For the first time since 2017, I cannot see what we are trying to do. The path, always so clear, is now clouded. Muddied beyond recognition. I simply don’t know what we are trying to achieve other than some finger-tip clutching at the precipice of Premier League participation.
In the words of the infamous Craig David… re-re-wind. The summer of 2017. A squad arguably better than our existing one and consisting of bloated Premier League wages, egos and those not committed to a Championship bare-knuckle dust-up. I’ll throw a few names at you:
Naismith, Oliviera, Pritchard, Dorrans, Mulumbu, Wildschut
And how refreshing the Stuart Webber clear-out was. We knew what we had to do. We knew the path we had to take. We had the vision. We had the right coaching team to implement said vision and we all knew the constraints within which we had to work.
It worked. Twice. Rather spectacularly.
Yet the problem was, the vision didn’t quite seem to marry up with the awkward consequence of tearing up the Championship. Twice.
What the owners are trying to do, rightly deserves plaudits. A beacon of all that should be good about our game, shining out from Nelson’s finest county. Hope offered, to 99% of the football pyramid, that things can be done differently and can achieve success.
Yet, just yet, the composition and dynamics of the Premier League simply do not allow for any model, other than that of billionaire ownership, to work. So, with crossroads faced, what could Webber do? Maintain the existing model and vision, or roll the dice?
I think we are somewhere in the middle, pursuing neither path properly. And where do we find ourselves?
With a bloated squad that isn’t good enough for Premier League football, yet will lack (or will be notable by their absence) the requisite skill-set for the Championship. We threw money at it in January 2016. It didn’t work. We’ve spent upwards of £50mil this season. It’s not worked. But if we hadn’t, then we go to war without a gun… again.
So right back where we started from?
I, like many others no doubt, am more worried about our lack of prospect next season, than putting up much of a last stand in this one.
Because the vision has gone. What are we trying to achieve? If Rashica had shone like Buendia. If Gilmour had been the player to replace Skipp. It might, just might, have worked. But it hasn’t – and has failed. Big-time.
I’m perhaps, only one of a small number who is still pro-Farke and cannot fathom why, after awarding him a four-year contract – ergo maintaining, at least part of our vision, and thus building some sort of dynasty – that we sacked him.
At least we all knew where we were. Sadly, for all the mantra Webber likes to surround the club by, ‘ignoring the noise’ – I think Webber listened too closely to certain sections of our fan base and national media and prematurely pulled the trigger.
I do like Dean Smith and Craig Shakespeare, and their credentials more than speak for themselves, but are we in any better position than when we sacked Farke?
I don’t think so.
Different coaches. Different playing style. Different methodology. We now need a major overhaul and an entire re-set to build a squad in their image. And that’s without knowing how long either will stick around for. A look at our loan stable will perhaps shed some light on our likely line-up next season.
But what’s the vision? Where are we going? What can we achieve?
I look at our squad. And simply don’t know.
I’ll finish this piece with a nod to Martin P’s, signature sign-offs.
Have a good and safe New Year, all.
Hi Martin
It’s funny how nearly all of us in the MFW community are writing and commenting along the same lines just now – the only difference is in the detail, really.
I doubt we can all be wrong and I’m fairly certain we are not.
Thanks for the nod to the musical outros – to get from Manic Street Preachers to Maxine Nightingale in less than 36 hours is really quite something 🙂
A very HNY to you and yours.
All seems a bit of a muddle to me. The infrastructure is undoubtedly markedly better….but the playing side of things just seems to have lost all sense of direction.
HNY to you and yours as well!
I think we may of been better off not spending anything as recruitment has been dreadful . Sorry to say we need a new director of football or new approach .
Couldn’t agree more CanaryJiim. I’d be far more confident in the championship with Vrancic and Stieperdude than Sargent and Tzolis!
“If Rashica had shone like Buendia. If Gilmour had been the player to replace Skipp.”
If, like their predecessors you mention, they were playing in the Championship they would indeed shine.
As far as the change of manager was concerned I wasn’t totally sold on the idea at the time, precisely because any newcomer arriving was going to be faced with the best part of a dozen games with little time to impose his own playing style and no chance at all to refresh his squad. And that was before we knew of omicron.
