I’ve sometimes felt that I don’t belong. Not in a self-deprecating sense, but I’ve been through that situation a few times in my life.
From being a scholarship kid at a public school through being coerced into meeting an early girlfriend’s Tory councillor parents when I was a rebellious youngster to having to attend a financial meeting at work when I didn’t understand a word of what folks were talking about.
And when it comes to the Premier League, Norwich City are the ultimate *auslanders* which Daniel Farke surely, at last, must be beginning to comprehend. We are like a like a spare one at a wedding – we are not wanted.
But from my experience in these situations, you do your best. Speak your best English so you can converse with the posh kids, don’t be pushed into discussing politics with Terri Summers’ parents and nod along with the financial folks as if you understand what’s going on.
Did we do our best at Stamford Bridge? Not by a country mile.
The performance was insipid, gutless and I am so fed up hearing about how well Brentford fought against the Blue tide while we managed one dubious shot on target in the entire ninety.
James and Gary have picked over the bones of the match which must have been devastating for all of the loyal Yellows who were there in person to witness it. Words such as *clueless* *disjointed* *hopeless* and *pathetic* are those doing the rounds.
So I thought, why not look to the future? Slade said in that song that we never hear at Christmas that it’s only just begun so if it’s a good enough concept for Noddy Holder and his mates it’s good enough for me. Those of an optimistic disposition please look away now because this is my take on the shapes of things to come.
Our future is the Championship, wherein we might well be meeting 1p5wich Town once again if they carry on scoring last-minute winners against the likes of the mighty Fleetwood Town.
But we’ll not have the likes of Jordan Rhodes, Tom Trybull, Mario Vrancic or the Stieperdude this time around. Rio will ensure Max Aarons – deservedly – will move on and there will be no Ozan Kabak or stand-in keeper Mathias Normann either. Billy Gilmour? Don’t think so. No Jordan Hugill either come to that and Skippy? You’re having a grin.
We’ll be left with the rump of this squad, including young buds that have never been allowed to flower such as Christos Tzolis, Milot Rashica and Adam Idah. Maybe Andrew Omobamidele too if he hasn’t been sold off by then. Can you see that lot hauling us out of the Championship mire? I can’t. Tim Krul will probably see out his final playing years in his homeland and he’ll not be blamed for so doing.
Teemu Pukki won’t be around either – he’s ageing rapidly in front of our collective eyes.
Delia will be happy of course, as nothing suits her better than NCFC in the Championship. A nice warm boardroom with a lovely chilled drink is on offer whichever League Norwich City are playing in. We can’t all get a private jet to Rotherham but some fans will still lap the journey up, whether by car, van, Club Cabbage charabanc or Shank’s Pony. I admire our regularly travelling supporters, I really do.
I’ve always taken the line that I’d rather go to Carrow Road to see Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs rather than Luton, Birmingham and Coventry. Looks like my preferences have already been taken away from me by a higher authority.
At least I’ve been retired for a while so I won’t have to go into the BASF office in Hadleigh where my old Ipswich mate Colin had a can of Seven-Up waiting for me. He enjoyed doing that after we played Blackburn all those years ago. I felt like fizzing it up and chucking it at him but I didn’t.
I could laugh back in the day but not so much now. When will we ever learn?
We were outclassed and embarrassed.
Often I leave you wonderful MFW guys with a musical link. There are two consecutively this time, and *link* is the word. 🙂
Good morning on this lovely sunny start to the week – we need something to try and cheer up those in the Canary Nation after the abject display by those entrusted to wear the yellow and green shirt on Saturday.
For those who haven’t seen them, PD’s player ratings for the visit to Stamford Bridge were the lowest I can ever remember.
I’m with you in saying that I’d rather see the likes of Citeh, LiVARpool, Chelsea and Arsenal at CR, than Luton, QPR. Reading etc, but it seems that our owners sadly do not share our views and I know there is a handful of fans who feel the same.
Your summary of which players may still be here for the start of next season is pretty much in agreement with my thoughts.
DF is now faced with an enviable task –does he give the same 10 players (Omobamidele in place for the foolish Gibson) a chance to redeem themselves, or does he tinker and give some of the other players an opportunity.
Personally, I’d love to see the likes of Tzolis and Gilmour in the starting 11 at the expense of Sargent and McLean, giving the fans something to cheer and get behind the team and see Pukki at least having more chances to score. I’d rather go down fighting, than allowing our opponents to just trample into the ground.
Whilst DF had lots of ‘credit’ in the bank with the fans at the start of the season, IMO, that balance has dwindled over the weeks and he’ll probably get a text from that particular bank this morning informing him that he has gone into his ‘overdraft’
How does he remedy the situation??
Finally, I see Sunday’s game as DF’s ‘Last Chance Saloon’, but it will take much more than one game to get the majority of the fans back on side and we have the small matter of a trip to the ‘media darlings’ of Brentford awaiting us on the resumption of hostilities after the next international break.
In the words of a well-known song by D:Ream …….
#fingerscrossed
d Ream indeed
*In a Broken Dream* as in Rod Stewart/PLJ sums it up best for me 🙂
And a very good morning to you too Ed.
Of course I missed out Emi from my list of who won’t be here next season quite deliberately but we’re unlikely to see his like here again any time soon and that will also be a factor. We were butt-hole lucky he stayed last season tbh.
I’m not screaming for Farke to be shown the door although I understand why many people are feeling that way but it won’t happen in any case.
This season was written off before a ball was kicked. Not by us supporters but by those who should have more respect for us.
Is 2021-22 redeemable? I don’t think so myself.
Cheers
Hi Martin
Two excellent bits if music to round of an excellent article.
Has been a strange weekend all over for results both the WI and England’s cricket teams struggling to get 120 runs to Watford coming back from 2-0 down to beat Everton away to Loserpool beat United 5-0 at Old Trafford and of course Blackpool beating PNE at home.
In life there is always disappointing times and this weekend was rounded off with Spurs losing to WHU so my household were in shock to say the least.
We’re city really expected to get anything from this game lots of people including myself was hoping for a change in fortune but in our hearts knew it wouldn’t happen realist, optimist or pessimist all of those being a city supporter.
