Before I pick up the theme of dissatisfaction and malcontent with most things Norwich City that I, unfortunately, feel duty-bound to employ these days, I thought it might be fair and reasonable to allow Dean Smith to get his theoretical mitigation for Tuesday night in first.
The absentee list against Burnley at Turf Moor was a lengthy one and so diverse that I have contrived to forget the precise reasons that one or two players are actually nowhere near the first-team squad right now.
Gary suggested that time be called on Smith and Craig Shakespeare yesterday and, believe me, I agree with him, but I nevertheless found the issue of yesterday’s teamsheet an interesting one. Was it released or did it escape?
I don’t know.
Before training yesterday it was discovered that Ben Gibson had a knee problem while Dimi Giannoulis suffered a cracked rib, so both were late omissions from the squad and this was understandably not disclosed to the punters prior to kick-off.
They were replaced by US youngster Jonathan Tomkinson and the returning Sam McCallum, two of our few players to acquit themselves well on the night.
I can just about remember that Adam Idah, Jonathan Rowe, and Lungi Sorensen have long-term issues of knee, shin, and metatarsal respectively and that Sam Byram is out with something maybe in the hip area. I might have read what the issue is but forgotten it, otherwise I never knew in the first place this time around as far as Byram is concerned.
Andrew Omobamidele is out until after the World Cup while he rests up a groin injury and Kenny McLean is suspended from point duty for one more time, against Alex Neil’s Stoke City at Carrow Road on Saturday.
Looking forward to the match, wee fella? I bet you are.
Kieran Dowell was last heard of a week ago suffering from laryngitis and the absence of Aaron Ramsey from the squad baffles me completely. At the time of writing, I still don’t know what caused him to join the missing list.
And for good measure, Max Aarons had to depart through concussion during the second period.
Defenders, hey?
So there’s Deano’s mitigation. Are any of these missing players essential, as in absolutely essential to fielding a winning XVIII?
Not on your nelly – my sympathy for Smith was short-lived and is well and truly over.
Especially as he said this between Sheffield United and Burnley:
“The culture of the place is brilliant. We’ve got players heavily invested in driving a great game plan, along with the coaches.
“We give them all the information they need and a good look at the opposition for each match. But we know what our style of play is, how we want to play, and the players come up with a game plan that’s agreed by the coaches.”
After comments like that any lingering sympathy for Smith, Shakespeare & Co dissipates very quickly, in my house anyway.
As Jim Royle would say: My ar$e.
Arrant nonsense, gobbledygook, spurious rubbish, and not phraseology I want to hear from the head coach of Norwich City Football Club.
Couple that with players seemingly going backwards rather than even treading water, no buy-in to what we are supposedly all about, and an absolute disconnect with the supporters and I’m 100% with Gary.
It’s time for Smith to go, and that’s right quick.
You like it in the Midlands, Dean. Perhaps you should lie low for a while until a job you actually want comes along because this one isn’t right for you. Unai Emery might not last long at Villa, so who knows what tomorrow might bring.
Speaking of no buy-in to what we are supposedly all about [or the inverse of that in this case] I’ll leave you good readers with a question, as in who said this:
“We want **** to be here for a long time and I think we are early in the adventure of what we are building with him.
“We are committed, whether with this manager or his eventual successor, to this style of football. We also think it’s part of the foundation that makes [our Club] special and unique. As I say, we want **** to be here a long time and I think we can all see the growth in the players working with him and his staff.
“We are in the process of making sure the development teams are learning to play ‘the ******* way’ so that as they make their way through the youth ranks and eventually into the first team, they’re not having to rewire their instincts in the way that footballers who grow up in other organisations have to when they come here and try to learn to play our way. We are deeply committed to this.”
Was that Stuart Webber pontificating about NCFC some four or five years ago?
No, it was Swansea chief Jake Silverstein speaking about Russell Martin yesterday in Wales Today.
