He shouldn’t have said it. But I certainly understand why Dean Smith felt relieved that Norwich City’s next game is away from home. I said the same to my wife as we trooped out of Carrow Road on Saturday after the defeat by Blackburn.
But before I elaborate – and attempt to put the case for Smith and the club’s hierarchy – I plead for two ground rules.
The first is that readers concede that I accept every single person who supports the great club in the Fine City has an unconditional right to express a strident opinion.
The second is that I’d like that right extended to me, without the abuse I sometimes get for my opinions about the club we all care about and without the canard that I am a stooge for the board.
I am friendly with our majority shareholders, but not beholden to them. I happen to have concluded, after 40 years of striving to gain a professional understanding of the inner workings of many different football clubs, that ours is exceptionally well run by good folk.
Of course, they make mistakes. Sometimes they are undone by their good intentions. Sometimes they are defeated by the unmanageable vagaries of the beautiful game.
But they are not in it for the money – they’d be a lot better off if they hadn’t put Norwich City first so often – and they are never happy with mediocrity. They instruct new employees that they want every aspect of Norwich City to be the best it can possibly be.
So why is it all a bit sh*t at the moment? I’m going to advocate a different perspective: that it really isn’t.
Warning: this will be a long read. I don’t think I’ve attempted a more important piece on MyFootballWriter in the 17 years I have been contributing to this site. It can’t be done with a few glib assertions.
So… I think some people are conflating to things: the disconnect between supporters and club and the performances on the pitch.
I am reminded of my very first conversation with Delia Smith, a quarter of a century ago. Local media were critical of her attempts to generate income for the club by overhauling catering and hospitality. The décor at what became the Top Of The Terrace was an irritant to the EDP, who described it as a “minimalist, London, chic” and complained about the absence of tablecloths.
Delia asked me why there was such antipathy. I replied: “The football’s not very good at the mo. Win matches and they’ll forget the tablecloths. But if you don’t win matches, they’ll complain about everything.”
That is always the way, at every single club; winning football matches makes other issues seem much less important – and losing matches magnifies every other complaint, real or imagined.
I do not argue that there is no “disconnect”. If people are convinced there is one, then, by definition, there is one. But, but, but …
Kathy Blake, whom I like very much, wrote on this site that some good people who used to be involved in fan engagement, have left the club. I know Ipswich came poaching, but isn’t that a tribute to the work that had been done by the current regime to improve things?
And what about the engagement efforts still being made?
There are regular, structured meetings with the Supporters’ Trust. There is the new fans’ consultation group and much-improved in-house media content (easily among the best in the Championship). There have been guided tours of Colney for groups of fans. There is the support for, and involvement with, the brilliant Community Sports Foundation.
The club’s relationship with the CSF is the best it has been since I became involved as a trustee nearly a decade ago. Things became particularly strained when Steve Stone was NCFC managing director because, I think, it seemed to him that the CSF’s desire to build The Nest meant chasing sponsors who might otherwise have funded the club’s academy. Now main board directors Zoe Webber and Tom Smith are both very active, committed trustees of the CSF, who (under the chairmanship of Jake Humphrey) are doing more and more wonderful things for the fanbase and wider community.
Have a look at this video about the truly marvellous “Duncan’s club” for folk with dementia.
Another great deed by the club is that they liaised with Duncan Forbes’ family about commemorating him and unveiled a huge mural last week. I shall gaze at it with both smiles and sadness every time I approach “my” turnstile at Carrow Road.
It really is Duncan’s club still, and for ever.
Another example of new engagement is the way the club have facilitated two revelatory interviews by Talk Norwich City: with Mark and Mike Attanasio and then with Kenny McLean.
But the enabling of “new media” has come at a time when there is a lack of liaison with Archant (now Newsquest) and with Michael Bailey of the Athletic. They’re not banned though. They attend every media conference where they can ask any question they wish. What’s happened is just that private briefings have stopped and so the situation is much like it is at most clubs in the land.
If Delia had asked me, I’d have counselled against stopping the briefings. A relationship needs trust on both sides, though, and the takeover by Newsquest led to the departure of some very good people and the appointment of the bullish Richard Porritt as “regional editor”.
I honestly think the Porritt-led coverage of “Everest-gate” – the plan by sporting director Stuart Webber to climb the highest mountain above sea level – was framed in such a way that it was certain to destroy the relationship with the football club.
Yet by talking to others – The Times, the Sunday Times and my mate Michael Calvin in a really interesting podcast – Webber made it unlikely that many City fans heard his admissions, explanations, arguments, and plans.
If you care about Norwich City, and are open-minded enough to be surprised by what the club are attempting under Webber, search for “Michael Calvin’s football people” wherever you listen to podcasts.
Sadly, I fear many of you won’t bother. I’ve had some private, confidential discussions with people who have been declaiming the “disconnect” and it seems minds are made up, and closed.
A lot of the angst seems to be about Webber and his perceived lack of openness.
But that is comparing the current Webber to the one everyone loved when he was explaining why promotion as glorious champions in 2018-19 was followed by a feeble relegation in 2019-20.
Why was there no similar set of apologies and admissions when, after becoming Championship champs again, there was another abject relegation?
Well, let’s imagine Webber thinks appointing Dean Smith was a mistake and/or the recruitment for the 2020-21 Premier League campaign was a disaster. Our director of football could not go public with criticism of a coach or players whom we wanted to be on top of their game this season.
On the other hand, if (as I am sure is the case) he thinks Smith and Craig Shakespeare (almost universally revered for their coaching within the game) were sound appointments, and that Norman, Rashica, Sarge and the rest were mostly decent signings then, again, there would be no apology forthcoming.
So, there is no scenario in which Webber would issue the mea culpa some seem to think was a pre-requisite for giving him any tolerance, let alone support, this season. And, incidentally, I have not been able to discover any evidence of public apologies from anyone in a similar position at any other club.
Anyway, as I said was always the case 25 years ago, I believe it is this season’s performances and results which are the real cause of all the current angst. The performances, particularly at home, have led to widespread frustration which has fermented into anger.
We have reached a situation where some fans seem, perhaps unconsciously, resolutely determined to find fault with anything and everything. Some see their jaundiced view of the club confirmed in everything anyone at the club says or does.
I know it’s mad and unhealthy to gauge anything by what is said on Facebook, but as I write this, I am not sure whether to laugh or cry about the guy on one of the pages there today who has taken the after-match interview with Grant Hanley – in which one of this season’s successes said he understood the fans’ frustrations – as evidence that the players all hate Smith. Deary me.
So, let’s look at what we expected from this season, because we can surely all agree that is at the kernel of the despair.
