I’ve had a change of heart.
Feel free to comment on this article in the most strident, negative and unreasonable terms. I won’t get defensive and sniffy as usual; in fact, I’ll welcome and relish it. Do your worst.
At this point I should perhaps clarify my change of heart. No, I haven’t become disenchanted with Norwich City, Delia & Michael or (at this point) Alex Neil – I’ll try to explain why.
No – I’ve changed my mind about negativity. Football is an excellent outlet for it, while in other spheres it’s perhaps more sinister. We’ll return to that.
This isn’t the easiest time to come and defend Alex Neil. We can argue about performances from August to mid-October, but only an idiot would deny that there are problems in our club right now – and they need to be sorted quickly if we’re not to lose vital ground.
Let me quickly admit I’m writing this from about 4,000 miles away. I didn’t witness Brighton, though I’m assuming it was as bad as the worst reports (I did see Russell Martin’s interview, which spoke volumes). Criticism, including of the angry kind, is clearly due.
I still bristle at unreason though. I missed the pleasure (?) of Canary Call this time, but I did listen to it after Preston. A string of callers proclaimed that Alex Neil had been lucky when he came to Norwich, that “anyone” could have got promoted with the squad he inherited.
Needless to say, there was no challenge to those claims from the Canary Call host (though to his credit, Darren Eadie pushed back a little).
No-one saw fit to mention the most basic fact of that 2014-15 season:
Over the first 24 games of the season (before AN) the team was seventh. Over the remaining 22 games (i.e. from AN’s arrival) the same team was first. The net result was to get us in the play-offs, where Alex masterminded a tactical triumph.
You don’t need a degree in rocket science – or indeed, logic – to figure out that the manager had something to do with that success.
Before you tell me that Neil Adams under-achieved with the team in that first half of the season, a reminder that Fulham and Cardiff (who came down with us from the Premier League) were widely tipped as better placed than Norwich to return. Neither of them ever challenged the top six.
Fulham and Cardiff illustrated the psychological difficulty of bouncing back after relegation. It explains why three out of four clubs don’t, and it’s graphically described by Adam Drury in his excellent chapter of Tales from the City Volume 2.
No, it’s exceptional to do what Alex Neil did. If he were to repeat it this season, it would be a rare feat indeed, whatever the squad. We currently sit just four points off automatic promotion (and of course he’s the current Manager of the Month).
I understand why his place is being questioned now – but it seems to me premature to wield the axe on someone who has special qualities and (with both Hamilton and Norwich) a special record.
The cauldron of the Premier League was a hard learning environment for him last year. Surely though, even his harshest critics would concede that he didn’t have a competitive squad at his disposal – especially after the failure of efforts to secure a quality central defender in the summer.
At this point, a few more weeks to show his mettle again isn’t too much to ask, is it? That kind of nerve-holding certainly paid dividends for Burnley last year.
Maybe nerve-holding and rationality aren’t the thing for 2016, though. Well beyond Norwich City and football, it seems to be the Year of Discontent. And that’s what really worries me.
This forum isn’t (thank goodness) for party politics. But it’s a striking feature of this year, in Britain and elsewhere, that the consensus of how we do things has broken down. Gut feeling and primal instinct have gained influence while experts and facts are sent packing with a volley of abuse.
When fantasy (Trump claims climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese to weaken our economies) has equal currency with established fact, I believe we’re in trouble.
Granted, conventional politicians and institutions have brought some of this on themselves and need to re-engage with their people. Some of it applies to Norwich City as well. However, the retreat of reason – like the polar icecaps – has gone beyond that. Reason needs to fight back.
Is it possible for us to channel more of our anger into football matches and their immediate aftermath? To be quick to anger, then let it dissipate (ideally over a pint or two) and take a more considered view?
Another eye-catching chapter of the new Tales from the City (Mick Dennis is going to owe me a drink at this rate) is Karen Buchanan’s. She contrasts the two roles she’s played in relation to Norwich City – the analyst and the fan – in words we can easily relate to:
“One requires you to know stuff…. The other allows you to go to the pub before and after the game, moan like hell about the ref and wallow in ecstasy/misery entirely untroubled by the need to attempt rational analysis”
Perhaps I’m wrong and any outlet for anger simply encourages more, but it’s worth a try.