Yesterday I put 5 questions out there here is a couple more
Farke or Delia out first
Will Webber be here come May
Can city turn this round
Even after an extremely poor result we are still 2 points behind Burnley and Newcastle and 5 from Leeds but the one thing city can’t rely on is goal difference to keep us in this league.
Names getting mentioned Big Sam, Bruce and Wilder please none of these if a change happens
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay Healthy and Keep Safe
Hi Alex
Yes the Madness/Embarrassment choice gave me two hits for the price of one. I’ve got a few Ronnie Wood solo albums and had completely forgotten about *Delia* until the weekend. Wish I’d never remembered in some ways 🙂
My answers to your three questions would be:
Farke – Delia will never go.
No.
No.
Bleak answers to bleak questions!
Cheers
I think your opinion of where we’d be in the Chump next season is optimistic.
I’ve said it many times, SW needs to get a grip of a “timeline” and where senior pros and junior players align on that timeline each year. I said about Pukki ageing rapidly, that Krul is good enough to see out his days as possibly even a #2 at a champs league club back in Holland, that Hanley deserves and is good enough to be a squad player in the Prem, that guys like Tzolis will already be bored of the Prince of Wales road by 2023, Cantwell, Idah ALREADY want to move on from little old Norwich and experience a new social environment. The list goes on. You’ve seen that Buendia and his young family started more of a cosmopolitan life than Norwich can offer, so expect the same from a plethora of other foreign players. Like you Martin, who didn’t feel comfortable talking politics, I’ve known this way about little old Norwich since I was born. It’s not an easy place to live if you’re aspirational and haven’t made those moves away from home first.
And this is where SW and DF need to wake up. They themselves know that they one day want to move away from Norwich..,,, so expect the same from players. The clock ticks from a new arrival experiencing Norwich on day 1 and it is limited there after. Too many players already are well into that timeline.
What SW needs to understand, and he gets 75% bang-on, is that the 25% he fails with is precisely the 25% that keeps Norwich up. The 75% is buying young talent and selling them on and balancing the books, but the 25% is Grant Holt, John Ruddy, Russell Martin, Adam Drury, Bradley Johnson, Iwan Roberts, Neil Adams….. the list goes on forever.
Paul Lambert, Ask Him. Norwich is not fashionable. We don’t pay enough for a custom wrap of a Lamborghini to prowl the Kings Rd on a Saturday nights. Norwich, Norfolk, it’s a fabulous place to raise a family, take them away from the cosmopolitan crap and let your kids thrive in this environment. It’s why I moved back to Norfolk later in my life. But SW and DF aren’t playing that scenario out.
Blinkered by the success of getting all the Germans into the fabulous team of 2 years ago, then lost track of keeping a longer term plan. Those Germans were not good enough for the top level but as a collective they were a damned sight better than this disjointed group. You see, SW has ignored that 25% that Paul Lambert nailed down so well.
Stieperman and Vrancic were just as capable of setting up Pukki as was Buendia. Zimmerman was more of a warrior, limited in ability, but more of a warrior than any other defender than Hanley. McLean, limited in ability, could charge around safely with Tettey around. Tettey, his timeline was up, he stayed longer than most, but he’d promised his family to finish his career back home, our fullbacks were plug-and-play pragmatism. An ideal place for the 75% that SW and DF do so well. Bring in Lewis. Bring in Aarons. No problem problems, they are replaceable. Same in wide areas ahead of them. But through the middle? That is where your 25% needs to be guaranteed to stand the test of time. Not brilliant, but good enough and players who will play their hearts out for the club and who will stay here with their young families. Arguably, McLean is reaching the end of his timeline, Hanley too, Pukki needs those last pay checks at his age, not to mention a suitable tactical formula. Things will unravel if we are relegated – and in the background Delia and Michael are at an age where they might fall off a cliff too,
Love them or not, nobody else wants to invest in our club. If they get too old and want to drop the stress of financially backing the club, we might be in trouble.
But Paul Lambert? Not only did he keep us promoted after the charge from League 1, see Chris Wilder at Sheff Utd, he did with a group of players HAPPY to call Norfolk home. Just think about this for a moment: PROMOTED TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE and Tettey, Vrancic, Trybull, Leitner, Hugill…. They WANT to move on…… that timeline isn’t just about length of contract.
That 25% is about bringing in a spine of guys who want to call NCFC “their” club. Players who realise this is the pinnacle of their careers. Guys like Bradley Johnson, Adam Drury, Grant Holt. This is what made Paul Lambert so effective. This sense of belonging.
Whilst they might have been journeymen in the past, and this is what I meant to say to Gary in the past, get players who will seize Norwich as their golden chance to fulfill boyhood dreams of finishing their careers very near the football elite.
And we MUST get this sorted in January. Leave it until we are relegated and you are already deep into the timeline. Another year for promotion, 2 years from now before they are back in the Prem. it makes a 30 year old now 32 the next time the chance is around to play at Old Trafford, and chances are they are too old. And that’s when they need to PEAK. Don’t peak in the promotion season, peak when you get into the Prem.
This is why guys like Alex Mowatt or Conour Hourihane should be chased in January, why Jake Livermore could have replaced Tettey; why Vrancic (if we were happy to protect him with 2 other players) should have stayed instead of loaning Gilmour…. Why John Fleck would have also been ideal.
But guess what, these guys don’t want the complexities of the NCFC setup. They want the facilities at Colney, they want 28,000 every week…. But not the nuances.
On the NCFC timeline, DF has established legendary developments that have put Norwich firmly on the map but tactically he’s not the coach to take us forward and he’s not a coach I suspect that many players want to play for at the moment, including “the rump” that Martin eluded too. Will Cantwell and Idah fly the flag under DF next season or will they want away?
For me, it’s time to move on. I think both Eddie Howe and Chris Wilder are ideal candidates and where we are with SoccerBot and Colney, we are READY to stay in the Prem. We just need the right players first. And those players dictate the formation. And vice-versa. It is All linked together. It’s the 25% SW hasn’t gripped yet. Selling Andy O or Max for another £20m? That’s the 75% he’s got nailed but it’s necessary to make us self-funding, but it’s the 25% that Paul Lambert understood in the core that keeps us up in the first place.
Waffle over!