I believe (other views are available) that the many supporters who expected another romp were gulled by what we achieved in 2020-21 – when City put aside the disappointment of relegation to attack the Championship with verve and success.
But that was the outlier, not the norm.
What Webber did in the summer after the first of his relegations was remarkable. He told the players to go away and get the relegation out of their system because he was “going to build a squad to win the Championship again”.
When the players, old and new, reported back to Colney, all negativity was banned. Nobody was allowed to even say they’d had a bad journey to “work”. But the single greatest thing Webber did that summer was to persuade Emi Buendia and his representatives that he should stay for one more season.
And so, a fabulous season unfolded. But a dangerous fable was constructed: that Norwich City could always bounce back.
It’s true that we have a parachute payment. But there’s a clue in the word ‘parachute’. It’s designed to stop a financial crashing to earth after relegation. It’s not a usually an ascent aid.
I honestly expected us to struggle this season. Because … football. Because … the Championship.
It is unquestionably true, though, that Smith has not yet coaxed or coached the best out of every individual or from the collective. There haven’t been enough good, close-range shooting chances created. There is an inability to pass through the two lines of defence rival teams deploy against us.
Yet, again, I can’t say I am surprised. There are a lot of new faces and, as Nigel Worthington for one discovered (with the rebuild for the 2004-05 season) a much-changed squad can find it difficult to gel.
I suspect, though, that Smith’s biggest failing is one that he cannot help or alter: he is not Daniel Farke.
Many fans have forgotten that they turned against Daniel in the Prem. Others have forgotten that he abandoned Farkeball in the Prem (telling Timmy Krul to hoof, using Rachica as an out-ball). And, on the evidence of Saturday, very many both mourn Daniel’s departure yet boo any pass back to the goalkeeper.
Passing to the goalkeeper, and passing along the backline, was the basis of Farkeball. It is what eight of every 10 clubs in the known universe do to reset. But Carrow Road jeered it, while folk told each other, “It was better under Daniel”. I don’t get that at all.
Some very close friends and one member of my own family are convinced Smith was always “a bad fit”. I suspect that anyone would have been.
I’ve reported the same at many clubs: a revered manager leaves and the next guy is instinctively and instantly disliked. It happened, for instance, when Lou Macari followed John Lyall at West Ham, when Frank O’Farrell succeeded Matt Busby at Manchester United, and again when David Moyes took over at Old Trafford after Alex Ferguson.
Two of Daniel’s five seasons at Norwich were astoundingly good. We don’t know what he’d have done with Norwich this campaign, but many are utterly convinced that Smith is not the right man to follow him. That bemuses the rest of football, but there we are.
Yet, even if it were possible somehow to prove without a scintilla for doubt that Smith was and is the wrong man for the job, the level of vitriol poured upon him is intemperate, unreasonable and ruinous.
Saturday was toxic. So, yes, thank goodness it’s away at Luton next.
Perhaps there is no way back for Smith for uttering that unforgiveable truth. Perhaps there will have to be a change, sooner or later.
But handing the reins to someone else will not necessarily bring more consistent, more effective performances. Because football. Because the Championship.
I last booed Norwich at Molineux on 22 September, 2007. Peter Grant’s assorted Scottish signings were dreadful that day, two City players were sent off and Wolves strolled to a 2-0 win with a breezy confidence to which I could only respond with anger against the team I supported.
Not for the first or last time in our long marriage, Mrs Dennis asked me pertinent questions about my behaviour: did booing help me or anyone else and was it a sane response at a sporting event?
We’ll both be at Luton on Boxing Day. It’s 100 miles closer to our home than Carrow Road is. We won’t boo.
Would a Norwich win change anything?
It would help us keep our place in the play-offs, which I fervently believe would be a real achievement this season. Because football. Because the Championship. It was only 2017-18, under Daniel, when we’d have killed to be as poor as people think we are now.
But I fear winning at Luton might not stop a decent, hugely respected guy being traduced when we all gather again at the Carra.
One of the main complaints has been the lack of identify in terms of playing style. We don’t seem to play a system that the players seem comfortable with or play to our strengths. The players do not seem happy with this. The fans have obviously picked up on this and thus the atmosphere has been dreadful as a result. Smith has done nothing to try and address this with the fans. I think the fans have been remarkably patient considering.
In the year plus since smith has been in charge I have seen nothing to suggest he has been the right fit for us.
For a squad that has been expensively put together (if you compare it to the mid 00’s post worthy era like you have , I was at wolves that day too and I can testify that game as being the worse Norwich game I have been to) then they are underachieving. That falls on smith and his coaching team.
We all know Smith won’t recover from this. If the club are serious about promotion this season then they need to act now to give the squad the best possible chance of playing to their strengths, building up consistency and in turn a better atmosphere.
The silence and lack of action from the club continues to drive fans away and create that lack of connection to what is an incredible loyal and on the whole supportive fans base. Otbc
Mick forgets that we were winning football matches 6 in a row in fact but fans still felt disconnected and unhappy. The style of football, club comms equally poor. Time for a new broom, come on down Mark Attanassio!!
Firstly Webber was never “loved” by fans. He’s always been disliked but it was tolerated because he was considered to be doing a decent job. I don’t think he is any more and he caused the outrage over his climbing with his interviews in the national press, it was nothing to do with Archant.
Secondly, staff have supposedly left because the club is no longer as good a place to work as it was.
Finally, it’s not “football” to have team perform well below the sum of its parts for 50% of a season, to have no shape or attacking ideas or to consistently lose to inferior teams. There are not that many new players either.
Much of this article Mick seems to be skirting around the main issue which is that Smith and Shakey are performing terribly and that the consequences of failure this season for the club are actually quite worrying. We need to do something about it.
I respect your views Mick but are you seriously trying to tell us that a club that has accrued a £50 million plus deficit is well run?
I don’t think for one minute that Delia is in this for the money and has probably made quite a loss over the years when you consider alternative investments.
As you say football is different to most other businesses which is why it needs a huge initial investment if ever a club wishes to establish itself at the top table.
I think it’s certain that Delia cannot afford to make such an investment although I’m sure if she could she would do so without hesitation.
The point is after twenty six years we’re basically back where we started and now is the time to hand over the reins to a financially more capable owner.
Regarding the manager he is paid a considerable sum and people expect to see an end product commensurate with his income.
He’s now been in position for over a year and as a season ticket holder all I’ve seen is a team going backwards. There appears to be no development of a recognisable system of play. The football is at best dire and our promising younger players are regressing before our eyes. On top of that the team do not appear as fit as other teams despite huge investment in our training facilities.
