It’s hard to believe that it was only on New Year’s morning that my first article of 2023 included Reasons To Be Cheerful in the headline – and this was not merely an excuse to feature one of my favourite Ian Dury songs.
Fast forward exactly three days and I feel like we’re back to square one.
It was very kind of Watford Reserves to fulfil the fixture at short notice and their total of absentees hit the full baker’s dozen as Samuel Kalu, Keinan Davis and Christian Kabasele disappeared down the Carrow Road tunnel early doors with game-ending injuries.
This however counted for nothing as the intensity of the Watford press remained unfaltering. Their ability to seemingly turn 50-50 midfield duels into 60-40 ones in their favour was not due to any lack of endeavour on our part, it really wasn’t.
More damningly than any lack of effort, our downfall was brought about because of a major offset in physicality. How blunt do I need to be? Not one member of our midfield was able to stand toe to toe with any given Watford counterpart and there’s no way of sugar-coating that.
Would the much-maligned-in-certain-quarters Kenny McLean have made much of a difference in screening the back four as he did so effectively against Reading? Maybe, but we’ll never know.
Isaac Hayden perhaps? I think his lack of involvement under Allan Russell and Steve Weaver speaks volumes and, poor unfortunate soul that he is we really ought to send him back to the land of Andy Capp and Mark Knopfler [how’s that for an unlikely connection] before the month is out if we possibly can.
You know, value for money concerns and all that stuff that Stuart Webber*** is concerned about when he wishes to be.
It seems that Hayden [subbed on against Reading at 90+2] and the Mayor might well have been injury doubts on Monday. The latter we will see a lot more of but I have serious concerns about the former. Wiser people than me seem to think Webber was sold a pup in the first place with the whole Hayden deal, and we now learn he’s been managing that knee injury and has now had an op.
It’s always important to hear from the Man in the Stands, and the fallout from this latest farrago must prove to be no exception. Don Harold reckons:
“Things are rapidly entering the hopeless phase. The team gave everything they could, challenged for everything, and let the shell that remained of Watford’s first team know that they were there, but still only achieved the grand total of one attempt on target. We gave the ball away regularly as always, and Watford often carved through our blancmange midfield at will.
“It’s difficult to compare this team with the two previous promotion sides. The character that players like Stiepermann and Tettey brought hasn’t come close to being replaced. The shape, style and fitness of this team is a shadow of what went before. And we haven’t got five foot seven of Argentinian football heaven.
“I have no clue who the next boss will be. Aside from one good press conference, Russell and Weaver haven’t done enough to engender much confidence. One goal and one point from two home games doesn’t butter any parsnips and the style of play has been pretty chaotic. Russell has been set-piece coach all season (!) and both have been integral parts of Smith’s failure to get a tune out of this squad.
“It’s looking like we will have nothing more than mid-table mediocrity to look forward to for the next few months.”
With the Hadean-black humour of the longer-serving Canaries supporter coming to the fore, we are only five wins from safety!
This thought cheered me until one Bernard Owen Esq denied me even that crumb of comfort by highlighting the fact that we have won only three of our last 15 matches so Championship survival is by no means a given.
Well, we cannot completely discard any possibility right now I am afraid.
*** Many of us will have seen the Stuart Webber interview on Sky TV.
I’m keeping my take on what I saw and heard to myself for now [although my musical outro offers a clue, particularly to those readers who know me personally], but I’d love to hear from any of you who saw The Man With The Important Decision To Make in action. What was your view of proceedings?
What more is there to say, Martin?
Any hope that the current coaching duo had was surely gone before we even took to the field on Monday…..and given what happened on said field, how on earth can the use of only one of our subs be justified?
We’ve become the softest of soft touches this season, and are without doubt the current laughing stock of any of the top 92 clubs in the country.
Where do we go from here? Given his performance over the last couple of years, unfortunately I don’t think that even Webber has a clue.
I know I’ve said this before, but I keep going back to how much better we were than Brentford only 2 seasons ago….and look where they are now!
Where did it all go so painfully wrong, and why has it cost us so much money?
O T B C
Hi John
*Where did it all go so painfully wrong, and why has it cost us so much money?*
You’re asking the wrong geezer, mate.
If I could I’d forward your question to D Smith and M Wynn-Jones at NR1 1JE.
Cheers
I can understand why you’re holding back Martin.
I’m getting to the point where stating our current position makes you wonder if you’re an irrational pessimist.
I’ve supported City for over sixty years but am I being irrational in thinking this is the lowest point there’s ever been?
Hi John
It’s a close call with the last days of Chase but back then us fans knew we had played our part in getting shot of him, which was quite something – especially if you were actively involved.
This time around there is no consolation to be found anywhere so I would conclude that your irrational pessimism is actually spot on realism.
Cheers
Well respected man about town , nah , he’s more a dedicated follower of fashion, taking this club to a waterloo sunset.
