Saturday was a really strange day.
I had a bad feeling about our match at Swansea. As it turned out I was wrong, thankfully. But it really got me thinking – what do Norwich City really supporters want?
Later that evening, England went out of another World Cup valiantly, despite playing reasonably well.
Compare that with my mates’ reactions at full-time at the Liberty Stadium after our victory.
“That was a pile of sh**” .
“Entertainment value -10”.
“Terrible game, lucky Swansea didn’t have a decent striker”.
“Some people have paid a £100+ for this s***”.
This was backed up by the Pink Un boys and Michael Bailey later that evening.
So while City won and England lost, the feeling among both sets of supporters was massive disappointment despite the different results. And let’s be honest, both sets of supporters were justified in feeling the way they did.
I have to admit I thought Dean Smith would be a good fit here. He has coached teams like Walsall, Villa, and especially Brentford who have played some lovely football, but I now have to admit that it just isn’t working.
Perhaps the time coaches like Smith, Steve Bruce, Neil Warnock, Mark Hughes, etc are over and it is the Daniel Farkes or Vincent Kompanys of the football world that we need to turn to.
The Championship has been won recently by us (twice), Wolves, Fulham and Leeds United. All footballing sides. You have to go back to Newcastle United under Rafa Benitez to find a more “pragmatic” team. Other than Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds, all were managed by young coaches and it looks likely that Burnley under Kompany will continue that trend this season.
The point I am trying to make is that we are not only underperforming points-wise with this squad, we have also failed to create anything like the style of football we played for many years under a succession of footballing managers starting with John Bond.
Dean and Shakey must take responsibility for that. Kompany, in half the time Smith has had, has rebuilt a team and a style of play.
It is awful football. The club cannot keep on saying he needs time.
There are now empty seats at Carrow Road on matchdays, something that hasn’t happened for years, so supporters are voting with their feet. It will be interesting to see what this level of “entertainment” does to season ticket sales.
City supporters will get behind the team even if they lose as long as there is effort, a style of football, and a vision. We had that under Farke.
It is not all Dean Smith’s fault though.
Delia Smith, Michael Wynn-Jones, and Stuart Webber must share the accountability. Only a fool now accepts that self-funding works and, let’s be honest, if you are borrowing against two years’ worth of parachute payments it’s not really self-funding in the truest sense.
Also, the club’s petulant attitude towards the fans and local media has done nothing but divide the club and its base.
If the club didn’t want the American investment story to get out then don’t sit them in the City Stand for a Premier League game. Paddy Davitt, Sam Seaman, and Michael Bailey would not be doing their jobs if they didn’t report on it.
And as for blaming the fans for last season’s relegation, this was probably the worst thing to come out of the club since Mr. Chase’s days. In fact, before then because I am pretty sure he never blamed us for relegation in 1995.
For me, I just want to watch decent football with the chance of winning games and being entertained along the way.
At the moment we have some very scrappy wins and zero entertainment. And with a strike force of Teemu Pukki and Josh Sargent (on paper, the best in the Championship) and good defenders at this level in Grant Hanley, Andy O, and Ben Gibson, the level of performance has to come down to coaching.
Sorry Dean I think you are a lovely guy but I still believe your time is up.
Concur totally with your article Tim.
It’s not only the fact the football is dire but the team doesn’t look as fit as the other teams in the championship which considering all the recent investment ( sponsored by the fans through a bond ) is simply unacceptable.
We’ve now reached a position where not only the manager needs replacing but the ownership and board as well following the remarks about the fans.
I don’t know how they’ve managed the visits of our American investors but if these people are as efficient as they appear they can’t help but notice ours is a club in crisis but with considerable potential for fresh owners.
🤞🤞🤞
Hi John:
Those comments from Richens got to me like nothing from NCFC ever has before.
I feel it particularly acutely as I was turning up on home matchdays with my liver in an advanced stage of breakdown [although admittedly I didn’t know that at the time] only to be told I contributed to our relegation.
I might not be a Bhuddist like our Russ Martin is reputed to be but I sure do believe in Karma, which is a source of some consolation in this case.
That a massive supporter like you to be told that with your health issues was despicable Martin.
The club has fallen to new depths.
Mr Richens was also the guy who threw Michael and Delia under the bus.
Until he said all “only realistic” approaches to buy the club go straight to Delia and Michael any unrealistic ones are dealt by him and others at a lower level was a shock to me.