Hi Mike
On the footballing front I have always agreed with you about Alex Mowatt. Maybe there are reasons why we didn’t sign him that you and I simply aren’t aware of, of course.
Yes we do need those staples, which is why I highlighted the positives surrounding Vrancic and the Stieperdude. I should have mentioned Tettey also simply because we had nine fantastic years out of him. He spent the peak of his career with us.
I can relate to your thoughts on Norwich and Norfolk. I had a toddler when I moved here permanently in 1988 and very soon after that my son was born at the old N&N. However London was a much more exciting place to be a teenager and a young single adult.
Now, I’m delighted to have rusticated myself but at footballing age I would not have been happy here. I wouldn’t have seen so many great bands for starters complete with the Tube to get to see them on. West Runton Pavilion can’t match the Marquee, Roundhouse or Rainbow [god bless it].
I’ve always had strong family links to Norfolk so moving here was such an obvious choice as London became more dangerous by the day. Jeez knows what it’s like now!
But if you’re a young baller with cash to flash, Norwich isn’t the answer.
However I would never, ever live anywhere else but Norfolk.
And I think Wes, Holty, Hucks and many, many others would agree with me!
Cheers
I used the word “insipid” a few weeks ago when talking to friends to describe our performances. Chelsea is no surprise – the displays have been like this more often than not. From the moment the firsr ball was kicked this season, we looked slow, weak, toothless, and simply offered nothing. Stamford Bridge has been a work in progress for a side who can barely register a shot on target from week to week, let alone score an actual goal.
Do we belong? Not really, but it would be nice as a club if we looked like we were trying to..
Hi Jason
*Do we belong? Not really, but it would be nice as a club if we looked like we were trying to.*
Spot on mate.
Not as negative as I thought you were gon a be Martin lol .
I think the only thing Farke can do now is go back to what he does best and that wasn’t good enough last time around .
4231 this will allow a Cantwell ,Dowell or Gilmour to play and may lift the squad for that reason alone , It may work against Leeds it may not but it’s all he’s got left to try.
I think he’s lost the dressing room because of his Clueless nature this time around he’s defeated himself as such alienating players such as Cantwell etc will not of helped his cause , chastising tzolis publicly wouldn’t of either .
As much as I like the guy he’s really made a hash of it this time around clearly not learnt from last time either something got to give .
Oh and please Delia don’t give the new manager a nice big contract next time .
Hi Jim
I’m not yelling *Farke Out* but otherwise if I could have found a positive I would have included it, but more chance of me getting a mammoth tooth on Trimingham beach!
Has he lost the dressing room?
Us mere mortals don’t know for sure but it certainly looks like it to me!
And Todd does have previous for throwing a strop, after all.
Cheers
Sobering indeed Martin. If we were in a boxing match, it would appear that we have already thrown in the towel.
Having spent four years creating an identity, we now let Brighton out pass us, whilst our new recruits are underwhelming at best. Do we need to change the coach? If the answer is yes, then let’s do it now, not in a month’s time.
The only crumb of comfort is that the Press and pundits will be talking much more about Man Utd’s humiliation, rather than ours.
Hi Andy
I think MFW friend and Liverpool expert Tony Evans will probably never have enjoyed a Sunday afternoon more in his life!
Personally I don’t expect to see a change of head coach. That would be far too radical [and indeed expensive] for Delia to contemplate.
Cheers
Marty, sometimes life isn’t as bad as you think it’s going to be, it can get a whole lot worse. City have reached that point and there’s still a lot of the season and pain yet to come.
My advice to Herr Dan is go! You’ve done your best and now it’s to bug*** off. Take a nice sabbatical, peruse a few job opportunities before Christmas and make a fresh start in the new year. Your CV is getting bit tainted but if you stay it’ll get a lot worse as will the aggro.
As for City maybe we’ll get ‘new manager bounce’, the players will find their mojo and us fans will have renewed hope.
I fancy Colin as the new Messiah, he can talk the talk and inject a bit of bite, I’m sure we can afford to prize him away from Middlesbrough. Failing that Mick M is out of a job, and it would annoy the Binners if he succeeded here. No more of the Fancy Dan types, back to basics, a bit of grit and determination.
Hi Cutty
Yeah I get your drift – how couldn’t I?
I won’t have talk of Mick Mack or Colin though. As bad as things truly are that does not bear contemplation.
Some people are clamouring for Chris Wilder. Could you imagine him working for Webber – I bl00dy well couldn’t!
Cheers
I think I’m alone in mentioning Chris Wilder. My point is that he is a leader and not just a coach, much like Paul Lambert was and Chris Hughton. If DF does go, I expect SW won’t renew his contract either and so he’ll be gone soon too, with Neil Adamns learning in the wings…. which is fine by me.
Chris Wilder kept Utd up, he brought them up from League 1, both achievements that match DF achievements of 2 promotions at NCFC. Sheff Utd were labelled boring but I don’t think that is fair. Lets face it, 2-3 years ago they matched NCFC. Smashed us actually.
What Wilder (and Howe) would bring is a leadership that would encourage signings that we need….. my earlier post about Grant Holts, John Ruddys, Adam Drury type players….. we need these guys through the door for the next few seasons. I don’t think DF wants those guys, SW doesn’t like it as business model. I don’t ever see players like that joining the club as it stands. Hanley, McLean and Krul have already put their time in and will likely to start to look elsewhere and we won’t have any foundation or core next season.
We need these players in January and they will only come to play for the right coach. Otherwise, they will be coming for the pay check.
This group of players is not fit to task. Not fit to play this formation. We are in a death spiral.
It is a joke to think Normann, PLM and Rupp or McLean, in 3-5-2, are going to be able to help us score goals even though they might help us defend.
Stieperdude, Vrancic…. both played their part in the GOAT supply line. It isn’t just Emi that has gone. Although all these players were not good enough in the Prem, they AT LEAST formed a team in the Chump. We don’t have that anymore and has people repeat, next season minus Kabak and Normann, Williams and Gilmour, we literally have cock all. |
Who will want to join us after THIS season????? We need a manager players want to run through walls for and we need it yesterday
I simply don’t see Wilder working under a Sporting Director, I really don’t, cos it’s not his modus operandi.
Steve Cooper would have done for me but the vacancy didn’t exist at the time and he’s now gone to Forest anyway. And doing well, too.