In the event given the injuries to Normann, Rashica, Rupp and Hanley, plus Krul catching covid instead of footballs, I’m very doubtful if Farke would have had more points on the board than Smith unless he’d had the luck v Newcastle and Man U that we didn’t get. And if that were the case you can be sure the majority who are now deriding Dean Smith would have been demanding to know why the Delia version hadn’t been ruthless enough 2 months ago.
My personal anger right now though is for the fans who have jumped all over Gilmour. How does shouting ” **** off back to Chelsea” and hammering him on social media actually help our cause now, or in the future?
The lad’s 20, one of many who hasn’t (yet) been able to deliver what we’d hoped. Abusing him isn’t going to make him play better; practice might. I wouldn’t blame him if he asked to be released and shipped up to Rangers for the rest of the season. Of course a losing team is going to be criticised but picking him out like this is just moronic. It’s not even as though he’s turned up with an attitude problem, like a certain Arsenal loanee back in Worthy’s days.
And as for future loans from the top clubs, if you were a top 6 manager would you perhaps be thinking twice about sending someone out to us again if that’s how they are abused? Generally the club seems to have earned a lot of respect over the years with fans around the country – that’s certainly how it comes across to an exile anyway. It’s so easy to lose that hard-earned respect very quickly.
As for next season, I’ll worry about that when we get there.
Very much agree re Gilmour. I’ve never understood barracking your own. It serves no purpose.
I quite liked Bentley – but once he’d mimicked a certain well known football advert – that was it for him.
Like you Martin I am also pro-Farke. Though I am pleased that we did get Dean Smith in the circumstances.
Daniel had a very straight way of playing, 4-2-3-1 and though I thought he did leave his substitutions too late at times I thought he was unfairly criticized for not having plan B.
He changed formation many times during a game, not least of all at Brentford to really good effect.
Perhaps time had run out for Daniel, but I am not entirely convinced.
I think what we have had this season is the first cracks in the working relation between Farke and Webber.
I feel in Farke’s corner there was either disappointment or downright dismay with his new players for this season.
Then in Webber’s corner there was conviction that these players were definitely good enough.
That is an unworkable, untenable situation. Especially when Farke goes to 5 at the back and so many of the new signings and Todd or Keiran cannot get into the side formation wise.
To be fair to Stuart Webber I do not think we will ever know that with a fair wind, like no covid disaster preseason, an easier 4 EPL games ( by the time we got to Watford confidence was rock bottom) and a rotten run of injuries again, that these players would have done a lot better.
However I do feel with all the evidence before us that Daniel has been proven 100% correct.
These players are just not good enough. I feel they are putting in the effort, 1 or 2 maybe hiding but that isn’t surprising I’m afraid to say.
Add to the list of woe Todd Cantwell’s ( has he been put out with the new players wages ? ) strange behaviour not helping the team in any way and we are where we are. Up a bloody creek without a paddle.
We have become an embarrassment, though I will dispute being laughed at by Ipswich Town fans is fair considering their recent results, but I do have faith in S & S turning this round.
And I have a feeling that if Smith can get this right next season perhaps our next EPL visit we could at least be competitive on the physical side of things.
But the bottom line is self-funding just will not work in the EPL unless it has a generous and wealthy owners, and then it isn’t self funding ! I know there is massive risk with some of these so called investors but we all have to move with the times. And if we want to be at the top table things have to change.
I say this with reluctance as I feel Michael and Delia have on balance been a force for good at the club.
I know that is not popular but I knew Chairman Chase. Chalk and Cheese.
Einstein said the definition of insanity is that you keep doing the same thing time and again and expecting different results…Over to you Delia.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you at MFW and thank you all for your excellent work over the past year.
Seems obvious to me, if players can‘t deliver they are replaced; if a coach doesn’t deliver, you replace. According two some, Danny was brilliant but was forced to accept sub-standard players by Webber, so Webber must go. Nonsense. No coach would work under those conditions. Farke knew what dosh was available and would have a big say in what players would fit his tactics, or should’ve changed his tactics according to the players available. Danny failed twice in the Prem, he had to go. Deano has to clear up the mess, but there’s no money because Webber spent it to help Danny. So it‘s going to take time and patience, and getting rid of Webber isn‘t going to help unless there‘s a fallout between him and Deano. The self-financing model at Carrow Road of which Webber is part, isn’t going to change. So there it is, no billionaire, new Coach, new players and tactics with Championship football next year.
