Hands up who still thinks this is the strongest Norwich City squad ever.
The most costly, yes. The most handsomely rewarded, yes. But the best? After witnessing the latest in a very long line of capitulations I’m sure I’m not alone in being unconvinced. I suspect Dave Stringer, Mike Walker and even Paul Lambert would also disagree.
And perhaps for all the perceived failings of Chris Hughton the most damning one is that having spent the best part of £27million, Neil Adams inherited a squad that actually isn’t very good.
There remain one or two gems and in Robert Snodgrass we possess at least one with the heart of a lion, but for said sum surely we should expect more than we’re currently being offered. And to think that last summer we were so brimming full of hope and optimism.
As it turned out, the value of last summer’s signings, while smashing all other records in these parts, was merely par for the Premier League course and, by the time the season began, it became clear that it was necessary to spend that much just to stand still. Except we haven’t stood still. We’ve gone backwards… and we’re now going downwards. And it hurts.
To be put forward as cannon fodder at the canonization of St Ryan was always going to be a challenge but to roll over in such limp fashion when the stakes were at their highest speaks volumes of the current crop.
In the game’s build-up, those gallant enough to acknowledge that United had opponents at yesterday’s celebration were trotting out the usual platitudes about Norwich ‘fighting for their lives’. They didn’t. Or at least it didn’t look like it.
In fairness, Neil Adams had formulated a plan and for forty minutes it worked quite well. But even the best made footballing plans make no allowance for defending that has it’s rightful place on a park pitch on a Sunday morning.
While Russell Martin can, just about, be absolved of any blame, the contributions of Messrs Turner and Fer in the lead up to Steven Whittaker bringing down Danny Welbeck were unacceptable – especially when you’re supposed to be ‘fighting for your lives’.
And anyone hoping to see a Liverpool-style second-half rally were to be disappointed as, bit by bit, the evening disintegrated. The time and space afforded Wayne Rooney before he curled his and United’s second past John Ruddy was again questionable; ditto the ease and comfort with which Juan Mata helped himself to a second half double.
Too easy, far too easy.
Again it was left to the magnificent travelling yellow army to take the honours. Their belief and faith in those in yellow has been constant and unswerving amidst some very dark days, but even the most loyal foot soldier must now be questioning City’s chances of survival.
I’ve spent the last few weeks (months even) clutching at straws and conjuring up scenarios from which City can cobble together enough points for 17th place. I even convinced myself at times, but things are now looking very bleak.
With a record that reads five straight defeats, and seven consecutive defeats on the road, it takes some optimist to predict anything other than relegation. What was once a five point buffer to the drop zone is now down to one and if either Sunderland or Cardiff emerge victorious in this afternoon’s six-pointer we’ll no longer be on the cusp of the brown stuff. We have been marooned on 32 points since 22 March.
All signs lead to the Championship.
It seems a little late in the day to dissect the wrongs of yesterday’s performance and in truth I wouldn’t know where to start, but it almost goes without saying that the quality of the passing was again poor. Of many areas that need addressing in the summer, regardless of our status, the one that needs most attention is the inability to successfully shift the ball from A to B with tempo.
As things stand, the ball is either shifted so slowly it inflicts no damage whatsoever on opposing teams or, in trying to increase the tempo, it’s given away. Very little in between.
In truth it probably boils down to a lack of quality – at least when performing at the very highest level – which brings us back to how wisely, in hindsight, the £27million was spent.
Few of us questioned the acquisitions of last summer at the time; indeed there was a swell of opinion, even in the national media, that Norwich had done ‘good business’. Again, hindsight.
In reality, only Martin Olsson, of the ‘magnificent seven’, has delivered in the way we had hoped. Ricky, him of the £8.5million price tag, is clearly going to be in the mix for Premier League flop of the season, but he’s not alone. Few have covered themselves in glory.
And again we return to Hughton’s legacy being a squad that is not as good as its billing. We are where we are because after 36 games we haven’t been good enough and we now have the aura of a team that’s living on borrowed time.
But what really hurts is that we look to be going down without a whimper. We’re all willing the guns to be blazing but it’s not happening. For all the technical failings we expect to see passion but – Snodgrass aside – there was precious little on show in yesterday’s second half.
If the second Old Trafford debacle of the season is anything to go by, next Sunday’s live Sky date at ‘the Bridge’ is not one to look forward to. And by the time we play Arsenal, even if the guns are blazing it may well be too late.
For some weeks, we have looked at our last four games and thought the final one at home to Arsenal the most likely to yield salvation, but I fear you may be right about it being too late by then. If Arsenal are needing the points still, it could degenerate into a fitting end to our pile of poop season. If we can’t get at least a draw at Stamford Bridge, we’re doooomed!
