It was inevitable in the end. The only thing that could have saved Dean Smith was if his prophecy that his team would emerge from the World Cup break a “different animal” had come to fruition.
It didn’t. The exact same animal emerged. A muddled, half-hearted, and miserable one. The one that played turgid football, gave away soft goals, and had no decipherable style or pattern of play.
Ultimately, for all of the stuff around Dean Smith and Craig Shakespeare not being a good fit (they weren’t), or them making little effort to engage with the fans (they didn’t), the crux of it all was their inability to produce a team that could play an attractive brand of football while also picking up results that would offer a chance of automatic promotion.
Neither happened.
If they had, the fact he never looked comfortable in the City dugout or the fact he never did olés with the fans would not have mattered one jot, but he failed in that most fundamental of footballing requirements.
That he ticked neither the ‘good fit’ nor ‘engagement’ boxes meant he had no credits in the bank – the ones Daniel Farke lived off when we were in the Premier League. If he’d had some then he would have been given more latitude by the City faithful but without some good football to go with it, it would only ever have been a temporary truce.
I imagine City fans are about to be launched upon by those outside the club and the national media in another ‘what do they expect down there’ moment, but they’ll ignore the fact our direction of travel is downward and our realistic expectation of a challenge for a top two place has faded away.
They’ll instead focus on our current league position, while also ignoring the fact we have a squad with Premier League experience and a sprinkling of internationals. The tone will be very much, ‘what are you all complaining about?’
You wait. It’s coming. And oddly enough, the stance of the Club itself will not be dissimilar.
The fact that fan pressure will be seen as a contributing factor to the trigger being pulled will simply be yet another reason for them to despise us, the fans.
But we’re not as daft as they think we are. We all know the Dean Smith era has been beset by poor football, dwindling attendances, terrible atmospheres, and fan apathy on a scale hitherto unseen.
Carrow Road has not been a fun place. It’s been joyless and bereft of hope.
Yet, having asked for the removal of Smith and Shakespeare and for it to have happened, we have to now hope that the coaching reset, whoever is chosen as its spearhead, will have a positive impact.
We hope.
And I say that because, as has been much discussed on these pages, the problems within our football club run far deeper than the first XI’s coaching team. While the reset at elite playing level is now underway, the culture within the club remains, and it’s unhealthy.
Kathy Blake wrote an eloquent but stinging piece on the cultural change that has swept through the club over the last 18 months, and it made for uncomfortable reading.
In her capacity as a board member of The Canaries Trust, Kathy has witnessed up close the negative impact of changes in both personnel and approach. Even to those of us not as close, the change in culture is apparent and the Club’s perception of the fans as a hindrance is blatantly obvious.
So, yes, changing the coaching team may have an initial positive impact on a group of players who are capable of so much more than they are delivering, but even if that change works it won’t right all the wrongs of a club that is misfiring and has badly lost its way.
I rather hope this is but the first domino to fall of several, with the end result being a football club rising again; one that values its fans and sees them as an integral part rather than a destructive, negative force.
I’d be gobsmacked if anyone within the Club’s inner sanctum dares to utter the phrase “community club” at the moment because it’s anything but.
Right now, it feels like a Club being run by, and for the betterment of, two high-profile couples. No-one else. And those people brought into the Club – ‘the suits’ as they’ve been described – are but subservient pawns in their game.
It’s rotten, and Dean Smith’s departure won’t change that.
I’d normally end this piece with a thank you to the now departed and touch upon a few highlights of the Smith/Shakespeare era, but there haven’t been any.
I do, however, believe they are both still thoroughly decent men, and capable football men, but who happened to take on roles at the wrong place and at the wrong time.
I may be alone in this, but I genuinely wish them well.
A different set of circumstances and it may have worked out. Who knows. But it didn’t.
So, go well, lads. We’re not this horrible all of the time.
You only have to see how Daniel Farke is doing in Germany compared to his stint in the premiership to realise where the problem is at NR1!
Well said Gary and amen. Pity they didn’t use the World Cup pause time better by acting before they all went on a waste of time jolly to Florida. Maybe then about the only good thing to come out of Deano N Shaky (the loan of Ramsey) would not have been endangered by a needless injury..
My liking would be for Scott Parker but there is a danger that Lampard could come available …
Plus lets pray for an angel to bring the American into play and lose the two married couples!
Can we expect Webber to fall on his GAMPONS or maybe jumpship before his rolling contract kicks in again ?
Now speculation will be rife could it be Scott Parker, Russell Martin or Mr Knutsen(Norwegian football on a Break) then there’s Wilder, Warnock, I can’t see them going for someone in work as more compo maybe a temp till the end of the season.
Will our American cousin have any input and will he make his move to oust a has been cook that out lived her sell by date for over 25years.
Happy new year yes magoo has gone brilliant!
A small thing to ask but please can we have a manager that believes in leaving a player up when we defend corners.
Will Neil Adams be in charge for Friday? At least he loves the club and understands the fans.
What a relief, no pleasure in seeing Someone sacked, but it needed doing.
Parker,Robins or Warne please.
I’d prefer Pep.
Very pertinent comment with regard to the first domino to fall Gary.
