Stuart Webber has announced his signing of a new rolling contract with City, ensuring he’ll stay at the club beyond his original 2022 exit point.
This means that, although the Canaries are currently in the midst of a fierce relegation battle, Webber’s in-tray continues to pile up and his mid-term planning for the club’s future goes on. So, what are the tasks now facing City’s sporting director?
A strong January transfer window
Predictably, rumours have already begun to swirl around potential winter business by Webber. The Welshman has traditionally preferred to operate with the time and care that the summer transfer window allows, but with a new head coach at the helm could be tempted.
Webber stated his belief in the current squad when quizzed on the matter last week, but didn’t close the door on any improvements. “I think we’ve got a well-balanced squad,” he said, “a talented squad. Of course, if we get to January and there’s something we desperately need to do and we need to be creative on that, then we’ll do it.
“But we need to remember that we spent a lot of money in the summer, we’re not sat there with incredible amounts in the bank to go and sign a £20million striker or whatever.
“First of all, it’s about believing in the group that we’ve got because we do and we believe there’s much more to come. Then, like every transfer window, we’ll reassess it and see where we are, so it’s probably a question for eight weeks (now seven) down the line.”
Smith does have a history of bringing former players to new clubs, as he did when signing ex-Brentford players Jota, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins for Aston Villa. Links have already developed with some current Villains, but it remains to be seen whether Webber will be keen on a raid of the West Midlands club.
Addressing Todd Cantwell’s future
One man that’s greatly benefitted from Smith’s arrival is Todd Cantwell. After being frozen out during Daniel Farke’s final throes, the 23-year-old was immediately included in the 50-year-old’s XI, but failed to impress in a difficult opening 45 minutes against Southampton.
While City fans are largely elated at Cantwell’s return to the team and the potential attached for solving the Canaries’ creative problems, Webber’s task has become a great deal more complex as a result.
Had the situation got much worse prior to Smith’s arrival, the task could’ve been to extract maximum value for a player who looked unlikely to feature again- a skilled but fairly straightforward job. Now, Webber must weigh-up the options at his disposal.
Having hired a coach who’s very much a fan of the England under-21 international, the chances of City wanting to retain him have surely increased, but whether he’ll want to is another matter for Webber to address.
It’s not an urgent matter in the sporting director’s eyes- he recently said that “we don’t see it as a contract situation”- but it looks likely to be before long.
Committing to a strategy for 2022/23
If Norwich are relegated the short-term strategy is clear: bouncing back as quickly as possible. However, City are not planning on getting relegated.
Months before survival is either achieved or slips away, Webber must and will decide how to approach things if Premier League football remains at Carrow Road for the first time in nine years.
Do they gamble on improvement, and spend big once again in the hope of progression to mid-table, or do they simply attempt to consolidate their top-flight status by hook or by crook?
A recent example of a club that attempted the former is a certain Aston Villa, whose manager at the time has been the subject of a lot of attention in Norfolk in recent weeks. If Smith can progress the Canaries in the same way he progressed his boyhood club then a similar attempt is surely on the cards.
The choice is Webber’s to make.
Deciding whether to retain Kabak, Normann and Rupp
There are technically seven current City players whose contracts run out next summer: Cantwell, Billy Gilmour, Ozan Kabak, Mathias Normann, Teemu Pukki, Lukas Rupp and Brandon Williams.
Discussions over whether Cantwell and Pukki’s one-year options will be taken up would be elementary, while the futures of Gilmour and Williams are very likely to be out of Webber’s hands.
That leaves a decision to be made on the futures of Kabak, Normann and Rupp. In the case of Normann it seems clear at this stage that he’ll be wanted at Carrow Road for the 2022/23 season, although financial over-stretching the like of which has not been seen before in NR1 would be needed to attain the Norwegian in the Championship.
In the cases of Kabak and Rupp, the best evidence of which side Webber could end up on came last weekend, when both were peculiar quirks in Smith’s selection. Kabak was omitted from the matchday squad entirely, while Rupp made a surprise appearance.
It had been assumed by many that Farke’s departure would spell doom for his trusted number 7, but Smith relied upon Rupp to shore-up the midfield as City saw out an impressive victory. Kabak, on the other hand, could face an uphill struggle after being beaten to a place on the bench by 19-year-old Andrew Omobamidele.
The ultimate decision will rest with a very busy Mr. Webber.