There is a lot of arm waving and hand pointing on the field and players do not look happy playing for the manager. An observation I know but one shared by many fans where I sit.
It is for these reasons that the most patient, loyal fans in the country have finally turned against the man responsible for this abysmal performance.
To top it all these wonderful fans have been told by the finance director and manager they are responsible for the poor performance! Good job they are not working for one of the northern teams.
Despite your loyalty Mick I don’t think you will alter many minds as the time has come for a complete top to bottom change at Carrow Road.
Perhaps you could have a word with our American friends.
Morning Mick, I understand this column will not have been an easy one for you. A lot of your thoughts probably resonate with most supporters. It is a great community club, Delia and Michael have always wanted the best for Norwich. However all that really matters to most people who go to or watch/listen via media is the quality of fare served up on the pitch. Quite frankly at the moment it’s awful and has been for sometime. One of your points is about passing along the back and using the keeper to instigate tempo did work under Farke mainly because he had players who could take the ball from the back and progress up the pitch. This current team cannot do that. That’s either poor coaching or employing footballers who do not have those skills or don’t want to use them. I frequently comment to my mates during a game “where’s the outball” but can never see one.
Anyway we can discuss tactics and patterns of play all day and agree on some and disagree on others. But the brutal truth is that people will only part with hard earned money if the product is good or shows signs of improvement or indeed if you thought the team was giving its all but is not good enough, everyone loves a trier.
We do miss the level of communication that flowed from the club as others have said it seems as though the drawbridge has been raised. This should be resolved as soon as possible and should not be beyond the wit of sensible people on both sides of the argument.
I don’t know what else to say but I and all of the people I sit near, my mates, many of whom like myself have been attending since the 70s are totally fed up with what we are seeing and hearing. If things are not changed I dread to think of what the response will be be come renewal time.
I wish you and yours festive greetings.
Mick,
Thanks, as ever, for writing the piece for MFW, especially knowing full well there are some on social media who struggle to remain civilised when they read something they vehemently disagree with.
As you’d expect, there’s a fair bit there I disagree with too but while also trying to understand where you’re coming from.
One thing I would say is that regardless of whether or not you and the Club believe the view of the majority of fans to be illogical, there *is* a huge sense of disillusionment across the fanbase and there *are* lots of empty seats inside Carrow Road.
It’s, of course, within yours and the Club’s gift to dismiss this and/or ignore it, but it’s the reality. And that reality is the Club will end up losing fans and therefore also revenue.
That may not bother Anthony Richens and co, but it bothers me.
Of course it bothers them! And me.
Then it’s time they showed it rather than infer it’s down to a lack of support from the fans!
For starters replace the manager as he has become toxic.
So why aren’t those in power doing anything to remedy things ?
Hi Mick,
A brave, and correct move to stick your head above the parapet and defend the Club. For what it’s worth, you make some excellent points. You hit the nail on the head early in the article. Fix the football and the problem goes away!
To my mind, as I wrote during the World Cup, the decision to abandon Farke ball and switch to 4-3-3 was the key bad decision. Everything that followed, whether Farke or Smith, hasn’t worked. The other key decision was the appointment of Smith, and the abandonment of the supposed succession plan and continuity of style.
Smith has brought us no style. He switches tactics, formation and players weekly. When we hit upon something that works, he changes it the next game. But he has shown that this group of players are more than a match in this division when they get it right.
Smith’s post match comments were very poorly judged. Whilst they may have been honest, they were never going to improve the situation.
It will take a miracle for Smith to survive (Dean). He is right – a resounding 3-0 will go a long way to placate the fans for now. As for Smith (Delia). She appears to have put in place a sound plan for her succession. But with one more big decision to make.
Fix the football.
If ever there was an article written tongue in cheek that was it, obviously designed to stir up a hornets’ nest. Well done Mick. You’ve done Delia’s and Webber’s work for them, no doubt co-authored by one Stuart Webber. There wasn’t one line there I could go along with.
I’ve not talked to anyone at the club about, or before writing, this column. It is insulting and defamatory to suggest it was ‘Co-authored’. I am weary of lazy assertions like that.
Defamatory ?? That’s just the kind of comment that has alienated the fans Mick,it’s frustration yes but defamatory it is not ! We have now got three very senior club “employees” suggesting/stating in recent times that the results and performances are suffering as a result of the fans,do you really think the fans will take kindly to that from the likes of Webber,Richens and Dean Smith? When the often arrogant sporting director is attempting to get into a physical altercation with a frustrated fan (as I witnessed) and stating he told Delia we can only have “90%” of his effort then you know the club is heading into the abyss,he and his wife who somehow now sits on the board as executive director (nepotism at its finest and done to keep Webber here I fear) need to depart,we don’t need that kind of arrogance from those entrusted with the clubs best interests at heart.
After a long week at work,earning a fraction of what those three and the players earn,I simply want to be entertained,if I go to the cinema and the actors can’t act or go to a concert and the musicians can’t play their instruments then I would be dismayed and feel a refund was in order…….football is no differant ,it should be taking fans away from their often humdrum but necessary weekday lives and entertaining them ! To say we were all happy when we had that six game winning run is a complete misnomer,it was consistently a very very hard watch and I’m amazed you seem to think otherwise.
Having read through the accounts several times I’m just dismayed we are back where we started under Delia and not for the first time,what are 350 people doing at this club? It’s become undeniably stale under the current ownership but I sense that may change come the summer,Attanasio hasn’t showed up here to just buy a few quids worth of the clubs shares quite obviously,i have stated often im not looking for a billionaire owner to throw his money in but someone who is competent in running a sporting business and will have his own hand firmly on the rudder…….something we haven’t had in many many years!
As a famous actor stated so forcefully in a blockbuster movie “Are you not entertained” ? No we are not and that’s the crux of the issue at this is club !
It’s defamatory to say my piece was co-authored by Webber. It’s the old canard that I’m in thrall to the board.
I actually understand many of the points Mick makes.. Booing never helps, especially after 14 minutes. I was at Sheffield United earlier this season. 2-0 down at home and on a bad run of form themselves, Brammal Lane belted out the greasy chip butty song, got behind their team and roared them on to a 2-2 draw.
I’ve only booed once at a match too – a 2-0 away defeat under Hughton and it wasn’t because we’d lost away at the big Premier League team, but because at no stage did we look like we were trying to win. It was get everyone behind the ball and hope for 0-0.
I don’t think it’s like that under Dean Smith. Fans talk about a lack of style… Dean Smith, your football is, etc. I think there is one. We want to play good football, get the ball forward quickly, counter press. Like most modern teams. Trouble is, he hasn’t been able to get the players to do what he wants. And that is a failure of coaching I’m afraid.
