As regular MFW readers will know I struggle to go to night matches these days, and especially when they are rearranged at relatively short notice to accommodate the likes of Chelsea who as I write are still part of the *elite*.
For how long this bunch of erstwhile rich kids*** will remain in this elevated position I do not know but I honestly cannot remember the last time we played on a Thursday night. I’m sure there’s somebody out there who can remind me.
MFW regular Don Harold took my place in the Upper Barclay, and this is what he had to say:
“The first half was as bad as it’s ever been. I’m all for trying new formations, but it looked like the team had never practiced together and collectively seemed unaware of what their jobs were. Butter provides more resistance to a hot knife than Norwich did against a rampant Chelski and we were very lucky it was only two at halftime.
“The second half was amazing. The changes in personnel and formation resulted in the best and most unexpected performance I have seen from City in the Prem for so long I can’t remember. Chelski seemed to be stunned by the changes and were lucky to maintain their lead. Until N’Golo Kante came on and oozed class.
“In the 80s, the areas around Sanctioned Bridge resembled a recruiting drive for the National Front. I despised their fans then and their behaviour last night reaffirmed my feelings. It wasn’t a minority cheering Abramovich and I’m glad that many of them won’t be able to watch their team for, hopefully, a long time.”
A couple of mates endorsed Don’s after-match comments, with Alex Bain adding:
“Looks like Newcastle are staying up and it’s between Leeds, Burnley and Everton as to who comes down with us and Watford. *Big Sam Hodgson’s* magic touch seems to have deserted him!”
Yet again results around us were reasonably favourable but I think we’ve gone past that as a consideration in all honesty.
Fortunately, Teemu Pukki disagrees with me:
“It is a big game on Sunday, so we need to take the self-confidence from the second half. I think we showed that we can play on this level and we have what it takes. We just need to do that for the 90 minutes on Sunday.
“Now I have scored a couple of goals in two games. That is a good thing and going forward it gives me confidence and it is easier to go to the Leeds game after a couple of goals. I hope I can help the team again with a goal on Sunday.
“It is hard if you concede two goals in the opening 15 minutes. I think second half we gave ourselves a chance to come back into the game and we had some chances, but we could not get the two-two goal and they are a quality team so they got the last goal.”
Maybe some of our readers feel that we might yet survive but two of us who don’t are Don H and myself, who when he returned the season ticket agreed that there are no more *must-win* matches left and that we should get ready to prepare for life in the Championship.
What we said about Chelsea and some of their supporters will remain between us as MFW quite rightly doesn’t encourage profanity.
***I’m not normally one to wish ill on anybody but I will be watching with great interest what happens to particular this bunch of:
Ha! Midge Ure pretending to be a punk, after being a teeny bopper with Slik and before being a new romantic and completely ruining Ultravox (who I saw at The Lads Club when John Foxx was with them).
Good to see you this morning, thanks for the ticket-as we said, there should be many more evening opportunities next season.
Hi Don
Personal mail sent a few minutes ago – I think I owe you a tenner 🙁
Thanks for detailing the personal experience – that’s what it’s all about.
Cheers
Rusty Egan used to drum with The Skids. Midge Ure’s hairloss was even more rapid than my own. Rich Kids were fantastic when I saw them live at somewhere daft like Dingwalls – can’t remember exactly.
Love the ‘Sanctioned Bridge’ tag.
Brilliant 2nd half display, where did that come from, no matter the result what a difference it makes.
Some people are so rich all they have is money, Chelsea under RA and Man City under the Arabs have evolved into big clubs who up until the takeovers had won very little in their preceding 100+ year history.
Poor people have faith and in footballing terms we together with majority of other clubs are poor. On the basis that good will conquer wouldn’t it be heart warming to see both Chelsea and Man City become the clubs they are supposed to be and a degree of fairness return for the good of the game.
Let’s hope for a cessation of hostilities soon and 3 points against that arrogant bunch from Yorkshire on Sunday.
🇺🇦
Hi Colin
Credit Don H for *Sanctioned Bridge* which regrettably was not my phrase.
Supporters of some clubs feel extremely entitled and I’d include Leeds in that category along with quite a few others.
Cheers
In the case of both Chelski and Citeh, they are naturally a bit bigger than Crystal Palace and not as big as Everton. I look forward to the day when at least one of them returns to being a rubbishy nothing club.
My money would be on Palace – they’ve overachieved for a while now.
I have some sympathy for Dean Smith because the ridiculous change in the schedule more or less forced him to make rest one or two players for Sunday.