Webber doesn’t speak like that anymore. “That kind of talk” has all been swept under the Carrow Road carpet and is most unlikely to re-emerge in the foreseeable future.
We don’t seem to have a discernible way of playing – and haven’t had for 12 months now – so what on earth do we need a philosophy for, seems to be the attitude on high.
That cannot be right and is one of several reasons that as far as Norwich City are concerned I have become:
I’m with you on this one Martin.
As somebody said yesterday Smith has been in charge twice as long as Kompany who at Burnley has produced a team that has transited from long ball to a system producing match winning attractive football.
During the past year all we’ve had from Smith is either we’ve injury problems or things will get better when everybody is fit.
In the meanwhile as a team we’ve regressed a long way from the days of Farke. How I wish he was still in charge and the real culprit made to pay for the disastrous transfer window.
The fact is that Smith isn’t up to the job and needs to go as quickly as possible.
I fear that our supposedly well run club cannot afford to replace him but neither can they afford to keep him.
City have been a difficult watch of late and I’m definitely not looking forward to the Stoke game.
Morning John
Smith pales considerably in cmparison with Kompany, doesn’t he?
The trouble is that our club no longer appears to be well run in any way whatsoever and in all honesty I’m not sure the advancement of Zoe Ward was a good thing.
There’s more to the turnaround in communications policy than a hissy fit with Archant but I don’t know exactly what’s been driving it.
I’m kind of ashamed to say that I couldn’t care less that I’m not going to the match on Saturda but that’s the way it is.
Cheers
I do hope that when they announce the attendance they for once give an accurate figure. There were a lot of empty spaces at the last home game.
They might still be doing it on ST’s counted as every bum on every seat, and up until a year ago that would have been accurate.
Now I really don’t know.
I’m very reluctant to criticize somebody for taking on a job I couldn’t possibly do myself. Are there extenuating factors we are unaware of which have led to poor performances? Of course the injuries have played a part, but what else? We have a talented squad, most of whom could comfortably perform well, albeit separately, in the PL, yet we are mediocre, at best, in a fairly weak Championship. Our signings have been terrible – not individually, but overall. Sargent can obviously bang in the goals, and I believe he can in the PL too, but we play him out of his natural position. Sara and Nunez speak little or no English. That’s undoubtedly a hurdle for Smith, but as a professional manager it’s one he should be able to navigate. His job is to forge a cohesive team from the players he has and, I’m sorry to say, he has abjectly failed. It’s time for him to go.
Hi Geoff
I take your first point – I am very much the same as you in that respect.
As for the South American lads I have never found learning the basics of another language easy and I’m not sure exactly how it helps to call Nunez *Nacho*.
You hit the nail on the head when you mention the lack of cohesion.
Cheers
Cohesion a pipe dream. which was the way his team was described at Villa . The whole of English and Scottish football is full of players who national language is not English. If you can’t handle that you get a translator in
What’s with all the strange words lately Martin spoiling yourself !
Hi Tommy
Not sure I’ve noticed but I’m on some nasty tablets right now so I’ll blame them.
I can’t say I’ve borrowed the office thesaurus cos we don’t have one 🙂
Morning Martin,
Both you and Gary have perfectly summed up how I feel. Norwich City my club being dragged into the doldrums by lack lustre, disinterested, coaching. If the players have to listen to that monotone voice every day I’m not surprised they don’t feel motivated. To turn our club from a well respected role model into the utter shambles it currently is takes a special kind of incompetence. So Stuart after you have sacked Deano ( and make it bloody quick) perhaps you should tootle off into the sunset too.
To sum up.
Smith useless
Webber please move on.
Delia and Michael please retire.
Yours truly a totally disenchanted long term supporter.
Hi Andy
Yes that’s how so many of us have been feeling for far too long now.
I don’t know about you but I think the longer you’ve been a supporter, the more acutely you feel it.
*Us and Them* says it all at the moment.
