I didn’t go to the West Ham game. Not because I was protesting at the disaster that is our football club but because of ill health. Unfortunately, ill health didn’t prevent me from watching it.
Martin was there to see it all unfold (or at least 45 minutes of it), so he more than deserved first dibs, which hopefully you read this morning.
But even through the prism of a screen, it was – as we have come to expect this season – joyless, gutless and embarrassing.
Nothing to emerge from season 2021-22 has been good. It has, instead, been an exercise in misery. A passion-less, death-by-a-thousand-cuts slide to relegation that began almost as soon as the first ball had been kicked against Liverpool on opening day.
No one, other than maybe Jon Rowe, has emerged with anything resembling credit although my heart goes out to Teemu Pukki whose light continues to shine brightly despite him being denied anything like the service that he deserves.
I desperately hope he stays in the summer but no one here could begrudge him one final big payday – particularly at a club where he’ll be provided with those things called goalscoring opportunities – if that chance presents itself.
In fairness, Tim Krul and Grant Hanley also probably have credits in the bank based on some good performances and for showing that they care.
But as for the rest of them…
So limp was the display against West Ham, it could have been the start of a brand new ad campaign for Viagra Connect.
So predictable. Some nice enough but ineffective passing football that invariably concludes with Pukki losing out in a three-on-one and then we concede a goal so sloppy it’d not look out of place on a 1970s school dinner plate.
And that’s it. Game over.
Once Said Benrahma’s deflected shot had squirmed through the grasp of Tim Krul, not a single person in that stadium or anyone watching at home believed, even for a second, that City could get back in that game.
And that included Dean Smith and the players.
So the response to the goal was the one with which we have become accustomed – no fight, no passion, no anger, no anything.
No one rollicks anyone else for doing something wrong (and lots of things went wrong); no one gets screamed at from the touchline for not doing as they have been instructed, and no one appears to get the hump because we’ve just conceded a really soft, really avoidable goal.
Barely even a shrug. And that’s a massive problem.
While there’s no evidence to suggest that those behind the scenes are hurting, we’re told emphatically that they are and that the next few months will be spent trying to find solutions. And so we have to believe it.
What I didn’t expect to see was that same laissez-faire attitude to relegation on the pitch. At the very least, I hoped to see some fire in the belly and a desire to dent the European dreams of one or two teams. At least give them a scare and make them sweat.
But no. We roll over and invite them to tickle our belly.
If David Moyes was being honest, rather than respectful of his friend Dean Smith, he’d have admitted that was the easiest 90 minutes West Hame have had all season.
The Hammers arrived off the back of that crushing defeat in the semi-final of the Europa League and would have been still feeling the effects, both mental and physical, of a tough Thursday night in Frankfurt.
But there was no ferocity or tempo in City’s play. No attempt to fly out of the blocks and catch West Ham when at their most vulnerable. Just a few pretty passing patterns played at the rhythm of a WI summer fete.
No one at the club, on or off the pitch, appears remotely angry or p**sed off at being relegated.
There’s just… nothing.
It feels as if the apathy felt currently by the supporters has seeped upwards, into the psyche of the players, officials and board.
A club just drifting… presumably awaiting a summer rebuild that will, of course, ready us for another tilt at the Championship title.
But will it though?
Does anyone have the stomach for it? Does anyone at the club have the stomach for anything right now?
The only person we’ve heard from, other than Stuart Webber – whose chat with Henry Winter was predominantly about his extra-curricular activities – is Dean Smith, whose job it is to explain away the latest disappointment.
Now I’m hearing a lot of ‘Dean Smith out’ chatter right now, and I agree he’s hardly made a compelling case to be awarded an extended contract, but I believe we have to judge him once he has a squad he can call his own.
He may or not be the answer, I really don’t know, and he’s done little to improve things since his arrival, but more than anything that tells me the squad at his and Daniel Farke’s disposal was just not good enough.
Neither was it fast enough or big enough, as they proved yet again on Sunday. In Premier League terms it’s proven itself to be woeful.
So, yeah, Sunday. Another disaster, as if I wasn’t feeling poorly enough already.
But the bad news just keeps on coming.
I now understand that Max Aarons and Brandon Williams were heckled by some supporters as they departed Carrow Road yesterday, with the latter actually being followed in his car by some fans.