Well I wonder how true the rumours of Delia’s unhappiness directed at Mr Webber over this seasons transfers makes you wonder if that bullish interview he did just before he sacked Farke was partly directed at the board too . Don’t think Delia will let him spend anymore in January lol .
So, you’re clinging on to the “football insider” nonsensical exclusive that revealed Webber was leaving? The opposite of course happened. I think it’s safe to say the same is true with all the other inferences in that waste of words he called an article.
If you really believe anything that was alleged by that author, or his “club insider”, then it’s clear that they, and you, don’t know or understand our club at all…. let alone the good people who’ve run it for a quarter of a century.
Hi Tim
In my experience when a site like that publishes something of this nature it is invariably going to be a load of b0ll0cks.
The fact that it was only copied by a single similar site tends to confirm this.
I rarely take these fringe *news* sites seriously although they get what they want as via NewsNow I click on them just in case!
Hi Samuel
I would think Kabak was more an omission more due to being ill for the previous international break and wasn’t showing full fitness in training.
Writing of a player with a good pedigree at such a young age 20yrs old and his experience seems strange.
Rupp will possibly be back in Germany once DF gets a new club and maybe Zimmerman as well both trusted by him and if it’s in Bundesliga 2 then both will do a great job, plus a few loans from our academy.
Any additions from Villa I would think will come at a hefty price tag.
Shore up? 😉😉
(Such a smug git!)
Oops… blame the useless editor for that one, John!
Cheers for spotting it.
I would be really surprised in the veracity of these newspaper reports saying Delia and Stuart have fallen out badly.
The thing for me is that I cannot believe for one minute is that Delia wanted Daniel gone in the summer.
I am sure Delia and Stuart have had disagreements as they are both very strong minded individuals, but if Delia wanted Stuart gone he would be. Like now.
Look at the Turner’s and Jez Moxey.
On Stuart Webber. He has improved this club immeasurably in the short time he has been here, as you say just look at the improvements at the Colney training ground.
I fear this summer’s recruitment hasn’t been as good as Stuart thinks, but he isn’t the only Norwich city employee responsible for this. Though I’m sure he will agree the buck stops with him.
As you say Samuel we will know who is right and who is wrong come survival or not.
To be fair even that isn’t completely fair, if we go down all guns blazing then I for one would see it as an improvement on that complete surrender better known as Project Restart.
If the worst does happen we as a club have a very good infrastructure and a very good manager to give it another go in the Championship, and a lot of that is down to Stuart Webber.
One final thing I noticed the AGM was full of the interesting mixed with it usual fair share of platitudes
What really caught my eye was the 116% of income was spent on wages.
Now I know a some of that was the extremely well earned promotion bonuses, but any figure like that is totally unsustainable in the long term.
I will be interested to see the details when Marty shows me his shareholders financial statement.
Where Kabak is concerned, it may well be interlaced with who we sell and whether Zimbo can return to full fitness, I think we’ll need all our current centre-halves – including Kabak – for this season.
I hope we don’t sell too much young blood – I like to think Aarons Omobamidele and Cantwell can have marked effects on us staying up – which I think we will do!
I like Williams. I like Giannoulis. – I liked Quintilla.
Whatever happens if the first two followed Quintilla out the door, we would only really have Maxi, Bali and Byram as specific full backs, which would be a lean mix however good the remaining three are.
I know its early days, but I think its looking like we are replacing Buendia with wider contributions from across the whole squad, which would be stunning to watch, and would provide lots of opportunities for Super-Teemu to bring home a hat-full of goals for us.
We really need to get to the bottom of the great mystery around Sorensen’s non-selection, it seems ludicrous that a player that talented is not making matchday squad appearances, as a midfielder or as a very useful utility man. If everyone has a clean sheet and a good pay rate, so should he!
I like our current midfield, Normann and Lees-Melou work well together, and The Mayor has a big heart. Hope Gilmour stays until the end of the season, and I think Rupp and Sorensen are both good honest midfielders.
Cantwell, Tzolis and Sargent could make very important contributions for us before the season ends. Like Sorensen, we never see anything of Placheta, it would be nice if that situation changed too.
We’ve got three very good goalkeepers, no worries at all there! I won’t comment on Championship strategies, as I think we will stay up in the Premiership!
COYY !!
No mention of our loanees which seems a bit strange. Hernandez and Sinani seem to be making good progress and could feature at some point.