Hadn’t the club said for years there had been NO realistic offers for the club ?
Thanks John.
I try not to make rash statements or form opinions too early, I feel you have to give people time, I have just been in the Iceni with fellow City supporters and we all had high hopes for Dean Smith but it has been to say the least extremely disappointing.
Bournemouth I hear got sold today and especially with that in mind I agree 100% we would be a very good club for people to invest in.
Not another club for 40 miles plus a very good fanbase.
We need some radical changes but such things only happen at one minute to midnight, while things limp along those in charge will cling on in the belief that success is nearly here. But of course success is a mixed bag, an accountant would give a different ideal to a dad taking his kids to their first game. Would I have become a life long Canary fan if City had played their current brand of football when my dad took me along to the Riverend? The banter, the cheering, goals being scored, saves being made, it was exciting, the after match inquests and retelling the good bits and later the PinkUn being delivered so we could relive the experience. All made me a Canary fan, without that excitement I would have probably put a MU poster on the wall and never gone anywhere near Carrow Road. Keep your 1-0 boring football Smudger but empty seats will eventually take things to one minute to midnight.
Exactly Herr+ Cutz.
When I started supporting the club in the late sixties, lets be honest we were rubbish.
It wasn’t until the man who changed Norwich City forever a certain Mr Ron Saunders arrived that we changed from a perennial second division side to a team that aspired to loftier heights.
Now Ron’s teams were fit, massively so and really competitive but the flowing football that we came to love was from his predecessor John Bond and other than a few missteps that line of Bond, Brown, Stringer etc has prevailed to this day.
Well until Daniel Farke.
That is not the case today.
Hi Tim
Many of us are starting to sound like an old record about self funding, coaching and the Von Trapp climbing every mountain.
The film had a song “what do we do with a problem like Maria” it was simple they sent her away, we have a problem starting with Smith and Jones then down to Webber and Ward and none will accept their part in any of the media or clubs problems.
Smith and Shakespeare.
Everyone keeps saying he dud a great job at Brentford but Warburton built the squad and all the players that came in were agreed prior to Smith arriving he fell on his feet, Villa was similar Bruce built an underpreforming squad again he got lucky.
The owners gave him nearly £200m to spend and he could build a team worthy of the name and got sacked.
Farke built 2 teams for promotion without much input as Webber knows best and when things went wrong it wasn’t the recruits fault it was the managers for not getting the best out of a team unfit for purpose.
I believe that Webber was pre-warned that Smith was about to get the sack by his old Loserpool boss at Villa and he gambled that he could save his bacon and it didn’t happen.
As for our owners long passed their sell by date 26years in fact and as for the investors I just don’t know, Smith has said they fit in with their view of how City should be run so is it more of the same.
Bournemouth has just been sold lock stock to a Las Vegas Billionaire for £100m with big promises, as a city supporter I’m not looking to much down the line but can see more stagnation until we get a dynamic owner or at least one that will put his hands in his pocket and fund a squad for the premiership
I feel the same way Alex.
It seems I am repeating myself continually on here.
6 under 21’s for a relegation scrap, no replacement for Alex Tettey for well in truth years. A haphazard recruitment for our last EPL season as our top chap was on gardening leave.
Smudger said no worries Isaac Hayden will miss about six games, well it was 14.
How many points have we lost because we have had no real holding midfielder ?
Even when we lost Sorenson, nothing was done.
I am not one of those lovely souls that go on Canary Call risking another heart attack getting more and more incensed that we haven’t beaten WBA at home. I do not expect us to beat other teams just because we are perceived that we are the bigger team.
In the Championship you have to earn every point.
But would Daniel Farke have more points now with this team, I believe that is an emphatic yes.
Hi Tim, don’t panic all of your dreams have came true Alex Tettey back for Blackburn Rovers game !!
That’s fantastic news Marty.
Though I think you may have had too much Ghost Ship today!!!
I’m struggling to add anything to the conversation because I simply cannot find a single word to disagree with. Every point well made.
Thanks Chris.
It is a very worrying time for all us Canary fans.
Well put Tim.
I gave up my season tickets when I’d seen 2 months of Smudgerball. It was obvious that a club like NCFC who had been so forward thinking should not have employed a tactical dinosaur.
I’ve seen some pretty dire showings from the men in yellow and green since the late sixties.
