Not for the first time the EDP’s Paddy Davitt encapsulated perfectly an afternoon of watching Norwich City in less than 140 characters.
Quote: ‘If any1 was in any doubt this #NCFC squad needs an overhaul watch this game’.
And there it was, in a Twitter-shaped nutshell.
We didn’t learn anything yesterday – you rarely do in March – but it did confirm a few things, alongside quashing any daft notions we had about sneaking into the play-offs.
It confirmed that in order to move in a forward direction this club simply has to use the months of April, May and June 2017 to reinvent itself.
Off the field that reinvention is underway but for all the hope that’s been offered by the new model, for the supporters it’s the playing side of the operation where it really matters and where the success or otherwise of the summer turnover will be judged.
And for this club to move in a forward direction it’s a task that has to be undertaken without sentiment but with precision and certainty.
We’ve talked about it, written about it and cogitated over it since the opening exchanges of this season, when this ageing squad first revealed its lack of energy and soft underbelly, but now the time has almost arrived the seriousness of the predicament is becoming ever more crystal clear.
Yesterday’s defeat wasn’t the complete and total disaster it’s been painted in some quarters. It was just par for the course.
If MFW had gone all Family Fortunes and asked 100 Norwich supporters what will happen at Villa Park? I suspect the majority would have forecast a reasonable performance with plenty of pretty passing that would be ultimately undone by missed chances at one end and rotten defending at the other.
And so it came to pass.
That Alan Irvine found himself bemoaning the same misfortune that blighted Alex Neil’s record on the road pretty much tells the story: of a group of players who are simply bereft of the wherewithal to grind out results away from Carrow Road.
Despite the Yellow Army hoping and praying otherwise, to expect Irvine to get a tune out of this bunch when they had already lost ten away games while shipping goals at a rate of two per game was a near impossibility.
A technical area containing Mourinho, Pochettino, Conte and Guardiola would likely suffer the same fate, such is the brittleness of a defensive unit that has proven time and time again that it’s unfit for purpose.
The cull needs to be brutal, the cuts deep, and there needs to be an appreciation from the club’s top brass that to deliver the new head coach a squad equipped to deal with the rigours of the Championship will need some bullets to be bitten, some of them costly.
There is naturally risk associated with large scale turnovers but this is no time for a tweak here and a new face there; this needs the shedding of so much dead wood that if done properly Colney on 1st July could resemble UEA Freshers’ Week.
I’ll resist dissecting the current crop player-by-player (if you need an in-depth analysis look no further than Ian Clarke’s fine midweek offering) but it doesn’t require a degree in Sports Science to identify three of yesterday’s back-four as being unworthy of a Norwich City future.
Only Ivo Pinto, in my opinion, has earned a crack at 2017/18, and even he didn’t cover himself in glory yesterday, while the goalkeeping department is another that’s in need of a serious and unsentimental overhaul.
Clearly much hinges on the board’s ability to arm-wrestle their Huddersfield counterparts over the precise value of Stuart Webber’s worth but, for me, that particular piece of the jigsaw really can’t fall into place quick enough.
When it’s boiled down the summer recess is a relatively short one and eight and a bit weeks is not long for major surgery to be undertaken and for things to then settle down. If some of that time is eaten up with the appointment of a head coach then eight weeks can rapidly become six and with the clock is ticking that could equally rapidly turn to squeaky bum time if the squad is short of numbers, quality or both.
One thing this club has excelled at in the recent past is protracted transfer sagas, something that can be ill afforded this summer, and so one can only hope Stuart Webber – when he arrives – will bring a new approach to getting deals over the line.
But it’s not going to be easy. A different voice on the end of the phone with a more brusque demeanour than his predecessors will not automatically make it easier to cut through the swathes of agents, advisers and contractual paperwork, and with multiple deals likely to be on the boil at the same time it’ll be a Colney summer unlike any other.
The worrier in me ponders whether what needs to be achieved is going to take longer than the time available.
But these are intriguing times and that change is inevitable is one huge positive. And if Norwich City FC is unrecognisable from its current form on the opening day of next season then that too can only be a good thing.
This is now very concerning. As you say, time is not something we have on our side. This whole SD appointment stinks of the boards usual ability to progress and get deals pushed through. I got excited at the thought of webber coming in, but taking this long about things isn’t how football works. Besides, he’ll be off when he realises the board don’t like paying the going rate for players.