Over to you!
What makes you think things will get better though? Alex Neil’s influence on the performance of the squad from his appointment until Newcastle away in October 2015 was great, but it has waned ever since.
However, he has no track record at all of making successful acquisitions in the transfer market (not at Hamilton nor here). There is no doubt the squad is not as well balanced now as the one he inherited.
Our early endeavours in the league showed some signs of promise, but the lack of balance in the squad means we have no options beyond Plan A, which now altogether too reliant on Wessi and altogether too predictable.
I don’t think he should be sacked yet, and he deserves his chance, but I don’t have much hope of him turning it around. It’s only going to get harder.
There comes a time when whatever Alex Neil achieved 18 months ago is no longer relevant.
I think his recruitment choices have been very poor and struggle to think of any players who have now actually improved whilst working under him.
Some of the player’s performances this season have been little short of a disgrace, and they should take some responsibility, but unfortunately they hold a lot of power (and value). If they no longer like, trust and want to play for the manager then we’re going nowhere, and the manager is finished. I don’t know if that point has yet been reached, but it would appear to be close.
Two things (and apologies if you think they have already been said):
1) A friend of mine – who supports Crystal Palace, but who spoke with no relish – said, at the time, that the 4-5 Liverpool match would destroy Norwich for the rest of the season – arguably he was right. Has the same thing happened this year at Newcastle?
2) There have been several times over the last few years when I’ve thought – perhaps with many others – that David Moyes would be a real catch for Norwich. Just shows you doesn’t it, there’s no science to it. We’ve had a very bad week, but…onwards and upwards, etc..
By our standards, Neil has spent huge sums of money since Wembley. We’ve got worse since then, which has to be the overriding factor when determining his genuine credentials. I desperately wanted him to do well, but he won’t. Simple fact that’s now dawning on the majority.
I think that AN is now between the devil and the deep bl… sorry, green and yellow, sea.
Many of his supposedly “better” players – especially Brady, Olsson and Klose, and probably Tettey and Dorrans – think they should be in the PL or a foreign equivalent. I don’t think it’s Neil personally they are not playing for. They just don’t want to play in the Championship, and even if they did their agents or international managers would want them to move on.
46 games a season? No thanks. Another League Cup game if we win this one? They can take it or leave it; they left it. If we got, say, Fleetwood away in the FA cup, that would be another no show
The trouble is that if this means dropping some or all of that group what options has he got?
By all means get Godfrey and Thompson into the mix, but if so we have to accept that however determined they are they will make some mistakes borne of inexperience. Bassong is past it, Bennett excellent one day and frustratingly poor another. Canos just doesn’t seemed to have knuckled down at Colney.
Maddison? Even if he were available he’s not going to play him plus Hoolahan and Pritchard. And those last two are not at the heart of the problem as far as I can tell, unless we think age is catching up with Wes.
So if he sticks with the “wantaways”, how does he get them to put their heart into it?
It will of course help immensely when Pinto and Howson are fit – but the latter looks to be a long way off. Maybe Mulumbu and or Jarvis will eventually return and be eager to prove a point.
It strikes me that Neil made his name originally as a player-manager, in and amongst players of relatively modest ability, able to influence them by example on the pitch.
Somehow he needs to channel whatever personal qualities that enabled him to do that into influencing a much more talented, but apparently less willing, group on the training ground and from the touchline.
AN did do extremely well, I shall always treasure winning at Wembley but perhaps even better (for me) was beating ipswich in the semi final at Carrow Road. I think that’s my personal favourite Norwich game.
Nevertheless there does come a time when things do change, even singular results can be so horrendous as to cost a manager his job. It’s not just a 0-5 reverse it’s the admission from manager and captain that the gutless, unprofessional players totally surrendered. Again.
Such brittleness and lack of character through a squad routinely cost managers their jobs. It’s what we’ve got now. It is not beyond imagination that a good heart to heart (or tea cup to head) has helped and the performance against Leeds and going forward will give the team a lift. It’ll be a hell of a turnaround but it’s possible. I really think though, that lose or pay so badly again at the weekend he’ll be gone. After Birmingham, Newcastle, Fulham, Preston and now Brighton it’s difficult to defend.