Cheers
Agree, it’s time for our owners to retire. The club will go nowhere but down if they continue to cling on to the reins as the self funding model simply doesn’t work in the higher leagues.
When you possess rhino hide, if you haven’t retired from what you obviously consider to be a pleasant sedentary role by the time you hit 80, are you ever likely to?
As a footnote to my previous comment Martin you have chosen the greatest band ever. Other tracks that seem appropriate are “us and them” “time” and “the division 🔔.
I’m primarily a metallist but I can make a case for calling Floyd *the greatest ever* too.
Morning Martin, you’ve absolutely nailed it yet again (as did Gary) with your thoughts on all things Norwich City.
Not wishing to detract from your skills as a writer but the powers that be at CR aren’t exactly making it too difficult for you chaps to come up with these views, the whole thing appears rotten to the core at this precise moment and needs a root and branch clear out.
With all due respect to Chris Sutton, I have no idea what he’s seeing to make him think that Dean Smith is going to turn this round.
It’s even seeped down to our captain who at the very moment he was required to be brave and head the ball away, instead he chose the easier option of what can only be described as a feeble attempt at trying to convince the ref that the ball hit his arm accidentally. I’m loathe to dig out Grant in that way because he’s been one of our better performers over the piece but I’m trying to illustrate the point that I’m no longer convinced that even the players are actually buying into this thing.
I’m not saying that they’re not playing for him but I just think their minds are unclear as to the direction he’s trying to take them, as has been said many times and is worth repeating we had an identity as a club and style of play under Farke (and Lambert) and therefore this made it easy for everyone including the fans to jump on board for the ride. It wasn’t always plain sailing but by God it was fun.
Great music as well, my favourite band.
Hi Bob
I don’t think Chris Sutton would say anything he didn’t sincerely believe to be true but just like you I don’t see where he’s coming from, although I won’t pay for Archant content so never get to see 70% of what he’s saying anyway!
The uncertainty over what to do for the best is etched into the players faces as anybody who watches will readily see and it is not a pretty sight.
The lack of ID does make it very difficult to get behind the current crop I agree.
Fun? We’ve surely collectively forgotten what that’s like.
Glad you liked the Floyd.
Cheers
Morning Mr P, Agree all the way, Never been a fan of either Smiff’s , I gave him ten games into this season, it was difficult to say too much when winning even with style-less play. But since we passed that marker, things have caught up with us big time.
I found a quote that was written just before Villa did the right thing giving P25, it included “inept, no idea, & cohesion was a pipe dream.” He had been at Villa a good deal longer than here, but not not taken him so long to turn the team into S***te .
Smith said. “I’ve always worked to improve and develop players.
Can somebody point to one single player who has improved? Develop, I will give him that one, Aarons has developed into a player that looks scared to try much over the line. Nunez, who we all thought looked like the bees-knees has developed into nothing more than average. Pukki developed into someone who wants away and a shadow of his previous form. Sara has developed into a? (answers please).
Defenders have not moved forward at all, the same errors are still being made. Kenny still points. The odd ones who look to have progressed Liam Gibbs, to be honest, has very little to do with Smiff, he came from u23’s was ready to go. Same as Omobamidele & Tomkinson. Hernandez is still the same player, full of running effort sprinkled with no small level of dribbling skills, He went away with those intact and has come back the same, perhaps the effort rate has increased. You know what you get from Onel and it isn’t from Argos.
Sargent a self-confessed central striker, which the lad proved, now stuck back out wide, bugg*rs my thinking right up, I dare say well could go on and on.
This job to Smiff came along as he was still counting his handshake money, who would not have jumped at the opportunity? I get a strong feeling he doesn’t care a flying Fig, if he gets his p45, his heart is not in this club, it is still Claret & Blue which often gets referred to.
I mentioned Kompany’s time frame and his building and shaping at Burnley, Michael Bailey likened them to Farkeball in his podcast, saying they were a joy to watch. Most of the cast he was speaking of Burnley as there wasn’t much to speak of who he was there to report on. I feel we missed a clucking huge boat there.
