There is one common denominator that binds us together and that is the adoration and unconditional love of Norwich City.
Last Wednesday night epitomised this togetherness, which has been discussed by those spearheading the club’s operations. Stuart Webber mentioned it, Daniel Farke actioned it, but that Stamford Bridge performance left those who align themselves to the Canaries with an immense sense of pride.
This football club has been wedged apart with club politics, player departures and the ownership debate in recent months, but as academy graduate Jamal Lewis scored in added time in West London, it proved this club has the potential to be united.
The framework and apparatus is still being constructed and the rollercoaster being endured, yet time is a key factor in Operation Farke. With wins, conversations surrounding the owners and off field issues evaporate.
This window epitomises what the project is. The club needs to have an academy that is regularly producing talent and who better to source and develop that talent than a man who was leading operations at Borussia Dortmund’s Under-23s only a year ago.
Jamal Lewis and Todd Cantwell are the new poster boys despite Alan Irvine, upon his departure last May, stating the club was devoid of talent in its youth sides. Farke however has already plucked a real gem in Lewis and it is not implausible to suggest that there is an abundance of talent working tirelessly to be the next Lewis, Murphy and the like.
The sale of Alex Pritchard, to a degree, reinforces the desire to have a squad full of players fully committed and those who fail to display commitment or have minds elsewhere will be swiftly move on. The average age is also slowly decreasing. The oldest signing to date has been 28-year-old Mario Vrancic.
Webber inherited a mess upon his arrival at Carrow Road and this structure requires longer than six months for that mess to be cleared up despite the excellent off-field work, including halving the wage bill and ridding the club of its big earners.
This philosophy is one of slow construction, one which has been halted by bumps in the road and slowed by the reduction of an inflated wage bill. January is one of the most frenetic and fractious periods of the footballing year. Day by day, deals develop and fall, only to be completed eventually. It is a disconcerting and problematic period for all football clubs.
For Norwich, the size of the cloth has been significantly reduced and that gaping hole has been filled by the money the club was able to recoup from the sale of Pritchard. Now, all eyes turn to the incomings.
There won’t be big names, nor big fees or household names (Kenny McLean from Aberdeen fits that bill). The signings will be done on the cheap, which is the reality of where Norwich is at present. The investment debate needs to be put on ice for the time being, the feelings of pride and admiration from last Wednesday night need to be embraced.
This pathway is the correct one. Fans are feeling fragile due to the mismanagement and perceived lack of ambition, but for once this club has a youth policy that allows young players an opportunity rather an ageing squad eating away a large proportion of the wages.
The players on loan, Ben Godfrey, Carlton Morris and Remi Matthews, are there to improve their game by playing at a good level. Godfrey, in particular, would have been easy for Norwich to retain and ensure he has a bit part role; instead, his position was filled with a loan whilst he gains a full season of development to eventually replace Alex Tettey.
When he does so, Norwich will have an operator who has been part of a League One promotion battle and will be hungry to maintain a positive year. Also, it would be easy for the club to recall Godfrey whilst right-backs are short of supply, but that too would be just a short-term fix.
City are using the loan system to great effect. It is a positive thing to have a lot of players on loan; it shows a club being proactive and trying to improve youngsters for either a first-team role or a viable player who can make them money.
The academy is undergoing significant changes.
Youth players from the younger years are filling the gaps left by loanees and in doing so are gaining valuable experience of operating in a higher age bracket. The club requires the academy to be self-funding through sales of youth team players but also by offering these players a path into the first squad.
There is now an abundance of youthful talent in the ranks. Nurturing and growing is the remit of those who oversee a player’s development. Lewis, Cantwell and Godfrey are just the first of a longer chain. What Norwich need to do now is ensure this is engrained in their DNA and learn from clubs like Southampton who have received large fees for graduates such as Walcott, Bale and Shaw.
In Farke, they have a progressive coach willing to integrate younger players in the side and in Webber, a man who is willing to spend significant time shaping and developing the academy for long-term gain.
It’s all about the process and that is in place.
Not a single mention of promotion to the Premiership as an aim. Just a club intent on manufacturing talent.
That is what we’ve become.
Connor’s argument is that we have to get the process right before we can challenge effectively for the Premier League, in contrast with the approach last season, which was a rather flimsy all or nothing endeavour.
You neglect to mention that Southampton have massively tweaked the model, to almost unrecognisable proportions. I like the thought of a youth system that works, but it requires big salaries and names alongside it to make a real success of it without having to sell every inch of talent before it fully develops. Otherwise, a young wonderkid isn’t going to see progression in the short to medium term when he is the best player at the club.