OTBC
The fundamental problem here is that football managers generally become “damaged goods” after a period of time. When that point is reached, usually, there’s no going back and charge becomes inevitable
Think AN’s probably got 3 or 4 to turn this around but if Leeds this weekend goes badly that cld be it. It baffles me that we’ve spent a fair wedge by our standards on players and yet many of those either do not feature on match day or are on the bench. Essentially AN’s going with the team that got us relegated when we shld be seeking to improve incrementally. If by chance we shld win promotion we’re back to where we were post Wembley. Not good.
Thanks for everyone’s comments. Nothing to test my resolve about arguing – many thoughtful points made.
SJ (1): Every manager, however diligent, does need a proper scouting set-up. Ours wasn’t fit for purpose, so it’s been completely re-vamped. Let’s give it a chance
Bracken (6): We signed players this summer to provide competition in the squad; we simply weren’t a position to sign PL quality (though I think Pritchard may prove to be that). Early performances seemed to justify our approach, though clearly things have gone awry in the last couple of weeks.
No question that AN is – and should be – under scrutiny. My only point is that many managers have come through such a period and led their teams to success; seems to me it’s worth giving AN a few weeks to see if he can too.
It’s certainly an interesting debate.
Now I don’t have exact numbers but to my understanding AN has been in charge for over 70+ competitive games and only managed to coup 18 clean sheets. We can’t blame the players, 3 different goalkeepers, x amount of different central defensive partnerships and a continuous 2 man holding midfielder formation clearly indicates there is a problem at Conley and AN cannot coach and improve defensive situations.
In addition to this, a real interest is the points tally against teams around us when it really matters and the failure to collect points. Premier League displays against Bournemuth Sunderland Villa Swansea and now Newcastle & Brighton in the championship. Granted the success against Newcastle at home in PL, however we tried our best to throw that one away as well. It’s not great reading.
As previously stated above by other comments is the balance of the squad is terrible the lack of strikers with the numerous no10’s recruited is a head banger all night long.
I’m not for calling out Paul Lambert’s return however his 4-1-2-1-2 formation would work a treat with current crop. What Lambert down very well was create a squad If individuals who weren’t involved hungry to enter the fray and take advantage of their opportunities when arise. AN seems to hang them out to dry including his very own signings.
Who to draft in, no idea, however a change is required – over to you Moxey!!
There is the old football cliche that the league table doesn’t lie. You are where you deserve to be Sorry Stuart , some times it does, but not this time We may be in the top 6 , a very good basis for defence of AN. but performances on the pitch don’t substantiate that. Analyse those & the case for the defence collapse. Even in victory most of them this season have been average. In defeat they have been dire. Last season in the PL was a disaster , & a lost opportunity. Much of the blame for this must be directed at AN & his management team. It was obvious from the terraces that the team which triumphed at Wembley would struggle in the PL. Of the defenders only Olson & perhaps Ruddy were PL. The midfield with Johnson & Redmond could have muddled through , &of the forwards only Hooper had any pedigree at the higher level. The opportunity was there, substantial TV. money to strengthen the squad , particularly the defence , surely the basis of PL survival. Nothing much happened except the sale of player of the season BJ. The disasters of the PL & the Jan transfer window are well documented & do little for the case of the defence. The inevitable, but avoidable relegation was followed by another shambolic transfer window. Lots of money spent , but still no defenders or goal scoring strikers The team flattered to deceive , but now I believe AN ,his management team & the squad have been found out. There is no leader or leadership on the pitch , players are played out of position , one up front (CJ ) seems set in stone , there is no plan B & substitutions seem to be made up as we go along. Things have to change. Judging by recent performances some of the players are unhappy , certainly many of us supporters are unhappy & it would appear the problems at the club go much deeper than the odd defeat at the hands of the likes of PNE & Brighton. Face up to the realities now while we are still in touch with the leading pack & bring in a respected experienced LEADER. That concludes the case for the prosecution. Should give you something to get your teeth into Stuart. OTBC
Modern society has no patience nowadays, social media and all that. Football fans even less patient. It’s just 17 months or so ago we were living the dream led by AN. As I mentioned yesterday in response to GG’s article I think AN has a few more games in the bank at best.