At least this latest away defeat will put to bed the deluded souls who think we can still get to the play-offs.
So much change is needed at NCFC, but that must start with the board, because I still maintain that their objective is for NCFC to be a solid upper their Championship club and not a PL outfit. Obviously many fans won’t buy what I’m saying, but as Michael Bailey hinted at a few weeks ago, does the board really want to be there?
I have no confidence whatsoever in the current set-up, with some players working their ticket to boot. We have no new manager and no D.O.F – a role I’m not entirely sure will be the saviour that many think will move things forward.
However bad we are on the pitch, the root of the problem was, is and always will be – the current board.
Most people have written the season off weeks ago. It’s no good deluding ourselves that a miracle will happen re the play offs, it’s not going to happen. So let’s move on, things are going on with the Sporting director, so hopefully the first step will be announced Thursday. ( please take note Board)
Message to Alan Irvine, you ain’t getting the job so blood some youngsters there’s nothing to lose. It will give us supporters something to get behind instead of watching the deadwood going through the motions for the few remaining games.
I disagree Gary.
You and the media just seem to have bought this rubbish idea from the club that any strategy is better than what we have now.
We need a charismatic leader who can get much much more out of a disprited, miserable group of players.
Change the mindset and it wouldnt be beyond the realms of credulity for a play-off place to still be the end result of a hugely disappointing season.
What we dont need is a hugely protracted sporting director appointment when what we need is appointing the team manager, adept in transfer dealings, who will get us up this year, or failing that will have had the opportunity to see the players in competitive action and so be able to plan the close season effectively – who to move out, who can be redeemed and where we have some serious gaps to fill.
If we dont get up this season or next the basic economics of football mean that we’ll likely never get up to the Premier League again, never attract the quality of players we have signed and then misused – in short we’ll have missed the boat.
Every painful week that goes by is pitiful. painful. Wake up everyone!
#2 Darren – if you genuinely believe that this Board are content with a top end Championship team, with circa £5m pa TV monies; almost certainly running as a loss making outfit, in preference to £100m plus pa income from the Premier League, that’s your prerogative.
Cheers for comment Unthank (4) – Don’t necessarily disagree with you entirely, but surely we have to give the new model/structure a chance to work?
I think Stuart Webber will be “on the clock” from Day One. We desperately need him to show the proactiveness that has been absent from the club since Paul Lambert earned himself the reputation with David McNally of being “the least patient man in the world”. That lack of patience paid dividends and Lambert always got the players he wanted, and the majority were in place before pre-season training started. You can’t put a price on how valuable it was to get players moved, settled and embedded in the squad before the season starts. That way you avoid Oliviera-type situations where he takes half a season to get going.
Well said #4 Darren. The board do not have the money a) to get us back to the Premier, and b) keep us there. I don’t believe Delia is bothered;provided we are “debt free” nothing else matters. What business in this country could ever expand/improve without investment? She certainly doesn’t have the necessary money. Unfortunately she won’t sell to get the necessary investment into the club which, WITH DUE DILIGENCE, can be safely achieved. All she will do will be to pass on her majority holding to Tom Smith, who probably can’t or won’t do anything different. And the logical result of all that? Many a long year in the Championship at best. That is a rotten way for anyone to treat this club.
My concern over transfers is can the club afford to lose money on the players that are atvthe club presently.
We have too many one season wonders and players that previous incumbents didn’t trust also the present coach doesn’t use for some reason.
Lafferty has scored at every club he has played for he even scores for N Ireland with very little game time, would it be nice to let him prove what he has to offer i the last few game before he leaves on a free, also dump Bassong now get him of the wage bill someone might pick him up on a free.
Interesting to see that our results since sacking AN haven’t changed, the next time we lose 3 games on the trot maybe the Canary Callers might care to remember that managers don’t make any difference, players do.
AN wasn’t the problem and I don’t think our ownership is either, our management & recruitment structure was, too many changes to heads of recruitment & chief exec have left us with a past it, has been squad. The new structure needs to be given time, first because one summer will not cut out all the dead wood and secondly our young players need to be given a proper chance to learn.
#8 Tony: Good comment and I thoroughly agree with you; however I believe we should give the new structure and Tom Smith a chance.
I imagine it would be some kind of Trust set-up and Tom’s powers will be extremely restricted, at least while the majority shareholders are alive. There will probably be the usual Trust Managers involved as well. Unfortunately for Tom.
