It’s only seven days since the nightmare that was the 2019/20 season ended, but, oddly, it does feel like an age ago.
Just as well really.
Part of this is down to the club’s insistence that we move forward, prepare for the new season, and not dwell on the wrongs of last season.
Which is all well and good (understandable and sensible even) but what about us curmudgeons who want to stay angry for a bit longer and who are not yet ready to move on?
Can’t we just allowed to be grumpy and irritable for at least another week?
But no. Stuart Webber insists on drip-feeding us new faces, some of them in the ‘exciting’ envelope, as the squad undergoes a refresh more radical than most of us envisaged.
It reached the point last week when a day went by without a new face and the Canary Nation sulked.
I’ll not dwell on the new faces individually – Martin’s doing that tomorrow in his own inimitable way – but what I will say is they’re young, they appear hungry and even those who’ll not figure immediately in Daniel Farke’s squad will still play their part in the future-proofing of the football club.
It’s a transfer strategy part-driven by necessity – we simply don’t have the funds to go out and buy experienced players who have been there and done it – but also by meticulous research and planning; identifying players whose value could one day increase and benefit the club either directly or by moving on for a fee – or preferably both.
And while this appears the common sense approach, in football it still remains something of a rarity. Those who’ve watched the Sunderland Netflix documentary Sunderland ‘Til I Die will know what I’m talking about.
(If you’ve not watched it, I’d thoroughly recommend it).
Obviously, for the two season’s covered in the 14 episodes, Sunderland Football Club was a basket base of enormous proportions, but I suspect the deadline day behind-the-scenes stuff was reflective of the majority of clubs as Jim White’s excruciating tones reach crescendo level.
In the first series, the then chief executive Martin Bain’s policy, with just a few days of the window left, was to work his way down a scribbled, hand-written list handed to him by two members of the recruitment team.
Sitting together in an office, said trio head-scratched, ummed, and ahhed before concluding the list contained no numbers and therefore no recognition of how much any of these targets would cost the club.
A wholly unsuccessful transfer window, unsurprisingly, followed.
In series two, new chairman and owner, Stewart Donald, personally takes control of negotiations in the January transfer window and, after then-manager Jack Ross telling him to not pay over the odds to buy Will Grigg from Wigan (they valued him at around £1 million), concludes a deal with one-minute of the window to spare for £3 million!
In the months that followed, Will Grigg wasn’t on fire. And hasn’t been since.
The point I’m clumsily making is that this approach to transfers (I hesitate to call it a policy) is not uncommon but is the very antithesis of how Norwich City operates right now.
And that can only be a good thing – in the short, medium and long term.
So, while Webber has himself done a sound job in not giving cynics like me a chance to carry-on-venting, the head coach then goes and chirps up on the club’s official video channel and offers a lucid, honest, and what I ended up believing as fair, account of the travails of last season.
If you haven’t…
Naturally there are elements we’ll not agree 100% with, but there’s no doubting his passion and focus and also a recognition of the pain many of us are still feeling.
Okay, so it was an in-house production and therefore not exactly the Spanish Inquisition, or akin to Andrew Neil/Corbyn or Pier Morgan versus any government minister before they stopped talking to him, but two things stood out.
First of all, there was an admission that being a possession-based team that relies on creativity, as opposed to one based on a rock-solid defence, was always going to make for a difficult first season.
Without specifically mentioning Sheffield United, Farke alluded to the fact that a team that concedes few goals as it’s modus operandi is better prepared to face the task of PL survival than one that was being asked to out-pass teams who are better and have more quality.
Not rocket science but true (and he hints that next season won’t be such plain sailing for Wilder’s boys), and the alternative of changing the approach – ‘parking the bus’ – would have meant a complete squad overhaul; something way beyond the club’s financial capabilities.
He also made a good point about his ‘five per cent chance of survival’ message that was deemed by many as defeatist before a ball had been kicked. The opposite would be have been full of bravado, with no recognition of the fact the decision had been taken to invest modestly in the squad.
He argues it would have disingenuous to have given it the big’un while privately not being convinced that enough had been done (for the right reasons) to make the squad Premier League ready, and that he’d have been criticised whichever stance he’d taken.
Another fair point.
So, damn them. Between them, they’ve started to get me back on board. I don’t feel quite ready, but I’m half-way there regardless.
Ggrr. 😠
Thanks Gary. At least with SW and DF we’re in good hands, and the new signings to date look promising. If we can get in some experienced players to add muscle to our defence and midfield then tough as it will be maybe we can make it back up again at the first attempt. A lot of incomings but inevitably there will have to be a clear out, particularly of midfield players, and no doubt one or two “stars“ will depart too. Who goes and who stays will be interesting.
