After my first MFW guest blog went live on 14th January, City won back-to-back league games – Everton (h) and Watford (a) – which gave us all a little hope. I received messages joking that they must have had that article hanging up in the dressing room.
Then reality hit… again.
Looking back on those two games, Everton and Watford were both on shocking runs from which losing to Norwich was always going to be the final nail in the respective coffins of Rafa Benitez and Claudio Ranieri. Looking at the league table, these were teams City should be expected to beat.
Dean Smith had found a system (4-4-2) that was working and which was certainly more effective than anything else we had witnessed all season.
But by using a front two and having only two out-and-out strikers in the squad, there was always one big risk – one of the forwards getting injured.
Step forward Adam Idah.
At the worst possible time, a knee injury ruled out the Irishman for the rest of the season and so the only way we could continue with the 4-4-2 system would be to put Josh Sargent up front. But other than the one good game against Watford, we are still yet to discover what the American really is.
While at the start of January it looked unlikely that we were going anywhere other than back to the Championship, the club owed it to Dean Smith and the fans to use the window – as other clubs did – to give itself a chance of survival.
Everyone could see the lack of quality in the squad but the self-funding model meant new faces were an impossibility. So much so that Stuart Webber had made other plans for January, which included climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
No other sporting director would do this during a transfer window. It’s the equivalent of a client accountant going on holiday during essential reporting at the start of a month. And no, bringing back Jordan Hugill and Onel Hernandez was never the answer. West Brom and Middlesbrough can testify to that.
What followed was a lucky draw against Palace, expected defeats against Man City and Liverpool (despite claims that being ahead at Anfield can be seen as a positive, we still lost) and a fortunate 2-0 loss against Southampton. The Saints had 27 shots. This wasn’t a Champions League contender we were playing.
Saturday’s defeat against Brentford was for many people the final straw. The Bees hadn’t won a game since 2nd January when they beat Aston Villa. Since then they had lost seven Premier League games yet they turned up at Carrow Road and strolled to the win. The same Brentford who finished ten points behind Norwich last season.
It’s just not acceptable. Brentford were on a similar run to Everton and Watford.
But the Bees did one thing, in particular, differently from us in the summer window – they didn’t sell their best player to fund their summer spending. They didn’t need to.
It’s been a dreadful and shambolic season. Injuries, COVID, refereeing decisions, VAR and the fixture list have all been used as excuses, but 17 points from 27 games.
The reason for this is closer to home.
We will never know if City would have fared better against Southampton and Brentford by playing 4-4-2, but being unable to bring in a replacement or strengthen the squad in general, shows just how limited the self-funding model is.
Which leads me on to just that.
The club have announced that season ticket prices will be going up leading into the 2022-23 season.
Why? Due to the pandemic. What doesn’t make sense is people stating how unhappy they are with the rise yet are still happy with the model the club currently has. They can’t have it both ways.
What does Norwich City Football Club want to be?
Are they privately happy to yo-yo between the leagues or is there an ambition to be a consistent Premier League side? Because with the current model, the latter looks an impossibility.
The ‘little old Norwich’ mentality of being happy with the constant promotions and relegations, all stems from the top.
It won’t be said out loud, but part of their criteria for any prospective new owners, is they have to be fans of the club. That would be the perfect solution for everyone but it’s not possible and the current owners know it.
I get that there have been clubs that are going through difficulties as a result of them having bad owners but look at Wolves, Southampton and Leicester just to name three. All similar-sized clubs to City yet were any of their current owners fans of their club when they bought it?
It’s not, nor should it be, a make-or-break condition.
Reportedly, any “serious” offers, would be put forward to the fans to decide. No club has ever done that before and how would it even work? Would shareholders only get a say, or season ticket holders as well?
That needs to be cleared up and with another relegation pending, an interview between the local press and the owners (when did that last happen?) would at least make it look like they are keeping us in the loop with the aims of the club as the club’s ‘caretakers’.
The only message we are currently getting from the club with the ticket price rises is, “Please sir, I want some more”.
Something needs to change.
“Looking back on those two games, Everton and Watford were both on shocking runs from which losing to Norwich was always going to be the final nail in the respective coffins of Rafa Benitez and Claudio Ranieri. Looking at the league table, these were teams City should be expected to beat.”
This is spot on. People thought we’d turned a corner, but we’d only beaten teams in complete freefall. That’s as useful a data point as losses to the top two.
The highest team we’ve beaten this season sit in 9th and that as an anomoloy. People wrote off Man City and Liverpool since they’re a different class, but the reality is there’s almost zero data to suggest we can beat 12th or above. They’re all a different class to us.
Looking at the the remaining fixtures, based on current form, we may get 3 more wins (Leeds, Burnley, and at a push Brighton). That’s with some luck and a fair wind behind us.
We’ll probably beat Farke’s 21 pts, but not by much.
We’ve moved from sympathy to pity to derision to laughing stock to ignored irrelevance finally in the eyes of the media and other clubs’ fans. Sadly, they’re right. And this isn’t the first time, we’ve done it twice! Unforgiveably, embarrassingly awful. Never mind, lads, keep taking your £40,000 a week from folk who can rare afford it… Shameful.
You all keep paying the money and going so they can keep serving up the dross you watch , must feel cheated I know I would . Stop going stop paying otherwise they will keep getting away with it look at the bigger picture I’m sure pretty quickly the penny would drop for them . Nuff said 😉
‘What does Norwich City Football Club want to be?’ Interesting Question.
The football club was – and still is – a vehicle for the majority shareholders. A clique.
Football had already moved well away from what they want it to be upon their inception, so as time has gone on, they’ve been increasingly at odds of how modern football works, to the point they are living in a parallel universe.
Enid Blyton is dead, but you can still buy the Famous Five.
That’s how the club operates.
Something does indeed need to change, but it won’t. The club isn’t for sale.
The club knows that there will always be enough fans to accept whatever is thrown at them. Whatever league. Despite grumblings, there is never any pressure on them. None. That has been unacceptable for years, but here we still are.
The club isn’t serious about top level football and yet again, we have to watch it go through the motions.
What Norwich City wants to be and what the fans want it to be are for most, two different things.
Come the start of next season, we may have the answer.
It’s the difference between aspiring to be a “top 26 club”, as has been the oft-stated aim, and aspiring to be a “top 17 club” which is what this fan would like.
Having said that, on current form and with the current squad, I’m not even sure top 26 is realistic…
Being in the top 26 teams includes the 20 from the Premiership and the top 6 from championship. Possibly we will looking at the trapdoor to League One again . If this was like it was a few year ago, pay on the day at the turnstiles, when fans voted with their feet. Views at the board level would soon be different.
Enough is Enough, a stand will have to made, the fans need to be heard and not allowed to get sidetracked again remember Mr Chase, Delia & Michael. The time may be different but the story is very much the same, sell our best players and buy next to nothing. It is what got Chase out
Definitely not martin.
Onel Hernandez would have been the answer if the question was what options do we have to ensure Placheta never steps on the field again.