All pretty unedifying stuff and Williams has since sent out a social media message, one that was endorsed by the club, explaining the post-match events.
Just when we think things couldn’t possibly get worse, right now they seem to.
In that regard, season 2021-22 has been exceptional.
And right now I just want it to end.
Title says it all gary no need to read the rest lol
The malaise seemed to be there from game one. No sense of ‘we can win games’. And that has now become an absolute truth believed by the players, the fans, and those of all other clubs. We are easy meat.
Not replacing Skipp or Buendia was unforgiveable. Farke’s teams always leaked goals, but not when Skipp was there protecting the defence. And then to compound the felony our goal threat evaporated when Emi trolled up the A47 to Villa. That mightn’t have been so bad if then we hadn’t have spent the entire war chest of £60M on a few unnecessary and useless gew-gaws and knick-knacks, that you couldn’t even shift on Bargain Hunt.
As for the ‘all that Delia has done for the club’ grigade, what exactly has she done for the club? Bought it for a knock-down price, then spent the next 25 years funding a wonderful social life for a few cronies while the game changed around us and headed off into the stratosphere. Their financial input since 1996 has been zilch (apart from one loan for £2M which I understand was paid back). Macclesfield FC in tier 10 have more investment and financial clout than we do. Pitiful.
Sadly City will find their level. And that’s back to the 40s and 50s of being a third tier club. Such a wasted opportunity. We’ve had two chances to build a worldwide fanbase being in the PL and all we’ve done is turn a generation of potential supporters away from ever supporting us. And that financially is the biggest kick of all.
PS. Not having enough money to operate each year without Sky money or selling a play is every year is not being a ‘sustainable’ club. That’s not living within your means, that’s living beyond it – and can only eventually fail.
I must admit when I renewed my season ticket I wondered if I’d invested more into the club than Delia has of late!
New investment badly needed
Out there in football land there is a phrase that is oft used for our club , its and then ‘along come Norwich’. In deed one fans group uses it as a name.
It means that if your team is going through a hard time , look at the fixture list and low, there is an ‘ along come Norwich’ moment coming along .
It feels like we have had 70 of those moments in the last 2 premier campaigns.
Next to be seen on display at the King Power as they get an ,’ along come Norwich’ moment.
what more can be said. that game was just what I was expecting. Going backto Fulham all those years ago weneeded a point I believe and we got thumped 6-0 Myself and my late mate just stood and laughed, the reporter for Look East asked why we were laughing, My mate quipped “Why cry, with this lot running the club what do you expect” My god he was right. He also said when we started the worthy out protests. we should carrry on, concentrate on Delia and the rest.
He has been gone since the day before Jacko’s goal took us up at Pompye.. 77
The thing about Fulham why I mentioned it, was we both had been informed that many of the players had been told that they would not be retained if they stayed up. What I saw that afternoon is very close to what we are seeing this season and the last flirt with the top table. I have no idea whether that guy was bulling us or not but as that afternoon unfolded I was inclined to think he may have been right. Not suggesting that this is the case now, as we will never know. but nothing would suprise me.
As to Dean Smith, he has had a squad he says has a lot of talent. I would like to see just a portion of that, he has not done any better than Farke did with Webber’s wasters
That’s an oft-repeated mistake about that game at Fulham – with WBA winning a draw would actually have relegated us on goal difference. It’s why Worthy chased the game so hard (leaving us exposed and getting trounced), because we needed to win.
Easy to understand your feelings about Pukki, but championship is league where he has nothing to win and everything to loose. He has proved those who believed that he needs Buendia to score goals wrong. It has actually forced him to be also your best scoring chance creator, what does it help when what ever scoring chance he created, his team mates spoils them. This season also some of his national team mates have achieved Kamara to europa league final, Hradecky to champions league and Pohjanpalo might win turkish league best scorer prize. How do those compare with playing in Norwich? Pukki would be 1 of the few second league level players in the national team and his marketing value here would drop clearly. He already gets a lot of stick here because Norwich has kept losing and losing and he is part of that. Typical headline articles here when Norwich loses are Pukki just keeps on losing, Pukki cant win a game, Pukki spoiled scoring chance and Norwich lost again. He should at least score more than Mitrovic did to be accepted as an outcome, because of its championship. His personal transfer value would drop in the championship, no matter how he plays. So, he can only lose and he has plenty of seasons left as a professional. When he is 40, its his time to get back to play in Finland and play his last seasons.
