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It’s all in the eyes. And, for all the gaffer’s supposed shortcomings, when Alex says it he really means it

2nd November 2016 By Phil Daley 12 Comments

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When was the last time you listened to or read comments from Alex Neil or a City player and thought “they don’t mean that” or “what is he on about?”

Last weekend perhaps?

Well the likelihood is I was looking into their eyes as they said it.

It’s a funny thing reading lines of text. You can interpret it pretty much however you want, no matter how it was intended, not to mention once it’s been put in the context any journo or fan page is trying to focus on.

But when you hear it coming from the horse’s mouth and look directly into their eyes you sometimes fall for it, hook, line and sinker.

I personally think Alex Neil is doing a decent job.

Tactics, formations and substitutions are always easily analysed in hindsight and when we’re not the ones being told “gaffer, I’m shattered, I need to come off…” And there’s no accounting for when players make stupid decisions; decisions that no manager, coach, or parent would ever suggest – even to an Under-5’s team. (And yes, I am referring to Brighton).

What I like most about him is, so far, he’s been a normal bloke. And I mean that in a selfish way, because I have to talk to him.

It’s hard speaking to someone who answers every question with pre-organised answer. Or those managers who fancy themselves so much they ignore the question completely and just tell you how good they are.

But I believe him when he says he’s not concerned about clean sheets. Not because he’s arrogant about giving away goals, but because he really believes his side will out-score his opponents.

I also believe him when he says he’s frustrated and angry when he loses.

The only trouble with trusting him is it makes losing worse! But will I ever learn?

I took it quite personally when Norwich lost embarrassingly to Sunderland in the Premier League last season. I actually felt betrayed.

And the reason was that Alex looked me in the eye a day or two before the game and with a glint and a knowing smile he said, “We’ll be okay.”

He said it in such a way, with a wry smile. What did he know that no-one else did? It was like he knew of a secret tunnel that ran beneath Fort Knox and he’d paid-off the security guard to turn a blind eye.

But he didn’t. And we weren’t okay. It was a disaster.

Had I been duped? Had I fallen for his hype?

No I hadn’t.

He really believed it. He believed he had the answer to our prayers of staying in the Premier League – starting with a win over Sunderland.

The same goes for Russell Martin’s reaction to the defeat on Saturday.The words on a page don’t speak with the volume that the post-match video did.

Martin was hurting. He always does. He was the one who was shipped out to talk to the press almost every week in the run-in as the Canaries approached relegation.

He’s an honest, intelligent man and someone who deserves more credit than he get, especially when he’s put in an impossible position – defending the indefensible.

I’m hoping that Brighton away will be the wake-up call that Norwich City needed.

The lost-lead at Fulham… A hoodoo. The defeat to Preston at home… a tad unlucky. Out of the League Cup at Leeds… a penalty lottery.

But 5-0 at Brighton away… unacceptable.

I don’t always look forward to press conferences on a Friday ahead of a match. Yes, I am in a privileged position in that I’m able to speak to the manager, but it’s not like catching up with a mate over a pint.

The job is to desperately try and ask something different from the last 400 press conferences. Something that doesn’t end up with an “It’ll be a tough game… We need to bounce back.”

And before someone suggests any, most of the overly aggressive questions will end with him not answering it at all and then not answering anything else with any gusto.

But this week I am looking forward to it.

I want to see what his eyes tell me. Whether he’s still angry. Whether this is just another game. Or whether he feels his players will make up for letting themselves, the fans and him down.

People often forget, it’s not just the words that people say – it’s how they say them.

If Alex Neil didn’t care, I’d be worried. For now, I’m not.


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Filed Under: Column, Phil Daley

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Comments

  1. Stewart Lewis says

    2nd November 2016 at 7:28 am

    Most of us, however opinionated, are at a distance from the club and don’t have eye-to-eye contact to help us make sense of things.

    No doubt people will take issue with Phil, and that’s fine; but it’s good to hear from someone who does have that extra insight.

    Reply
  2. Tony Brown says

    2nd November 2016 at 7:35 am

    I fail to understand the reluctance to bring in a defensive coach on a short term 6 month contract, Martin Keown for example. We clearly need to start again, though having players that want away, Brady, Olson, Bassong doesn’t help any more than playing Martin at CB.

    Reply
  3. John Hipkiss says

    2nd November 2016 at 7:38 am

    Nice article ! Will looking into his eyes tell you anything now though given your comments about the Sunderland game, surely now it means nothing? I agree with you about Alex and Russ, both appear to be very very decent caring guys, but is that enough ? Don’t we need atleast a dozen guys who are decent and caring with also let’s not forget, the ability to kick a football about the pitch better than the opposition! Evidence of late would suggest we don’t have that in sufficient quantity

    Reply
  4. Ritchie says

    2nd November 2016 at 8:05 am

    I agree with much of this. Nobody can doubt Alex Neil’s honesty and integrity or his desire to succeed. These were some of the qualities that led to him being appointed in the first place. As a media person he clearly has impressed you but being good with the media is only a part of his job. You mention ‘bad luck,hoodoo and penalty lottery as possible reasons for some defeats.
    I think that mental fragility among certain players is another and the manager does not seem able to address this. He obviously believes in his own ability as in the pre sunderland match assertion but I wonder how many times the players have received such statements only to find that for whatever reason it was not ok. As time passes human nature being what it is will inevitably mean trust in the manager is reduced. I’m sure that ‘When alex says it he really means it’, but how many of his players really now believe it?

    Reply
  5. Gordon Eagling says

    2nd November 2016 at 8:17 am

    Good read interesting way of presenting things, sadly we do not have that position, but sure we would like it.