Yes, last season was extremely disappointing on a number of levels but to use the cliche “we are where we are“ and l’ll look forward to next season with optimism that we can beat a few again and score some goals. OTBC.
I wouldn’t race to extol the virtues of our purchasing following the last two transfer windows. Most people would have been hard pushed to have done worse than recruit Drmic, Duda, Rupp, Roberts, Fahrmann, Amadou and the rest. I think we are all going to reserve judgment until the new cohort takes the pitch. If we are going to get £25 million for Buendia and others then we need to go out and actually spend some of the money on proven quality that aims to improve the team. If we continue to simply buy-in second and third tier players to then sell on then the yo-yo cycle will continue forever more. At some point we have to back our judgment and commit to a truly ambitious purchase or two – and put our money where our mouth is.
When you look back at the transfer window like this, it looks awful. Transfers are always going to be hit and miss, but to not get even one right…. 🤦♂️
Fair comment that, Tony. Maybe I’ve jumped the gun, but it’s the approach, compared to Sunderland’s (for example), that seems at least to have an element of common sense.
But, as you rightly say, ultimately it’s how those players deliver, rather than how they are acquired, that really matters.
Hopefully some good early season performances will ameliorate the anger soon enough. Hopefully.
One of the main Sunderland mistakes identified in the excellent but far-too-short ‘Til I Die’ doc was buying young players on only two- or three-year contracts which were just long enough to see them make the first team then disappointingly disappear on a free immediately after establishing their enhanced value. F&W do seem to tie their new young players down to four-year contracts at least which is more sensible (if a bit more expensive) and we could end up with a great little side in three years. But it’d be nice to have a good side now sometimes too!
Like it, Gary!
Because of the dead period caused by the pandemic, none of what followed seems at all real. Yes, we had an atrocious re-start, and clearly weren’t good enough to stay in the Premier League, but it still feels a bit dream-like. What might we have done if we’d been able to carry on after beating Leicester? Who knows? Would Villa have been able to scrape through? Would Watford have imploded the the way they did, or sacked Pearson even earlier? This season will have to be put down as the learning curve for Daniel Farke, and I think he’s intelligent enough to have taken it on board.
Onwards and upwards! (Again!!)
Just please don’t anyone suggest sacking him and bringing in Howe!
Howe failed badly at Burnley and had to back to Bournemouth as he could not cope
I seem to recall that it may have been based around the location.
Would you rather live in Bournemouth or Burnley, and where would you rather bring your kids up?
Great stuff, Gary.
To be honest, Gary, most fans really didn’t have an issue with the ‘five percent chance of survival’ message, or the ‘favourites for twentieth place’ mantra either. It was actually being reminded of it week in, week out, which started to wear a bit thin, especially over such an extended season. Frankness and honesty is one thing, repeating it indefinitely to cover failure on the pitch is quite another.
The short gap between seasons has worked in Stuart Webber’s favour, allowing him to gloss over last year’s poor performance and paint a rosy future with a plethora of new signings, many of whom will probably not feature in the first team. According to Dave Freezer of the EDP Norwich spent £6.2 million on transfers and loan payments last year. I suggest that spending that much on one decent centre back would have given us a better chance of remaining in the Premier League. I remain to be convinced that his approach will ever make us better than a good Championship side.
The £6.2m figure can be found in the 2019 accounts, last page, under post balance sheet events and relates to last summer’s transfer window spending after year end.
The January transfer window probably didn’t add much to the figure, although the Duda loan fee has been described as ‘significant’.
Hi Gary.
An enjoyable read this bright sunny day in Blackpool and after yesterday’s cricket a few of us can smile again just waiting for the last ODI on Tuesday then will be Rooting for the test side against the Pakistan team.
Football
Farke is proving he is media savvy and I enjoyed his transfer up date saying that Webber is trying for more physical strength in the team.
I just wonder if he could be interested in Cameron Vickers at Spurs he looks as if he can handle the championship after a tough season at Luton he doesn’t seem to have a future at Spurs so could possibly be part of an Aaron deal.
I will be waiting with bated breath for how Martin Samuels will be writing off clubs that have gained promotion to the premiership this season especially if they don’t spend heavily with their new found wealth, will the Aghar Khan at Fulham throw money at it if he wins the playoffs or will it be the moneyball owners of Brentford that becomes the new Bournemouth all ripe for Samuel’s to knock.