When I saw the line-up it struck me that he was taking the chance to:
1) Remind Ben Gibson that giving away 2 penalties (and effectively 2 points) against relegation rivals is not good enough
2) Give Kabak and Zimmerman game time, and a chance to impress
3) Give Rupp and Rashica a bit of a break, to be fresher for the Leeds game
4) Protect Byram
Presumably the idea was keep it tight for the first half and see what transpired. That we were a goal behind in no time made him look a right chump – although given that it was from a corner, you can’t really put it down to the change of formation. The subsequent lack of possession and the ease with which Chelsea moved the ball around certainly was though.
I was slightly surprised Sorensen wasn’t given a start though, and that Placheta didn’t come straight in for Rashica makes me wonder if he has a future here at all. I know he’s ahead of Tzolis for now, but I think they’ve come to the conclusion the Greek youngster needs more time to rebuild his confidence out of the limelight. Just like Buendia 3 years ago he may be better able to do that in the Championship.
At least for once our immediate rivals all lost.
Hi Keith
The early goal from a near post header would have been enough to knock the stuffing out of a lot of teams and certainly had that effect on us for the remainder of the first half.
Some folks blame Sargent for not attacking it but I still put it down to something I heartily dislike, which is the conception of zonal marking. I’m no coach but I heartily dislike it.
Sorensen and to a lesser degree Tzolis remain mysteries to me, but one major difference between them is that we paid very little for the former who should be played far more than he has been while the latter was a gamble on future resale value.
Placheta remains even more of an enigma to me. He didn’t exactly light up the Championship last time around.
To put it bluntly, what money we had Webber appears to have wasted.
Cheers
Keith/Martin,
I don’t get zonal marking either – strikes me that being on the man, you reduce the threat whereas being zonal all it takes is a slight variation in the attacker’s positioning, and the zones are buggered! Its a contact sport not a board game.
S&S set the team up, and the team react to the game they can see before them. The opening positions of 5-3-2 didn’t work against Chelsea whereas they worked earlier this year, who knows why!
I absolutely hope we go toe-to-toe with Leeds and I know we can beat them if we do so. Despite the attitude we get coming our way, we are not that far away from the four clubs above us, and we can compete with them. Two victories while they lose, and we take 16th place. Go for it!
I’d like to see more of Sorensen too, he fits well with with Lees-Melou, Normann and Rupp. We are due a few goals from the midfield and on a good day these guys are capable of getting us forward.
Teemu is looking sharper over the last couple of games, his goals attest to that, and I think we have more than enough attacking instinct from within the team to make a big push till the end of the season.
Whether City can beat loaded dice and the referee though – that’s another question!
Cheers,
COYYs !
Hi Martin
After hearing Hodgson on the Watford performance last night I think his friends the Pozzo family will soon be sending him a P45.
As most of us older generation knows only too well Chelsea supporters haven’t the best of reputation similar with Wet Spam and Leeds all like the Saturday street rumbles before and after games and on occasions in the grounds as well sadly it’s gaining ground again.
Well a game of two halves for city doesn’t exist at present is it the players, tactics or coaching something has to change, I will hope we can stay up till the it’s impossible to do so which will not be long at this rate.
McLean missed his calling as a traffic Cop surely instead of pointing out a danger you should react to it and stop it but that is being proactive.
Many people have written if Lees-Melou but on a few recent performances he is showing what he can do.
Sadly we are still not seeing Sorensen getting game time maybe Saturday he will start with Lees-Melou.
Hi Alex
Rumour has it Mr Hodgson used the *carp* word about his own team which is isn’t really something you’d expect from a man of his stature and experience.
It did make me laugh though!
While Peter Grant is a Bhoy and Kenny McLean a Ger they don’t half have two things in common – both are Scots and both love the display of the pointing finger!
Cheers
Second up
How can people argue with sanctions like below
This is from a man who moaned that the government hadn’t sanctioned Abramovich.
A Labour MP is saying that the sanctions being placed on Abramovich shouldn’t be placed on Chelsea, how do you separate one from the other.
He said that a more practical was should be found that doesn’t harm the club financially or to operated in the football community.
The club announced that all future travel expenses were ring fenced and paid for at the beginning of the season, all wages and bonuses for all employees are guaranteed.
The MP for sports and Media has said any difficulties can and will be worked out as we will work with the club as and when needed.
So what more needs doing Abramovich has had all his UK assets frozen and Chelsea is one of those, it is estimated that match day and retail accounts for £600k aweek incoming to the club and that has been stopped.