Norwich have had it a lot better than this and they have had it worse. I too remember a time post Martin O Neill, pre Worthy when we could only dream of being in the play offs. But things change, expectation changes. That’s also football.
The main problem Dean Smith has is that most vocal fans just aren’t having him. Even when winning. Chris Sutton said similar about Smith’s successor at Villa. And when that happens, it’s so difficult to find a way back.
Sutton thinks our fans have been unfair to Smith.
Your biggest truism Mick is that, when the team is winning, who cares if the pies are cold. You also make a good point that the change of ownership and management at ‘Archie’. hasn’t helped and gone largely unnoticed. You know there’s a ‘but’ coming…..
But……while the limited company that runs the club may belong to shareholders the heart of the club belongs to the supporters who deserve to be treated with respect because they will still be there in future generations long after the shareholders are replaced. This respect is doubly necessary when the product being delivered and sold is substandard. Imagine going to a butchers that has served you well for years and getting some awful meat. You’d discuss it, The butcher would apologise and you’d move on. It’s a two-way street. Instead of being humble (not a word in the Webber vocabulary), they double down on the siege mentality.
Take a look at the last Supporters Trust minutes. None of the club attendees were there for whole meeting. There may be good reason, but what’s the impression?
Finally, I know that Farke was popular. I know he failed twice. But he was able to relate to the supporters. That alone bought him time and favour. Dean Smith has done absolutely nothing to make supporters believe he wants to be anywhere other than back home in Birmingham. He has missed countless opportunities to buy time Farke-style. The most recent one was the annual players visit to the hospital. Get in front of the camera Deano. Cuddle a kid. Lob some presents out. But no. Supporters will be thinking he’s probably on his way back home to Brum for a while.
When he does speak he just keeps putting both feet in it! What about the ‘different animal’ returning from Florida? What about wanting the next game to be away? What about about an earlier comment about not acknowledging fans after a game? He’s a PR disaster, not waiting to happen – already happening. If he was winning games he could be as belligerent as his currently silent boss – but he isn’t, and he needed to create himself some Farke-Time.
I don’t have an axe to grind over the current owners of the club, or with Webber’s mountain climbing ambitions (I happen to know that at a time when he was getting a lot of stick about being half way up a mountain from some on the Pink’un forum, he was in fact here In Norwich, because my son spoke to him at the Nest).
I do however take issue over the supposed coaching. Yes, 8 out of 10 teams play out from the back. The key phrase there is “play out”. Repeatedly making the same pass back to the keeper is not “playing out “. Gunn must have had more touches than any other player on Saturday, and then had to end up hoofing it up the pitch. I watch teams playing out from the back, and in doing so they steadily move the opponents back up the pitch. We just invite them to press us, until the keeper does the inevitable and hoofs it, and we invariably loose the ball. Good coaching would be devising a way to move forward while playing out from the back. Smith seems incapable of doing that.
I know we don’t have Emi anymore, but how often are our fullbacks in a position to receive a pass from the centre halves, but instead they turn inwards and backwards and play it back to the keeper or each other? Gibson in particular is the main exponent of this. This is why the crowd started expressing their opinion of Smith’s football on Saturday. We can see the opportunities to make a significant move forward, but it seems Smith can’t.
I’ve been watching City since the mid 1950s, and I’ve seen plenty of ups and downs, but I don’t think I can remember coming away from a game more frustrated than I did on Saturday.
Perhaps the issue here is we were told as supporters to expect to be challenging for promotion – could be wrong but I think Smith said these players should be challenging for the top 2, yet over the course of half the season we’ve looked no better under Smith than when he took over, relying on individuals to get us through games. I think if supporters could see some improvement in the 12+ months he’s been in charge there might be more credit in the bank but it’s been the same old same old since he’s been here and it doesn’t look like changing anytime soon
While I agree with some and strongly not others, It appears to me Mick is wheeled out a Delia’s mouth piece, seen it before no doubt see it again. My biggest gripe and it has to be level at our so called supporting director, who appears to have a good business head but not so much football wise.
Fans were led to believe Farke was going to the very fist coach in a line of coaches who would create and continue that style of play. Thus creating the identity of this club as a footballing club.
On the very first hurdle Webber forgets or simply ignore what was implied and goes for Smudger, I call him that because the football is smudged round the edge and across. Hardly anyone understand or see any consistency in play or selection. It is clear to many that Smith just does not fit in many of the little holes he needs to. Just because he became available didn’t mean we had to, it wasn’t judged on fitting into the model that was talked about.
I have done much reading of old articles and reports, what is and has happened at City for longer than these last few matches, was exactly happened at Villa which lead to the trigger being pulled. I feel that a lot of Smith success has been magnified by the media . Paul Lambert, in fact outshines Smith, winning promotion and keeping the club there. Alex Neil emulated exactly what happened at Villa, only could not keep the club there, much of the reason why is of course down to money.
So why the big deal is going and getting a coach that clearly is a bad fit, or has the model we heard of, been thrown of of the window along with the football, for the sake of a name in dimmer lights ?
If you think that the way we were ‘passing the ball across the back’ had any similarities to the way we played under Farke then I totally despair.
Four years ago it was used to draw opponents in and create space in midfield to transition through the pitch.
There is no transition now whatsoever and certainly no midfield capable with the centre backs to move the ball forward.
Sideways – sideways – sideways – hoof in to touch.
If you cannot see the difference then I totally despair.
Still… at least we have some nice murals and tours of the ground.
This. I can’t agree more with this.
Imagine being the Blackburn forwards on the weekend.
Knowing that Norwich were going to limply pass it around at the back five.
Knowing you just had to press and you’d either get a throw or a chance on goal.
Knowing it would be like that for at least 60 minutes because nobody at NCFC has the tactical knowhow to notice it and change it.
Imagine how much confidence that would give you.
This is precisely the issue. Incredible to think that just passing the ball around the back is the equivalent to Farkes football.
If you think it is the same I beg you to go back and watch some of it… We rarely struggled to progress the ball to the final third as a Championship team, the defenders always had midfield support… Perhaps all those that berated Moritz Leitner might realise his role.
The ball goes around the back 4 because there is no support, there is no support we are set up poorly. I can’t believe some people do not see it.
Very good points made here by Steve and Phil.
Under Farke there was a purpose to the toing and froing along the back line, namely to eventually create an angle to allow the ball to be shifted through the press. And in Mo Leitner, we had a model exponent of someone happy to take the ball under pressure and play on the half-turn. Isaac Hayden, for all his other qualities, is not the man for that job.
The current toing and froing appears without purpose.
