and it’s that kind of baseless conjecture that can easily bring a club to its knees. Sometimes I wonder if people get more pride out of saying ‘I told you so’ than actually getting behind the team when it really counts.
There seems to be a fashionable view at the moment that at least the bottom ten clubs right now could get relegated and we are one of them.
While that is hard to deny, it is being used to justify Hughtons tenure and style of football. This is completely wrong. We’re in this situation because of him and the club cannot possibly go forward while he is still the manager. However, does the club want to go forward?
Discuss.