    Whether Alex Neil can turn it around, (turn what around). WE are not in a too bad position. But to me the big question is, if the majority of players do no long believe in him, then no matter which way we feel personally, in or out The writing is on the wall and we don’t need to have Banksy writing it

    Reply
  6. Canary Mary says

    2nd November 2016 at 8:19 am

    Excellent article Phil.
    The EYES have it!
    This weekend is the watershed of our season as I see it!
    No more soft & cuddly NORWICH CITY FOOTBALL CLUB.
    We now need a football team who show the same passion as
    the thousands YES thousands of dedicated fans of this club.
    Fans who spend hundreds of pounds of HARD earned money
    to follow this team EVERYWHERE –Norfolk & beyond .
    We have players who work their socks off -game in game out!
    But as a team game EVERYONE has to work their socks off!
    It’s up to the MANAGER to decide WHO is worthy of wearing the shirt! Forget systems- tactics- PASSION is it -just like the thousands of fans who turn up come wind or rain–humiliated the game before! BUT STILL turn up!
    Turned up in division1.turned up after relegation!
    Fill the stadium –travel in their thousands on a night game hundreds of miles away from home to watch THEIR TEAM-:)
    The only thing I’d like to say to these guys (Norwich City)
    WOULD YOU?
    We will always follow you to the ends of the earth!
    But you MUST show us we do it for a team that’s WORTHY X

    Reply
  7. John says

    2nd November 2016 at 8:45 am

    Sadly Phil, I don’t agree he’s doing a good job…

    -Our defence is a complete and utter shambles
    -We have no leaders on the pitch
    -The players are arrogant, we go ahead and then think the job is done
    -There appears to be no plan B… its 4-5-1 and that’s
    -Our recruitment has been shambolic:

    In the last 10months we have purchased Canos £2-3m, Naismith £6-7m, Pritchard £4-6m & Maddison £1-2m.. that at the lower end of that estimate its £12-13m for players to play second fiddle to Wes.
    We have signed 2 defenders permanently in the last 18months and the base of our midfield “the spine of the team” saw us add Mulumbu…

    I want him to succeed but sadly all the hallmarks are there of someone who has lost the team and doesn’t know what to do about it.

    A win on saturday will sadly be no more than a stay of execution, unfortunately time is not something we have

    Reply
  8. Daniel Lomas says

    2nd November 2016 at 12:58 pm

    I think Alex Neil is becoming a victim of circumstance.

    Once the transfer window was finished, we were all happy that he’d kept a lot of the team that we all feared would have left. Yes he did not get anyone in that we were expecting for whatever reason, that is not fully down to him.

    After the number of games we’ve had so far, it’s becoming clear that some of these players we were happy to have kept, are simply not “at the races” which is baffling to me (why should a player play in the Premier League if they’re not proving they’re too good for a lower league?).

    Alex needs to ship out this arrogant weight from the squad in January and bring in the essentials (central defender and a striker capable of contesting Jerome for a starting position, should we still play 1 up top) and promote some of our youth to fill in any other gaps in depth.

    If this happens, I will be satisfied that he can be a manager and not just someone who just seems to be someone to talk to the media come matchday.

    Reply
  9. Mike Fitz says

    2nd November 2016 at 2:26 pm

    We can all agree that Alec is an honest guy who does his best. In reality he has very limited managerial experience and it is now really clear. His inability to force the board to buy effective replacements, his inability to forge an effective defense, his rather over-simplified analysis after a game, his poor motivational skills so that good players become ordinary, his failure to put 11 players on the pitch who are fit enough to last 70 minutes never mind 90 and to win games that should be winnable. It wasn’t the penalty lottery at Leeds-we had time against ten men from a struggling team we never looked like scoring.
    If we don’t get a new manager by December we will buy second rate players again.
    The only way AN can stay is if the board appoint a proven number 2 that can help him. I like the guy but feel disappointed by his poor management.

    Reply
  10. Stewart Lewis says

    2nd November 2016 at 7:20 pm

    A lot of fair points being made here.

    One I’m not so sure about. We put out reserve sides in the cup at Everton and Leeds. The critics seem to want it both ways: the good performance at Everton is irrelevant, the failure to win at Leeds is part of the ‘Alex Neil problem’.

    Reply
  11. Jarrolder says

    2nd November 2016 at 10:41 pm

    Re Canary Mary above:
    Lets get the boys wound up with a new “anthem” as they run out (as well as OTBC of course)
    Suggest “Stand up and be strong” by Keb ‘Mo (link below)

    https://youtu.be/oibFJyETs_o

    Reply
  12. Chris says

    3rd November 2016 at 1:16 pm

    Neil is clearly not up to the job. It’s not personal, he’s a good man, but he’s lost the dressing room and is effectively holed below the water line. A conversation, two in fact, one with a current player and one with a former player revealed to me the problems behind the scenes, horror stories I’m not repeating. Sufficient to depress me and confirm what I felt from the evidence of performances.
    There are some seriously rotten apples in the club at the moment, they have nothing but contempt for our club.
    At the top, the silence is deafening. David McNally, for all his faults and Mr, Bowkett, an excellent chairman, who left in extremely strange circumstances just two weeks after his re election to the board have left a massive hole, which has not been adequately filled,
    Poor Alex Neil takes all the flak and stands to lose his livelihood while feckless, gutless, spineless spoiled brats go through the motions and insult the supporters and the boardroom derives satisfaction from being debt free while the club heads south. Fiddling while Rome burns.
    What I’m trying to say is be a little gentle with Neil, there are far more deserving targets of the mounting ire than a humble, honest Manager who sadly isn’t good enough.

    Reply

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