You know when you sign up to be a City fan that the gig is generally a tough one. There’ll be some highs but to really feel the joy they bring you have to have experienced the heart-wrenching lows. And there are more of the latter.
That’s a given. If we weren’t prepared for all of that we’d have already hopped aboard the glory trains to London, Manchester or Merseyside.
Yet amidst those extreme lows, there are usually one or two little nuggets of joy that remind us why we do it; why we are prepared to regularly have our hearts broken. A brilliant goal, a moment of genius, an unexpected win even.
But right now, there’s none of that. Nada. It’s joy-less.
And even worse… that feeling of impending doom that we all feel in the hours and minutes leading up to kick-off is shared by the players. For all the pre-match chest-thumping and fancy words, it didn’t look as if they believed they could win that game yesterday.
To be fair to them, there was a response to the Chelsea shellacking in terms of endeavour and grit, but that simply had to happen anyway. Carrow Road may not be a seething cauldron of venom – Stuart Webber noted that (as a compliment) in his address to the Canary Nation last week – but the old place would not have tolerated a lack of effort yesterday.
But those players didn’t appear to believe they could get three points. They’ve forgotten how. To play in the yellow and green is, right now, as joyless as it is watching them.
No spark, no cohesion, no invention. In 2007-08 Derby County’s amassed a miserable 11 points. Where are we getting another nine from?
That’s the question my uncle and I pondered as we trudged back to the car yesterday afternoon. Being the wise old head that he is, he did remind me that football, being the daft game it is, may throw up a City win when we least expect it, but it was said with a wry smile.
As at 4pm yesterday afternoon, neither of us really believed it.
It will come though, but when you’re talking about wangling a single win from somewhere as some kind of triumph, then you know the brown stuff and the fan have already collided. And we’re ten games in. Ten.
For it all to have unravelled quite so spectacularly is crushing. To be so blatantly uncompetitive is soul-destroying.
It’s six months to the day since a happy band of die-hards mustered on the far side of Carrow Road, opposite the main entrance, to laud the Class of 2021. Kenny danced, Emi jigged, Skippy waved his crutch, Tim cheer-led and Delia sang from a window.
We knew what awaited us and we knew, from experience, it would be another massive challenge, but as summer progressed and new signings appeared through the Colney doors at regular intervals the belief grew.
It felt as if Stuart Webber had made good his promise to learn from round 1, where he admitted to arming Daniel Farke with little more than a water pistol. Even minus our want-away five foot seven of football heaven it felt as if, as a collective, we were better prepared.
We even braced ourselves for the proverbial roller-coaster but even that was overly ambitious on our part.
A rollercoaster has ups and downs. This season, Norwich City trades only in downs.
The aforementioned unravelling has been on an industrial scale. So much so, the team we watched yesterday is one none of us recognises anymore. The identity of which we have become so accustomed and so proud has gone. Totally. In fact, there is no longer an identifiable method and style.
The formation yesterday flitted between a 3-4-1-2 and a 4-4-1-1 depending on whether we were in or out of possession but neither looked a particularly comfy fit for those asked to implement them. It was, by the end – and this is not easy to say – a shambles.
The second Leeds goal of the game, the second self-inflicted blow of the afternoon, was effectively the end of it as a contest. Every last bit of belief and fight had been harnessed to get the equaliser but the buzz lasted just two minutes and once Rodrigo’s shot had fizzed through the outstretched arms of Krul, there was nothing left.
There was no shape, structure or cohesion. We looked like a Championship side who were about to lose to a very ordinary Premier League side; one that could well have a relegation battle on their hands.
But our fight is no longer against relegation. Already the gap looks insurmountable – at least it is based on all the evidence. Our fight is with ourselves; to prove to ourselves that what we’re dishing up now is not the Norwich City we want it to be. It’s a battle to regain some self-respect, and perhaps the respect of those on the outside looking in.
Because right now there is none. They’re laughing and mocking.
Two seasons ago we bemoaned what happened at both extremities of the pitch while agreeing that what happened in the middle third was actually pretty decent but now there is little to excite us even in said middle third. Minus Buendia we are horribly devoid of a creative influence.
I’ll not, for now, delve too deeply into the managerial situation because Webber made quite clear last week that the head coach’s job, despite the growing body of evidence against, is as safe as houses. Knee-jerk reactions to defeats are not the Webber (or Delia) way but I’m not sure any reaction to a record of no wins in ten is knee-jerk.
