It was a moment we could scarcely believe but also the moment we dared to believe.
It was 19 September 2019. The two previous home games of that Premier League campaign had been hugely encouraging: a triumph over Newcastle and a narrow defeat by Chelsea. Now the Champions, Manchester City, were strutting about at Carrow Road.
But our City pilfered a shock lead with Kenny McLean’s header from a corner and ten minutes later, the moment arrived.
Emi Buendia, facing his own goal not far from our area, controlled a high ball, flicked it over his head and spun around to race away from his marker. A quick, stabbed pass to Marco Stiepermann was weighted so that the German could run with it without taking a touch. When Marco did play the ball, it was to slide a pass into the run of Teemu Pukki. The Finn advanced in the inside right position. Three Man City defenders stretched their legs in pursuit.
From the back of the Community Upper stand (where my wife and I have our season tickets), it was apparent that nobody had tracked the supporting sprint of Todd Cantwell. Teemu had seen him though. Of course.
As Teemu reached the penalty area, he angled a pass across towards the goal area. Todd greeted it just wide of the far with a left-footed tap-in. He jogged in triumph towards the corner flag at the junction of the River End and the Community Stand, did a daft dance, thumped the flag in exultation and made an old man high above it all very happy and a bit smug.
The previous season’s Championship title had appeared to be reward for doing things correctly and adroitly. The innovative, parsimonious recruitment, the detailed coaching, the exhilarating style, the electrifying performances … all wondrous, and all played out in front of raucous, united support.
At home, there were flags in the Barclay. At away games, the odd shout of “get rid” was always subsumed into a cacophony of encouragement as Daniel Farke’s methods bemused opponents and beguiled the football world.
So that Todd moment the following September promised so much – and Todd’s departure this week is a good time to take stock of how those promises vaporised.
I don’t know why Todd’s own potential dissipated. But there are some known factors.
As a kid coming through the academy, his parents took him out of the system for a while because he was getting so upset by defeats and setbacks that they thought it was unhealthy. More recently, there was a family bereavement that devastated him. And some of our fans – a small, young minority – appeared resentful that their peer had prospered.
I tiptoe around that last point carefully. Anyone who points out that an element of our support is more destructive than supportive provokes vilification. My own continued attempts to stop Dean Smith being depicted as a pantomime villain – an unnuanced and unfair portrait, I maintain – caused two charmless individuals to call me a “pedo” on social media this week (and the Americanised misspelling upset me more than the puerile insult).
But, as Dale Gordon explained when I was talking to him for one of the Tales From The City books: “You always seem less appreciated at a club where you’ve come through the ranks than when you go somewhere else. Some locals have seen you as a kid and see where you are now and, for some reason, they prefer the players who have arrived from elsewhere.”
He didn’t think it was particularly a Norwich thing. Nor do I. But it is a thing.
Todd wasn’t the only one not to fulfil the promise displayed in that magnificent 2018-19 promotion season, though. I had such high hopes of Stiepermann, for instance. He had much more physicality than most who play in the “Number 10” role yet he struggled in the Premier League.
And the whole playing-out-from-the-back shtick stopped working. I loved it. It epitomised what I believe about the beauty and efficacy of passing rather than hoofing, but fairly recently I chatted with a Premier League coach who said our problem in the 2019-20 season in that division was the predictability of our style.
Our “identity” was so clear and consistent that, by tweaking specific elements of the “gegenpress” (counter press) he deployed against us, he achieved two easy wins.
There were lots of those for opponents. That September triumph over Man City was despite having 10 first-team squad members injured and there were only three more wins after that.
Down we went.
The 2020-21 Championship charge was played out during Covid. It was weird and unsatisfactory.
My wife and I live 115 miles from Norwich and the journey to and from home and away games is part of the process for us. After a defeat, we process it on the drive home. After a victory, we wallow in it on the journey. In 20-21 we watched games on an iMac in our study and, afterwards, went to the kitchen to put the kettle on … it wasn’t the same.
And when we did have crowds to merge into and with again, last season in the Premier League, Daniel had changed the system. He’d ditched our identity. Milot Rashica was our out-ball option. Josh Sargent was a blunderbuss, with the emphasis on blunder. Billy Gilmour was the only player who wanted to pass out but made me nearly pass out by unerringly giving the ball to opponents.