I hope your final sentence doesn’t prove to be Delia’s epitaph.
In this country and at this club the manager takes the responsibility for the first team performances and results. Having a sporting director is a mistake in my view because the sporting director has power (or what is his point) but the manager / coach takes the flack. That means no sensible or talented coach will go near this sort of system in the main. Happy to give this a chance but I have serious doubts about this proposed structure.
I don’t think it’s any surprise that our results haven’t changed since sacking Neil. Irvine himself admitted that he had been to,d by the powers that be to Change nothing. Same selection, tactics and formation. Same torpor from above.
I can’t believe so many people have been suckered in by the whole restructuring issue. Merely a smokescreen by an incompetent board to justify a low cost puppet manager obligated to show absolutely zero descent to the decisions being made around him. Very few proven managers would be prepared to work in this type of regime. I can already hear the howls of protest to this point of view from the blindly loyal and the unofficial board spokesperson Mr Mick Dennis but mark my words time will almost certainly prove me right. As a season ticket holder it gives me no pleasure to hold this opinion but given the recent track record of the club, I’m not at all optimistic.
Paul (14) – In fairness, am not sure too many have been ‘suckered in’ as such, but most are waiting to see how it pans out and if it pans out in a positive way. You may be right, but let’s at least give it a fair crack before condemning it as a smokescreen.
I’ve already written of my fears of 2/3 weeks being wholly insufficient to bring about such a drastic directional change but – perhaps naively – I trust that it’s been done with the best of intentions: IE To modernise and streamline the football club.
Only time will tell.
Very recently I went to a “competitive” football match. One side was a very impressive operation where all the players seemed to have a sixth sense as to where their team-mates were; defended as a unit; attacked with pace and purpose; got ahead and were comfortably able to see out the contest. in stark contrast the opposition had a goalkeeper and defence who seemed to have been thrown together at the last minute, and appeared incapable of communicating; a midfield who huffed and puffed; made loads and loads of successful passes but created precisely nothing, and a lone striker who was so isolated that I really felt sorry for him. Sound familiar?? No, I’m not talking about City’s performance at Villa, but the U23’s at home to Sunderland on Friday. There appears to be a sense of entitlement running through our club at all performance levels. Urgency and purpose on Friday was sadly lacking until far too late in the second half. Other than the missed penalty spurned by Glenn Middleton I don’t think Sunderland were ever in any sort of danger.
As for the current first team, surely if the same players continue to make the same mistakes week after week after week they should be replaced? Also if results continue to be poor, perhaps a change of formation or tactics is called for?
As for yesterday, it baffles me as to why, when you’re in the last chance saloon as far as getting into the play-offs are concerned, that you make not just one, but two substitutions which are like for like and persevere with just one up front. Surely we should have gone 2 up front to put Villa’s brittle defence under some pressure?
Oh; and I see that some Spanish guy named Canos scored again for Brentford. To think that we had him but never played him, and then paid out more than twice his fee for Wildschut…..or am I missing some rather obscure point?
With so few games left, now has to be the time to blood those youngsters on who our future depends, and get the old guard on to some gardening leave pending their early departures in the close season.
Next, after we get our Sporting Director we’ll be told that after scouring the UK, Europe and further afield, the answer to Director of Football was here all along and named Alan Irvine.
Surely, surely not…….
O T B C
16) Your attitude is much like many of those there on Friday night: expecting something miraculous and when it didn’t happen, all too happy to whine, moan and bitch at our young players. The sense of entitlement is in the stands, nowhere else. There were six Sunderland supporters out-singing 2000 Norwich supporters, the more mature ones (who should have known better) all too happy to complain every time an ncfc ball didn’t quite go where intended.
We pushed and pushed in the 2nd half, hit bar, post etc and did everything but score but still the ncfc fans complained.
Yes there is a problem on the pitch but my word the bigger problem is in the stands. We are giving Arsenal fans’ sense of entitlement a run for its money and that’s saying something. It’s shameful, utterly shameful and if I was one of those under 23 players on Friday I’d never want to turn out for my club again, the way our ‘home’ support behaved.
Gary #4. Yes. It is where the club is most comfortable. I see the club as consolidation, rather than promotion.
@18 Inside Right – they are realistic enough to recognise most Championship clubs are loss making – which will prove a significant challenge to the self-funding model. For the Club to progress it needs regular promotions / stays in the Premier League and there in is the biggest challenge.