I would not have been against having Carlos Corberan, at least he tried to play the game, plus came across a genuine guy.
4 games to go before the break 12 points up for grabs, with Stoke, QPR & Middlesbro visiting wedged in amongst is a trip to Rotherham. I would expect to see a healthy total from those games, but at the minute I can only go with 3 or 4. Use the world cup break to get a guy in to work in those weeks with those not on the planes. But we know it won’t happen
Wonder if Mark Attanasio’s phone has been well used, wanting to know why ?
Marty, when Smudger replaced Danny my attitude was ‘the king is dead, long live the king.’ I really did think he might be the right man for the job., but it’s painfully obvious he isn’t. Never mind the why’s and wherefore’s we are worse now than we were before! Delia is never quick to hand out P45s so the pain is with us for a while longer, but he will go. I was a season ticket holder during the awful slide to Div 1 and I hope we’re not going to see a repeat this time around, but there’s no standing still in football, it’s either move forward or decline, and sticking with Smudger is taking us in the wrong direction. Still on the bright side there would have to be a cull on the management floor at Carrow Road.
Hi Cutty
Funnily enough I [and many others] enjoyed seeing Lambert’s Phoenix rising very much indeed back in 2009-2010.
Sadly a repeat of the Roeder era is a distinct possibility and there is no guarantee that the phoenix will oblige this time around.
I hope it doesn’t come anywhere near that, I really do.
Cheers
The fans are being ignored and bored into mediocrity. Evidenced by the swiftly emptying stands, Not so much a swan song for Delia as the throttled quack of an emphysemic duck as it hobbles awkwardly off into the sunset.
Football is money and money is football these days. And we have neither. League One is a realistic target within 3 years. The Premier League is not.
Sigh, if only Farke had been half-competent in the PL… (*wipes tear away and attempts a stoic smile*)
Hi Chris
The swiftly emptying stands may yet have a part to play in all this. If this factor doesn’t shake some action nothing will.
As I said to Cutty [above], League One is a real possibility sometime soon.
Cheers
Out of those absentees, perhaps 2 would have played in a full strength side, although the replacements were good enough to keep them out. But we were “out-footballed” by a team that has improved much more than us, in fact we’re going backwards. It’s totally down to the manager. Only bold decisions are going to put us back on track.
Kommpany’s first signing was an attack minded coach who worked in Belguim with him.
who learnt his trade in Cities Youth ranks, was a master of the dirty tricks and chased after Alan Shearer with a golf club.
Got sacked at Cardiff for trying to teach discipline to academy players who’s parent said he was bulling them.
Step forward Craig Bellamy Burnley first team coach
He learned something of a lesson when two of the bigger lads imprisoned him in the team coach bog all the way to somewhere in London 🙂
Hi Gil
The difference in improvement levels between ourselves and Burnley was never easier to see than when we went head to head the other night.
A win would mean a lot to Alex Neil on Saturday.
How about Dean Smith, I wonder?
Cheers
Hi Lad
Nice bit of sarcasm about development Smith style but you’re forgiven cos it’s spot on 🙂
You’re right about Kompany as I said to John [above] and Corberan is interesting. I’m not too sure about himself although I understand why you give him a mention.
Of course we know nothing will happen. What are Webber and Ward likely to do and the likelihood of Delia stuttering into some kind of action is non-existent.
The amount of compensation payable precludes the dismissal of Smith and colleagues anyway imo.
Cheers
Hi Martin dion Dublin has just said we should keep smiff we have no divine right to get promoted we won’t go any lower has he or Sutton seen any our matches this year we have no divine right to promotion but us supporters have a right to be entertained and see a team
that knows what it’s doin neither is happening at mo get rid please !.
Hi Kev
Dion’s a good old boy but I think he’s got this one well wrong.
