What follows is pretty much an open question. I don’t have an answer.
Hence why I’m throwing it open to the floor.
Because of the six teams that sit above Norwich City in the Championship table – Bournemouth, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Derby, Watford and Brentford – none have graced the English Premier League of late.
Why is that?
I haven’t done the full search, but I can’t imagine either Bournemouth or Brentford have ever been in the top flight of English football.
Watford have been down for a good number of years; ditto Ipswich, Derby and Middlesbrough.
And yet all are better placed than Norwich. Or, indeed, Fulham. Or Cardiff. Or Blackburn. Or Bolton. Or Blackpool.
Why? I don’t believe in that level of coincidence.
And yet listen to various folk after this weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Reading – add to the list above – and the Canaries position in the table remains somewhere between disappointing and disgraceful. Four out of ten, to quote one.
We should be walking this league, is the general consensus.
‘We’re just down from the Premier League…’ is cited as a plus, not a minus. Whereas if ‘the table doesn’t lie’, then the reverse is true.
Indeed if you look at that table in the light of the above, Norwich are the best performing of the recently relegated Premier League teams.
In fact, they are bucking a trend. Because if you were to average out the positions of their relegated fellows, City would probably come out 11-12th.
To my mind, there must be something that binds all these teams together in terms of their near-universal ‘under achievement’ in their first years back.
And, by the same token, there must be a reason why the six clubs currently above them in the Championship pile are that much closer to the ‘Promised Land’.
Six clubs without a bean in terms of Premier League parachute payments.
Or if they ever had them, that cushion has long since gone. And was never to the same scale that Norwich have enjoyed.
So, six of the ‘poorest’ clubs in the Championship sit above a dozen of the ‘richer’. Certainly if you built a table around wage out-goings, you wouldn’t have Bournemouth and Brentford in the promotion and play-off positions.
The argument against Norwich is that they are seventh due to an inexperienced manager whose squad is under-performing given the ‘obvious’ talent that sits in that dressing room.
And yet there are vastly more experienced managers than Adams sitting in lowlier positions.
So that argument doesn’t explain why six clubs with no recent ‘benefit’ of Premier League football should be perched above all the clubs that have.
Which leads me back to the first question – why?
For me, I think the answer lies in the corrosive power of money.
Whoever the manager is.
The six clubs that lie above Norwich, and the rest of those clubs who have grown fat and soft on Premier League riches, have one common quality – a hunger to do well.
The same hunger to get on and get up that Norwich themselves had in spades under Paul Lambert – a hunger that was personified in the figure of Grant Holt.
He was on a journey. From non-league to Premier League. And it drove both player and club on.
Look around and who has that now? Not just at Norwich. But across the board with the ex-Premier League sides.
From a distance, Ipswich are driving on through young and hungry kids; let off the leash and given their chance in the absence of a Jimmy Bullard, Town’s biggest challenge will be next month’s transfer window. Can they keep Master Mings at home?
But the lad cares about his home town club. More than a Bullard, one suspects.
And this would be my feeling closer to home. If a decent offer comes in, let a player walk. People are getting out of this division on the back of players wanting it more than others.
Those that have had it wages-wise rarely offer the same edge as those that haven’t.
And it’s around those players – almost irrespective of age and experience – that you forge a promotion-winning team. The ‘poor’ relations.
To be seventh at the turn of the year with a squad full of players who have tasted Premier League riches remains no mean feat.
what rubbish mr waghorn i guess your invitation to carrow road is under threat, this squad is the best in the league and mr adams was given the best budget in the league, not even in the play offs at the turn of the year is a disgrace iam not bothered about what cardiff and fulham are doing we shoukd be doing better but thats what happens when u appoint a novice.
Adams keeps suggesting that “City came up short again” but never seems to accept that it is anything to do with him or suggest what he is going to do about it!
Last season (according to many) we were relegated because a lack of money. This season we won’t get promoted because we have too much?
I wonder what the right amount is.
Good article, the post relegation hangover does seem a common occurrence. Lets not forget the teams that carry on falling through the divisions. For me a team usually gets relegated because they are a poor team. Good players play well week in week out, average/poor players flatter to deceive. We have some good players, we also have a lot of players who are good on their day, unfortunately they outnumber the former. Consistency is required for any type of challenge in any league. How much of this is down to the management is something that I have no answer for. The bulk of our playing squad got us relegated – man management or are they not as good as we think?
I AGREE when Lambert was in charge he looked for players
with hunger to prove how good they were players from lower leagues wanting that chance ok he msy have been lucky how it worked out . Why can ‘t some off our players do this is down to
iNa not been there got the tshirt so speak . Our FRIENDS SEEM TO COPIED THIS FORMAL AND SEEMS TO BE WORKING OTBC
Nice piece, Rick. If you don’t have an answer for us, you’ve still gone a long way by framing the question so clearly.
Just to nail one thing in passing. Norwich were not the biggest Championship spenders in the summer – Fulham spent £11m just on striker Ross McCormack (who’s scored half the goals of Cameron Jerome while costing five times as much). But clearly City are a big fish in this pond, just as they were a small fish in the Prem.
There’s another stat you don’t mention but which graphically highlights the issue: the teams dropping from the Prem are always big favourites to go straight back up, but only one in four actually does. One in four. In their mid-table mediocrity this season, Cardiff and Fulham are more typical of relegated teams than Norwich. Despite all last night’s wailing and gnashing of teeth, we’ve just had a month of promotion form and (yesterday apart) look well capable of clawing back the 3 points that separate us from the play-off places.