However, they could be tempered with the fact that under Saunders there were no fitter footballers in the “second division”….and he got us up and mixing with the big boys.
Bondy was a breath of fresh air, and with the exception of Roeder (who was another poor fit), and possibly Hughton (when he had dismantled everything Lambert had built) every one did it (or at least tried to do it) the Norwich way. Yes, there were poor performances, and a few thrashings on the way.
But that was a small price to pay because you knew you were going to be entertained.
Now?? This week I invested less than the cost of a ticket at the Carra to go to Thursford. I’m pretty sure that entertainment wise I’m way ahead of those currently attending home games….
Unfortunately with the family cartels on the board, who all appear quite happy with mid-table second tier mediocrity, Smith and Shakespeare have really fallen on their feet.
A truly sad state of my club, which with every passing day seems to dis-connect ever further from the fans.
O T B C
Thanks John.
My wife added another name to the list of managers I mentioned who maybe best described as dinosaurs who have out lived their “glory years” and that is Tony Pulis.
I would add Jose Mourinho.
Time waits for no man.
However unlike Stuart Webber I can admit when I am wrong. I hoped and thought Dean Smith would be a good fit, but it is just not working. Hence you get so many supporters up in arms over the quality of football.
And why is that? Because we have been brought up on good attacking football at Carrow Road for the most part for decades.
I remember my wife turning to me after a comfortable 2-0 win over Chelsea in the Crook-Bowen-Culverhouse era and saying we are so lucky with the football we play after watching Chelsea do a passable imitation of Wimbledon.
A far cry from their own Osgood-Tambling-Hudson era.
Vincent Kompany and his shy retiring ex Canary assistant manager have transformed a club in 6 months whereas Smith says there are still things we need to work on from LAST season !
Enough said.
Excellent piece Tim and I agree entirely with your views and the comments that have followed.
I’ll say for the umpteenth time that I was gutted when Farke was made a scapegoat for the shortcomings of Webber’s transfer dealings and nothing that Dean Smith has done in the last year has changed my mind. This is absolute dross that we’re being served up week in week out, I couldn’t have been less interested when I saw that FA cup tickets went on sale this week. It’s bad enough that as a ST holder I feel almost compelled to turn up because I’ve already payed but I sure as hell aren’t paying any more money to be bored stiff.
It was obvious from listening to the views from the top table at the AGM that nothing’s about to change I’m afraid regarding their contempt for the local media or indeed the fan base, sad times and I’m completely sick of it all.
Thanks Bob.
I said at the time of Farke’s sacking that it was wrong, subsequent events have proved us right.
Although I am not totally convinced Daniel would have stayed here for this season, he may have gone by his own volition, I am sure with the standard of this years Championship we would have been far, far better off points wise.
I think the shortfalls of last summer’s recruitment were bad enough but then to compound it by blaming the fans for the Premier League relegation rather than the poor signings, was absolutely disgraceful.
It wasn’t me or Paddy Davitt or Michael Bailey who said “we intend to be a top 26 team in the country” then followed by it changing it to a top 17. So it is the club itself who have fueled this. Little wonder they are getting a backlash with this football on offer.
I feel it is time for some apologies from the hierarchy.
Living in the States (St Louis) that was the first NCFC game I’ve watched this season. I’ve read reports and watched all of Connor’s video verdicts but I didn’t think it could be quite as bad as they were intimating. Unfortunately it was worse. Even though I know every player on the pitch it just seemed like a bunch of random blokes thrown together for a Sunday pub league match, replete with hangovers from Saturday night.
Coupled with that I have had a huge increase in the number of people recognising my Norwich shirts around here largely, I suspect, thanks to Josh Sargent. What can I say to them other than stick with us – we haven’t been this shi*e for over twenty years?
Hi Geoff,
My cousin’s boy is a massive Norwich fan living in Boston so like you he supports the team from afar as well.
When we were in the EPL he watched City with his breakfast 😋
I think with the American investment there is some hope for the future, I cannot believe they have only invested for the short term.
As for Josh, he has made me eat my words. He has been fantastic this season. I just felt along with many other signings last year the EPL was too soon for him, or playing in a better team.
Funnily enough the fans never turned against him last season even though it was obvious he was having a very tough time. He always gave 100% and look how he is playing this season.
Trouble is Dean Smith keeps playing him wide right !!!!