I thought Matt Ware expressed an astute observation in his MFW piece about why supporters thought things were all a bit sh*t this season under Smith. I had argued that discontented supporters were conflating disparate complaints. Matt added an element to the list of grievances: our Premier League experience had been so miserable that the prospect of going up was twinned with the fear that it would bring only another abject season of defeat after defeat.
My hope was that Smith’s flexible and pragmatic approach to games might succeed in the Premier League (although, obviously, it didn’t in the second half of last season). I believed this season was a work in progress. The coaching of Smith and Craig Shakespeare, both widely admired, had fine-tuned Sarge’s finishing and were getting a fine tune out of Aaron Ramsey. I could see what a fit Isaac Hayden would offer.
I understand and accept all of that was a minority view. The accepted narrative – that it was all a Smith and Shakespearean tragedy – is now the established wisdom. The case for the prosecution has been enhanced by what David Wagner has achieved.
I am in lunar orbit about what Wagner has orchestrated (do you see what I did there?). The second half at Coventry, when calm control was established, was probably even more impressive than the frenetic opening movement that day.
Will any of it work in the Premier League? Let’s just get there and find out. Playing in the Championship only makes any sense if we are striving to get out of the division.
And it is surely possible that if there is to be another moment like that one in September 2019 it will be a prelude and not a futile peroration.
Either way, good luck Todd. Your talent is immense and extravagant. You were, and are, one of our own.
A prophet has little honour in his hometown. Which means you need to leave in order to succeed, hopefully Cantwell will. But it will be far from easy, make or break time, fancy boots and a hair band do not a star make.
Hi Mick
City over the years have had many local lads that promised the earth at youth level but failed to achieve it at first team level Murphy Twins, Jarvis Brothers and had varying success after leaving.
Is it a jealousy thing that as youth players they get praised then as seniors get poor reports from the same supporters maybe but it’s not only a city thing Anthony Gordon at Everton has received a lot of similar comments this season.
It could be the expectation of seeing a local do well and when they don’t you feel let down or had the trust in them taken away.
Smith and Shakespeare have gone and the gloom has been lifted, hindsight is wonderful but how much more would have been achieved if the plug was pulled prior to WC break, no one that I know though he was a good fit for the club and didn’t deserve the flak he got, but Webber stating the board wanted him to continue just shows how much they didn’t want to admit he was a poor appointment.
We now have a one man PR department rebuilding Trust between the team and supporters it would be nice if those above them showed a little courage and admitted they got it wrong.
“Our “identity” was so clear and consistent that, by tweaking specific elements of the “gegenpress” (counter press) he deployed against us, he achieved two easy wins.”
The key part for me, by the time the second game came round, we should have been aware of the changes deployed in the first game, and able to adjust ourselves appropriately.
The fact that teams could just do the same thing again was the hole that sunk Farke as a premier league manager for us.
The gulf in class given to us by players like Emi (and note that Farke’s record without Emi or Maddison in the champ is near identical to Smith’s) meant we could largely ignore other teams, confident that we could out score them.
We took far too long to realise that wasn’t possible in that first Prem season.
I don’t always agree with your seemingly unwavering approach to the board and its decisions but this is a very well written article with the highlight being that you were more upset by the American spelling then the insult itself!
Only ‘seemingly’ unwavering? 🤓
Todd has played well this season, but after dropping him “not because he played badly”, Smith didn’t give him two consecutive starts and like Sargent, not in his best position. Last season he started quite well and in the first three games had made the most tackles in the Premiership, before Farke dropped him. Even some of the performances for Bournemouth, particularly against Stoke,were good.
It’s sad that so many Norwich fans have such a bad opinion about a player who had been with the club for so long and,early on had tuned down moves to the top,top clubs. Beale looks a very capable manager and success at Rangers could mean a move back to the Prem for manager and player. Todd is at his best with class players eg Emi, it’s a good move for him, let’s hope he shows them what he can do.
Hi Mick,
It is no surprise Cantwell attracted the local boo boys – no-one promotes Lobster Pot Theory better than many East Anglian folk. I wish him, and the other guys moving on, every success in the world until they play us.
Sargent’s finishing has thus-far been enhanced by the Championship, and were we to get promoted he is likely to be a Premiership success resultantly.
I can’t see any cleansing of S&S’s effects on the Norwich squad, the negativity has been replaced so rapidly since Wagner joined, it seems impossible to ascribe the change to anything other than our Norwich squad’s love of blitzkrieg football.