I too feel we have the right to be entertained. Not to win, but certainly that much and as you say, it ain’t happening.
Cheers
Just heard Dion and read Sutton the other day, neither of them are spending hundreds of pounds on following this team, home and away. When they do I will listen to them.
Also a couple of days ago Calton (effing) Palmer chimed in, there will be many will not know who the hell he is. Absolutely nothing to with Norwich City . Has he even seen us play ?
Paid a few quid to give an opinion all based on Smiff’s past record at Villa ..
I really can’t read any more of this . ( not a criticism of any correspondent)The whole set up at Norwich is worse than the complete and utter @rse that the Govt have made of this country . At the moment the whole thing is affecting my mood in a negative way . Time to focus on something else for a while .
As Rishi would say “ May the Force be with you “ OTBC
Hi Bro. Johnny
Yes the comparison with what passes for a Government is a very good one.
Luckily this lot can only harm NCFC and not the entire nation.
Couple the two and the depression can be very real at times.
Cheers
Hi Martin.
As you might remember along with others the shock of DF getting the boot after a win at Brentford was poor timing, Webber said that the board had been discussing when to pull the plug and didn’t want to upset the team planning for that game but the decision was set in stone.
Previous to that he said he had a list of candidates that matched the style the club wanted to create throughout and that the next man would be able to work with the players without changing anything B-S from him.
We were informed that any potential new manager was being talked to and an appointment was close, then the bombshell Smith gets the sack at Villa and Webber and Adams break the sound barrier to get to a New York Hotel to convince him with in days to join city, the talks continued when Smith returned to the Midlands and Shakespeare was already prowling the Colney corridors for when the ink was dried.
Webber said that once someone of Smith reputation was available the club have to do all in its power to convince him to join their dream B-S it was a panic recruitment.
As I said in your last article Delia is more about her cookins than running a club she leaves that to Webber and his wife rubbing their hands at spending other peoples money with no one overseeing them.
Ed Balls had the insight to change how the club was run hoping to bring success and it the short term it did but now the tail is wagging the dog.
Smith and Jones might be the majority owner but and a big but is they have delegated running the club to an egotist who thinks he can’t do wrong.
If the board sack him his wife will walk and Delia will have lost her shield.
If the club sack DS&SS then Webber will have to admit he got it wrong again and that will not happen.
Could Smith walk not a chance he will want every schekle he can get from the club knowing his next job will be possible in league1 at Walsall, his style isn’t wanted at top clubs so he will hang in till the plug is pulled.
12 months of misery and counting will CR turn toxic on Saturday I hope not but can see it going that way.
Hi Alex
Yes that was complete BS of the first order for sure.
Webber AND HIS WIFE is a concept that is bothering me more by the day. Can’t think of anywhere else that happens at a relatively high level.
It’s interesting the way Ed Balls made a major positive contribution and then decided to back away. We’ll probably never know just why.
If it doesn’t turn nasty on Saturday the best we can hope for is yet more apathy.
Cheers
If nothing changes we will end up the same as before our first promotion to the top level in 71/72, consistently mid table with no prospect of promotion.
Hi Dorset
Age means I’ll have to take your word for the realities of that although I know from just slightly older friends that the name of the game back then seemed to be survival.
Could we really be going back 50 years? It’s by no means impossible.
Cheers
I’ve kept off here for ages mainly because I just can’t be bothered anymore nothing changes but what I will say is this , since Kieran Scott left and Stuart Webber became in charge of recruitment is where this all seems to unravel for me and also his last choice in manager when Kjetil Knutsen would of been a much better fit .
Enough said !
That’s the trouble – the not being bothered any more has spread to many, many people and like you, me and the majority of my friends *can’t be ar$ed* just isn’t in it.
Kieran Scott was a big loss indeed but it’s highly likely he simply didn’t want to work with or particularly for Webber.
(I’ve made a version of the below comment at the foot of GG’s latest but as that is slipping down the menu now, will repeat it here as need to get it off my chest!)