Part of the problem is that we all still feel a lot of love for Daniel Farke for what he has done for the club. He has proved by any metric you like that he is an outstanding coach in the second tier – no question – and we love the way he handles himself, how he speaks and how he differs in manner from almost any other coach.
His honesty and ability to dissect and explain is to be admired but yesterday, for the first time, he sounded like a man with no answers. He alluded to it being a good performance when it clearly wasn’t.
He did, again, make reference to the straitjacket in which he is working, aka self-funding, and while being non-critical of it, it is clearly an ongoing issue if this club wishes to be a competitive Premier League club as it maintains.
Two clubs with very rich owners will go down this season, but it’s the self-funding one that is set adrift without a paddle. Those other two, whoever they may be, will be competitive and will probably take it to the wire.
We won’t be taking anything to the wire.
It’s looking increasingly likely that this model, as much as we love it the ideal, is incapable of supporting a top 20 football club. Maybe the answer all along was to keep with that “top 26” mantra and accept our fate as drifters between the two divisions and just hope we don’t eventually get subsumed into Championship mid-table mediocrity.
Those at the very top table need to have a serious think about what they want this football club to be.
Depressing indeed Gary. I think Farke may have gone as far as he can. Playing a 19 year old centre half at left-back in place of two specialists says that something is badly wrong on many levels. The second goal was mostly down to Kabak’s carelessness, but Krul went down pretty slowly. I for one am not against giving Gunn a run in the team. My question to the Board would be; how bad do things have to get to make a change?
What the heck has Billy G done wrong? Or Todd? I can see the former lacks some physicality, but home to Dirty Leeds was the ideal time to give him a start surely. And, Josh Sergeant, £8m…. ?? Blimey
Truly dire isn’t it Gary.
Relegated by the end of October at least proves conclusively that our owners deluded self funding model will never establish the club in the premiership.
The thing that worries me is the delusion appears to be working it’s way down the club.
Farke says he’s happy to work with his squad and goes onto say Webber has done a first class job in the transfer market.
Webber in turn states that Farke’s job is safe.
From what I’ve seen this season our recent transfer window is worse than our last premiership season.
Then we spent little on Byram but at least when he played he was premiership quality. This season the only new recruit I would consider premiership quality is Normann and he’s on loan!
So Webber has sold our best player and blown £50 million and this is considered a quality performance.
Yesterday we looked what we are, a complete mess with no discernible pattern of play and everybody in the ground including, I suspect, the players knowing if the opposition scored first we’d lose. Despite this shambles Farke’s job is safe.
I think all of this fiasco is the final throws of the disastrous self funding model and our owners seriously need to reconsider their position. I doubt if much will change because we’ve become a self supporting club and Webber and Farke will come out and say what wonderful owners Delia and Michael are.
I thought it was 3-4-3 yesterday. it was later reported as 4-2-3-1, the fact one couldn’t decide is perhaps telling.
It was a decent first half where I thought it was 3-4-3 but Leeds tweaked it in the second half, DF couldn’t react to those changes, City didn’t have a single shot in the second half that I can remember…. DF just couldn’t adjust to it. I’d been boring my little group in the River End for 50 mins about how Andy O was being left isolated in 1v1’s with Rafinha and sure enough, DF didn’t sort that out either. In fairness to Rashica, he was pre-occupied with his own man, and in a 3-4-3, Dowell or Sarjent should (out of possession) have been doubling up with Andy O. Doesn’t work that way in 4-2-3-1 (if that’s what we were playing). Instead McLean often tried to move over leaving Normann to mark 2 or 3 advancing central Leeds midfielders. Hence his anger at both goals.
This is schoolboy stuff. 🤷🏼♂️
As for making changes? DF didn’t, did he? Dowell for Tzolis and Idah for Sarjent. Like for like.
We have ONE playmaker in the squad and that SINGLE creative spark would have gotten a result yesterday. And he’s made to train with the U23’s because DF can’t handle his immaturity. Perhaps DF should ask Alex Ferguson how he dealt with the petulant nature of a young Ronaldo at Man Utd. And to rub Todd’s nose in it; he chose to play Placheta later on to. Who is left sided. When Tzolis was already on. When Rashica stayed on, on the left, obviously.
I despair.
I like your comment Gary, “our fight is not against relegation but with ourselves”. Perhaps if DF can harness that mindset it takes away some of the pressure. Each game now is a Cup Tie, a one off game to win.