I really hope it continues all season, it’s a joy to see the glum looks on the faces of the opposition, and it must really upset the apple-cart at Porta-cabin Road, Off-switch. It would make the whole squad as legendary as Beowulf, and the Knights of the Round Table, if the boys somehow pulled off the absolute, ultimate climax of promotion!
Also, some new manager bounce had already started to have an effect on the Norwich squad before Wagner came in – salute the two interim coaches for that one, as their immediate success in managing to raise the team’s positivity was there for all to see!
No freedom of expression under S&S, Mick.
COYYs !
I would like to wish Todd all the best, but I can’t wish anything good for the terrible institution he has joined.
Players peak at different times in their careers, usually mid to late 20s. Others peak early like Michael Owen, Josh McEachran and others. I wonder if Todd and Billy Gilmour, are going to fall into that category.
At least he, and we, have the memory of THAT goal and being part of one of City’s most remarkable teams to cherish.
Been having those same thoughts, Don. Was just afraid to say it 😀
T C ‘s relationship with the City faithful is a conundrum. Your references to his goal and participation in the Man City miracle aside, his moments were all to few given he made 120 appearances for us, he also had Emi, Teemu and Co around him which helped him enormously. My recollections are he spent a lot of time on the ground and rarely scored or assisted.
Never a crowd favourite so your Dale Gordon reference is food for thought on that one.
What troubled me was his time at Bournemouth went poorly plus Farke & Smith didn’t rate him. He’s an expensive vinyl wrapped sports car instead of the pro footballer’s standard black 4 x4 issue so I suspect Todd is complex, his own man and not ‘one of the lads’.
I wish him well in Scotland but more in hope than expectation, I hope he fairs better than Jamal Lewis and Josh Murphy both have to date.
“The coaching of Smith and Craig Shakespeare, both widely admired, had fine-tuned Sarge’s finishing and were getting a fine tune out of Aaron Ramsey. I could see what a fit Isaac Hayden would offer.
The multiverse is real. I must have been experiencing a different season. In Mick’s players weren’t giving the ‘thumbs up’ on social media to the post announcing Smith’s sacking, players weren’t giving interviews showing joy at being rid of Smith’s style of play, and we weren’t dropping down the league,
Interesting nobody has cited the strikes against Arsenal, league, and Man Utd, cup. Both absolutely brilliant. In comparison, the goal against Man City was down to all round good teamwork.
I am like most disappointed it has come to this; and am also doubtful that move is the right one for TC.
OTBC
Good points Mick. I too have reservations about that team he has joined. Thought he played well v the Blades. As for the Murphy, Jacob done well, much better than Skippy, and yes I know he’s been injured.
Mick – I really hope you have more Tales from the City in the pipeline. I simply love reading them!
I’ve also always wanted to read a ‘warts and all’ interview with Robert Chase to get his take on his tenure at the club.
Liked the looking back to that win over Man City, including one of the best and worst of Linekers throwaway lines at the end of motd.
How to beat Man City. . Farke knows !.
Good piece Mick.
I have to admit I was like you and thought Dean Smith would work well here.
Again I used that word, pragmatic, for any foray into the EPL under Smith.
But we both have to admit that for whatever reason it just didn’t work for S & S.
A big mystery but we must move on.
But I agree and said on here that the crap Dean was getting was totally out of order.
And you getting the abuse you are getting is also beyond the pale.
We will never agree with one another regarding the ownership of the club but resorting to the language your critics used on social media says more about them than you. Despicable.
I know how much you care about this football club in conversations with you.
But criticism of the fans in recent months was also uncalled for. My grandad watched City at Newmarket Road as a boy and he took dad to The Nest when he was a boy.
And I have been a home and an away supporter before my health let me down.
Three generations supporting the club.
On to Todd Cantwell.
I too wish Todd all the very best. Rumours of this and that have run through the city like wildfire, but none of us know exactly what went on between Todd and the club.
Personally like you say being “one of our own” I do wonder if Todd’s wages were some way behind people like Billy Gilmour, Matthias Normann or Brandon Williams.
That would have been grossly unfair.
But so was his “efforts” when given a chance.
I do not think it was a falling out with Farke or Smith more likely a personality clash with Stuart Webber to my mind.
Todd also failed at Bournemouth which really surprised me.
Smith, Farke and Webber are not responsible for that so Todd does need to look at himself.
Rangers are a big club and it will be interesting to see if he handles that.
But I hope he does.