One thing I have noticed….under Farke, whenever one of our players received the ball, they opened their body position allowing them to play on the turn. Under Smith, this has gone. They receive the ball square on and more often than not only have the option to ‘return to sender’. This can only be a result of coaching….it may be stretching it a bit far but may be one of the reasons Nunez, so bright and promising in his opening games, now looks as ineffective as the rest.
A big issue is that when Smith came in he stated that the players were good enough to stay in the Premier League, he claimed we needed more leaders, yet a year on, not a single player has improved and we are out fought and thought most games. One of my biggest gripes is why we only have one winger on our books, with 20m worth out on loan. This system is never going to work playing Sargent out wide. We also do not see a management team capable of changing a game. Unfortunately, after 25 years as a season ticket holder, it feels like when we were relegated to League 1.
Mick,
Credit to you for offering up a positive and eloquent assessment on the current situation. It’s never easy to stand firm and swim against the tide of popular opinion. However, there are a few points within your piece that raise unanswered questions or deserve a degree of scrutiny.
Regarding the disconnect, you state that “good people who used to be involved in fan engagement, have left the club. I know Ipswich came poaching, but isn’t that a tribute to the work that had been done by the current regime to improve things?”. Absolutely. The more pertinent questions perhaps, are why those individuals felt compelled to leave and why the club was unwilling or unable to retain their services?
Whilst it must be nice for the lads at TalkNorwichCity to be granted access to interviews, for members of the Trust to be given access to the soccerbot or for yourself to be able to occasionally bend the ears of the majority shareholders, most of the paying punters have little or no opportunity to communicate with the club and express their feelings or raise their concerns. That’s why they turn to social media, or sites such as this one and why, at matches, they express themselves in the only way they can to feel like they will actually be heard by the powers that be. So when you ask “did booing help me or anyone else and was it a sane response at a sporting Event”? If it makes them feel heard, then yeah, probably.
On the football side, you claim that “passing to the goalkeeper, and passing along the backline, was the basis of Farkeball. It is what eight of every 10 clubs in the known universe do to reset. But Carrow Road jeered it, while folk told each other, “It was better under Daniel”. I don’t get that at all”. The majority of the yellow army know their football. They understand that playing out from the back relies on beating any press, by winning individual battles, and pulling opposition players out of their defensive shape to create space and passing lanes higher up the pitch. You acknowledge that it’s not working due to “an inability to pass through the two lines of defence rival teams deploy against us”. So when the average Joe watching from the stands sees a disjointed and ineffectual gameplan which tends to break down in the second or third phase of play, it’s understandable that they voice their frustration and question why the Head Coach and his assistant (who are “universally revered for their coaching within the game”) have found no solutions.
Regarding the squad, you claim that “there are a lot of new faces and, a much-changed squad can find it difficult to gel”. I’m not sure the signings of Sara, Nunez, Hayden and Ramsey constitutes a complete overhaul? Might be worth getting a second opinion from a Nottingham Forest fan.
But ultimately, you’ve highlighted the most important factor by admitting that “it is unquestionably true, though, that Smith has not yet coaxed or coached the best out of every individual or from the collective”. We are over a year into his tenure and most supporters perceive that the squad is regressing under his leadership. A talented and expensively assembled group of players who are under performing.
How many other club’s would accept that situation?
Merry Christmas to you and yours and all of the MFW community!
A lot of fair points Mick and as ever, fair play to you for sticking your head out.
What I’m about to say comes from a different perspective – I have no inside knowledge of ncfc or any other clubs. I’m generally a glass half full guy and have no vitriol towards the Smiths (that’s Delia, Michael and Dean) or Webber – I really want them all to succeed.
Yet despite all this, I’ve become deeply concerned about goings on at ncfc, on and off the pitch for some time.
Many of the previous posters have summed up their feelings about the playing-side of things, I can’t really add anything here except to say we appear to have regressed dramatically from just two years ago.
The situation with players contracts is baffling – to have so many soon to end is a curious situation and I think it’s clear that many of these players are quite rightly thinking of life after Norwich, which is understandable but doesn’t exactly breed solidity on the pitch.
Off the pitch, things clearly aren’t right. One of Norwich’s strengths in my view is that as a self-professed community club, outward comms has traditionally been open up to a point. I accept there are things that a Director simply can’t make public, but Webber’s current media stance is very un-Norwich to me – and the frustrating thing is it could be quickly and easily resolved. For what it’s worth, I was a newspaper reporter in a previous life and I don’t think any of the EN/EDP coverage last season was unfair.
You touch on staff leaving the club, or being ‘poached’ – again just to stress, I have no inside knowledge here but if staff are leaving any business en masse, this clearly isn’t a good thing.
So to sum up I think we may need another re-set and get back to doing what Norwich traditionally does well – bringing through young players, being open with media up to a point and above all some free-flowing enjoyable football, ala Walker, Lambert and Farke.
Wouldn’t it be nice to hear from the board or Webber at a time like this?
I respect Micks opinion, I too would never boo ,
I think expectations are too high , we have no divine right to walk this league
Our most successful period was with a young hungry team , we don’t have that now
Too many players coming to the end of there contracts , are they going to go hell for leather !
Recruitment as been poor 2 expensive wingers on loan , South American players having to settle in a different culture
Whoever succeeded Daniel was going to struggle , large squad full of similar players
O for a Wes
Really good of you to come on here Mick.
I actually agree with a lot of your points. Delia and Michael are indeed “good folk” but lets be honest very stubborn. I said on here the other day every fans opinion deserves to be respected. I do not think Delia or Stuart return that courtesy to us fans.
I shouldn’t say this but I will, I had a heart attack in March of his year, after a day of recovering and a day of treatment the first thing I did the next morning was to go onto Myfootballwriter, The pinkun etc to check on the goings on regarding the club.
I just remember feeling really hurt that the club were yet again deriding the fans, it wasn’t us Mick who were responsible for the relegation from the EPL last time but Delia and Stuart Webber certainly made it clear that they think so.
You say Rashica, Sarge and Normann were good signings, Stuart Webber has alluded to the same. I am sorry but they were not good signings. Normann was carrying a injury that definitely affected him all season, Sarge, along with all the other younger players bought in were just that, too young for a relegation scrap and Rashica flattered to deceive on too many occasions.
Normann is a really good example of poor recruitment, carrying an injury taking months to recover and then hitting a poor run of form. Remind you of anyone? The club have repeated this all over again with Isaac Hayden. How many more points would we have had by now if we had purchased a decent holding midfielder fit and raring to go from the start of this season?
Again with Hayden there was a certain amount of dishonesty from the club on how many games he was likely to miss. It ended up over double the amount of games reported by the club. That’s nearly a third of the season. Rank bad planning.