Skipp was just woeful for Spurs on Saturday he must be missing the Norfolk air, perhaps their new manager wont fancy him, a 6 month loan come January would help.
Now where’s those straws I was clutching?
Cheer up Gary! It WILL change with a change of manager. I enjoyed this article and although this isn’t aimed at you but instead to a broader audience…. I challenge one aspect of this article:
“as summer progressed and new signings appeared…. the belief grew. It felt as if Stuart Webber had made good his promise to learn from round 1…. we were better prepared.”
I think that is very subjective (not at Gary specifically). Actually, I remember CONSTANT debate in real-time about the confusion as new arrivals were unveiled and head-scratching about how such different players would integrate into our squad….. that SW never delivered us the height, power and speed he’d promised….. and that the ‘better prepared’ without Skipp and Buendia, compared to 2 years ago where there was, at least, continuity, divided opinion.
For me, SW completely messed it up, and DF didn’t help because clearly DF didn’t tell SW precisely what he wanted. That is obvious in the diversity of the signings. What I am about to TRY to express is something I think Neil Adams will nail in years to come. I remain clueless about why NCFC signed Gilmour for a relegation battle, not when we already had Vrancic* and when we’ve always reportedly touted Conour Hourihane who would have padded out the Buendia disappointment. I have no clue why we signed PLM as a CDM and not someone like John Fleck. I think it is is almost…. petulant or arrogant but neither?….. that we wouldn’t pay the extra for Kris Ajer but we spend an equal amount on Sarjent and ‘another youth development prospect for a 6 figure fee from Ipswich or Peterbourogh or wherever he was from, and for whoever he is’.
I don’t understand what you’d loan Williams and not buy Conour Roberts or anyone from a dozen viable fullback options and then not loan Ben Davies from Liverpool, or any other Liverpool reserve player. As I said last season, I don’t know why they valued Gibson at £8m and Gianoullis at another £6m. Or Hugill at another £3+ million.
Succinctly….. my opinion, Hanley, McLean and Pukki BECAME the spine of the team because of who released and who we signed. They could have CHOSEN Andy O, Mario Vrancic and Todd to be the spine of the team that they wanted to complement. (Not saying that is correct either). But they CHOSE to make Hanley, McLean and Pukki to be the most senior outfield players. These 3 are at their absolute limit in the Premier League, barely able to stay afloat. They have NO SPARE CAPACITY to bring on those around them. And like I said, SW will screwed this bit up. Pukki can’t ‘bring on’ Idah or Sarjent. McLean can’t be the voice of organisation and calm in a midfield built of players with almost (literally) no Premier League experience. And Hanley is focusing just sooooo hard he can’t scream instructions to the naivety around him. It is absolutely idiotic to ask these guys to lead guys like Tzolis, Rashica, Sarjent, Idah, PLM, Gilmour, Williams, Andy O….. even Kabak. The guy is 21 for christ’s sake.
We need a change now and whoever comes in, needs to be someone that will INSPIRE signings in January because this summer is going to be DANGEROUS. There will be no self-belief in those 3 senior outfield players, none. They know they don’t belong. They won’t go anywhere else because of their contracts. And no junior player will give them appropriate respect accordingly. This is going to be toxic.
I suspect S W and wife will soon leave our sinking ship and be on their way to pastures new with Neil Adams stepping up.
It was interesting to listen to a certain former City No 6 icon in a Q & A yesterday, he didn’t pull any punches about the current state of things, rubbish & embarrassing were mentioned, he’s one of us of course and it hurts.
I was sort of okay up until the substitutions yesterday which were unfathomable, had DF morphed into Capt. Mainwaring I wondered, we’re doomed, that’s for sure.
Pukki has carried Norwich since he arrived. You are talking absolute nonsense and Norwich would have never even get 2 times to premier league without him. I really wish that Teemu leaves Norwich in january, so you get your chance to play without him and mainly because its time that he shows some ambition.
I think you’ve lost my thoughts on Pukki in translation.
Pukki is brilliant, always has been. Equal to Grant Holt in opinion. Not Dean Ashton or Chris Sutton though. Or Efan Ekouko, or Craig Bellamy.
What I said, sorry if I worded it badly, is that Pukki didn’t just lose Buendia. The supply to him was also from Vrancic or Stieperman or 3 years ago, Hernandez. Without any of those, Pukki has no chance.