That said, of course we should be in the top six on playing strength. Hunger has a lot to do with it, as does managerial nous (almost every manager needs a wise head around him – think Brian Clough/Peter Taylor – and Mike Phelan perhaps now fits the bill for Neil Adams). I suspect we have a good deal of hunger behind the scenes, helped by selling Fer and replacing him with O’Neil, Jerome and Lafferty. But that hunger doesn’t always translate onto the field. My own priority for January would be an assertive leader – as you say, that’s something missing compared to the Grant Holt era.
Sorry for the ramble with no more answers than your piece! But December suggests we’re maybe not too far off. Seems to me it’s not radical change we need, just a couple of final pieces to the tactical and selection jigsaw.
How would a Neil Lennon or Mick McCarthy be doing with this squad ? far better than the radio presenter i would guess .
Adams needs to go he is dragging this club down and we would have been far better to stick with Hughton .
Out of the frying pan into the furnace appointment and just about everybody called it apart from the Norwich City Board.
Of course giving the job to a newbie was risky but clubs who try to widen the managerial gene pool should be applauded. Bournemouth did it with Eddie Howe and I bet there were some of their fans who bleated that it needed an older man instead of a ‘wet behind the ears’ boy.
Losing 6 points in a month to a poor Reading side is massively disappointing – maybe after 11 home goals, a touch of complacency was kicking in? We’re still in the hunt for playoff glory but can’t afford anymore of those ‘bad days at the office’.
Bournemouth on the 10th will sort the men from the boys in our side.
What all the teams above us in the league aren’t burndened with which we are 1) having to pay part of the wages for dross like Bassong, hence why we have parachute payments and 2) a high percentage of their fan base with a misplaced sense of entitlement. I believe NCFC is moving in the right direction but the biggest risk to that is the unnecessary pressure brought about by unrealistic expectations.
Just one thing guys why do we get the same excuses
when we lose a bit like Hughton .I know we can ‘t
win every game .But how come set pieces cause
us problems like against Reading .We still.have
plenty to
play for .And perhaps a good FA cup Run We have
the best fans lets keep given our team all our support
we will b ok come May
Brentford were in the top flight in the 1930s.
Isn’t it time to stop patronising Mr Adams by calling him a ” novice”? Thirty years or so as a top class player and a coach ( with the FA Youth Cup on his CV) doesn’t sound like a lack of experience.
Football is still sport, even if only just,sometimes.The glorious uncertainty is what makes it compulsive at it’s best.
There is no guaranteed formula for winning. There was nothing inevitable about Norwich’s past successes.Recently under Mr Lambert or long ago with Mr Saunders, City sides gave themselves a chance of outstanding achievement and were able to see it through. That was their glory .
Had they just missed out it would have been a disappointment, but never ,please , a disgrace.
The Fa youth cup on his cv , true so he should get a job managing a schools football team and stop pretending to be a Championship manager. The sooner he goes the better and i very much doubt you will ever see him employed as manager by any other club .
Phill (13): I’m certainly glad you weren’t choosing the Norwich manager when Mike Walker was a candidate. We’d have had no top-three finish in the Premiership, no European adventure.
City aren’t where we’d want them to be right now. But they’re better placed than the average club that’s come down from the Prem – not just this season, but over 20 years. And they’ve just had a month of promotion form (yes, including Reading).
So perhaps deserving a little more leeway than you’re giving them?
Stewart Lewis (14) We are miles behind where we want to be , top two is almost as good as gone already and if we keep Adams much longer then play offs will follow .
Beating a couple of the leagues worst sides is not promotion form .
Would any other football league club in this country employ Adams as manager ? of course they would not, we have to be lumbered with him because its a whim of Delia Smiths .
While I don’t see now as a good time to remove Adams, I do agree with Phill that, realistically, if we did fire Adams, he’s unlikely to be hired by any team in the top 2 (or 3?) tiers.
Remember a lot of people said Hughton was a Premier standard manager, yet he’s not being linked to any jobs as far as I can tell.
We’ve been short of top level quality in that dept. for a while now. Hopefully Phelan, with his experience, can keep the general upward trend going.
Ha. Should have checked the bbc before my last post. Hughton has joined a relegation threatened Championship club.
Re: Dave B(17)..as did Lennon and Mackay – and I would have preferred either of them to Adams.
If I was Brighton fan, I would be delighted to see such an experienced man coming in.
I genuinely wish Hughton the best of luck and am willing to put a tenner down for the Seagulls to swoop above us in the table by season end.
Ian (18): I’ll take your tenner! Hughton has an excellent record as a Championship manager and I’m sure he’ll get Brighton going in the right direction. But December – the month Adams and Phelan settled into their working relationship – has convinced me that Norwich are too.
As you say, Lennon and Mackay (trying not to write McCartney there) were offered and accepted jobs at lowly-positioned Championship clubs. Since when Adams has outwitted both of them.
Stewart (19) – Lennon’s Bolton have gained 8 more points than we have since he was appointed. Mackay-Wigan is a different can of worms because of all the off-field distractions surrounding the owner and Mackay. Once that’s settled down, I’m sure Malky will get them back on track.
It’s going to be interesting to compare the records of Adams and Hughton over the next few months. I hope we finish above Brighton but if not, it might just shut up some of the continued vitriol being thrown in Hughton’s direction.
I’ll shake your internet hand on that tenner!
Ian (20): good spot re Bolton’s form – I was just thinking of the game at Carrow Road on 31 Oct. Now we’ve ended the bad run (I hope) maybe we’ll reverse that one.
As I say, I’m optimistic for both City and Brighton. If we make the play-offs – at least – I’ll be happy to lose the bet!