Until Fulham pitched up!
Yeah Nick – fair do’s 🙂
This is all a bit like covid isn’t it. The time for talk is over what is required is prompt action before it is too late. Farke must go NOW! Webber should follow in the spring because they are both culpable in this fiasco. The tripe he has signed have prevented the progress of those up and coming players such as Sorenson and Idah being realised. Like many I could go on and on but now is not the time for talk it is time for action!
Hi Cyprus
I think in defence of MFW readers and writers, all we can do is talk as we surely know there will be no effective action, either on or off the green stuff!
Cheers
Actually I think SW will feel a need to act, not rush, in order to prove his salt to future employers that he’s got the backbone to make changes when necessary
Webber’s stock seemingly doth diminish by the day.
Morning Martin good read, i feel after this shite performance this weekend that The Leeds game should Be farkes last if we lose again dont know Who we would get in but we certainly cant continue as we are why is it ? that when we are near The bottom no manager can seem to get any right out of us to Be competitive worthy manager a mini run that nearly saved us bit ch an and farke cant get a tune out of us bloody frustrating .hope he chances things sunday like to ser sorresan beside Norman and cantwell and tzolis in might as well play one at The Back cant do any worse can they! see you sunday i think 😢
Hi Kev
Yeah I’ll be there at the weekend and I think we’ll collectively witness just how much this rabble really want to play for Farke.
Should be a spooky atmosphere that day of course. I hope Farke doesn’t get a verbal kick in the Ghoulies, but if Leeds score first I think that’s a distinct possibility.
Cheers
A very uncomfortable read Martin as not only did it mirror my own despairing thoughts about our current situation but prior to retirement I used to work in Bury St Edmunds with several Ipswich fans.
The current situation has slowly been brewing since Lamberts departure due mainly to two factors. The premiership continues to become more expensive and our owners have become relatively poorer by comparison.
Ok they own the club and can do as they like but it needs customers as at the end of the day it’s a business. In a normal business if the owners can’t supply the customers with what they desire they go elsewhere but as we all know football is different as the commodity is engraved in our hearts and there are no alternatives.
It’s difficult to see how we can impress on our owners the need for change than by vocal disapproval at the games.
I sincerely hope on Saturday that we make it obvious that we disapprove of the way Delia clings on to the detriment of our enjoyment rather than abuse the manager who’s a prisoner of her financial inadequacies.
Hi John
All my articles are like that – as in uncomfortable to read. An old English teacher told me I used split infinitives far too often and he was probably right. I never really got the grasp of old style grammar as you can doubtless tell!
*We all know football is different as the commodity is engraved in our hearts and there are no alternatives*.
True. It’s a bit like being a landlord with a sitting tenant who is unable to move out, as in *I’m in charge* – keep paying and you can stay.
As for the Leeds match I don’t know what the atmosphere will be like but Delia portrays herself much differently to an Ashley or a Glazer. Many fall for the image and I sincerely doubt she’ll get any abuse whatsoever even if we get another humbling.
If I were 23 I would think differently but at 63 I wouldn’t join in with a chorus of abuse directed towards an old lady. Just out of politeness, nothing more.
Thanks as always.
Martin, Chase was no spring chicken but it didn’t stop fans airing their views.
Until Delia is made aware of how we feel verbally the club will just continue on a downward path.
I’m nearly seventy and time is running out. I’d hate to see us back in league 1 playing you know who.
If she put the club up for sale and there were no suitable interested parties fair enough but to continue with the current insanity is unbearable.
That’s why I chose Madness as my major piece of music.
I think back then Chase was the same age as I am now [63] but there was a real dislike of him on a personal level which simply isn’t there for Delia.
Apart from a couple of top level hangers-on Chase had no acolytes.
There are too many Deliaphiles for us to change this situation by stamping, shouting and chanting.
The only person who can change things is Delia herself – fat chance.
After the Watford game I was a bit shellshocked as it became clear that we didn’t have the players to compete at this level by quite some margin. Heroics in defence ensured that we secured a point against Brighton but I look at the squad and I can’t see 11 players from it who will be there to secure promotion if we are relegated. If we miss in year 1 we will be down for quite some time and that is when the cash cow runs dry. We would lose parachute money after 2 years and would need to make a profit on player trading to fund a decent Championship squad. This would be something like selling Buendia and buying Rashica every year or more likely selling Godfrey and Lewis and buying Gibson and Giannoulis every year. Assuming Cantwell and Aarons go very soon that would leave Tzolis and Omobamidele as the players who could be funding year 3 and 4 of a post relegation scrap. I have spent 30 years looking at financial business cases and the one presented here where we sustain Championship football by player trading profits in the region of over £10m p.a. isn’t one where I would be comfortable giving the nod to. There is another aspect about belonging, The club I have supported for over 50 years has become increasingly a club for the acolytes, I have seen many people with similar views to mine being told to support someone else or this club is not right for you and I am thinking that maybe they are right and it is time to move on from Norwich City. It isn’t the players, it isn’t the manager or even the owners, it is a vocal minority who are so wrapped up in the status quo that they act as though they are the moral guardians of the club. I started to drift away from the club in 1995 when I felt taken for granted as a season ticket holder by the then owner, I came back to the fold a few years later but a lot of damage was done and I am starting to question why I go again, it is not the defeats it is a sense of this club being taken away from me. In 1995 I started watching local non league football and maybe that is an option again. After the Brighton game I met up for a drink with another fan and he is further down the path as despite being a season ticket holder he has only been once this season and for the reasons I have just mentioned
Hi John
I totally agree with you except that I don’t see myself ever not going, although I as I get older I might be tempted to bring my *retirement* forward by a couple of seasons.
When it comes to the jolly old morals, we are occasionally told what is best for us by the very people you mention.
I don’t listen though 🙂
Cheers
AARRGGHHH.
That’s pretty eloquent Bernie mate.
Roughly translated I guess you mean we put on a horror show.
Anything similar on All Hallows Eve and Carrow Road could turn into a ghost town before the night comes down.