Freezing assets stops him or his businesses profitting from any incoming money.
No other Oligarchs are in a similar position of owning a large chunk of London real estate and his property portfolio is in access of £250m all up for sale which have been frozen.
He will not be penniless Putin and his own Russian Bank will see to that, his autobiographer has said that there were times doing the book he was told Abramovich was and still is one of Putin’s top advisors in all things business and military, his steel works supplies all the materials the military needs.
Football needs investment just as we need oxygen to survive but the powers that be must stiffen up the owners suitability test or maybe they will let in the Billionaire African Mining Industrialist who has a dodgy reputation next at Chelsea
This situation remains a bit too fluid for my liking at the moment.
All I will say is that – whether his or her assets are frozen or not – I would wager a pound to a pinch of pig$hit that no oligarch will go skint in our understanding of the word.
It all depends what the individual oligarch has in the slush fund.
Same old, same old.
I did read a while back that he had turned most of his company assets into funds in offshore banks, will these tax havens freeze an Oligarchs accounts I truly doubt it bad for their core business and would see many accounts closed.
The Gnomes of the Alps have allowed Oligarchs and many Dictators to stash billions in untraceable accounts for generations and still to this day only open them up on the death or imprisonment of the holder so what has or will change
nothing really
Yep.
For ordinary folks though la tristesse durere.
Hi Martin second half performing deserved a point
Passion and commitment came on at half time and what a difference it made we can give most a good game when they’re in the team. Mr kabac had a good game got in several firm tackles .Still in touch please play sorresan instead of McLean must be better surely 😉
Hi Kev
I don’t know what power McLean possesses over both Farke and Smith but he certainly seems to be an automatic selection for both.
That’s probably why they are head coaches and I sit in the Barclay!
See you next time around for Burnley which I reckon will be a pretty turgid affair 🙂
Cheers mate
I am like you and Don Martin in that I think relegation is inevitable.
In saying that Leeds, Everton and Watford are doing their best to give us a chance. And Burnley are at Brentford in a 6 pointer tomorrow and then Manchester City before they visit us.
So a victory at Leeds would at least make the forthcoming games interesting. Personally I am just hoping that we haven’t started Project Restart 2. My god that was awful, relegation by a thousand cuts.
I always felt that relegation was coming once Nick texted me that Grant Hanley was out for the whole of the restart. I even remember where I was and what I was doing it was that profound. Poor Tim Klose heroically stepped into the breach but admitted afterwards that he was in dreadful pain in those games.
This time round while not as senior as Grant in the side, Adam Idah’s injury has probably had nearly as much an effect.
That may sound a bit daft as Adam was nowhere near a regular as Grant, but it allowed us to play differently it also helped Teemu. They were starting to form a partnership.
It gave us a bit of strength and speed upfront sadly missing since his injury. I am not saying his availability would have saved by any means us but it could have helped us even by a little.
I like you Martin take Teemu’s comments with a pinch of salt the players have to say these things, imagine if he said ” Personally I think it is a banker home win ” 😂
Mind you I used to laugh at Bryan Gunn, Ian Crook etc who said at the start of every season in the EDP/EEN back in their time we are going to make a bid for Europe this year. ( Chenery’s Tour I used to say !)
Until they did. And then the laugh was on me.
Hi Tim
It must be awkward to be the player [Pukki on this occasion] pushed into the media spotlight and trying to put a positive spin on things. Russell Martin was adept it a few seasons ago as I’m sure you’ll remember.
On the Idah thing, I know Sargent was bought as a striker but is one in reality? Idah is and as you say was starting to give Pukki a bit of practical help which apart from Southampton [h] I’ve never really seen from Sargent.
Realistically means Pukki is our only striker now and in many ways has been our only one all season – and that’s no way to approach a Premier League campaign.
Cheers
Couldn’t agree more Martin, I was prepared to give Stuart Webber the benefit of the doubt once he had sacked Daniel. I didn’t particularly like it, especially the timing but what was done was done. We have to move on.
It was obvious that Sturat felt the players he and the recruitment team had bought in in the summer were good enough whereas Daniel took the opposite view as he hardly played them.
I hated losing Daniel but his EPL record was awful, so I thought lets see what a new coach can do.
Dean Smith has improved us I will admit that but the players are simply not good enough. Some may blossom like a Harry Kane, others may not.
Josh does not look like a Premier League striker at all, his record in the Bundesliga is not of a striker by any stretch of the imagination. 11 goals in 70 games. But we must remember so many of these recruits were too young for a relegation scrap.