The worry mow is that the unaccountable webber, backed by his wife will drop yet another enormous clanger with a Dean Smith like appointment.
The club is rotten to the core and the need for root and branch change from top to bottom has never been more apparent.
The World Cup was the best opportunity and the management fluffed their lines again. More departures are required to resolve the problems.
Should have been done before The Florida trip. Now , we head into a transfer window with a temporary coach, and no time for the new man to even discus wants and needs with Webber.
The new man can discuss his wants and needs all he likes, he will be told along with the rest of us that the transfer budget has been spent paying off Smith & Co’s contracts.
Wow, umm, didn’t see that coming!
Steve Weaver and Allan Russell … possibly with Neil Adams, steer and steady the ship?
Super-Teemu’s goal at Luton was top notch, what we need to see from the guys this season, come what may.
COYYs !!.
Just cannot see any long term improvement with the Webbers in situ.
The prophecy by SW of leaving the club in an improved state has gone, he knows it but is far too pig headed to admit it.
Promoting Zoe Ward to the board is an absolute disaster- her reputation at the club is cited as the reason why the club has haemorrhaged so many good people over the last 18 months. Delia & Michael have obviously entrusted them in good faith & given them the keys .
Our best hope in my opinion is for The Attanioso’s to step up. OTBC
I guess the paying up of the contracts will eat any transfer budget there was for January. Still, it’s for the greater good and a decent coach should be able to get so much more out of the present squad.
Ryan Lowe has done a pretty good job at PNE on a limited budget, and everywhere else he’s been before. They’re a bit inconsistent but they’ve beaten some good teams this season (and us too). Whether or not we can pay the compensation who knows? Everyone assumes not,
Failing that Brendan Rogers will be available shortly….. but no doubt he’s out of our price bracket
Mark Robins please
With Gyokeres please
Well Gary the inevitable has finally happened.
And it had to.
But I’m feeling mixed emotions, the first half at Luton was so bad it would have taken the second half to be a storming triumph to change the outcome today, but I also feel for DS.
Just like Daniel Farke last season he was left with not enough quality players for the job.
I know this sqaud are much better than they have shown, but wasn’t that the case during Alex Neil’s last few months at the club all those years ago?.
Danel Sinani and the lovely Onel were both regarded by Farke as surplus to requirement 18 months ago but Smith had to use them.
Why ? Because yet again the cupboard is bare.
Look at the last two defeats, both Luton and Blackburn started with so much more energy than us and closed us down ferociously so much so at Luton I don’t think we hardly got out of our own half in the first half.
I was wrong about Dean Smith, massively so. He didn’t seem to enjoy his time here at all.
But ook at the ex players and ex managers that love the place.
Personally I think he was shell shocked by how poor we were when he had been here time enough to judge the squad.
Fulham, our successors as Championship winners got to 22 points yesterday 5 months before we did last season🤬
That just shows how poor we were.
Of all last season’s signings only Josh Sargent has come good sadly a season too late. The rest have gone or are out on loan.
Even this season’s signings, Nunez start apart, haven’t been good enough either.
Any value for money?
Was it worth waiting half a season for Isaac Hayden ?
To be fair Isaac may come good, I hope he does he seems a top lad, but Smith was hamstrung by not having a holding midfielder for the best part of half a season.
Kathy’s piece last week painted a worrying picture of the goings on at Carrow Road.
Why was not more done to encourage these good people who worked at the club from leaving to go to Ipswich and elsewhere?
You get the impression that it is a toxic working environment at the moment.
So hopefully we can improve on the pitch, but I think it will take more than the inevitable fall of a good man to change the inner workings of Carrow Road.
Let’s not forget we have borrowed the next two payments of parachute payments so there won’t be a pot of gold for the new coach.
Self-funding….my a..e courtesy Mr Jim Royal
I hope we go for purely a coach, like Farke, back to Ed Balls vision.
Dean Smith is more of a manager just like Sean Dyche or Steve Bruce than a coach.
Dyche would definitely get this team going but long term I’m not so sure. Would he be a good fit? I’m not so sure.
I don’t think Dyche would be a good fit for a number of reasons. I’m not sure we’d like his style, and I’m pretty sure we don’t have players for his style.
Its out of Parker,Knutsen or Dyche.
Now one D Smith has departed, it’s time for the other one to go…..
He should have gone after Luton at home, when they came for a 0-0 and worked at half time we were there for the taking. He should have gone during the World Cup break but the final straw was the Blackburn game and the interview afterwards. So why on earth we all had to suffer Luton away with him in charge is a mystery. We have also wasted 2 games picking up 0 points and falling further behind. The next appointment is crucial.
Great piece Gary and once again it’s my thoughts layed out in front of me to read.
Root and branch change is required, all this amounts to is a light trim in the NCFC garden and to continue with the gardening analogy there are elements in the hierarchy at the club akin to Japanese Knotweed which will take a bit more time and effort to shift.
Having listened to the excellent Scrimmage podcast yesterday, whilst I’m certain that the atmosphere will be much better on Friday I’m not as convinced as Robin Sainty that all will be back to normal with the fans. As you and others have rightly pointed out, this runs much deeper.