Cheers
We have already out on The horror show Martin a Week early 😈
Bloody shame I used *Monster Mash* on an article about three months ag0 – I should have saved it up 🙂
Morning Mr P, can,t say good. That ruined the weekend good and proper, started watching on TV, but not for long before I disappeared to my garage workshop, where was a toss up between Rock Music and Radio Norfolk, my loyalty to the Yellows won through.
A lot of the commentary just went over my head, as I could not get away from what the delightful Cedric Anselin kept repeating, that he was confused as to see any formation, tactic or plan. A former pro could not understand what the plan was for the game, was a little out of the ordinary, he further added that those on the pitch looked confused ,with Farke on the sideline looking lost . I guessed we would not get anything from the game, as did Farke on Friday, seemingly the players thought this to and weren,t going to break sweat, if the coach doesn’t believe then why should we.
I gave my customary 10 game start, I have seen next to nothing that has improved, experience from Farke’s last foray in this league leads me to say we are down already, he will not turn this or anything around except his car
We are not wanted or really that welcome at this top table, we have never shown the respect of really wanting to stay there, talk is cheap, the prize for winning the championship is very nice, the lovely parachute money ain’t bad either. That sums it all up for me.
I do not want a promotion campaign of getting back at the first attempt anymore, not under any of this regime, at grass level and definitely not the board/ownership level neither. I do not want to hear the bullsh#t they spout of being an established premiership team, it is a pipedream that the PR boys know we will swallow.
How many serious football experienced board would put the hell up with 19 premier defeats from a manager,? Not ruddy many, when is someone inside that special room going to have the gonads to say. Farke is awesome championship coach, but the prem is too far away from him to get hold of. No it will be left far to late again as we have seen, been there got the tee shirt ..blah..blah.
As I have said before I have stacked up a lot of seasons, spent shed load of money, (many times what I didn’t have) traveled thousands of miles, in my love of this club. But this is more than enough , I have no problem if I saw honest endeavour fight, passion and pride, but sadly I don,t.
No doubt we will have players come out during the week to use a speech from the we need a
pep talk draw in the office. You know the stuff, we feel we have let you down and we will be fighting to put it right Yadda Yadda. Farke will say it is not good enough and will work on a response. I don’t needing telling, I want to bloody we’ll see it and not for one ruddy game either.
But I won’t see it, have been over this bridge too many times to believe it now.
I have criticized and laughed Steve Bruce as a manager, but he kept The Toon up and safe in difficult often toxic atmosphere. Would not mind a little of that here. Not advocating employing Brucie for one minute here.. but wouldn’t it be good to see that success at Carrow Rd ?
My music choice is for Stowmarket duo along with Mr Farke. Not to hang on a ruin what good you have built
The wonderful Moody Blues- Go Now
Bring back Mcnally lol
Lol is right – never going to happen, is it?
I’ve never met Stuart Webber but I did speak with McNally a couple of times and, personally, I found him to be a very nice bloke.
Not so sure if he was that nice in the business arena though 🙂
Hi Lad
Your entire comment resonates with me – like you and other senior members of the MFW crowd I have been through it all so many times before.
It’s actually something I could have written myself, although the results might not have been quite so heart-stirring.
*Go Now* is probably the only Moodies song I own as I’ve never really been into them. I think it’s Denny Laine’s plaintive vocals that get to me.
I’ve used it before on MFW actually either in relation to Delia [probably] or Alex Neil [possibly]. Can’t remember which.
Great comment – thanks.
Sombre words Martin,
I like to think NCFC teams always compete, but that was so weak it is hard to imagine finding a way back I’m afraid.
I cannot EVER remember seeing a Canaries team play like that, perhaps some of the performances back in the days of Roeder’s Loan Army went in that direction?
You mentioned Rhodes – there have been one or two attacking situations this season that he would have absolutely lapped up!
The only apology the team can really make for Stamford Bridge is to never play like that again this season, and to turn the season around. Their own self respect demands that, let alone the fans!
Cheers.
Hi Kev
Yes, Gary yesterday and myself today have indeed been sombre but he doesn’t look at my stuff before he writes his over a weekend, and I wrote this on the evening of the match. Sometimes I hang on to read him first so we don’t overlap but this one was a real *get it off your chest asap* article.
Action over apology for me every time, but I’m not holding out for anything positive.
Thanks as ever.
Its hard at the moment. I’ve followed us home and away for years when we were really bad, so its all releative but I can”t recall being as consistently embarrassed to support Norwich City as I find myself at the moment most weeks. I know I will be told to “grow a pair” or whatever but we are being humiliated on a weekly basis, are a laughing stock in the media and there is not currently a single thing to really throw back at people basedon how we are playing.
This is what we have been reduced to and it hurts.
Hi Jim
As I’ve said to a couple of other folks [above] as more venerable supporters we have been through it all before and apart for some wonderfully bright spots it always returns to same old, same old.
It hurts the most passionate supporters the most and therein lies the problem.
Thanks – respect.
Hi JohnF
Delia can’t see the wood for the tree’s and that will not change while there is so many supporters that find blame everywhere else and tell her she is doing such a great job.
Players come and go either at the end of a contract or are sold with owners they stay till they decide its time to go but our present ones have a long term plan to keep it in the family
I think some people feel they’re afraid to criticise Delia. Even I’m careful how and when I choose to do so. There’s an element of peer pressure in there somewhere.
I’m on garden leave as I start a new job in a couple of weeks. I am glad about this as I am sure Paul the Liverpool fan would have returned the can of 7Up I gave him after their game against Villa last season.
I have no additions to the adjectives already used to describe City’s lack of aggression and belief. I was a pisspoor fullback, but I played in a higher standard than I should have done because I would get stuck in and worked hard at making myself useful-I developed a long throw and became decent at free kicks. I haven’t seen much in the way of getting stuck in from this lot, perhaps it’s unfashionable to coach it.
As The Ruts sang, when you’re in a rut you’ve got to get out of it. I hope DF and the team find a way of doing this. However, I don’t have much in the way of hope or expectation.
Hi Don
Never knew you were a full back too. My later career [ha! ha!] saw me as a a right footed LB as our right back was so much better than me I wouldn’t have got a regular game otherwise, No long throw though, I was just unskilfully quick.
*I don’t have much in the way of hope or expectation*.
Join the ever-expanding club mate.
Cheers
Good morning all! Another good read from all comments to start the week off.