Going back to recruitment, I do think a little bit of honesty from the club in that would have gone along way. We are not stupid, Stuart Webber did not do this on purpose but having your Head of Recruitment on gardening leave wasn’t an ideal situation and the following outcome of that sounds extremely poor as was excellently reported by Michael Bailey in The Athletic.
Booing doesn’t help however poor we are. I think a person like Ben Gibson who I think struggles with self confidence, that will kill him during and after a game. I have booed many a ref or opposition but not since I was a lot younger the City side.
The work with the CSF and many other things the club do I wholeheartedly agree is fantastic. We always support the excellent quiz nights.
I agree also that the Archant editor didn’t help the pinkun boys with his headline. As long as he is doing everything in his power to help Norwich City while working Stuart Webber has every right to have a life outside this football club. That wasn’t the problem it was yet again his tone, belligerent to the fans.
You may think “stuff the fans, I am climbing Everest “(for a very good cause) is fine please just don’t say it in a newspaper article. It is inflammatory.
Personally Mick I understand your reluctance out of loyalty to criticize Delia and Michael but I also agree that many of their mistakes have been through miss-guided advice. If people think it is bad now they don’t remember the Roeder/Grant/Gunn years.
Finally, Dean Smith.
I have been on here for months and months defending him, asking for more time, I loved his football at Brentford and unlike many City supporters thought he would be a good fit. I have written on here about how hard it is to replace Daniel Farke, an almost impossible job, I agree we lost Farkeball before we lost Daniel.
But I am sorry Mick for whatever reason even I have to admit it is just not working for Dean Smith.
Vincent Kompany has had 6 months less than Deano and he has rebuilt a team and a style of play in that time. I said last season the Pep/Klopp partnership wouldn’t have kept this city side in the EPL.
So I was uncharacteristically optimistic for this season, possibly top two but definitely top six. I am now of the opinion that a top six finish is unlikely.
So one point from Cardiff, Wigan and Hull City at the start of the season was worrying, as I predicted those side are all in the relegation fight so hardly the best start but then there where glimmers of how a Smith side could play but sadly it didn’t last.
Deano didn’t help himself saying things like, “there are still things from last season that need work” in November ! or “we will come back after the World Cup a different beast”
But blaming the fans for Saturday’s defeat was completely out of order. As I have said earlier booing doesn’t help, but it is up to the manager and players to get beyond that. We City supporters will give the team 100% win or lose if we see something resembling a decent style and real effort.
One win in seven home games and four defeats in those games is really poor, as is our results against our main rivals.
Though the results away from home have been better than at home I really save my biggest sympathy for the away fans. This is what Stuart and Delia just don’t get, it costs a bloody fortune following the side away from home and the entertainment value has been poor.
Add on the fact that you get dog’s abuse from the club’s hierarchy no wonder people are voting with their feet.
Dean Smith has had time by now Mick to at least show a style of play. I listed many of these questions on a reply to Martin’s article on Monday so I won’t bore everyone by repeating myself. But what is a Dean Smith Norwich City side?
The club themselves say this team is top two, top six quality in the Championship so if the players are that good why is a thoroughly nice and decent man not getting the best out of this team?
I do not like to see managers sacked too soon, Watford for example are a joke, but I think will finish above us.
And there comes a time when a managers position is untenable and it hate to say it we are already there with Deano.
But thank you for coming on here, it cannot have been easy.
The sentiments expressed by the crowd are an indication to the management why so many fans are staying away from the ground. Carrow Road is not a happy place to be. I’m sure the club thought that Roeder was a good appointment and I get the same feeling about Smith as I did about Roeder, the arrogance,the refusal to accept responsibility and the non connection with the fans. I’ve read the post match interviews and Smith blames the fans at least three times. This is unacceptable, especially after the recent performances and anyone who accepts it is contributing to the decline. Just as many of us were annoyed at Dion Dublin’s comments that we should be more than happy with a top ten finish because we are not a big enough cub. Nobody is saying that the players all hate Smith but I can’t see any support from that direction.
Bond to Brown to Stringer to Walker was a great line of succession and none of them suffered because of the popularity of his predecessor, all had connections to the club. I don’t want to criticize any higher than the team manager at the moment but, as Webber said about Farke’s sacking, things have to change
There are some really eloquently put points here, which really get to the heart of how I’m feeling about the whole situation surrounding the club, Smith and Webber right now.
If the board want to get a handle on the current issues I would advise skipping the first 2,000 words and going straight to the comments. All of which are respectfully put without name-calling or vitriol, just frustration and sadness about the current position of their club.
P.s. To stick up for Mick, I genuinely don’t believe this is a puff piece on behalf of Delia. I cannot believe that she and Michael are not experiencing the same hurt we are. Unfortunately, they’ve always been too loyal. Not a bad character trait, but also not one that is as kind to managers in the long run as I think they hope it might be. Sadly, from experience, it won’t get any better for Smith from hereon in.
A very well written and balanced article Mick , a refreshing change from some of the hysterical drivel that gets written. Some of the replies also make valid points as well so a reasonable balance. I notice that no one has a definitive answer about what a different manager would bring. Perhaps a DF clone but who exactly?
Scott Parker.
We were the first club to give him an opportunity.
Parker blamed Bournemouth for not spending enough money.. They have done well since he left.
Thought provoking article Mick and the balance is welcome considering some of the commentary elsewhere. However you don’t address a key question for me: why are Smith and Shakespeare underperforming? They both had reputations established at Brentford, Villa and Leicester that suggest they could do a really decent job with us. Not keep us in the Prem necessarily but make us a serious Championship side that would be credible candidates for another promotion. At the half way stage we are fortunate to be in a playoff spot but I don’t think that will last. So why is a management duo either one of whom would be a credible appointment for a Championship club doing so poorly? With the fans; with the football being played and as representatives of a club many of us feel deeply about? Is it the environment they work in? Is it because they wish they weren’t here and are waiting to be sacked? We accepted DFs shortcomings because we knew he was trying his best whereas with DS and CS you know there best work was done elsewhere. Why?
I’m with you on this Michael, Shakey coached Leicester to win the EPL so what the hell is going on ?
So. Where do we go from here? Back the Manager? (The one who said will finish in top two and be a different animal after world cup?)
Do I feel I’m getting my money’s worth? No I don’t hence why I have started booing. I can bare it for a short while but almost every home game! Something needs to be done..