And the other mention about Pukki was that this is his limit. He wouldn’t play at Palace. Maybe Burnley or Brighton, but the bottom of the Premier League is Pukki’s standard. Therefore, he is not in a position to LEAD Sarjent or Idah.
I agree with you about how good Pukki is.
Hi 1×2, please see reply below. I think you misunderstood me about Pukki or my wording was poor. Cheers
I realise it is on account of Pukki that you have continued to visit us on the MFW pages, but your somewhat one eyed view of him as some unplayable world beater is I think clouding your view.
Football last time I checked is a team game. Norwich and creator in chief Buendia were set up to get the best out of Teemu, it worked very well, as a mutually beneficial arrangement but Teemu is as much a part of the under performance of this team as anyone. And even with Buendia two seasons ago was found out by the higher quality defenders at that level.
As for this season, has he as a senior and experienced player grabbed his odd sniff in a game and scored to buoy the team? If he was indeed carrying the team, he is no longer doing so, so under that rationale perhaps we need to move him on for a younger more capable model?
Of course I don’t want that, he’s been a fine player for us, I just find your ‘he’s better than the club’ sort posts ridiculous. Just as he has been in the side for some fine Norwich times, these could well have been the pinnacle of his club career and he is complicit in our failings at PL level.
One final question, if he is so far and away above us and has carried us, where was the queue of clubs ready to prize him away from our modest by PL wages?
1×2. Teemu has been carrying us and needs to show ambition? Has it ever occurred to you that, whilst we have sold 4 players for north of £20m in recent years, when were relegated there wasn’t the slightest hint that someone was willing to offer even half that to keep him in the Premier League ? Nor any apparent interest from top European leagues. Ask yourself why.
At least if you get your wish and Teemu leaves in January it will save us from the drivel you post on here.
Hi 1×2
I fear it is a little late for Teemu to find something better at this stage of his life.
He has been a fantastic servant to NCFC and whatever happens to him in the future every single Norwich supporter should remember him with great affection.
I know I will.
I answer to all comments on this. Anyway thanks to all for your comments. Once again I say first, that im not any kind of Pukki fan and im trying to base my opinions to facts as much as possible but I feel I have to answer to some claims which I feel are not right.
I didnt mean that Teemu has himself made Norwich promotions, but his stats are so high that he has played untypically big part. His stats was also high in premier league, when you look that he did those 11 goals for clearly last team of league. By ambition I mean that he has never really challenged himself and that is common international opinion. Thats why he has never achieved level which he has expected. I have impossible to see that there would be no interested clubs, transfer rumors are so much just nonsense and reality is very different. English media writes so much about football and of course main interest is local players. I would see Teemu as very good rotation player to even european top clubs, he has plenty of experience especially international and is technically good and has good football brains. Also we have not see him playing in premier league even for middle table club, maybe he would score 20 goals or more who knows?
People which complain all the time about Teemus playing have never answered why he has scored so many goals also for Finland? He has scored against Italy, Spain, Manchester City, Liverpool….cant remember all and its not so important. International games makes you known internationally, league games no matter what league it is makes you known mainly locally. I see that many of british football fans and people are following only club they support, maybe some are watching premier league too but ignore football outside of it. So its also true that I dont make comments about Teemu based only his playing for Norwich. I do know what he is capable of based on all. In my opinion he played good game against Leeds and dived really well, very good free kick scoring chance for Norwich. Its not his fault that your free kick shooters were once again very bad. Its honestly almost depressing to watch Teemu making passing combos only with Normann.
I think any debate about players as they arrived was swiftly silenced. I get the need to give players a chance but Webber seems to have backtracked very swiftly from talk of having a strong squad this season. I agree about the type of player that we could have bought but they go against Webber’s philosophy. Previously I have seen him as pragmatic and brought in Krul and Hanley despite them not being typical Webber buys. However, the over reliance on very young players is damaging (to them and us). Kabak and Sargent are relatively young as are Rashica, Tzolis and our own Aarons and Omobamidele. The release of the accounts give a clue as to why we bought late in the window but that hasn’t helped young players settle in a new country
I honestly feel bad for Farke. Webber has done a Hughton and signed a number of foreign players simply not fit for purpose… again.
It’s probably time for Farke to go, but it’s also time for Webber to name his successor too.
Yeap, very true, I trust Neil Adams to succeed too. He never gets the credit he deserves for Alex Neil’s promotion.
