As a fantastic season ends, fans minds are already moving from celebrations to preparations.
With the arrival of Patrick Roberts on loan and the uptick in random online signing rumours that usually accompanies kids being off on half-term, most fans have been channelling their inner Stuart Webber to identify what additions we need to make to our squad of Champions.
Some people will tell you that to compete in the Premier League you need to spend big money. Those people are usually ex-pros trying to forge a living as a pundit who has all the intellectual integrity of Joey Essex.
Fulham have shown how short-sighted this approach is, abandoning the players and style that got them promoted to bring in mercenaries who didn’t gel or fit the successful pattern that gave Farke’s Norwich so much trouble at Carrow Road the season before last.
Webber has already made clear that Norwich will once again, do it differently. Holding on to the players we have is the key to success next season, with the odd addition of the likes of Roberts to fill any gaps in the squad. You need some ins and outs to maintain competition and forward momentum, but this team isn’t broke and it certainly doesn’t need fixing.
Lessons of promotions gone by are clear as to why this is a good model to follow.
2004-2005
Under Nigel Worthington, Norwich replaced Hall-of-Fame centre-back Malky Mackay with balding midget Simon Charlton and spent most of the season leaking goals until young Jason Shackell was called in.
They also released Iwan Roberts and baulked at signing Peter Crouch for £2m in August only to struggle for goals and have to bung out £3.5m on Dean Ashton, who arrived just too late to keep us up.
Mackay was integral to the team culture, as was Roberts, and their off-field absence was as much a loss as on-field.
David Bentley, a superb talent but best known at City for getting the mother-of-all-bollockings for yelling “‘Ave it!” and booting the ball away during training, was not the kind of fit that was needed at the time.
And the decision to make a marquee signing of AC Milan’s right back Thomas Helveg to replace the solid and popular Marc Edworthy who had, with Adam Drury, Mackay, and Craig Fleming formed a settled and highly successful defence the year before, proved equally unsuccessful.
The result was relegation. Too many changes, poor decisions, no cohesive overview.
2011-2012
Our next promotion was under Paul Lambert, who kept faith with the majority of the squad who had got us there. Whilst he did make ten signings, these were young additions for the future rather than immediate upgrades and only one, Steve Morison, was over 24.
The list is incredibly impressive when you consider the careers these youngsters would go on to have: Morison, Bradley Johnson, Johnny Howson, Ryan Bennett, Daniel Ayala, Anthony Pilkington, Elliott Bennett, James Vaughan, Ritchie De Laet and Kyle Naughton have all gone on to have decent careers at mostly Premier League or Championship level – luck and injury notwithstanding – and the quality of that recruitment held City in good stead for the less-than-stellar additions under Chris Hughton.
But while most would feature for Lambert that season it was not at the expense of the Holts, Hoolahans, Ruddys and Martins (plural) who had got them there. And the new lads were prized as much for their attitude as their skills. People like Bennett, Howson, Pilkington and Johnson didn’t rock the boat, they just added their own professionalism. The team spirit remained, and City finished a comfortable 12th in their first season back in the Premier League.
2015-2016
When City rode the crest of an Alex Neil-inspired wave all the way up through the playoffs we had a ton of momentum, but there proved to be a lack of cohesion to the recruitment that led to problems further down the line.
Picking up loanee Graham Dorrans made sense, as did the experience of Youssef Mulumbu on a free, and Andre Wisdom as a right-back option, albeit one that didn’t really pan out.
But in a summer transfer window already cut short by the fact that it began a month after those promoted before them, we began chasing a succession of “wish-list” players.
Swedish international striker Ola Toivonen, Virgil van Dijk from Celtic, Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli, and Toby Alderweireld from Ajax all toyed with David McNally and Neil’s dreams (Alderweireld and Toivonen making it as far as Colney) before waking up and smelling the cash elsewhere – all the while wasting an incredible amount of time that could have been better spent.
Even the one we did get, Robbie Brady from Hull, rumbled all summer long and involved more bids than a Tory leadership contest.
We ended up going into the season half-cocked and as the transfer deadline drew near we let Michael Turner out on loan, missed out on a centre-back and had to get by until Christmas with only Russell Martin, Sebastian Bassong and Ryan Bennett to pick from, all of whom had question marks over their ability at that level.
In attack, with Toivonen off the table, a season-long loan move was made for the unknown quantity that was Dieumerci Mbokani, and last season’s hero Bradley Johnson was sacrificed to fund a deadline day swoop for Dwight Gayle from Palace, which collapsed at the last minute due to Connor Wickham picking up an injury in training.
Instead, we rushed through an 11 pm loan for Matt Jarvis which went a little way to keep the restless natives at bay.
We actually started the season reasonably well, buoyed on by a confident manager and the aforementioned team momentum, but a thumping defeat at Newcastle saw Neil lose his edge and by Christmas, we were in the danger zone.
We then splashed the cash in an infamous January transfer window that probably wasn’t as bad as many remember. Ivo Pinto and Timm Klose were quality (but unfortunately desperately necessary) signings who improved the team and have proved good servants ever since, albeit they took up large contracts.
Less impressive was throwing so much money at Steven Naismith that he gave up his place at a club he wanted to be at to come to one he really didn’t. This was especially strange as there seemed to be no plan as to where best to play Naismith or how to get the best out of him.
The loan of Patrick Bamford to add goals to a shot-shy attack was understandable but ultimately did nothing to prevent a slide into relegation. And buying the already injured Jarvis, when we had him on loan until the end of the season and didn’t have to commit cash, at a stage before we knew which league we would be in was plain idiotic.
The lack of a joined-up plan and the sporadic throwing of banknotes at holes as they appeared in the sinking ship did not work.