In terms of farke you are forgetting one overriding factor that will mean he doesn’t last long and Webber will shortly follow…the football is miserable. We have seen it so many times. A good coach can’t entertain in an entertainment business and needs to chopping to keep the fans coming through the turnstile.
I said on here quite a while ago, this club’s academy was producing a line that was not up to standard, with the odd exception, any who had seen a stint in the first team over the years are now plying their trade in non league football, Criticism was a plenty .
Something needed to be done
As a club what will be off for supporters will be to see youngsters blooded and if exceptional sold on for hefty fees. Isn’t that shades of what we were sell anyone who is good enough ? That spanks of championship mediocracy ., being close enough to keep season tickets sales up, but never quite making the top table. Welcome to the world of Ipswich .
I like the glasses you see through, but there are other pairs that project a different view
Very good article Connor. I wholeheartedly endorse your words. We all want to see the club succeed and the “project” gives us the best chance. For those who want the premiership brand now I fear you have the wrong club, billionaires are not lined up with their vast wads of money to build us into the next big thing. We cannot afford the future of the club in the short term by building mountains of debt. It doesn’t work and at some time some big name clubs are going to go under.
We must all fervently hope that amongst the ” big names going under” are those of Delia smith and Michael Wynn Jones.
“With wins, conversations surrounding the owners and off field issues evaporate.”
Not going to happen Conner! DELIA OUT !
Oh hello, 57charles, so you are appearing on this forum too now? Well, we all know which side you support and it’s colours are not yellow and green.
Ipswich troll! Move along!
Good article Connor. Farke is inevitably taking get the flak but the seeds of our present predicament were sown in our years of relative plenty in the PL when poor recruitment and a failure to refresh the squad means the rebuilding job now is much bigger than it might have been. I think the path the Board is taking is a sensible & pragmatic one (the idea there are very rich people out there just waiting to invest in our club is fantasy) and it’s great to see Farke finally bringing through some of our youngsters. There’s a way to go yet before it all comes together but Farke’s approach is not dissimilar to that employed by a certain Mr Lambert and that didn’t go too badly.
The noises about the intensity of training & an unwillingness to accept less than 100% effort are welcome ones along with the readiness to praise youngsters who put in extra practice on the training ground.
Confident team Webber & Farke will get it right in time.
Every club needs a good youth system, granted. With Norwich City it will become for of necessity, than freedom of choice. But youth in itself will not get us promoted, but as I’ve said many times, that is not part of the wider plan of the majority shareholders.
The wage cap is too low to keep the quality youth in anything other than the short term and they will picked off one by one. We’ll be a feeder club for the higher end Championship or where we have a shining diamond, the lower end EPL.
Having a good youth system is welcome and attractive, but don’t for a moment let it deflect and distract from the wider issues at hand.
Right now take off those rose tinted glasses.
The club is cutting corners in most areas to survive.
The board are getting a free ride. Ok they have money in the club but are not addng any, and blocking any new potential.
Who sre not allowed to cut corners? You got it in 1 THE SUPPORTERS!
Well Delia you carry on but I’m not sponsoring your hobby sny more
An interesting read
My concern is that at every level that city operates at the Academy the players or maybe their parents are being enticed by the bigger clubs to leave city and join them.
How many players not just from city are sold the dream by the United’s and Man Cities of this world and leave for the riches on offer but need the smaller clubs to develop them not all players are going to make it but some that could get lost in the system at the bigger clubs.
Everyone claims – and I agree – that Southampton have an academy to be very proud of and just look at the number of players that it has sold. Also look at the players purchased at reasonable fees and sold on for a large profit. This adds to the clubs coffers.
All this would not have been possible without it being underwritten, firstly, by the Liebherr family and now by the Chinese investors who have taken a large stake in the club.
Our present owners want the best of both worlds; a successful club with an academy producing talented players AND a possible promotion campaign – and all without investing money to start the process off.
Cloud Cuckoo land comes to mind or a complete breakdown of a business acumen that comes with not living in the real world, plus acolytes worshipping their every word.
The idea that some fans want Snodgrass to return (HITC) is just so ludicrous. We are in a certain financial position, and we must react accordingly. We now have a very good nucleus of young players, and they must be given, slowly, the chance to integrate into the first team. Last season AN would not give Maddison a chance, and who had heard of Jamal Lewis. Different manager, different outlook.
I think you need to look more closely at Southampton. The owners hold a 10m’s of debt for the club and they regularly spend more on players than they receive in a transfer window.
It is not a business model.
I’m on board with the project.I really like the priority given to the 2 cup matches this season,so different to raising the white flag in the infamous 4-0 defeat to MK Dons under Lambert.
I still yearn though for a big un up top who can head the ball.
Football is not an entertainment business, it’s a culture