Not sure whether Adams had anything to do with the promotion in 2015. We looked a mess that season and only started to play to our potential after Alex Neil came in and tweaked the squad in a couple of places. I’m not sure Adams is the right man for the long term replacement for Webber. He could be a safe pair of hands in terms of covering a handover period but he is my age and rather old school in his approach
He has signed young players who he admits are not ready for the top flight. Is he trying to build a team for two years time? Or is he looking to make a profit on them while staying in the Championship?
Thats it for me now – we need to change it and I don’t want “Honest” Webber telling me its unfair to question Farke or giving him another 3 or 4 games to waste. Farke’s post match interview was deluded, his statement that there were 3 games we have no chance in was shocking and I think he has well and truly proven over nearly 50 games now that he can’t coach at this level, or at least he can;t coach a team at this level who are underdogs. he’s a decent coach of teams who are able to control possession, dominate the ball and frankly who have better players than most of their opponants. He improves players technically. But when it comes to those kind of things that provide additionality for a lower half preiew league club (marking, presing, closing down, set pieces at both ends, being “hard to beat”) he just doesn;t have it in him and thats what we need.
I don;t subscribe to the “nobody could do better” line or that its completely hopeless yet. Yes any chance of getting out of this might be slim but we have 28 games and probably need 11 wins so its not completely impossible. We have class on the bench (or sitting at home) in Cantwell and Gilmour which is being snubbed. A new coach who can organise a defence and really motivate these players may get a bounce which sees the confidence return. Its worth a try surely? We can;t just do nothing.
The worst thing we can do is juts let it drag on until its too late but this is Norwich, under Delia and Michael so we all know thats exactly what will happen.
I’d say with 28 matches left we need 9 wins, 7 draws and 12 defeats to give us a total that could be enough. Sadly I’m not sure that I can see where 9 points are going to come from
2-3 years ago. I know it was a different league and different opposition, but…; I recall being 3-3, stoppage time, with Millwall, and winning a free kick in our half. Being a dinosaur I shouted ‘get it in the mixer and fill it with big boys’. City instead, with a composure, intelligence and confidence I could only dream of, hit 4/5 passes along the deck, no more than ten yards each, and the move ended with Pukki lifting the ball off the turf for the first time (in the move) over the onrushing keeper. Sublime. Class. Synchronised. Wow.
Yesterday I felt like I was losing my mind, along with Farke, as in the last half hour I watched unfathomable substitutions coupled with Hail Mary tactics. 3 wingers finished on the pitch (still only two wings though), one full back, two centre-half’s (one injured), two strikers who took up similar spaces,. and we pumped long balls to Pukki or Rashica. It truly was desperate stuff, and heart-breaking to watch. Summed up for me with a minute to go, Omabamidele takes the ball off Norman’s toes (half-way), Normann looks baffled, Omabamidele thumps a long ball, fails, then charges ahead of Norman while he has a go at thumping a long ball, that fails.
Farke spent several minutes talking to each sub before they came on, what was he saying? Thump it and pray? We may as well have subbed on a Bible and a Qur’an.
Several years ago someone I love was reduced to needing a spell in Hellesdon Hospital as they lost all sense of mental health and reality, yesterday I felt like Norwich City FC were displaying the same signs.
Is Daniel OK?
3 wingers finished on the pitch (still only two wings though)
I think you mean:
3 LEFT wingers finished on the pitch (still only ONE LEFT wing though).
The lunacy of Placheta felt nothing more like a middle finger to Cantwell.
Premier league level has improved season after season, championship level has weakened. Gap is huge so recruitment mistakes makes task absolutely impossible. Norwich plays now typical british trying football, reason to that is lack of skills and of course Farke is able to see that. His tactical decisions have been good and im surprised how fast he reacted and have tried to improve Norwich results. So the answer is, there is no manager/coach in this world who can make weaker player material getting so many good results which would make avoiding relegation possible.
If this helps, Leeds is also bad. Especially all their british players were awful and as long as premier league forces clubs to take so many british players in their squad about half of clubs will not improve. Its also wrong fiction to believe that all players wants to play in premier league. Only thing what you get is higher salary, but its very difficult to play well only because of salary. Leeds have now Raphinha, 100% sure Raphinha wants to leave. There is absolutely nothing he can achieve with Leeds, outside Leeds no one will remember him and in Brazil he will be remembered as a player who played without much ambition.