Hard to disagree with the ‘pile of poop’ analogy Steve! Dark days mate
Thanks Gary, the only positive I can take from this season is we can thrash Ipswich home and away next season, now that we know for sure they won’t be taking our place at top table!
OTBC
It’s like watching someone drowning in quicksand – the more they struggle, the further they sink. So many issues from yesterday but one has to be Adams’ selection – he’s got off scot-free so far from the former Hughton-bashers but a lone Ricky up against Ferdinand and Vidic? Their pace may be shot but their experience was always going to win that match-up. The favoured back 4? Not convinced. I’m presuming Wes is injured? If not, that omission was considered sacrilegious 2-3 weeks ago. He’s tried shuffling the pack but has been dealt a worn and tattered pack of jokers(?).
With Sunderland on their uppers as we speak and a former Ipswich-man doing the damage for them just to rub in the salt, the trapdoor is open and we’ve grabbed relegation from mid-table security of just 5-6 weeks ago..bring on the Brentford!
Gary I agree entirely about the lack of passion and have said so elsewhere on this site. The lack of enthusiasm yesterday was damning. No heart for the fight at all and that is unforgivable. I feel sorry for Adams but he was always the wrong choice, team choices suspect, a performance yesterday as bad as anything under CH and no experience under his belt to fall back on. The last time we made a similar appointment we got relegated, same this time I’m afraid. Sad times.
Another failing that became obvious with hindsight was our total neglect in recruiting quality coaches. You can just about get away with a Championship standard manager in the Premier League as long as he is surrounded by a really good back up staff. Everyone one else seems to have a squadron of old heads behind the dugout – experts in all phases of play. We had a League One set up at best. Whatever money was spent on players in the summer, we really should have invested in a tactition. Maybe used Adams earlier. Brought Hucks in. Paid money for advice from people like Hoddle or Wilkins. Whilst not exonerating the players in any way for a series of appalling displays, they have almost all to a man gone backwards in terms of technical skill, and that eats away at confidence, belief and application. I suspect Colney has been a holiday camp over the past twenty months or so. Nobody has been stretched to improve themselves or to try out new ideas – and it shows on match day.
This was a performance straight out of the Hughton playbook and Adams must take some share of the blame. Let’s be honest (now that we are all but relegated) RVW looks completely out of his depth and has done for most of the season. Why was he selected? We offered no attacking threat and after the second goal went in we rolled over and had our tummies tickled.
Watching Norwich since the beginning of last year has been like witnessing a car crash in extreme slow motion. Everyone can see that something bad is going to happen, but for whatever reason nobody can stop it. The last roll of the dice was to appoint a popular figure at the club as manager, and as Boot (5) has already pointed out, that did not work out too well last time!
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but CH should’ve been gone at Christmas. This mess was easy to see developing. My mate still says CH should have gone after Luton FA Cup debacle. I didn’t attend yesterday. Sat and cringed in front of TV. I will be at Chelsea and Arsenal. My passion remains. Do any of the squad have the same?
To battle those relegation blues over the summer before the Brazilian samba begins to swing, can I recommend Andrea Pirlo’s new biography? Possibly the most entertaining read since Frank Worthington’s classic ‘One Hump or Two’. Need something to take my mind off the horror shows of late.
Feel sorry for Adams as you can’t polish a t**d! Half the players yesterday looked disinterested or confused. Some such as dogsdonkle and fer both and those two should never play for us again. The rebuilding in the championship will be massive and we will need someone as a leader in the Holt mould
Yesterday was very disappointing. At the start of the week I believed we’d win and be near safety today. Even up to half time I thought we had a chance. It’s now difficult to see a path to safety. We had our new manager bounce, but it’s difficult to bounce a load of cr*p. We did well for two and a half games, but alas it was not enough.
The summer is going to be make or break for Norwich. We must be working on securing a good manager now. It’s imperative there’s no indecision about who’s leading Norwich out come August and who will be shaping that team in the coming months.
We then need to pick who we want to fight to keep from being poached (Ruddy, Snodgrass, Olsson) who we can sell to keep down wages and recoup some lost money (RVW, Fer, Elmander, Bassong, perhaps Redmond and Hooper) and who has enough fight to build a Championship winning side around.
I think everyone knew it has been bad for a long time and now we are seeing and feeling the reality of it. A few hearty home performances covered the cracks but its been getting more and more disastrous over the last season. Players, managers and board members not good enough to sustain us this season. Its a shame but i guess we go back the seven year plan that included relegation and hope we find some players with talent and more importantly the cahunas for a championship promotion fights. OTBC..we’ll be back
We were never going to win at OT after Moyes’ sacking and it’s not as if Man Utd are an appalling team – in fact they are still the champions and quite capable of beating anyone if they put their minds to it. When you go down at OT it’s hard to get back in the game. The hype that surrounds their supposed ‘decline’ is nonsense.