You’d never guess MD is a former Eastern Counties Newspapers man – I’ve seldom seen him have a good word for many inside Prospect House of late. “[Archant and Michael Bailey] attend every media conference where they can ask any question they wish.” Indeed they do, with the manager and a token player – who are hardly going to answer any questions about club strategy at boardroom level, are they? The likes of Grant Hanley – thanks to media training – are always going to come out with controversy-free statements along the lines of “We’re as disappointed as the fans with today’s defeat.” Hardly revelatory.
TBF, he’s not wrong about the Newsquest takeover of Archant, and Richard Porritt comes across as having as little feel for his new circulation area as Nigel Pickover did before him. However I still feel a great deal is being made about a piss-poor “Evening” News front page – let’s not forget it’s a dying paper with a circulation of 3,736.
To counter guided tours of Colney, some of the club’s PR efforts have been truly abysmal this year – the post-relegation in-house “interview” and the unpublicised short window to vote for the player of the season plus the presentation of the Barry Butler Memorial Trophy behind closed doors spring to mind. And the great inhouse media team are very good at wishing former players, but anything that involves a bit of work – such as a tribute to Maurice Norman – and they are found wanting.
Perhaps MD might like to ask the club why there is still no chairman/woman or CEO at a time when there is no corporate responsibility at Carrow Road. In the past – especially when Roeder was allowed to wreak havoc – the question “Is anyone managing the manager?” was often asked. Today we should be wondering “Who directs the sporting director?”
Any journalist using the slogan ‘Because football. Because the Championship’ really isn’t doing their job properly with such stalling remark. It is no defence.
Dean Smith maybe nice and maybe respected, but that is totally irrelevant. It was a typical ‘Norwich’ comment, where the person becomes before their job and their capabilities – which in football will get you about 5 minutes, though clearly much longer at Carrow Road.
Most Norwich City fans were – and still are realistic – that Farkeball was never going to be replaced like for like. And indeed maybe it should not have been, given that it crashed so badly in the EPL – though not helped by Webber’s appalling recruitment for our last attempt of which we now know Daniel did not think was good enough for the league we had entered.
We needed something else and we got Dean Smith. And that isn’t working. At. All.
In his defence, you could argue that many of the squad have been through the motions one too many times, as the ‘yo-yo effect’ of promotion and relegation saps moral. Why should they go the extra mile when we – or most of us know – that the clubs owners hearts are not really in the upper tier of English Football and that Promotion is very much a mixed blessing as they appear to be uncomfortable with the consequences.
But he is the manager and should rise above all that, getting the best he can out of the players in his possession. But he can’t and he’s not even getting close, so does Norwich City sound like a club with the desire of promotion given Smith is still in situ?
Last season some viewed the club as mere footballing mercenaries that took the money and ran back to the Championship, rather than making a serious effort to retain EPL status. I’ve had enough staffers from CR over the last few years tell me that Delia is ‘not really interested’ in the EPL or ‘They don’t really want to be there’. If they are wrong, then why that perception?
Norwich City won’t be toxic forever, as the club is bigger than any of the individuals involved. But unless Stuart Webber can pull a rabbit out of his self inflated hat, the peasants will revolt and want their pound of flesh that goes way beyond Dean Smith.
When the fans have been taken for granted for too long, expect the unexpected. If I was Delia, I’d be concerned. Very.
Let’s be realistic, there is an inevitably about all this, we’ve all seen it many times before.
At some point fairly soon the manager, and possibly even the sporting director, will leave. The club will issue a statement giving the reasons for the change and this will be at odds with their current public position.
A new manager will be appointed and a new more positive atmosphere will prevail – for a while at least. Let’s just get on with it please.
Nicely written as always but reads just a little too good to be true. I think some people left the club because of some toxic behaviours which quite a few people seem to be aware of, but didn’t seem tocl report The article very gently defends excommunication of the press, to whatever degree, which is poor from the club. They have the ability to rebuild trust, rather than taking an action to abandon it. Happy to hear from those who revere Dean Smith, but I am not one of them. Too many comfy “insiders” want to defend the club in my opinion. But thats my opinion and I am entitled to it. We all defend the club because NCFC ain’t an easy ride. Mick’s article is very good, and in parts illuminating, but he’s an apologist at one of those very rare moments when the fans are booing…
BTW Mick’s point about conflation of issues is a really interesting one and is its own debate. BUT… I think the fans are booing not just because of the poor performances and style of play. I honestly think fans are also protesting about how they perceive the club has changed. It’s lost part of its soul for a significant amount of people, and there is a chasm between the fans and the club. The fans are not, and never will be to blame.
The line which gets trotted out with some regularity that”smiths only failing is that he isn’t Daniel farke” is tiresome and misleading.
The biggest gripe most have with dean smith is his appalling record with regard to winning football matches, which places home beneath the likes of Bryan Hamilton, a complete joke of a football manager and scraping along the all time dildo list with a guy called Albert gosnell, who plied his trade during the Edwardian era.
There’s so much wrong here a full rebuttal would take longer articulate than I have today. Instead I’d like to pinpoint one example of the spin Mick likes to write so perhaps others can spot the rest…
“Another example of new engagement is the way the club have facilitated two revelatory interviews by Talk Norwich City: with Mark and Mike Attanasio and then with Kenny McLean.”
The club did not facilitate two revelatory interviews. These were ideated, instigated, and disseminated by the ACN team. The club may have allowed them to happen, but this is fan-led engagement by ACN. Those lads have the ability to write, host, record, and deliver interviews that are more interesting, accurate, and honest, than anything the club puts out.
Correct myself here, it was obviously Talk Norwich City, not ACN.
Pretty much what ‘facilitated’ means!!!
I’m a season ticket holder of 42 years. I’ve seen lots of ups and downs, like the rest of the fanbase. I’m always interested to read the views of Mick Dennis. They’re usually eloquently argued and I certainly respect his views.
On this occasion, I’m surprised to see that he misses the key point with current fan anger. Context is everything. So, let’s look at context. The backdrop includes some of the most brilliantly entertaining football ever seen at Carrow Road, delivered by players of outstanding abilities, coached by an exceptionally gifted and yet humble, self-effacing man in Daniel Farke. Over the decades, before Farkeball, fans have seen great players developed by the club (regardless of the quality of facilities) and sold on for big money. This was going on well before Mr Webber arrived – and will hopefully go on long after. Quite what gold we have in the current locker is debatable at best. Then we have seen huge sums spent poorly. Even this season, we have had to stomach seeing Rashica and Tzolis out on loan. I wasn’t aware that we were in a position to waste money with that degree of profligacy. Recent accounts confirm this.
So we have great football, promotion, wasted money, relegation, – we all know the story. Then this open, fan-friendly, family club suddenly goes closed, disdainful of fans and much more corporate. Remember Webber’s sneering encounter with an angry fan outside the City Stand? His own wife had the sense to pull him away.