With all of the evidence presented, even the best lawyers in the land would struggle to make a case for the defence. Guilty as charged, take him down…
Victor (11) – Thanks: a passionate case with some good points.
I guess I’d just question a couple of the things you say. I’m not sure Hooper’s Premier League pedigree was anything to write home about, and I’d suggest Bradley Johnson (great as he was in the Champ) isn’t technically good enough to make an impact in the top division.
There’s no doubt in my mind that AN was given a weak hand to play in the Premier League. He identified players we needed before the season and McNally tried to sign them – but without success. A failure, clearly – I just wonder whether in that instance AN might deserve sympathy rather than blame.
Stuart you sum up the mentality of our club! You’d rather sit on your hands and hope and pray that it will come good, just as it did once, long, long ago.
The Brighton game is a culmination of over a years worth of progress under out manager. Our style of football is now how he wants us to play.. Boring and ineffective. He should of gone last year, but for some reason the lower Barclay roared him off the field after relegation!! Standards well set.
I’m sick of this mantra that our scouting system let him down.. We went for players who wouldn’t dream of playing for us, and who we would never pay their required wages. You don’t need scouts to realise that we could of snapped up the championships best talent, Lewis Dunk, Michael Antonio etc on our way up.
How many more chances do you want to give him because I see only decile since Wembley, which is already a forgotten memory.
It’s a shame it’s taken AN this long to be ruthless (if he is going to stick to his word, that is).
He had the opportunity to be ruthless in the summer and bin the various failures in the team who have bizarrely been rewarded with new contracts. He missed a glaring opportunity to strengthen the midfield – by which I mean with genuinely strong athletic players who don’t get overrun – but admirable though it is, chose to think we are Barcelona and could have skilled players running around in rings against hulking great second division veterans. We have to earn the right to play and we’re not strong enough in midfield to do that. AN can change that right now. If he doesn’t, he should go.
OK Stuart , BJ might not have the technical ability of some of the present incumbents , but he had drive & passion , & often rescued seemingly lost causes. something that has been sorely missed these past 18 months.!!!
He wouldn’t have rolled over at Brighton like some of the more ‘ gifted ?’out there on Saturday.I will just say ‘Duncan Forbes ‘to prove my poiint. As for Hooper fair point BUT he was never given a chance to prove his worth under AN I suggest this was more to do with what happened off the pitch & on the the training ground. Remember he had played at the highest level ( Champions leg ) be it with Celtic , so he must have had something to work on One of the problems I see with AN is his inability to handle ‘ difficult characters ‘ Hence the lack of a strong leader out on the pitch. How would he have coped with a Keelan , Mc Dougall or Channon , players that excited you on the pitch & produced the goods , but perhaps were not the easiest to manage.
Perhaps the same could be said of Lafferty. , if he is not up to Championship standard why is he still on the payroll. Again a clear indication of AN ‘s poor man management skills.
And so the debate goes on OTBC
Good reading as ever Stewart, unfortunately we have many more questions than answers. There is far more wrong at carrow road than can be laid at the feet of one man.
There can be no doubt that Neil has received lamentable backing from the boardroom, was it ever thus? No manager would willingly go into a premier league season with the lack of quality we did last year. As ever the amount spent is thrust at us in mitigation, while the sum of money accrued from several big money sales is absent from the equation.
That he (and us) were badly let down by the playing staff on Saturday, and frequently this season is not disputed. When the manager and club captain confirm long held suspicions that certain players are soft pedalling and hiding it cannot be ignored.
Yes, Alex Neil has been shown up as a mediocre low level manager. He is inflexible, his tactics are incomprehensible, his use of substitutes is baffling as is selection. Don’t even get started on transfer activity. He is, however an honest, hard worker who cares deeply about his job and has only the best motives for the club. The same I cannot say readily applies to the boardroom or the dressing room where self interest and differing motivations lie.
This is the saddest point. Neil is being set up as the boards latest fall guy, the next mug to fall on his sword and absolve the sins of others. After all, sacking Robbie Brady et al is financially impossiblle. Sadly.