Tim Krul made 1 huge mistake and that was decisive yesterday. Those kind of things happen. Either team were not able to create much anything, like Gary said that game looked like championship game and all those decisive mistakes and low quality technical abilities together with high tempo made it look like exactly like that. Is Norwich now entertaining team to watch? No. Its desperate team which tries to gets points by trying as hard as possible. Nowadays is difficult to achieve something with that playing style but its very easy to understand why Farke has made decisions to play like that.
Several players gets away from Norwich next week, they get at least little break. Its not honestly impossible that Norwich breaks records as worst team in premier league ever. There is also loosing limits how many players can take, when they reach that they basically give up and dont anymore care.
Krul may have made one mistake but Hanley also cleared off the line. Horses for courses. I don’t remember every working their keeper, not once.
I think you misunderstood what I said about Pukki earlier, probably poor wording from me, sorry.
I meant Pukki doesn’t have the character to help Sarjent or Idah at this level, and I also said that Pukki won’t score without Cantwell replacing Buendia but also, Pukki also scored his goals from Vrancic, Stieperman and (3 years ago) Hernandez. Therefore, Pukki looks lost this season. We changed EVERYTHING in support of Pukki, the formation, the players…. everything.
I agree with you Pukki’s goals have been one of the biggest reasons for success these last 4 years, but he wouldn’t have scored any of them without Buendia, Vrancic, Stieperman and Cantwell.
Cheers
Mike, I agree of course that striker needs someone to create him a scoring chance. Its also opposite way, attacking midfielder needs striker who is passable.
You are right about that Pukki is not going to guide your other strikers. I know that he has tried to help Idah. Pukki could have helped or should have helped Norwich with player transfers. He has been asked that (possible finnish media during the international break) and he answered that he doesnt get paid for that. Now that situation is like you said, maybe he should have because it obviously affect to his playing too. Also your other striker options at least so far have not looked impressive. Teemus job is to score goals, not only of course but he should score at least 15 goals to give Norwich a chance to avoid relegation. Its difficult to know, is he really so unrealistic about Norwich chances in premier league or does he not care what kind of squad, team which he is representing have?
The depressing thing is the number of negative records City will collect this season along the way. Records that will haunt us as they’re regularly quoted from the history books forever more. Records which will never be beaten. One of the reasons is they will never be beaten is beacuse they will be in the name of one person, the head coach. And the reason they won’t be beaten is because there is not another professional club in the country, Europe, or even the world who would have kept the same person in charge for that long. We are in the middle of an abysmally indefensible PL record. And one which could continue for months yet. Months and months – and months. I pity the pro journos and broadcasters – and long-suffering die-hard fans – who have no option but to travel to all the away disasters which have yet to occur. So brave and resilient. I doff my hat to you.
I’ve said it once (on previous article re Leeds game summary) but should have commented here; so apologies for repetition (and some added sarcasm) …
Even before the game started the line-up made you think (well, me anyway),
‘What is going on in Daniel’s head?’
And so, unfortunately, it proved and against a relatively weak Leeds.
We were tactically inept.
We had a right-sided, potentially key future central defender chosen to play at left back. Even though we had two left backs available and a third on loan (for whom we paid £3m.) Additionally, this was against Leeds most KNOWN threatening attacking player.
We had Rashica given the opportunity to act as a left-sided ‘shield’ for said left back. Additionally, to repeat, this was against Leeds most KNOWN threatening attacking player. 😂😂😂
We had one of two (?) central defenders believing he had a midfield role (watch Kabak rush out to close down an opposition player 40 metres out following a Leeds second-half corner with all the other City players in and around our penalty area). So one CH kept kicking it 50 to 100 metres; the other kept running the same distance though not, if there is any doubt, running after the original kick.
Sargent is looking like his goal tally will remain at zero (but then he scored around only one in every seven or eight games at Werder Bremen so at best he’s probably 5/6 goals per season in EPL.)
The last 25/30 mins of the game were shambolic as Gilmour (remember him?) watched Idah and Platchetta move on to the hallowed turf, though in fairness that was probably the most ground they covered – getting onto the pitch.
Daniel commented after the game, and I precis here, “We were the BETTER side but we were crap at defending and crap at attacking.”
Totally inexplicable. What has happened?
There was, however, some paltry consolation; we were spared a pre-match training video from Colney showing our lads preparation (warm-ups, head tennis anyone?) for this ‘tricky must-win’ game.
It was a first class opportunity to get over Stamford Bridge, Leeds struggling with some Players missing. And still we fail, even not creating a worthwhile chance. There was some more fight, but like a fart, it soon dispersed.