Hi Bernie
A Plastic Man, to be sure.
Cheers
Looks like its Wagner as the new head coach,an old pals act?Lazy appointment?How many interviewees did Webber have?We will probably never know but if it is Wagner the whole process sounds a bit fishy to me.If things dont improve much on the pitch to start with then i expect the Webber out chants to get even louder.Totalky agree with you re..physicality,weve lacked that for years,but our SD couldnt see it,.
motions and going spring to mind
Hi Tony
There has been something fishy going on at Carrow Road for quite some time now.
Including the nauseating whiff of the Club’s corpse decaying from the head down.
Cheers
Morning Martin we both said half way through last season we couldn’t see this team getting promoted this season and how right we both were .
I don’t know what to say anymore , I’m in disbelief to be honest after reading David Wagner will be appointed soon and watching Webber’s interview which was stomach churning to say the least and also his wife’s comments about this is one of the most prestigious jobs in football . The power these too now have is frightening bit like the two above them .
Something Will have to change for the long term future of the club it’s not sustainable as it is .
Hi Jim
There are none so blind as those whose personal interests do not enable them to see.
I had a look at the major 1p5wich site just now – I won’t glorify it by naming it – and you know the game is up when you find yourself largely agreeing with that lot.
Cheers
Marty it seems to me that Webber is responsible for recruitment and the Head Coach is responsible for training, tactic and so forth. And there in lies the black hole, the Coach gets what he‘s given, I‘m sure he gets some input into who comes and goes but in many ways he‘s piggy in the middle. The man responsible on match day should have prime responsibility for what players are in his squad, not make do with what he‘s given. The system has failed will it change? Doubt it.
Hi Cutty
One of many things that annoys me intensely is: what’s happened to continuity?
The Smith in so quickly and opportunely after getting ride of Farke development didn’t sit straight with me then and it certainly doesn’t now.
I think we’re back to Tony B [above] and his use of the word fishy.
Something is rotten in the state of NCFC.
Cheers
Hi Martin
Great article and just love the Kinks.
Was Webber trying to impress the supporters with that interview or our American Cousins who haven’t said a word about this mess.
I think even during Farke’s time we mentioned how often city got bullied due to the lack of a physical presence in the midfield area Stiepermann was an exception along with Tettey.
It was really obvious at a Watford corner watching Gibbs trying to mark any Watford player even their smallest towered over him and similarly Sargent looked a frail kid being marked by their CB.
City did hold their own till a poor attempted tackle by McCallum let Bayo skip away and have an open net.
Russel said city weren’t out played possibly not but out fought, out bullied YES.
Sky reporting at 10,50am this morning verbal agreement with Wagner bring on the Valkeries, not impressed with this appointment but hope he changes my mind.
The usual cheaper than market chips again.
Dean Smith 2 is in the house
Hi Alex
You have to respect Ray Davies – a true poet who could write a tune as well.
I’ll beg to differ on just one point – your final one.
I’d suggest that Wagner is more Farke Lite than Smith mk II.
Even the Webbers wouldn’t dare do that to us.
Cheers
It wasn’t so much what Stuart Webber said in the Sky interview, but the significance behind it. If you wanted your message to get across to paying punters – you know, the people who actually put money into the club – on a match day the best reach would have been to go on Radio Norfolk. But no, since Rob Butler tweeted about the Attanasio visit in May, RN is on the same naughty step as Archant despite being a broadcast rights holder. And going on Sky would be a big boost to Mr Webber’s already sizeable ego, allowing him to pretend that he was still important, in demand with the national media, and being able to mix with the big boys, despite the fact that ever since City lifted the Championship in May 2019 he’s been well and truly found out and is now a busted flush in the football world.
We will hear a lot about “We have to get behind the team now” this week, and – up to a point – that’s fair enough. However, it’s very hard to back a team still ultimately governed by Mr Webber. You can be assured that in the unlikely event of any success being achieved this season he’ll be taking all the credit.
Hi O-t a s-t h
You really should go into psychology if you haven’t done so already.
Please accept my personal MFW Post of the Day award – and I haven’t even had a chance to look at Steve or James’s articles yet 🙂
Cheers – nice one.
Looks like Wagner in Martin the one everybody wanted here when Webber first came now suddenly he’s cheap option so was Lambert Neil and farke apparently and they were all successful here after all promotion and relegation is all its goin to be for us these days can’t ever see that changing whoever is in charge or running the club so let’s give the guy a chance because theirs plenty that would turn their nose up at it .
Hi Kev
Like you, I will give him a chance. I’ve never wanted to see any City manager not succeed even Roeder, who had a good start.
But he’s as cheap as market chips, like many decisions made by our current board and directed by Mr and Mrs Webber. They have nothing to lose – maybe a reputation or a job – but that can be rebuilt with some good luck and hard work.
At the moment it looks like they are taking City off a big cliff with no parachute or safety net.