They won’t want to loan us players or buy them who apart from Madison or maybe Redmond has done any good since leaving us there’s be several 10mill plus players who are virtually anonymous now. Just saying HNY everyone 😄
Cantwell could go to Leeds…where he will rediscover his form and score against us. It would be just our luck this season.
I was at Brentford when the result came in and the sense of relief amongst Norwich fans at at last getting a victory was palpable. I think we were just getting somewhere – blending a new squad of players is never easy, especially if you are red-hot favourites for relegation having sold your best player – when news came in that Farke had been sacked. I did not think it was the right moment (unless the Board had some prior arrangement with Smith) and the confusion surrounding his appointment seemed to indicate a lack of pre-planning. We will never know if Farke could have gleaned more points than we have now, but what we do know is that things look shambolic currently. At least there was a plan with Farke even if there was no Plan B – but now it feels like a rudderless ship drifting perilously close to the rocks.
Totally agree with Tony. Most accepted that after buying so many new players pre-season, then chances are that those players would need time to jell. Most also accepted that our early games against most of the top teams were unlikely to produce many, if any, points. Finally, after 6 games without a point, we managed to get a couple of 0-0 draws – not amazing results, but at least something to build upon, then we had two losses, one against Chelsea and then out first win of the season against Brentford. I felt that we still had a long way to go but 5 points from five games was at least a platform we might be able to build upon.
I was shocked when Farke was sacked immedicately after the Brentford game. New players had been brought in, presumably with a view to fitting in with Farke’s style of play and they had just started to show some signs that they could perhaps build upon the momentum of five points from five games and a win away at Brentford. At that stage, Dean Smith was still in a job with Aston Villa and it did not appear we had anyone lined up to take over the reins.
So we then hear that Smith has been sacked after losing his previous 5 premier league games with Villa and appoint him to produce results with players that had been signed with Farke’s style of play in mind.
After the initial win, against Southampton, which we may well have achieved under Farke, given the momentum from the Brentford win, Smith has managed just two points from the next 7 games. I have nothing against the man but his recent Premier league record with Villa and City over the past 13 matches has resulted in just 5 points – the same as Farke managed in his 11 games with us this season.
I am really struggling to understand the rationale and timing of sacking Farke, given all the above, particularly after just giving him a long contract extension. Yes, we might well have gone back down to the Championship at the end of the season under Farke, but there WERE some signs of improvement and possible momentum building.
Even if we were relegated again under Farke, we would have had the perfect manager to get us promoted from the Championship again. I could even have accepted City sacking him after he had won us promotion back to the Premier League, if Webber and the Board decided not to give him a third chance of keeping us in the Premier League,
I just do not see the point in the management change we have made.
The vision is unchanged. It is purely to maintain the current ownership for as long as possible. Once you accept that it becomes easier. We didn’t splash out in 2016, this is when we bought Godfrey and Maddison so the net impact was positive
Webber sacked Farke, because the alternative would have been to have to admit he had got recruitment wrong TWICE. Having said last time we need BIG ATHLETES who will run all day he gave us……….Rashica, Gilmour, Lees- Malou etc.
All this nonsense about being big spenders. We may have spent £50m including loan fees but we recovered £38m for Buendia.
We made no attempt to replace Buendia or Skipp (no, its not the loanee Normann! He would have been a Tettey replacement had he not arrived with a major injury!)
The biggest crime is that we have once again tried to buy players we can sell on for a big profit in the future – without understanding that their value would only materialise if we stayed in the Big Boy League and that requires BIG ATHLETES who are Premier League ready.
See, its not rocket science – but Webber isn’t a Rocket Scientist.
Self Funding Model – Don’t kid yourselves. We are NOT a self funding club because of some noble Delia Smith socialist principal. We are a self funding club because our owner, no doubt after a few sherberts, told The Guardian that she would be passing the self funding club on to the hapless ‘teflon’ nephew who has dodged two sponsorship bullets already.
My first game was 1960, and I haven’t missed many home games since. So, to cheer us all up a bit – times have been worse down those years. We’ll get through this.