Someone asked me if Farke can turn this round. I answered of course he can. But in all honesty I cannot see where, how or even a when. Eight points behind in 10 games if it carries on in this vein we could be 16 behind after 20.: I cannot see a win anytime soon, not a Brentford for sure.
Spurs sack Nuno, yet Norwich carries on with the Stowmarket duo, limping towards another disaster. How many is that now?
Enough is more than enough. I hope above hope above hope, we do not go for promotion next season under this lot again. The money that has gone into this club is astronomical, fans have deserved a lot better
My worry is that Norwich City are a club which is falling apart. There doesn’t seem any fight on and off the pitch and the footballing world can see that in spades.
Making no decisions is often worse than making the wrong ones. Farke, quite evidently is completely out of his depth and has already run out of excuses. He may be thinking he should have been a little outspoken earlier on as he has left himself with nowhere to turn, except a plane ticket back to the Edelweiss.
Webber I have little time for now and cannot be excused for the mess we are currently in. He is a corporate of the very worst kind. He may be in for surprise later this season as he may not be in demand like his thinks he will be as he has failed in his current capacity.
Finally we have our hapless owners. One of the reasons why I think they dislike the EPL so much is that it exposes their financial shortcomings that are more hidden in their favoured tier below. Just as long as they can take the money every two or three years to keep the project alive.
So we have three positions and I just wish I could sack the lot of them. They all claim they act in there club’s best interests, but do they?
As we know the club’s heart will never be at the top table under Smith & Jones, but Norwich City – as a brand – is being severely diminished but their inaction. I wonder how Lotus are feeling?
I’ve got very divided loyalties. I love the club, never loved the owners, but on the pitch is such a turn off I find it increasing hard to watch. I doubt I’m alone.
If Farke was as “yellow” as he makes out he would walk away. Remember Dave Stringer’s reasons for going: “past my sell-by date” & “can’t motivate players any longer” .You can now add “Club is a laughing stock”
It sounds like we’ve lost our identity in the premier league .
Just hope he brings cantwell back in from the cold arguably our most creative player now.
Don’t know what else to say if i’m honest past caring now .
Things are very bleak at the moment and Daniel’s position looks increasingly untenable. We cannot just write this season off, yet in sticking with him for any further amount of time that looks increasingly what we are prepared to do. I think though that Webber will do what needs to be done, he may have said otherwise in his interview, but he is now under a seriously increased amount of scrutiny for the hand Daniel has been dealt. He could hardly have said he has 1 game to save his job depending on that one maybe 2 or 3!
I was optimistic about this season, I thought the recruits looked good even if I didn’t necessarily think they covered all the right positions. But these 10 games have certainly laid bare problems not addressed.
The recruits increasingly look at odds with Daniels tactics and formations. But the big One for me was how do you replace the irreplaceable? Emi has been so instrumental in our rise under Farke that I now wonder if Daniel can even get a tune out of a side shorn of his silky skills? Think of our games without him in the Championship. For this reason alone I think the notion of staying with Farke because of his being the best chance of promotion again is dangerous.
Farke has been magnificent for us and it’s with heavy heart I must say it, but he time in my opinion has come, sometimes the greater risk is to do nothing. With that said the other side to that is, who would come to us with us in such a diabolical position? Who wants a all but nailed on relegation on their CV? and are the sorts who’d take it a price worth paying?
One final point, maybe an unpopular one? I’m not ready to write off the self funding model just yet. OK so this season has gone belly up, but the 4 years of progress to this point for me in building a financial position, a youth system and pathway to the first team and a squad capable of staying up is getting there. OK so Daniel may have hit a ceiling in his coaching, we may have spent poorly this time around, but structurally we looked close this time, the spending was closer to what was needed. I think we were close. I refuse to believe that with the right coach and recruitment and with our PL and parachute resources we cannot bounce back again. And in doing so carry some more lessons to enable a longer stay.
If that is on genuinely improved defensive foundations, still a footballing philosophy whilst bringing through the next wave of youth then great. After all, this season with no better funding than City, Brentford have at least shown as we did early in the season 2 years ago, it is possible to at least compete in the Pl following promotion. Where that mindset has gone from us is anyone’s guess, but for me there is hope……now what did someone once say will kill you?