Let’s hope they have made a good choice this time as you say can’t afford another failure .👍
You could argue that Smith was Webber’s only head coach failure.
Shame we couldn’t apply a 50% success rating to the players he’s signed!
Poor old Happisburgh beach and the nearby houses come to mind in a way.
As much as it pains me on a personal level to see the erosion, people have known about the inevitable for many years now but continued to buy property there and in other places along the coast – Happisburgh wouldn’t get all the headlines if not for the lighthouse!
It’s sadder still to watch the erosion of what used to be good about our Club.
Hi Kev
I didn’t really want Wagner any more then than I want him now tbh.
Having said that though, at least he isn’t Bruce, which would surely have resulted in protests not seen since Paris around 1789.
Of course we must give the guy a chance and I’m sure we will as us Norwich fans are a pretty fair-minded bunch despite what the likes of Anthony Richens would have the neutral believe.
Cheers
The Ian Dury lyrics that most often come to my mind, when thinking of NCFC these days, are the first six words of Plaistow Patricia.
The Kinks remind me that City have Really Got Me Going, All Day and All Of The Night.
It looks like the opera is going to continue with Wagner. Good luck to him.
Hi Don
It’s such a shame that many of our readers will not get the Plaistow Patricia reference – those who did will thoroughly agree with you I’m sure. I do, anyway
There’s something of the Village Green Preservation Society about our Delia.
Cheers
Hi Martin, I think the unwritten issue here is that Gibbs and McLean are good enough, but that Sara and Nunez were effectively absent weren’t they?
We have 2 viable central midfielders on our own books, excluding Hayden and utility man Sorensen, who started the season in centre mid. Yet we play 4-3-3 asking attacking midfielders to do work they’ve never done in their South American footballing past. Not a dig, just a fact. And I’d debate all day Cantwell and Dowell (who I loathe!) are better than both too.
I think a key point of Wagner, from a tactical point of view, will be a reversion to 4-2-3-1 with Gibbs and McLean sitting.
It’s the only viable formation I can hope for nowadays. OTBC
Hi Mike
I agree with all of that and I am sure Liam Gibbs will go on to be a very good footballer indeed and hopefully remain with us for a good while longer yet.
I must admit I’m struggling to think of a Norwich City squad as unbalanced as this one and I can go back well over 50 years!
Thanks – good post.
looks like Wagner, I,LL ask whose the next city manager in 13 months. hope I am wrong
Hi Lad
I’d genuinely like to know how many other candidates were thoroughly interviewed – a casual phone call to an agent counts for nothing.
The number is even more important than the names in this case.
Any advance on zero?
Cheers
Webber of course takes someone as a new manager who he knows is not going to question his football know-how. Wagner surely is the safest card to him. That Dortmund staff thing had it time, if you look for example German national team they are not anymore top quality in players and coaching. Wagners last manager job didnt go well. His last club, Young Boys were swiss champions 4 times in a row and when Wagner took a job they ended the season as third. This season after Wagner got sacked, Young Boys are again clear leaders.
20-21 season:
1. Young Boys 84 points
2. Basel 53 points
After that season Wagner started as Young Boys manager, third place seems an incredible achievement. HJK keeps on winning finnish championship season after season, last season they won it by 1 point and usually its about like that. If there were a manager who would achieve third place for HJK in the league, he would be seen as an incredibly bad manager. Young Boys gap to the second was 31 points!
Hi 1×2
That’s an interesting perspective.
The closest we have to your HJK here in the UK is probably Celtic, where the manager tends to keep his job if he wins the SPL title.
They consistently struggle to cut any ice in the Champions League and if they have a particularly bad showing in the group stages the manager might be pushed.
Swiss football is a bit off our radar as in we all know of Young Boys and FC Basle but many of us would struggle to name a third club in the League. I know of FC Zurich and can think of Grasshoppers, but only because of the unusual name!
I guess you are right about Wagner – Webber doesn’t like anybody challenging him as all our local media have found out by being completely ignored for months now.
Kiitos
Hi Martin
Happy new year it surely must improve on last year. At least Wagner will want to play something akin to football. Maybe he will bring the best out of those “creative “ players like Cantwell and Dowell and surely after the last game people will see the value of Kenny McLean in midfield. The nice inter passing we saw from Dowell, Sinani and Aarons early in the season must still be available if the coach chooses to look for it.
We have got rid of one Smith now we must look to get the other one out.
Sadly the South American duo don’t yet seem to be ready for English football, too weak and too slow. Time will tell.
Hi Cyprus
That’s a very fair and in many ways constructive way of looking at things.
*We have got rid of one Smith now we must look to get the other one out* is spot on.
I get the feeling this is crucial for our future development in so many areas, no longer just the financial ones, and cannot happen quickly enough.
Quite how this can be achieved though is very much another matter 🙁
Cheers