How Stuart Webber has turned Norwich City from relegated humiliation to Premier League inevitability.
Changing the culture has long been a desire of Stuart Webber’s. He adopted a football club rooted in pessimism, one opposed to patient football and demanding of a Premier League platform.
A title-winning campaign that nobody anticipated helps, of course. Utilising academy products, misfits and castaways to assemble a side capable of deploying the exuberant footballing philosophy your inexperienced German Head coach desires helps too.
A new culture had been formed. Stuart could do no wrong.
Then he tried his hand at Premier League recruitment. That wasn’t so easy.
You are now a Premier League club and you pay Premier League money for Premier League players, even if the mythical EPL cashflow isn’t as immediate, nor as bountiful as presumed.
Instead, your hands are tied and you are forced to turn to loanees and injury-prone freebees to supplement the title winning squad you already have.
It failed. Miserably. A global pandemic didn’t help either.
Stuart had planned for all eventualities, including one that ends with 11 straight league defeats and a mere 21 points. But not a global pandemic.
A condensed pre-season but a prolonged transfer window only exacerbated these issues at hand for Webber.
Eleven incomings had been agreed before a senior first-team player had departed. The new boys needed as much time as possible on the training pitch before competitive action started and the majority were warranted that time. Only Jordan Hugill and Ben Gibson weren’t as fortuitous, even if the former was granted 90 minutes away at Luton.
Despite losing 5-0 away to Man City on the final day of a demeaning campaign, the off-season allowed Webber to formulate a wave of positivity that would even make Todd Cantwell a tad squeamish. One that was so large, it forced an HMS frigate to nearly depart from its dock, until a humbling 3-1 defeat in the first round of the Carabao Cup reeled it back in.
Prior to the Canaries kicking off at Kenilworth Road, a prediction that City would finish anywhere other than the top two was hard to find within the City fan base.
Seldom has a relegated team strengthened its side to such an extent following relegation. At the time of writing, the only major sale is that of Jamal Lewis.
While it is expected that one or two more may depart, it is proving ever so likely that Norwich won’t have to part with all five of their assets, nor will team leaders Tim Krul and Teemu Pukki be poached.
Regardless of the departures, the Canaries will have a more evenly balanced side capable of deploying Farkeball 2.0; a revised footballing philosophy of the one that led City to 93 points in 2018/19.
Quite how revised, remains to be seen.
Recruiting technical operators, a year or two shy of their 25th birthday, means should Farke guide his side to an immediate return to the top-flight, they will be at just the right age to deal with the pressures of the Premier League.
But it won’t be all doom and gloom should it not pan out this way.
A second consecutive season in the English second-tier would mean teenagers Bali Mumba, Sam McCallum, Josh Martin and Adam Idah would all be afforded another campaignto showcase their development.
And Jacob Lungi Sorensen, Przemyslaw Placheta and Danel Sinani would be approaching 23-24 years of age, with a full season of Championship experience under their belt.
That’s not to mention the seasoned EFL professionals we’d expect to remain, even if they weren’t able to return to the top-flight at the first time of asking.
While some may disagree – particularly if a COVID-influenced transfer market is present – focusing on the long-term vision as opposed to short-term gain should be paramount above any immediate success Canary fans may desire.
City will return to the Premier League in the not-so-distant future. I’m sure of it.
What is more pivotal is that the infrastructure and provision around the football club is sustainable and more secure than last time.
They need to be in a position where they can add prudent investment to a promotion-winning cohort, as opposed to settling for loanees and injury-prone freebees like last time.
There was a genuine feeling following City’s recent promotion that there was a set of players capable of building a long-term project around, one that could compete in the Premier League for the foreseeable future.
What fans weren’t so aware of was the crippling finances that continued to plague the club.
City took a gamble and decided to invest their broadcast revenue in tangible assets. Whether this was signing Emi Buendia to a five-year-deal, or making considerable improvements to the training ground, the club was in desperate need of renovation and regeneration.
Returning to the top-flight at the first time of asking is by no means a certainty, but the frugal investments made will certainly help.
What is paramount above all else is that the Club needs to be ready for such a jump. And judging by the current landscape, I believe they are, thanks to Mr Webber.
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Billy is ½ of NCFC podcast The Revere End. You can follow them on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook @therevereend and listen to their podcast on Spotify, Apple and Google podcasts.
Wow. Happy clapping right there. Worst run in our history with a club only surviving by player sales and tv money. Make no realistic attempt to stay in the top league and happy to be a feeder club for Leicester and Newcastle. Everyone at NCFC is looking at the next gig. Except the majority shareholders, who turn up and watch for free and contribute nothing but hope that it’ll all come right by magic.