I would not mind at all if some other finnish player would play for Norwich some day. Brexit has made it very difficult sadly.
Hi Gary hope you are feeling better
We needed a proven CB so DS puts Byram in when he has Sorensen who has covered that position in the past, has the decision be made to dump Gibson he’s not injured doesn’t do enough in a game to get hurt.
I was told by a Burnley sup0orting neighbour that Webber tried to get out of the buying option but Dyce insisted that it wasn’t an option it was an agreement that if city won promotion then we would buy him for the agreed price as was a no get out clause with Dimitris Giannoulis we would buy him for the agreed price.
We have 2 players that have been sidelined could both resurrect their career in the championship maybe but Spanish clubs are looking at our Greek LB.
Sargent, Tzolis, Placheta could hopefully kick-start a long fruitful career at city but Rashica could be looking for pastures new and we could break even.
Lees-Melou I have hope f9r playing behind Pukki or who ever is the Striker.
Sorensen needs to be the Skipp replacement
My starting team
Gunn
Byram, Hanley, Andrew O, Giannoulis
McLean, Sorensen, Lees-Melou, Tzolis
Sargent/Idah Pukki
Krul I can see depart for a Dutch Club
Zimbo might go back to Germany
Aarons will depart possible overseas
Cantwell will be used as a sub or another loan
Barden will be No2 keeper if fit and McGovern will get another year
We were not a lost cause when Smith joined and I dread seeing some of his Villa rejects joining to replace players he’s mishandled. At least they can talk about the good old days before it’s too late and we’ve turned into Walsall.
Had to laugh when he praised Gilmour last week having only picked him at the last minute due to injury.
Our manager has to be the first to go.
Great summation Gary of a truly awful afternoon. I hope you soon feel better.
Up until the tragic events of covid forcing the football world to rightly shut down in March of 2020 we had lost narrowly to Sheffield United (A) put Spurs out of the FA Cup and beaten Leicester at Carrow Road. We had also earlier in the season shocked the football world, and possibly ourselves by beating Manchester City 3-2.
There were things in that EPL campaign that I felt mitigated that relegation. An absolute dreadful injury list all season, no investment in the team and the halting of the season just as we had picked up a slight bit of form.
This season, absolutely nothing to cling to. Stuart bazooka’s turned out to be nothing more than water pistols.
The lack of tackling or closing down on Sunday was criminal. It is obvious many of those players were just going through the motions. Where is that spirit we had under Farke for the most part, the comebacks ( Forest to my shame) same with the Lambert/ Culverhouse era. We never accepted defeat.
I remember when my dear old dad had to cancel his season ticket after many years due to losing his pal who he sat with and his failing health, he got a lovely phone call ( I think it was Danny) from the box office asking him if he was sure and thanked him for all his years of support. Bertie posted on Martin’s column today to say he rang cancelling his season ticket of 20 years because of recent events and he got an dreadful, totally unsympathetic reaction from someone in the box office. After all that time, give me a break.
Where is the class this football club once had ? There is a malaise from top to bottom.
Laughing staff outside the directors entrance at 3-0 down at half-time, not giving bar staff their entitled breaks, uninterested box office staff and the club making the supporters feel unimportant by not even bothering to make any comment after another home trouncing ( it could have been 7)
They leave it to Dean Smith, which is where I want to echo my mate Marty’s comments yesterday.
Dean Smith has signed no players at all, all these were foisted upon him. I am like you Gary I do not know if Deano is the man for us, no one has a crystal ball but he must be given a chance.
I am sure Blackburn or QPR would be interested in him if he became available. Please lets not take all of this out on a man who is fire fighting with …. yes another water pistol 😂
Whoever thought it a good idea to give Max Aarons stick after the game ? Max has stuck with us through thick and thin and never made a fuss and deserves much more respect. He has struggled a little bit at time this season but other than Teemu and Grant who hasn’t ? And are we now holding Max back ? Having to play in this god awful team.
And finally what possessed some “supporters” to follow Brandon Williams home ? Brandon has been to my mind by some distance the best of the loanee’s. Lets get a grip and return to some kind of normality of behaviour. Something this club has been in the past quite rightly proud of.
A total mess isn’t it? From boardroom, to sporting director, to staff, to manager, to players, to supporters. A complete car crash of a season.