This season was lost long ago, with pathetic defeats to Cardiff, WBA, West Ham, draws against Stoke and Cardiff (H) and gutless losses to Fulham and Villa at home. That’s 21 – 21! points we could have quite easily secured if we’d had any tactics that allowed us to attack with any sense of what our forwards are capable of. Anyone udging our season on defeats away to one of the biggest clubs in the world is equally pathetic.
Chris Hughton bought ‘big’ players with no idea how to play them and he messed up by not surrounding them with equally talented players. Our defence has been embarrassing all season (god love Russ M but he’s not a premier league defender) and our midfield seriously lacked options, despite the numbers. Hooper and RVW must be wondering why they bothered. I’ve watched almost every game this season and the service to them has not even been bad, it’s been non existent. And crosses don’t count, before you argue.
We laud Snodgrass and Johnson for their ‘fight’ but frankly their contribution to others has been minimal – they make their own luck but haven’t really been any good at bringing others into play – and I say that despite admiring Snodgrass for his tenacity and bite and no little skill – but we have watched so many individuals look like they have no idea what their team mates are doing.
We may have had great expectations but many experts predicted we’d go down. Now I understand why.
One more thing: there is much talk of a ‘lack of passion’ yesterday but our squad is not so hard bitten and successful that it couldn’t have been affected by a) endless talk of relegation b) the enormous worldwide hype that wanted Giggs to be a success c) 68,000 people in the stadium desperate for that success – and how often have our players played in front of that size crowd and d) that goal that killed off our 40 mins of fight?
These are human beings, not machines (as much as we like to think the money they earn makes them some kind of success driven automaton) and it’s no surprise that they are out of ideas now they’re playing such big teams in the last few games. After all, that’s what we all told them they’d be like, months ago. Didn’t we?
Can’t argue with anything you have written Gary we have been looking likely to be relegated for months with only odd win to give us hope luckily I am away for last game as it will be more like a wake hope they don’t bother having lap off honour as it will be a farce roll on next season fresh start for everyone otbc
Was embarrassing to see the ease
With which those two OAP´s,
Vidic and Rio
Shackled our trio
Of strikers, just as they pleased
Shocking, with so much at stake
For us, and for their own sake,
They couldn´t show more
I fear what we saw
Was a preview to the coming wake.
At the moment we don’t deserve anything other than to be relegated. To deserve anything more, we will need two much more passionate, resolute and skillful performances in the last two games. The odds on this happening are not good. At this stage, I am almost viewing it as a good thing, at least trying to persuade myself. We clearly need some squad rebuilding, and personally I think we would benefit from bringing some of the U-21s through into the first time – maybe at least they will bring the passion and commitment?
I also thought Adam’s tactics against Man U were a bit off. Surprised not to see Elliot Bennett in the squad – he was rearing to go – and also that Pilkington has not featured in a squad. Also that Tettey has not started in one of his three matches. But I agree with your comments on passing, our midfield has been way below par all season, except for the three games Tettey, Howson and Fer played together.
And certainly there is no excuse by Hughton or the Board for not improving our coaching team earlier this season. Hughton obviously needed help, and decent man though he is, I really do think this was his single biggest mistake, not acknowledging that he needed new ideas in his team.
So big question now, if we do go down, what happens to the managerial position? Should Adams be given a chance in the Championship, with maybe someone like Hucks also playing more of a role, or do we simply need more and better experience at this point? And if the latter, would be attract better than a Hughton type manager if we are indeed in the Championship?
Re 17 (Michael D)
I couldn’t face another season of Hughton style negativity.If there is a reward from relegation its got to be the chance to rebuild from youth upwards.I would hate to see us lose the services of players such as the Murphys,McGeechan,Mcfadyen,Rudd,Morris and others but I fear it may happen if we get the wrong person at the helm.
OK Delia may have the casting vote on managerial appointments,but someone with football nous and the overall picture of the Club must have major input. This is where I feel Adams could have a leading role to play but I feel he is not quite ready to step up to the managerial plate yet.
Maybe as asst.to a kickass manager like Lennon or Mackay would be the way to go.
George(16) – nice rhyming Sir. Whoever said there’s no room in football debate for the iambic pentameter? Wasn’t it Roy Keane?
Disastrous and so avoidable situation we are in aside, the comments here did make me laugh: pile of poop, you can’t polish a t**d, it’s difficult to bounce a load of cr*p. No guessing what sort of season we all feel it’s been …