The situation I see at Norwich is multi facetted and unfortunately none of them are positive. I’ve been watching City since 1979 the majority of the time as a season ticket holder. I’m not claiming this gives my views any more validity than anyone else, however it does afford me some experience and hindsight to try and make sense of what is going on with my chosen team.
Issue one…
I’m not going to go down the financial avenue of how we can’t compete, that has been well documented. What is a problem is
The much lauded self funding model is a smoke screen, not to mask our inadequacies but effectively solidify control and to discourage the outside investment the club needs to progress in the modern game.
We are solvent, “hoorah” most will cry, “what a great place to be, we are a very financially attractive club.”
This is fallacy number 1.
To attract investment, being solvent is not an advantage. It’s in the owners interests to remain so, they can then say no one is interested (as people won’t be) when that question is raised.
We have a manufactured situation where that question can be answered honestly as the club has been financially set up to discourage it.
Issue number 2,
Ambition. That word is often used but is seen rarely. Flurry’s in the transfer market like we saw this summer would bare this out. It’s just enough to appear ambitious but will lead to a glass ceiling. If it works, great,( ie beundia) if it doesn’t we’re back to bust again (Naismith)
“but we did what you asked for” will be the mantra trotted out when we don’t succeed.
Issue number 3 hiring and firing.
Our manager/ coach recruitment policy is on the whole good however success is rarely rewarded with sufficient backing. It will lead to two scenarios….
1, the successful managers will smell the coffee and be off at the first opportunity then be derided for doing so (Lambert, O’Neill) but it was never the intention to retain them as that would entail the “A” word again.
2 the others, some successful, some not, will hang around expecting backing, due to the “family club” ethos. They’ll get it for a while.
It will appear long enough for the owners to make sure no mud sticks when they are got rid of unceremoniously.
This then leads to a period of the doldrums where expectation and ambition of the fans is kept in check by statements of “we nearly went under” followed by “prudence with ambition” to name a couple of examples recently trotted out.
There’ll be a lot of people who’ll view this as pure bitter cynicism and unrealistic, that’s fine, but I just see my unrequited love for NCFC being taken advantage of so certain custodians of the club can remain in charge at the expense of it. That to me is cynicism…
Regardless of the model and the owners (neither of which I am a fan, but that’s another story) it is bewildering to comprehend how far City’s stock has fallen since last season. So far, this has to be the weakest and most lightweight Norwich team that I have ever witnessed in the top flight (I’m too young to remember the 73-74 season, but suspect that runs it close). Two years ago (before the Covid lockdown) we were being touted as “the best Premier League side to be bottom of the table”. Even with a low transfer spend and chronic injury crisis, we came close in quite a few games and gave a number of teams a run for their money. We’re light years away from that now, so something has gone drastically wrong since the summer break.
I don’t want to run the players down too much. There have been games where it looks as if they are doing their best in the circumstances (can you imagine the likes of Hanley and Krul throwing in the towel?) but in general,the lack of quality, organisation and confidence is pitiful. Alongside that we have the mysterious saga of Todd Cantwell and the equally mysterious situation of how the much hyped starlets Tzolis and Gilmour are now regularly sat on the bench, with the latter yesterday even falling behind the long forgotten Przemysław Placheta in the subs pecking order.
Neither do I want to hammer Farke as I love what he did in the promotion campaigns, but god knows what fans (and board members) of some other clubs would do if their manager came out more than once and said that they have no chance of winning particular matches. Sorry Daniel, but your job is to win matches or at least attempt to have a go at it, but then the defeatist mantra of ‘Little Old Norwich’ is pretty much entrenched throughout the club from boardroom to a large chunk of supporters. It’s no wonder we have a manager and a team who look beaten every time they come out of the tunnel.
I haven’t mentioned Webber yet as I don’t have the energy for this post. Suffice to say, every time I watch one of our newly signed ‘stars’ I don’t feel a lot of love for him right now….
The line-up on Sunday was inexplicable. Unsurprisingly Omobamidele was left on his backside by Raphina whilst trying to cover the exposed left flank and Kabak saunters into massive trouble just outside our box whilst 3 players who have played at left back sit watching the proceedings. We had actually kept two clean sheets before Chelsea which makes it all the more surreal – surely a straight swap of AO for Gibson would have been logical? Totally baffling selection.
It’s like going to the Pleasure beach at Gt Yarmouth and getting on the Watersplash instead of the Scenic Railway (giving away my vintage!). You start on a high and then it’s all the way down with only a soaking to look forward to!