Hi Tim
Danny C is a top bloke.
No idea if he’s still there or not as I’ve not physically been into the Ticket Office for a good couple of years now.
If it’s who I’m thinking of, he was very good on more than one occasion with me. Likewise, I’m not sure if he’s still there.
Jason, I can assure you we must be thinking of the same person.
He would do ANYTHING to help if he could.
Tim;
They just don’t care…take the money from the supporters, and let’s face it, this season give nothing back.
I cancelled my 2 season tickets at the first renewal date. I’ve been going since the early sixties, and had season tickets for around 30 of the subsequent seasons including the last 20 or so…
What response did I get??
An e-mail with just the one word:- CANCELLED.
They (by the sound of it) treat their “lower” employees with the same amount of contempt.
O T B C !!
Bloody dreadful John🤬 I am shocked by all of this.
Pretty sure Danny C is still there boys, as you say top bloke.
A truly horrible season from start to finish and genuinely one of the most depressing I can remember (and that includes the Hamilton/Grant/Roeder/Gunn years). The Brandon Williams furore just makes things even worse.
Dean Smith, whatever you may think of him, is like a lone voice in the wilderness. Silence from all those above him. Absolute silence.. I find it incredulous that there are supporters can look at the way the club has been run this season and not be in the slightest bit critical This goes beyond wanting billionaire owners splashing the cash. It’s about wanting owners and a sporting director who are competent at their jobs. There is no indication of anyone right now who has a clue what they are doing plus what they are going to do to put it right and move forward.
This isn’t about entitlement either. It was always going to be a struggle to stay up and I’ve seen Norwich sides in three different divisions. I just haven’t seen many seasons where the club has looked a total mess from day one.
The club has a massive amount of work to do to win the confidence and trust of the fans back. PR wise, it has all been a complete and utter shambles.
Thanks for prodding me to re-read some of my old Jean-Paul Sartre-On Being and Nothingness may have some clues on understanding how NCFC can turn it around. amongst other things #OTBC
For the first time ever I left early. Not in anger but just because I preferred the thought of being at home. At least two seasons ago we had Man City at home to dine out on. This time round, nothing. I feel completely disconnected from the club I have supported for more than fifty years. We have renewed our season tickets, but if there’s no tangible improvement, I really think I’d rather spend that money on shoes 😢
I stayed to the end. Clearly by the start of the second half West ham had decided they’d done enough and became the second side going through the motions.
Var twisted its usual knife in the wound but, springett apart there was little of interest occurring.
Its obvious that throughout the clubright from the very top, the intention is to obtain the sky money, endure 38 dead rubbers and prop up self funding for another 18 months or so. Just as many outside commenters have alluded to.
One gets the feeling that the ownership and some of the support care nothing about on field matters, results, league standing and the like. No, they would much prefer to virtue signal while languishing in the fourth division. To quote that awful archant article by Di cunningham, the omnipresent club spokeswoman, “We can compete at the top of the “right on” league table with forest green and Wrexham” oh goody.
Self funding has died, let’s just Bury it and concentrate on being a football club once again.
Oops! Unless someone else is funding you, then you are self funding! I’m no economist but seems obvious, no? Really enjoyed Springett cameo.
I feel sorry for Deam Smith. Having to front up week in week out while those that caused this mess hide.
Well said. There is a complete leadership vaccuum at the club which is frankly unacceptable and very poor when certain individuals are being paid very significant sums of money. Whilst it does not excuse the Williams incident its ultimately at the heart if everything because nobody is engaging with the fans. Nobody is seeking to manage or mitigate the frustration that has boiled over since Webber’s ridiculous interview and ultimately leads to incidents such as that which occurred on Saturday.
If anything, the drawbridge has been pulled up further. There is silence from the owners (unless Delia wants to plug her book), there is silence from Webber and Ward (unless they want to plug their charity ego trip/mid life crisis). There is just nothing.
A decent CEO or chairman would have probably prevented Webber from doing that interview in the first place (and possibly the whole Everest thing whilst under our employ) but certainly would have stepped in to take control of the situation since, rather than letting it just drift as people get more angry and lash out at Dean Smith and his players who are the only ones available to lash out at. Zoe Ward may well be a top class administrator but under her watch any form of fan communication seems to have stopped and fan relations have deteriorated markedly.