Look at the bigger picture. Long term success over short term gain. Squad in a better position than it ever has been. As are training ground and youth facilities. Webber might not have achieved what he wants on the pitch as of yet, but the club has never been in a more secure position than now.
Gary, posts like this are why I have asked in the past for a “thumbs down” at the end, to give us a simple way of saying we disagree. Any chance?
Fair comment, Jim. Will give it some thought.
Thought I’d be the first to use the tick down – Don’t mean it though 🙂
A really interesting article Billy and as you rightly point out, the club is on a much more stable financial base than it has ever been. The improvements to Colney were sadly needed and are very impressive.
As a young player with prospects, why would you not want to spend part of your career at NCFC? You only have to look at the career of both James Maddison and Jamal Lewis and how they’ve progressed under the tutelage of DF and his coaching staff to see how they can help you. I look forward toseeing how Idah and Martin progress in the coming yeaers.
I hope we only lose a couple more before the transfer window shuts in just over 3 weeks time and that we are not plagued by injuries as we were last season.
Yes, SW has signed some interesting young players and if Gibson can forget whatever happened at Burnley, he could ad some much needed stell to the defence – especially at set pieces/corners – only time will tell. Also, can Pukki rediscover his goal scoring prowess and bag at least 15 goals and will Hugill be in the starting 11 wen we’re facing teams such as Rotherham – I’d certainly like to see it.
I’ll take a nail-biting 1-0 win today.
OTBC
Hi Billy
An excellent read and now it’s like waiting for the whistle to blow before it’s up and over the trenches and battle begins.
As you say, only one out of the door so far but we still have 3 players – Leinter, Drmic and poor old Trybull – still on the books. A couple of rumours of interest but no signs that offers have been made; seems their agents are sitting on their combined haunches and waiting to see how the winds blow.
Out of the 3, I will be sorry to see Trybull go – he has endeared himself to City supporters and even his wife got involved writing a book and donating some of the proceeds to the club, and that is for another day.
Happy clapping not for me, no matter how many years we stay in the Premiership we will always be the poor relations – other clubs will steal our best young players from mainly due to not having a rich enough owner that can support a self-financing system. It will only get worse once SW leaves unless he can be persuaded to stay. We live in hope.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay safe and stay healthy
If all this thought had gone into the start of last season we may well be still in the premiership, instead of a fingers crossed we stay up season
Seems a little rose-tinted to me.
Webber can certainly be applauded for upgrading the facilities from their tragic state. That will most likely be his legacy.
What I find odd is that thepeople who support Webber for doing this, are also the folks that support Delia, despite her letting her business fall into such a state. That is happy clapping.
On the other site of the coin, Webber has IMHO been lucky to inherit from previous regimes a wealth of talent. Maddison, Lewis, Aarons, Godfrey, and Cantwell. Plus a host of other saleable assets (Murphys, Pritchard, Jerome, Howson etc…). Yes he took on Naismith, but take some scales and put Naismith on one side and all the rest on the other, then tell me Webber didn’t come out on top of that deal.
Which of course is all fine, he’s used them well.
But if I look at “the project” of signing players to move on for profits, specifically at people signed by Webber, I’m waiting to see results after 3.5 years (a lifetime in football).
His signings have been a mixed bag. Some sublime (Buendia, Pukki, Krul). Some good (Vrancic, Trybull,McClean ). Many incredibly poor (Heise, Watkins, Franke, Husband, Marshall, Rupp, Drimic, Bamford, Passlack, Duda, Srbney, Amadou, Ragett, Roberts, Leitner (after purchase), Martin (extension)).
I’ve purposefully emphasized the poor there, but to make the point, there’s a been a lot of failures for what a lot of people say is a ‘crack scouting team’.
Again, people like to bring up Naismith as a failure of the past regime, but Webber is currently paying 3 players very decent wages, without even giving them numbers. A combined wage likely in the ballpark of Naismith.
That’s all part of football, of course. But if you’re writing an article on Webber, I think you need balance.
Lot’s of very positives Billy. Only wish I could be anywhere near as positive as you.
Fact is, as Stephen remarked, no true attempt was made to stay up last season.
That was totally unforgivable. DF certainly had a raw deal, not one hand tied behind his back but both of them.
As Paul Lambert used to say, we are bringing some others in, to give the boys a hand. That was what was needed. Not the lowest spend by a newly promoted club in PL history.
It seems to me that money in the bank is the clubs only aim.
I recall, in the days of Robert Chase, after Chris Sutton and other were sold, “ where’s the money gone” was sung from the stands, if we fail this year it could well be resurrected!