Until Smith and Jones are extracted from this football club it will never be successful!
Twenty-three years of disappointment with the exception of Paul lambert and Ian Culverhouse’s reign in the Premier League.
The poor choices in Management, lack of experience is unbelievable?
We are already seeing Delia’s Nephew being groomed to take over, absolute nonsense.
The rot in this club starts at the top and works its way down.
The start of this season Stuart Webber made the statement “We will not make the same mistakes as the previous year in the Premier League”.
Well he was right about spending money however we still went to pound stretchers instead of waitrose!
Lower league foreign players sounds familiar to 2019/20 which failed?
Don’t go and get a forward who can at least score 20/30 goals in a lower league i.e Adam Armstrong, no let’s get in Josh Sargent who scores 7 in 105 appearances in a lower league.
Pukki and Sargent have no aerial goal threat yet Webber bought two quick wingers to provide them with crosses?
Daniel Farke in 2019/20 was clearly out of his depth. Same formation as the start of this season which didn’t work!
Same 80 minute substituting of forwards which most managers do to waste time!
How anyone is supposed to get experience with 3 minutes to go is beyond me?
Sound familiar?
Five wins in forty five Premier League games, that record definitely deserves a four year contract extension, another great decision by the Norwich City Board.
The problem is now is who would you get in as manager? Who with experience of the Premier league would want to work under the self funding umbrella with these clowns?
Case in point not even Roy Hodgson who is friends with Delia Smith wanted the job.
This will be forever the problem at the club, until you attract a good experienced manager you will not attract the players.
With Smith and Jones still at the helm we can look forward to another poor late appointment when they finish procrastinating to remove Farke!
Hi Greg
You’ve summed up the feelings of what many of us are feeling very well, as in:
*With Smith and Jones still at the helm we can look forward to another poor late appointment when they finish procrastinating to remove Farke!*
One thing I will find interesting is how Delia & Michael manage to transfer 51% of shares to the individual that is Tom Smith.
I don’t have a clue if the fella is married or not but I guess that if he is they could swerve it by leaving anything north of 1% to her. Or any kind of partner he has, I guess.
Thanks – very good comment.
The only crumb of comfort from this debacle is that the wider world has finally woken up to what Norwich City are up to. Their card was marked two years ago and now it is for all to see what some of us have been saying for years – Norwich City Football Club does not want to be in the EPL, just happy to take its money every to or three seasons to keep this farce going.
If sanctions are brought in sometime in the future by the EPL for teams that have deemed not to have made a reasonable effort, then whose fault will that be?
I hate to say this, but right now, Norwich City is a rotten club to support. If the owners can’t be bothered, then why should we?
Hi IR
Once again we concur.
I never feel happy that some folks say Alas Smith & Jones are in this for their personal financial gain as they quite evidently are not.
But social kudos is the order of the day and they will NEVER willingly relinquish that.
A rotten club to support?
That’s a debate for another day but I’m afraid that just right now I agree with you.
Cheers
Why blame Farke? Pep or Klopp couldn’t keep us up on Delia’s budget!
The whole self funding nonsense is cloud cuckoo land. We’re being taken for mugs.
As some of us have known for some time.
I’m actually a socialist at heart but to me Utopia was a book. File it under *F* for fiction.
Where’s Wally? sorry Webber? Our director of football seems very quiet, you remember him the guy who knows everything and believes he’s never wrong…..well he’s got the recruitment for the last two premier league seasons very wrong. Never really liked the guy a lot since he told fans that if you didn’t like the style of play the you should go and support someone else.
We were told we needed bigger,faster more athletic players which we do and yet none of them fit that bill, Norman is the closest but even he is not that big or fast and he can’t even last 90 minutes.
The rest are just poor or average championship squad players, they certainly wouldn’t get in any other premier league team.
The one good thing he can do is sack Farke now, the longer this goes the worse it will get. Say we by some miracle beat Leeds but then lose the next week…..what will that extra 2 more weeks achieve?
I’m in my 60s now and been going to Carrow Road since the early 70s and have seen this many times before and once we get to this point it never ends well.
Totally agree Martin you say it as it is 😊
Count me in.
Sorry Martin I somehow missed this one earlier.
Dunno if you got a chance to read Paddy & Dave on the Pink ‘Un live earlier today but many people are asking the same thing as yourself.
Don’t hang me out to dry but I would guess Stuart Webber has probably had enough and will shortly move on, whether to his European dream job or another gig in the UK I know not. It’s not like him to be so quiet for so long which doesn’t bode well.
But does the idol have feet of clay? That’s a whole new topic altogether.
Thank you.
It was only 1 game, Chelsea got 3 points and Norwich didnt get minus points. Mentally at least my opinion its way easier after loosing by 7 goals than loosing game which you deserved to win or very tight game. You just forget it and move on. There was big level difference, game was over long period and then its just wisest to start thinking next game and save gas to those.
Leeds of course has better squad too, but its not so much better that its mission impossible. I dont understand opinions and talking that Farke should be sacked. With that player material avoiding relegation looks very much as mission impossible. Your recruitment failed. There was more than ever good free agent players all around europe, thanks to covid and it was possible to buy bargain priced professionals. Only thing what your club was thinking, was how much is their selling price so they felt safer to buy young players instead. Problem is that those players are not able to compete in premier league level.
Does your club have ambition to really trying to stay in premier league? It does not look like that at all, they get hype every second year and fans are happy and hopeful after promotion. This season is problem and fans get angry but they know that you forget it when Norwich wins games in championship.
Hi 1X2,
From where I stand, we expect the team to put up a fight – that’s how legends are made in football. Even little old Wimbledon did it a few years ago. I was going to go to the match but something came up. I was cursing my luck – until I saw the half time score from Stamford Bridge.
Poor old Tim Krul picked the ball out of his net seven times, but was effectively our man of the match, he made some blistering saves! He was pretty much left exposed by the team.
People are saying Farke should go because, despite two barnstorming Championship seasons, we are seeing identikit attitudes from the players when they come up against the Premiership’s best clubs. Brentford and Watford aren’t that special, we finished above them last season – it was not just luck!
The squad’s attitude must be based on some “Oh, they are wonderful, we can’t hold a candle to them!” attitude. My reply to that is “You don’t know until you try – but you DO have to try!”.