City have possibly a great prospect in a 15 year old in the academy by the name of Shakpoke if he is as good as they are saying find out what he wants to keep him, Aston Villa are after him plus a few clubs in Europe, he has refused a scholarship so offer him the next level apprenticeship.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay safe and stay well
another good sunday read, It seemed to me the repeating of the mantra of 5% became the way of trying to cover the lousy season and recruitment . reminded me of Doomcaster’s Prudence with ambition
There’s no fool like an old fool. I’m old and last summer I was full of foolish enthusiasm. City were the Championship Champions, we played attractive attacking soccer, no matter if we let lots of goals we out played and and out scored the opposition. We had young skilful players with bags of belief capable of taking a few top scalps. Webbo and Danny were urging caution, no going back to the old ways of spend and bust. Like most fans I didn’t listen, the lads were capable of a mid table finish. Well, no more picking over the bones we’ve done that enough just lately. Maybe the dynamic duo can get us up and running again? I’m paying a bit more attention to what they say and do, no more blind faith from me, hope yeah. It’s been a horrible year and it’s a nervous future.
Excellent, as always. My disappointment has long since gone, probably because for me the season had a lot less relevance after the pandemic brought everything to a halt. But to illustrate how shallow I am, I’m looking forward to the new season and am pretty optimistic we’ll be ok. Although actions speak louder than words, Farke’s analysis this week was brilliant. I believe we’re in good hands.
The final table didn’t make great reading but I still feel we were better than the results suggest. Between Leicester away and Newcastle away. we could easily have had at least another ten points with better finishing and game management. Fine margins. Also, we had very little luck. Why we were so off the pace when the season resumed remains a mystery.
Glad you mentioned Sunderland Til I Die. Compelling viewing. Always had a soft spot from them since the ’85 Milk Cup Final. OTBC!
Good read as usual Gary but I can’t help thinking that our plan relies too much on luck.
Without substantial investment at some point it doesn’t add up. Unless the grand plan has nothing to do with the premiership.
No luck involved. Just forensic care with recruitment and patience.
Is that the same care that was shown this season past? If so we need plenty of luck.
Great article Gary and very thought provoking.
As @Tony quite rightly points out, other than ‘sick note’ Byram, last seaason’s signings were rather like a ‘damp squib’. Why that should be the case when we signed Hernandez, Buendia and Pukki to name a few is anyoe’s guess and I’m hoping that at least 75% of those we have signed can produce the goods next season and for a few seasons thereafter.. Time will tell and I’ll be glad when we get to the end of the transfer and we see who leaves and if we have any more arrivals.
On the face of it last season’s signings look awful compared to the year before. Drmic is the most obvious – nowhere near as good as Pukki.
Except for one thing – Pukki is an established hero because he was dynamite the previous year – in the Championship. We haven’t seen Drmic in the Championship, only struggling in the PL. Based on their post-lockdown performances there’s little to choose between them. Based on his team selections, which are presumably much influenced by what happens at Colney, Farke doesn’t think there’s that much between them either.
I think the Amadou loan might have worked had he been able to come in and play his natural position from day one, instead of having to fill in at centre back.
As for Fahrmann you have to have a decent number 2 keeper available in the PL. Had Krul been injured or suspended for any length of time the club would have been lambasted for not having a capable replacement. That he didn’t manage to dislodge Krul doesn’t mean it was a bad loan, and it was very unfortunate that when Krul was injured so was he.
1: “First of all, there was an admission that being a possession-based team that relies on creativity, as opposed to one based on a rock-solid defence, was always going to make for a difficult first season.”
But possession-based football does not demand that a team commits hari-kari; defence is an important part of the game and our championship winning season suggested that in the Premiership we would be vulnerable in this area. It was always possible that in a better league we would, with the same squad, concede more (on average per game) and score less. It was an oversight not to improve our defensive strength particularly at centre back and that, by the way, was before the injuries were to plague us in this position. This would not have required ‘a complete squad overhaul.’
2: ‘He also made a good point about his ‘five per cent chance of survival’ message that was deemed by many as defeatist before a ball had been kicked. The opposite would be have been full of bravado …’
It was defeatist, along with speaking of players from lower leagues, ‘we’re the underdogs in EVERY game’ and so on. It’s a false argument to say you either speak of 5% chance or you’re ‘full of bravado.’ He didn’t need to do either. Encourage realism among fans but not pessimism and keep your counsel.
We could (not ‘should’ note) have done better with the squad we had; and as of 2 August 2020 we still need to strengthen at centre-back (even assuming we maintain all of our present squad and all remain injury free.)
How many of the incoming player will be out on loan from the start…..all of them is my bet.
ALEX Neil as soon as he signed James Maddison sent him back on loan to Coventry, ok that was part of the deal. But following that of on loan to Aberdeen. It was clear then that he should have been straight in our team. What a waste that was.
Still not totally convinced SW and DF are as good as they think they are. The promotion surprised them as much as it did us. The recruitment over the past two windows has been worse than awful. It seems that so far quantity may been more important than quality. Buy cheap, sell expensive, seems to be the main aim of our football club.