The lessons are clearly there from the past. Buying young and hungry works. Keeping faith with the players, team spirit, and style that got you there works.
Making changes for change’s sake? Spending big fees and trying to tempt big name players? Not so much.
In Webber we trust.
Hi Andy
Top analysis and one I heartily concur with.
“This team isn’t broke and it certainly doesn’t need fixing” you say and how right you are.
I’ve never gone into a “we’ve just been promoted” season feeling this optimistic.
The new contracts for Krul, Stiepermann and Hernandez make sense from every angle.
Todd Cantwell? Maybe he’d benefit from signing a lengthy contract too, but he’s got a year to think about it. I suspect one of those triangular roadsigns with “agent at work” on it. Maybe a loan-out till January might be a good idea?
A terrific read – and thanks for getting us back to football:-)
Thanks Mr P. Like you I’m more confident going into the PL this time than I ever have been before. We’re doing things the right way and it will pay off.
A great summary Mr H, when you get the fact spread out before you some of which I am sure we had forgotten about, The, Iwan, Malkay & Edworthy , alongside Johnson, the worst decision to have been dispatched.
Alex Neil really rode to the play-offs with a Neil Adams side , then was allowed to buggar things up by himself after that.
One thing he did which always made me scratch the spot that doesn’t itch, was beating clubs tothe hot prospect James Maddison , then sending him off on loan north of the border, thankfully a wiser head Alan Irvine did field the boy, I Know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but those in the game know what they are looking at.
I always liked Lambert’s way of describing “To give the boys a wee hand”
I have seen all our promotions since Ron Saunders, he took much the same line of adding to. Yes everything was a tad more level back then, but it was still a leap.
This time round I have this feeling of total confidence in no small measure,
We are building a squad more than capable, not ripping the guts apart of what has been outstanding
Every utterance from Stuart Webber screams common sense. Have a plan and work to the plan. It’s the same in all successful businesses. It is a clear demonstration that ex footballers are not business managers or leaders and in general should be kept as far away from that side of football club management as possible. This is why the model that Norwich are following is reaping rewards. Stuart Webber’s great strength is how he allows heads of departments i.e head coach to concentrate on the football decisions and tactics. Never has the club been in safer hands and I would bet succession planning is already on the shelf so that any component of this model can be plugged in and continuity maintained. The premier league is going to be tough but we are better placed to deal with the leap in quality than ever before. Hopefully the support stays strong and on message. This could be a golden era for our club.
Top comment as ever Delfy, and massive respect for using ‘utterance’ 🙂
The point you make about ex players and their suitability to manage business side is spot on. Very few top players make good football managers. All top teams have top players so it can only be the coach and spirit within the squad. We will be fine up until Xmas. DF & SW will earn their corn 2nd half of season. The youngsters may find it a baptism of fire in the prem, fans can play a big part by staying with the lads.
Great analysis Andy.
Losing Iwan and Malky was madness, Nigel undid all the good work he had done from turning us into relegation candidates to Champions.
And for whatever reason not getting Lewis Dunk from Brighton over the line to play with Ryan Bennett cost us dearly. To play either Bassong or Martin ahead of Ryan Bennett was another major gaff. I once worked out we had 8 clean sheets around that time October to October and Bennett was at centre half for all those games and in that time we never had one when Russ was playing there.
I am not knocking Russ, he was a great servant to this club just not as a centre half. It didn’t take long for Daniel Farke to work that out either.
A great read on a miserable Saturday afternoon and some excellent comments to your article Andy.
(I loved your ‘Academic Report’ of a few weeks ago and how several ‘pupils’ achieved much more than was expected of them at the start of the school year!!!), which has rightly earned them the chance to play against the ‘pupils’ from ‘Elite Schools!!’.
The rumours flying around that we’re signing such and such a player for north of £10M just makes me smile, as I’m certain SW would not EVEN consider blowing half the transfer kitty on just one player.
I liked the comment re Maddison going on loan to Aberdeen and if Neil had had his way, he would have returned there in the New Year, but he chose to stay at NR1 and fight for his place. Of course JM was a direct replacement for the waste of money Naismith, but that is history and thankfully the latter’s stay and lucrative contract is behind us.
The time now is to look to the future and what awaits us in the shape of the fixtures list in just under 5 days’ time and as long as we can hold onto the bulk of last season’s squad, I see no reason why we can’t have several seasons in the PL.
Hi Andy
A great read and some excellent comments have been returned to you.
When O’Nally left and Moxley was recruited I think A N was given his head and had no one to advise him, what every the reason O’Nally left for but the cut in a difficult situation and the gead hunters that recommended Moxley should have paid his compo package.
Like everyone I think this could be the start of a longer period in the Premiership, but I temper this with caution other clubs will be casting envious eyes at Webber and what he is achieving at city and him being ambitious will want to prove himself on the bigger stage, will which ever club maybe his next port of call give him as much responsibility as city.
The next thing is how long before bigger clubs come calling for team Farke and again where ever he lands next will he get the backing of someone like Webber .
Both of these are proving to be top class at what they do for city, one or both are replaceable to some extent having a list of potential replacements is great but that list must be fluid so that the club can react to changing times and circumstances.
Let all hope for a long lasting time for both at city and that they can build on last seasons success and go on from there to achieve a great future for city.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Love yer work. I look forward to seeing who we end up with and what they can do…I just hate waking up every morning to read nothing has changed…lol
Keep up the good work. COYY
I’m not sure I really buy into the theory of being disadvantaged because we were promoted later than everyone else last time around. It’s a lazy excuse and smacks of being unprepared.
Alex Neil was always going to require significant reinforcements following promotion – we were basically going up with the same defensive formation that we were relegated with in 2014.
The whole recruitment process was inadequate and reinforcements arrived six months too late and, when they finally arrived, most made very little impact.