If I had been lucky enough in my youth to have come up against that class of player, I might have got a 7-0 pasting too, but my coach would have to drag me off the pitch to remove me, again, that’s competitive sport!
Yes, there are young players in our squad. There are young players in everyone’s squad – its a great time to make your name! In your post you refer to ‘mission impossible’ – some of the best missions are, its great when you win them, and you win them by really trying to win them.
There were, still are, free agents all over Europe, you are correct, I would have liked to see us look at some, they would be gagging to play in the Prem. We brought Normann and Kabak in on loan-to-buy, they are both good players, but almost everyone had a cerebral fail at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
I certainly hope we do have the ambition to play, and stay, in the Premier League it’s a great league. I would hope we’ve been promoted to stay up, but there seems to be a weak philosophy in the squad at the moment, made easier by the first games we played this season.
In saying the above, it has to be true that as we ran away with the Championship title twice, we are good enough to compete ‘even-Stevens’ with the lower half of the Premiership (who are quite weak too) and stay up long enough to grow and improve.
In one of your posts you say people were blaming Teemu Pukki – I didn’t see any criticism, but I will gladly say that Super-Teemu is and has been great for us, I would still like to see him get 20-odd goals for us this season – he is more than capable!
Cheers.
I don’t think any of us are turning on Teemu Pukki, I really don’t.
Trouble is though that he’s aging before our eyes.
Bereft of service, what can the poor $od realistically do?
KevH,
I can of course understand that fans wants team to play their best or at least try their best. It surely can look like that they dont try their best, but its very difficult when you are starting to loose clearly and you know that you cant anymore change the outcome. Im sure Norwich players will bounce back but impossible to say does it mean points. Team which lacks feeling of winning is of course very fragile.
Usually when team gets promoted they try to get more experience. You have couple of experienced players, I would say not enough.
Teemu can bang goals, he have to stay relaxed when playing and absolutely not start trying to force goals. He has pressure to score goals, but have to find way to get himself to scoring chances. I have never heard him complaining that media in Norwich are giving too much pressure, he did complain during the international break that finnish press keeps on counting games when he has not scored. Nice to hear that there is Norwich fans who appreciate his achievements. His transfer to Norwich has been to both sides very good and also for Finland national team but also Norwich has benefit his international success. Just some days a go there was article in fifa page about Teemu with Ronaldo, Lukaku and so on….I can understand that it does not give any points to Norwich, still his international career brings fame to Norwich too.
Hi 1X2,
We wouldn’t be fans if we didn’t want the best.
“Team which lacks feeling of winning is of course very fragile”, – agreed!
Team which repeatedly tries is often rewarded, reward reduces fragility – known to be true!
You’re right, we could certainly do with a bit of streetwise experience to supplement the squad. Alternatively several of our players are well-travelled internationals with their own particular experience.
Teemu Pukki will get chances and openings they were in short supply on Saturday. He’s been a great player for us.
Cheers 1X2
Hi 1×2
That’s just why we appreciate your comments from the *outside* as it were.
Many of us Norwich supporters do not want to see Daniel Farke sacked, but equally many of us probably do. It’s always opinion, opinion, opinion – and everybody has the right to voice that opinion. It’s what makes the world keep a’turning.
*Only thing what your club was thinking, was how much is their selling price so they felt safer to buy young players instead. Problem is that those players are not able to compete in premier league level.*
Yes, from many kilometres away, you have got it right.
Kiitos.
Martin,
If you change your manager, its obvious you have to change also some of your squad because playing style, mentality and many things changes then. I can of course understand Norwich fans frustration and like you know im rather neutral so I dont have that frustration feeling at least not so much. Fans makes professional football possible so you have every right to have answers and should demand answers if you dont get them.
Its like I have said before, its you english football fans who have made professional football possible in England and each club represents, players, staff must appreciate that so they should also discussed with fans instead of just hiding in glass houses.
When it comes to respect for supporters some English clubs are far better than others, of course. I would say Norwich City are certainly better than some in this respect.
However we get the feeling that the ownership is just sitting on its hands and saying nothing and doing nothing, as per usual.
This has happened so many times over the 25 years they have owned the club that we supporters are all too used to it!
Hi Martin, I’ve just about calmed down from saturdays debacle and I’m ready to dispassionately discuss the implications.
The performance was totally unacceptable, no professional sportsman should let his standards drop so low that numerous ex players accuse them of not trying. It’s the worst possible slur one can level at a footballer but was on many lips at the weekend.
Webber has left farke totally unequipped for the season ahead. He has purchased two w8ngers for a manager that has no use for them and a midfielder who is the epitome of lightweight. He has woefully failed to address the glaring problems, the lack of defensive midfield strength, a decent option to pukki and sought players recently on the radar of champions league outfits that we hope to flip for a,quick profit in a year or twos time. All at a time when some nous and experience might have served us better. I can’t believe farke sanctioned half these moves. He barely uses most of them.
The one good thing to emanate from black Saturday is the spotlight that has been shone on our self funding crapola. As another contributor states, the rest of football is aware what we are up to and rightly calls us to account for it. The whole thing amounts to a hypocritical cash grab, which unfortunately necessitates 9 months of going through the motions to fulfil fixtures before dropping down to the promised land with heaps of cash. Cash which enables auntie to pay the bills for a year or two.
What the more lucid among us understand is that without the regular dip into sodom and gommorah to replenish the coffers, the whole bloody thing falls apart. Self funding my arse.
As a result of this vanity project the club we love is reviled and has now become a laughing stock, a punchline.
That paragon of intelligent football thought Garth crooks has weighed in to us since Saturday, having the brass neck to criticise the support for accepting this total crock of shite. All I can say is had he been in my company at 1 pm on Saturday afternoon he would have been wise to keep his counsel. If any doubt we’re needed as to how disgusted city supporters are with the situation.
On to Leeds on black sabbath. I for one can’t bring myself to call for farkes head. This kind, humorous and genuine man with his faults and many talents and a pretty good record at the club will be hung out to dry by lady gaga and her gang of three or four in order to take the heat for their misdemeanours.
I would like to think that those present this weekend will remember the good times farke has given us and when things go belly up they can see their way clear to direct their understandable ire at the proper targets rather than lash out at a good man.