And yet, despite all the above. fans have actually been remarkably patient this season, faced with the dross being dished up. Back to context. Let’s bring it up to date. The last seven home games that concluded with that chorus of boos and insults. Let’s not forget that the target was not the players. The target was Dean Smith. The last seven home games have yielded just one win and two draws. Only seven goals scored. Pukki hasn’t scored a home goal since September 14th. We took the lead inside the first ten minutes in three of those games and yet only managed to secure one solitary point from all three. We had 34 shots on target. That’s one goal for every 4.85 shots on target. The opposition has had 23 shots on target, scoring 10. That’s 2.3 shots on target per goal – more than twice as effective as us. The four games we lost produced just three yellow cards for our players and one red. Not exactly indicating a side fighting hard.
For Dean Smith to suggest that the fans are responsible for the way the players are performing is arrant tosh. Aside from the players themselves being responsible for their own individual performances, it’s Dean Smith himself who is responsible for the training, team selection, player development, tactics, fitness levels. We are seeing no improvement in players (quite the opposite actually), lower fitness levels, poor tactics, no discernible style of play. By the way, what happened to the idea that the club had a style of play and that any incoming coach would continue to implement said style?
You might say, well seven games is not a long run. True, it isn’t. Unfortunately, all of the deficiencies listed above have been evident even when the team were getting more points. We’ve only played outstandingly well in a few all-too-brief spells in too-few games. Patience was thin and THEN the poor home run has capped it all. Add in all the context and you might begin to understand why it was so vociferous.
Mick;
As always an excellent column, and eloquently put.
One of the things which totally baffles me about Smith and Shakespeare are the allegations that they are good coaches.
At Walsall used a number of loan players from other (dare I say it) bigger clubs to improve them.
At Brentford he inherited an excellent squad put together by Mark Warburton, and given the set-up there, others had already been pencilled in.
At Villa, the squad was that of Steve Bruce, who had been beset by an horrendous injury list, and things really only improved when the most expensive English player returned from injury. A lucky promotion was gained through the play-offs and he was granted £100m+ to spend. Villa only survived that season in the PL when the technology failed to award Sheffield Utd a perfectly good goal. He then squandered another £140m on transfers and was sacked 3 months later.
Shakespeare won the PL at Leicester, but I fear an awful lot of the input there came from Ranieri.
The pair have now had 14 months at NCFC, and please, other than Ramsey (who is not even our player), and possibly Sargent ( who was never PL ready), can you tell me which of our players have improved under their coaching?
The only one’s of last season’s squad who appear to be improving are Rashica who is currently plying his trade in Turkey,,,I suspect Tzolis would be the same in Holland if it were not for injury.
I’ve been following City for around 60 years, and can never recall such dis-jointed performances as we’ve been subjected to in the past 14 months. All of them look as if they are frightened to receive the ball anywhere on the pitch; the passing stats are awful.
We may have one of the highest shot counts in the Championship, but how many have actually forced the opposing goalie to make a save….
Having said all that, no doubt that as the fans were responsible for last season’s relegation, and are also now responsible for the level of performances, I guess it’s only fair to blame us for the lack of coaching…
And please, don’t get me started on their fitness levels.
I would have loved Dean Smith to succeed but it was obvious from the outset that his beliefs were totally opposite to the previous incumbent….but surely it should not be taking so long for these players to take on board what the coach actually wants?
The big question remains unanswered….given that Stuart Webber said that he had planned for every eventuality, just who was his first choice to replace Daniel Farke – given that at the time Dean Smith was still in gainful employment?
O T B C
I respect Mick Dennis as a football journalist and he makes some good points but I have a problem with his default position which seems to be to always defend the football club whatever the situation is. In view of the current unrest it was highly predictable that he would emerge to write an article like this.
” I accept every single person who supports the great club in the Fine City has an unconditional right to express a strident opinion.”
Then later describes some fans’ alternate views as ‘jaundiced’.
And there are lots of decent, well respected men in football I would imagine, but it doesn’t excuse them from criticism if there is a failure of coaching and extracting the maximum from a player’s potential – as you appear to agree on Smith. Steve McClaren was well respected in football as Sir Alex Ferguson’s right-hand man at Manchester United, but he fouled up a number of managerial roles. He wasn’t excused criticism by fans nor media in his career. Nor should he have been.
Finally, let’s put the old chestnut to bed: Smith is only getting abuse because he’s not Daniel Farke. That’s not true. His football is rotten. That’s all
One win in the last seven at home. Awful and deserving of criticism.
I was looking forward to reading this article as I wanted to see the argument for keeping Dean Smith. I respect your views Mick and I was intrigued by what you would write. Sadly, you have done nothing to convince me that he should be given any more time. Every single person at Carrow Road on Saturday knows that he will lose his job either this month, in January or towards the end of the season, and 99% of the supporters would approve of that decision. The sad reality is, people are not enjoying what they see on the pitch. As you said Mick “Win matches and they’ll forget the tablecloths”. 1 win in 7 at home, with a style of play that is turgid, is not going to help the season ticket sales. And the knock-on effect of that for a club like ours is potentially catastrophic.
Ok, reading that, it seems you would accept a substandard meal at a restaurant because they have had a hard time balancing the books lately. You would gladly go to the theatre and watch a poorly presented performance, coz that’s all they had to offer. The truth is matey, 20k plus supporters, and I mean the people that keep this club going, turned up to watch a performance that was inept, lacking in passion and not worth the expense. The Championship is a very poor league this year and we add nothing to it. Don’t try to pull the wool over intelligent supporters’ eyes.
Thanks for these really cogent comments. I’m usually in agreement with MD but not here and now. I’ve felt for a long while this season that our passing it back or sideways reflects a lack of confidence, but the Blackburn game was first time I’ve seen us looking totally fazed, and it convinced me that these so called ‘revered’ 2 need to go. In my view we need to forget promotion and concentrate on getting our club back, treating employees well, and building the link with the fans; whether in this division or L 1.
Hi Mick,
In summary:
Positives:
– some nice community stuff that nearly all clubs do
– better than the awful Grant/ Roeder years
Negatives:
– huge financial black hole (despite Prem years)
– no saleable assets (best players worse, maybe Oma as exception)
– lowest league crowd for 25 years
– part-time Chief Exec (Webber)
– fans clearly unhappy (whether you agree or not)
Very difficult to say we are a well run business or football club based on finances alone. I respect your opinion, but could not disagree more. Ignoring the financial state of the club in itself is inexcusable, a disaster waiting to happen without promotion.