So all we really had up front was as you say Adam and Teemu. Let’s be honest we all feared in typical ACN spirit that one would get injured, perhaps not for the season but there was always that worry.
Not getting in at least some kind of cover was irresponsible at best crazy at worst.
I do not think Jordan Hugill is EPL either but he at least would fit into they way Dean Smith is playing so why the hell did we loan him out to another championship team ?
I think Stuart Webber may go this summer, nothing I know just a feeling. I think he may be ready for a different challenge.
Funny that – I picked up on the highlights of our 3-1 win at Elland Road three years ago [where Mario scored twice] earlier today and that brought back happy memories of the side at the time.
Webber always said he would one day want to work in Europe, but that might be considerably more difficult for him to achieve this year for reasons that affect each and every one of us of course.
I backed him to the hilt for three seasons but if he quit now I’m afraid I really couldn’t give a to$$. I’m confident Neil Adams wouldn’t do any worse with the transfer budget – such as that might be next season.
Interestingly I was thinking the other day Martin we have no one like Mario Vrancic to take a really good free kick these days.
I even feel he could get into this team.
This seasons free kicks have been absolutely dire.
Agreed, I think Neil Adams couldn’t do any worse than last summers recruitment.
I have just read Delia’s comments in the EDP.
Unbelievable.
Those comments sent shivers down me ole spine and that’s for sure but to balance that I can’t say I was surprised.
The interesting part will come when Tom Smith takes over.
Even if he wants to attract investment or, perish the thought, sell up – which he might not – it will be made as difficult as possible for him to do so.
I can only remember one noteworthy free kick all season and that was months ago from Normann!
Ghosts Of Princes In Towers is an often overlooked classic by The Rich Kids — both the song and the album.
Hi Andrew
Apart from the bits on YouTube there is a CD out there on Cherry Red called *Burning Sounds* with some alternative mixes [no bad thing in this case!] and Only Arsenic, Just Like Lazarus and a few more tracks not on the Ghosts album too.
Cheers
Like you Martin, I didn’t go.
I followed on line, but even then it was scarcely (why??) believeable that we conceded so early from yet another set-piece!! Are our coaches blind to the fact that for a number of games/seasons this has been one (of many) major weaknesses??
I was fearful during the first half that it was going to be another 7 or so.
McLean continues to point and do very little else. I can only assume that he and the chosen one must be the best performers at Colney every week. Just what does Sorenson have to do?
And if we ever needed proof that the PL don’t want us, surely it was totally encapsulated by Mr Atkinson’s VAR performance for the penalty!! I’m pretty sure that Specsavers have already bought up the screening rights.
O T B C
Hi John
I’ve renewed – as in I haven’t actively cancelled – for reasons I gave the other day.
This season though giving up the night matches and passing them on to Don H bothered me far less than I thought it would tbh.
Should the recruitment be aspi$$ poor this summer as it was last then I reckon 2022-23 could be my last although I sincerely hope that won’t be the case.
Seeing that the £9m Tzolis was in the under-23s last night didn’t really do much for me – even if he got an assist against Fulham u-23s.
Many things are out of kilter at NCFC right now.
Cheers
Hello Matin, oddly I felt we made a much better fist of this game than we did on Saturday, particularly given the gulf in quality of opponents.
This was a stereotypical jekyll and Hyde norwich city performance. A quite appalling start where despite sporting 3 centre halves we concede the obligatory goal from a corner. The first half was a total non event. Truly dreadful.
The second half was the complete antithesis. Embodied by the 20 yard sprint by Williams to crash into an old fashioned tackle, it wasn’t even a 50 50. Superb commitment.
The charge down the right wing by max aarons, burning off two opponents to win a corner.
The full blooded challenges of kabak. The pace and directness of rashica.
The midfield control exerted by Lees melou and rupp.
Quite why the officials needed a replay to establish the blatant handball and award a penalty should be filed under refereeing mysteries.
The scoreline was ultimately scant reward for a rare display of determination.
The challenge for Smith, Dean, not the other one, is to stitch two second halves against Chelsea into one 90 minute performance against crap like brentfrd and to do so on a frequent number occasions before May..
Who knows which team will turn up next time? However a few hopefuls have pressed their claims.
Hi Chris
It’s easy to say but I blame zonal marking for many of our set-piece concessions. I doubt Leeds will bother us too much in that respect but Burnley are likely to fill their boots.
For me Brentford really were cr*p but we didn’t deal with them and come the first week in May I’ll put 5/3/22 down as the day our season finally died.
Cheers as ever.