Just as sadly, we move to Saturday where the mood from 2 pm will be fractious and Leeds will very likely be the benficiaries again of Norfolk profligacy. If we believe the post match hype from Brighton, the worst culprits will be omitted from the side, avoiding the vitriol that they probably deserve, the board are sacred cows and have never taken the blame for any decision they have ever made or any failure since the time of Robert chase, who conversely could do no right. That leaves poor Alex Neil standing on the touch line, while the eleven, assuming he can find eleven, players he feels will give more than a salutary toss about the outcome of the match endeavour to stick their collective finger in the dyke, Dutch boy style. Perhaps one day people will look a little deeper into the problems at the club and where to properly apportion the blame.
Johnstonpickle (15) – Thanks for the comment – though happy I had my flak jacket on! If I ever went on Strictly, this is good preparation for facing Craig (especially as I’m a slightly worse dancer than Ed).
I understand some of your points, and there’s certainly room for different opinions of the past 15 months. Personally I think it would have been a major achievement to survive in the Premier League with our squad – look for instance at the quality of players Newcastle have sold since May, and they couldn’t stay up either.
Scope for lots of different opinions about actual & potential signings too. You say we could have snapped up Michael Antonio in summer 2015. Well, we’d have been competing with West Ham the same way we were competing with Southampton – unrealistically in the view of many – for Virgil van Dyke.
This management thing is maybe easier to judge from the sidelines than to actually do.
Victor (17) – Cheers. As you say, the debate goes on!
I’d certainly love to have the BJ of 2014-15 in our team right now; pity we couldn’t have mothballed him for a year. AN made excellent use of him in that Championship season.
Less impressed, I have to say, by the fact that Hooper played in the Champions League. Plenty of second-raters do, if they’re with clubs who play in the early stages of that competition. Did his experience of being thrashed by Barcelona really add much to his value for us?
As to Lafferty, the club has made huge efforts to get him off the payroll. In the last window we set up at least two deals – but you can’t force the player to leave. That’s true of one or two others as well.
PS Should have said Virgil van Dijk, of course. Don’t know why Mary Poppins should be on my mind…
Chris (18) – Thanks. While I wouldn’t agree with everything you suggest, you’ve injected very interesting thoughts.
For sure, there are times when issues are deeper than most of our comment and analysis recognises.
Still Stuart, that’s competing against a West Ham prior to the emergence of Payet, the Olympic stadium, and an unbelievable season, but I get your point on him specifically.
That’s not really my issue…
The only way we can break down opposition is when our fullbacks bomb on, despite us having 3 attacking midfielders they provide no width. When their pinned back, we’re out of the game. When their bombing forward, our central midfield and central defence are too slow to cover the counter attack. Our lone centre forward has two options, hold the ball up or run the channels. When he holds the ball up, wes doesn’t have the pace to run beyond the defence for any through ball. When he runs the channel, he doesn’t have the skill to take his man on and create something from the corner of the box. There’s nothing wrong with 4-2-3-1 but we don’t have the players suited to that formation, apart from Murphy and Pinto who’ve been the only positive. The manager choses this and for him not to recognise this and change his only way of playing is laughable.
Against Preston he brought on Oliviera, I thought maybe now, …. Nope, he was asked to play in the hole and we stuck with it!!
My final point.. Steven Whittaker was his first choice RB at the start of our last Prem League campaign… I also remember when the same manager played him as a defensive midfielder!! Enough said.
Johnstonpickle (23): Again, some fair points.
In one of AN’s first games – against Brentford, when almost our entire midfield was ruled out by injury or suspension – it’s true that he tried Whittaker in midfield; one of the things he’s quick to admit as an error. At least it let us see Pritchard in full flow…
I’m a big admirer of Jerome at this level, and AN’s use of him is one of the reasons we’ve scored freely for most of this season. But I take your point about the need for pace and invention to support him. For me, one of our current challenges is that Jacob Murphy, who started the season so brightly, has hit the almost inevitable dip in form that young players suffer.
We’ll see, starting on Saturday, whether AN has solutions. Even without his most influential player (Howson) he’ll have to show us something.
Hughton had a 20 game honeymoon period, then collapsed. Adams’ lasted around 15. Neil’s lasted 20 or so. After these spells each of the above failed to turn around downturns.
To prove an exception to the rule Neil needs to get us winning convincingly very very quickly.