Spot on Martin, lots of nails hit squarely on the head there.
The constant talk about Russell Martin returning here as coach will only be that-that ticks boxes as well, unfortunately, the one that is unticked is the one alongside “Would he leave Swansea to return to Norwich?”
The answer to that, rest assured, is a very large and unequivocal “…no he wouldn’t”
So lets put that one to bed.
As far as this season is concerned and the lack of balance, style, pattern or just about anything else in the side at the moment, it strikes me that someone at the club thinks that if a player is recruited from South America then he must, by definition, have stardust on his boots.
There are plenty of average ones out there as well as in Europe.
I think at least one of Sara or Nunez will be on his way in the summer.. The former seemed to arrive with a reputation that has, currently, the upper hand on anything he can offer that a player scouted and purchased from another FL club might have brought us (and for less £££) whilst Nunez, a Roman Candle in his first few games is now more like a nightlight. They may, of course, both come good and become indispensable to us but…..well, not holding my breath and all that. Its a pity, especially with Nunez who looks, character wise, an absolutely perfect fit in the same way Onel is.
As for the rest of them, well, there are plenty of bored players at Norwich too going through the motions until their contracts expire next June. Will they miss us? No. Will we miss any of them?
And there’s the rub. Unmotivated players in a large and unbalanced squad seeing out time because there minds have already gone elsewhere.
Supporting Norwich is like playing Jenga. The tower is initially tall and strong yet, bit by bit, its chipped away at before, ultimately, it collapses and a rebuild is necessary.
Lambert was the last to inherit a pile of yellow and green debris. Smith’s successor-and Neil Critchley is my call, though he’ll be back in work long before Smith departs-will have to face a similar task and its ironic that it may take an ex Norwich manager to help things along a bit with regard to that.
Hi Ed
Consider the not-going-to-happen advent of Russell Martin safely put to bed.
I’m struggling to get my head around just how much we are rumoured to have paid for the services of Sara.
Bored players going through the motions at Norwich is a truism for sure and I’m struggling to think of any of them with a reason to stay, too.
Alex B lives in Blackpool and says their supporters always spoke very highly of Critchley and I don’t doubt he’ll be in work soon.
I like the Jenga line 🙂
Cheers
Critchley is wanted back by many but it’s rumoured he has nailed his flag to Stevie G boat and waiting for him to get his next position.
There’s a few managers with championship experience but they all come with baggage I would like the Norwegian fresh ideas, won titles and has worked miracles with Glimit.
So over to Webber
I’m almost a happy clapper, but this rubbish has got to end. The football, even during the winning run (remember that?) has rarely been better than mediocre and we now look completely ineffective and easy to play against.
Not long ago I thought that our bench was the strongest we had ever had in the Championship. So, as every team has injuries, our strength in depth should be seeing us through. For us to be outside the top 6 is an abysmal failure. This, and the apparent reduction in ability of many players under Smith’s coaching, means that he should go, and go quickly.
Saturday will be interesting in a pretty horrible kind of way.
Hi Don
I’d call you a cheerful optimist rather than a *happy clapper* but when you use words such as *rubbish*, *mediocre* and *ineffective* in your opening gambit there is no hope left for anybody!
Can’t say I’m sorry to be missing on Saturday – as always I’ll be interested in your take on the vibes of the day 🙂
Cheers
Good article Martin and nice quote you found.
Hi Dave
Thanks for that.
Cheers
For what it’s worth, the first ,30 minutes at Turf Moor saw a team almost playing Farkeball. Pinging the ball around at pace , going wide and not letting the opposition have the ball.
Clue it wasn’t Norwich.
Time for Smith to return to that mansion on the hill.
Hi Bernie
That Ed Sheeran is quite a handy shirt sponsor for the Binners to have on board and fair play to him as no-one can say he is a fairweather fan.
Cheers
Good article Martin.