Right now given the choice, I’d keep farke in favour of a board change and give the guy a chance to build a team instead of having that wretched ambition hoover shoot his horse out from underneath him every few months.
Name of the day prize goes to…. “ambition Hoover!”
Quality!
🤣🤣
I can’t disagree with that so I won’t 🙂 🙂 🙂
Blimey Chris
I had to read that twice before I got all the references [musical and otherwise, I’m not too hot on the bible] and I’ve probably missed one or two along the way even now.
I kind of think of our Daniel as the Billy Bragg or Wreckless Eric of the music world. Gather him with his coaching team and I’d reference the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band or even Alberto y Los Trios Paranoias.
If the Barclay goes all anti-Farke on Sunday I promise I shan’t join in with the chants.
He might not be the Master of Reality but he’s certainly done the best he possibly could given the circumstances so I’d reckon it’s a case of Never Say Die.
Cheers
The albertos, theres a blast from the past!
I might copyright “ambition hoover” 🤔
Saw ’em at Camden – can’t remember when.
Copyright away 🙂
Spot on Martin.
We are not asking like some of our rather, shall we say confident/deluded (delete as appropriate) supporters want.
We just want those players on the pitch to compete with the majority of the EPL. I’m certainly not looking or expecting to a return to the days of Inter Milan or Bayern Munich. That ship has sailed in my lifetime.
A good competitive season in the Prem would be nice and perhaps a little cup run.
At present Watford and Brentford are doing it, so why can’t we ?
I know it will be difficult for them next year if they survive, as Sheffield United found out. But even one good season gives the fans something to shout about.
Like you Martin I do not think self-funding can work, but we were a self funding club when we beat Manchester City and drew with Arsenal, Spurs and Leicester two years ago and had some other close games against bigger clubs ( Not Project Restart ! )
We are meant to be better prepared this time around.
Do we saw more pace upfront ? (promised) Do we see more strength and physicality in midfield ?
( promised ) Not yet, not at all.
Daniel does seem to be doing a Chris Hughton and making every club we play sound like Barcelona in their pomp. Do a Shankly, tell the boys that our opponents are Sh!te.
You talk about belonging Martin. We got to the EPL by being the best team in the Championship and while the rules state that if you win that league you will get promoted to the EPL then you have earnt that right to be there, to belong.
I realised the other day that from my Grandfather who went to watch City at Newmarket Road and Dad at the The Nest to me, my daughter and Grand daughter at Carrow Road that’s five generations of my family who have seen Norwich City FC to say to any of us you do not belong here is totally unfair.
Southampton have lost 9-0 twice in recent times, I don’t hear the same being levelled at them.
Any Tom, Dick and Jamie can fill the airwaves with their opinions of which they no doubt hold in great esteem. But who really takes any notice. No one.
Even criticism by saying we haven’t given it a go this season is incorrect. We may have “had a go” poorly, that is fair. But we have spent money, more than many other EPL clubs.
I always think of Delia and Michael like my lovely Labrador “Rocky” of many moons ago.
People say Delia and Michael must go, that’s the easy bit. When dear Rocky got on the top field I could bellow and shout all I liked he would only come back in his own time, the little s*d.
That’s the situation we are in people can call for Daniel or Stuart’s head, that’s fine if that is your opinion and it has traction. Calling for D & M to go is like p…… in the wind.
Something will happen one day like all thing do but until them we must try and sort this out as things are at present, we simply have no choice.
Hi Tim
*At present Watford and Brentford are doing it, so why can’t we ?*
That’s the question we cannot answer, or at least I don’t have a cogent response to it right now. I could proffer words such as *drive*, *desire* and *obstinance* but these are all qualities that we do not possess. Not since the likes of Bradley Johnson and Olly Skipp left, anyway.
As you mentioned Rocky your Lab, my old man bought a Boxer pup about a fortnight before I was born. *They* now say that you should never do that as it’s potentially dangerous and I understand that concept totally. We were inseparable, Stormy & me. I was just 13 when the old man was on late turn and I had to hold her as the vet did his stuff. He said to Ma he’d never known a Boxer to make 13 before. I cried all night.
But after we’d finished our working lives, Sue and I got a couple of terriers. We’d never have dogs while we were at work as it isn’t our style. The Patterdale is mine and the Russell is hers as you’d quickly notice if you ever came across us all.
Geezer is like a reincarnation of the old Boxer. Not physically, just in the way he conducts himself. Same attitude as in you look after me and I’ll more than look after you.
There’s a Norwich City analogy in there somewhere. Maybe along the lines of Geezer isn’t blindly faithful. He expects – and gets – something back.
Supporting your Club is a two-way street and NCFC were getting so good at that. I really hope they don’t blow it now.
Cheers
Exactly Martin it is a two way street.
2 points and 1 goal from open play and a goal difference of – 21 after 9 games is not good enough.
And that’s Delia’s problem, being proud of self-funding is all well and good but seeing these performances on the pitch is destroying her argument in trying to tell all of us it is a workable model.
Meanwhile the support for the team goes from strength to strength especially those hardy way souls.
Rocky was a soft old thing, nothing like our previous Lab Bruce who was akin to Ron Saunders, lovely man but don’t cross him. He bit me over the eye when I was a toddler, mum told everyone it was because Bruce didn’t understand what I was saying as I couldn’t yet speak English !!!!
Yes it is very much the Y’Army on the road that I feel for the most too. To travel in hope rather than expectation is one thing, but to travel with no hope requires a special type of loyalty.
Our friends have a golden Lab called Maya and will often issue commands in Bulgarian if we meet in the park/meadows.
They both speak fantastic English but snap back into Bulgarian for the dog – especially if it won’t come back when told, which is often 🙂
Martin;
I support my club through thick and thin (lots of the latter in the Premier League)….
I don’t mind, as long as they give 100%, and at least appear to be proud to wear the shirt.
Sadly, on Saturday they did neither.
They were garbage; ’nuff said.
O T B C
Hi John
*Garbage* is verging on the positive side of kind after that performance.
I am so glad I found out comparatively late on that the game was on BT Sport rather than Sky so therefore I didn’t get to see it as it transpired.
The lowlights alone did me in though.
Cheers