I had always hoped Dean Smith would do well for us, unfortunately not for the first time, I have to concede I look like being proven completely wrong.
Usually, I have had a good eye for what a manager is trying to do. I have to admit this team is totally awful in the most part and as you say players have regressed. I can remember being so pleased with Bond, Brown and Stringer. Mike Walker too, there was a style to their play.
I was 100% for Daniel Farke even in year one. I was enraged when Delia gave Gunny the job the first time but absolutely furious when she gave it to him again after relegation to the third division.
Me and my Marty were probably the only people who were not surprised by Norwich City 1 Colchester 7. Well maybe just a bit. At least we could trust Gunny to see a good goalkeeper🤣I am sure he was the real bloke’s brother, and they were filming “Game for a Laugh”
But people like Lol Morgan, Gary Megson, Glenn Roeder, Bryan Hamilton, Peter Grant (great guy just not a no 1) and Gunny were never good fits, some were really just Liz Truss in disguise.
But this just goes to show it is hard to replace one Daniel Farke. I think we all agree on here that Farkeball didn’t work in the EPL but I still maintain it wasn’t all his fault. We just couldn’t afford the players needed to implement it at this much higher level.
Gunny was and is a Canary Legend a truly fantastic goalkeeper, but this proved being exceptional at playing doesn’t make you a great manager or even a good one. Only Jack Charlton was from the 1966 World Cup winners.
From the sound of it Steven Gerrad is going to encounter big difficulties ahead in management unless he changes his ways in today’s world.
So is Russell Martin the answer ? his Milton Keynes and Swansea teams have played some very good football so possibly. But as we have seen from Gunny that cannot be taken for granted.
But like Gunny is he too much of a yes man ? So much to consider.
I think if we lose to Stoke on Saturday then the game is up. I thought he may get until the World Cup break but if things turn south on Saturday then that word “untenable” means he couldn’t be here for QPR.
Dean Smith hasn’t had a lot of luck Martin it is true, the injury list is bad with 10 squad or first teamers unavailable on Tuesday but there is one thing that Smith did at the start of the season that totally baffled me.
He knew Isaac Hayden would miss at least 6-7 games (and the rest) so instead of getting a holding midfielder on loan he goes and gets Aaron Ramsey. Now I know Aaron has done well for us in some games but we have more attacking midfielders than you can shake a stick at when the need was desperate for a defensive player.
So, he has to take responsibility for that, sending Bali Mumba out on loan, relying on so many injured players nowhere near ready for the start of the season, stopping Max marauding on the right, keep playing Sarge as right bloody winger. isolating Teemu, having no width in the squad save Onel etc etc
When I write that and remember the turgid football of recent weeks, I have to hold my hands up Martin and say I got it wrong.
Hi Tim
Of those you reference Mike Walker was the manager I probably expected the least but gut the most from if you see what I mean.
As Ed C-L said above, Russell Martin will surely stay where he is.
You’re right about the way Dean Smith misuses many of the players.
Isaac Hayden is on record as saying he was injury free at one point after his arrival but the potential for regression was always there. That move smacks of Webber to me I’m afraid.
It’s a shame because Isaac comes across as a good lad who knows his onions.
Cheers
The club really is in a mess and for some supporters they are dammed if they do nothing and dammed if the do something.
The malaise will be a hard cloud to lift and the American cousins will be thinking what have we got into, they surely need a strong person present at the board meetings, but it looks like Delia has got investment without much input into the day to day running of the club.
Webber having his wife on the board must be a conflict of interest in more that one way but protects him from the sack, it smell like something from Delia’s Kitchen that has gone off.
I’d love a few cents for Mark Attanasio’s thoughts right now, I really would.
https://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/2022/05/15/you-dont-know-what-youve-lost-until-its-gone/
I wrote this one in May. It doesn’t half ring true now…..
Hi Martin
It rang true both six months ago and now for sure.
Cheers