Has your memory foam mattress forgotten you? Will your willow no longer weep? Or maybe your Mister Muscle has developed atrophy?
Or are you, like me, slightly less than excited by the news trickling out from the Norwich City media, both internal and external, this week?
While the outside world of journalism has come up with more than its fair share of rumours during the seven days since I last wrote on MFW, it would be rude not to begin by briefly recapping now the dust has finally settled on Stuart Webber’s interviews of Friday last.
I jokingly suggested on these very pages a couple of weeks back now that the local media should make the most of their interview opportunities with Stuart Webber after such a lengthy suspension of communication and Anglia News, Look East and Radio Norfolk did just that by each presenting what I thought were pretty good TV and radio versions of what was put in front of them by the man from Aberystwyth.***
Gary, Stewart, Jack, Tim and myself piled in with the MFW content and were rewarded for our labours with some tasty comments from you good readers concerning our varying takes on SW’s re-emergence from Trappism. Michael Bailey ensured there were a couple of decent interpretations in The Athletic and he was joined by a couple of nationals who were not in agreement with SW’s thoughts on women’s football.
But the Pink Un team [quite understandably under the circumstances] won the award in the all-Norfolk ‘how many squeezes can you get from a single half-time orange?’ competition. I quickly counted one dozen stories emanating directly from the same source before my concentration went and I gave up. London buses come to mind!
More seriously, let’s hope Webber speaking with the local media reverts to something like it once was rather than becoming an annual event 
Webber also promised us long-suffering supporters both a new coach and a new player by the end of last week and while nothing has actually happened yet, the media are saying that deals are on the verge of completion in both instances.
Huddersfield coach Narcis Pelach has quit The Terriers and is nailed on to become the new coach, at least according to the Yorkshire Post and the Pink Un. Spaniard Pelach has connections with David Wagner and indeed current City coaches Christoph Buhler and Andrew Hughes as well as head of football development Steve Weaver from their respective times with the Terriers, so please excuse me for suggesting there is a copper bottom to this one.
The YP adds that Pelach was allegedly interviewed for the vacant managerial role at Blackpool but has instead elected to join up with Wagner at City. A few local [as in Norfolk rather than Yorkshire] jokers have suggested that at the tender age of 34, he would be a ready-made, in-house replacement for Wagner – without mentioning anything about any timescales that might or might not be involved!
On the player front, all fingers are pointing at Fulham’s Shane Duffy.
Duffy, 31, is a 55-cap Irish international centre-back who according to balls-ie is desperate to get his career back on track. Duffy’s not had a look-in with only five appearances from the bench amounting to a meagre 17 minutes of action with the Cottagers all season. His contract is effectively up and he would arrive at Carrow Road as a free agent in a similar manner to that of Ashley Barnes.
Duffy is well thought of by Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny and will be anxious to be part of their squad for next year’s Euros, a feat he will not be able to accomplish without regular minutes on the pitch. Given Grant Hanley’s parlous injury situation, the possible sale of Andrew Omobamidele and the general lack of quality in the Canaries’ defence, this one looks like a decent signing to me if it happens.
Maybe in answer to those who might sarcastically suggest Webber is scouring old folks’ homes for signings, it was also revealed yesterday that City are also pouncing for Hamilton’s Gabe Forsyth.
According to the Daily Record, Forsyth has broken through to the recently-relegated Accies’ first team this term at the tender age of 16, making five appearances for the New Fir Park club.
This has all the classic hallmarks of a Webber gamble along the lines of Daniel Adshead, Conor McGrandles and Regan Riley. Will it happen? Dunno. Will it work out if it does? In the lap of the footballing gods, is that one.
Further rumours heading towards the NW for *No Way* point on my football compass include the possible pursuits of Bradley Dack and Malian international Lassana Coulibaly.
Social media will quickly establish the case against Dack while Tuttomercatoweb reckons the 30-cap Coulibaly, who currently plays for Italian Serie A side Saleritana, has low-end PL admirers in Forest, Palace and [tries not to laugh] Leeds [fails not to laugh]. 
Any one of those three will outbid us if they want the player, so for that reason it’s a no-no for me.
There’s bad news for Onel Hernandez with a knee injury keeping him from international duty with Cuba in the Gold Cup. It looks to be the same injury that was troubling him towards the end of the EFL Championship season at City. Bad luck Onel – get it sorted as soon as you can as we’re going to be needing you next season!
I can confidently predict that published rumours we are after Isaac Hayden on a free and chasing a further loan deal with Arsenal for Marqinhos have even fewer legs in them than the players themselves!
I have to conclude by saying that my message to Carlton Morris, Luton Town and their supporters is as unequivocal as Gary’s was yesterday.
Congratulations and enjoy your season in the sun – you deserve it. If you can somehow turn it into a second season, you deserve it even more.
*** While googling to make sure SW was indeed born in Aberystwyth I discovered that he has recently acquired an extra line to his Wiki profile: In May 2023, Webber received further criticism for his comments on women’s football, saying the quality was “really poor”.
*** Many of our squad will already be enjoying their summer holidays with report back date some weeks away, so I hope they enjoy themselves in Bali, Cancun, the Maldives or wherever yer well-off geezer in his 20s or so hangs out these days.
I sincerely hope our sports scientists remembered to send them away with .pdfs of a strict personal regime and that they do as they’re told because this season more than ever we need to get off to a flyer as we face Leeds, Leicester and Southampton, which constitutes the *best* trio of relegated sides I can ever remember!
Any old excuse will do to play this:
The summer comings and goings could be more entertaining than the football we‘ve be served in recent times. A new fitter speedy and determined model awaits us, but like your search for another car the finances will force some compromise. It always comes down to the brass, or lack there of. Still Luton bucked the trend so we can but hope, it‘s all we‘ve really got, hope, not much else.
Hi Cutty
Yes the comings and goings will be interesting and I don’t see much disadvantage in the ages of either Barnes or Duffy either as we are desperate for heart and experience in this squad.
Unlike a footballer, the car comes with a five year warranty, a factor I am not sure would influence Stuart Webber overmuch!
Cheers
Hi Martin,
Good read as usual.
Leeds: Well Big Sam I think got his first relegation from the EPL (or could that have been Blackburn) but according to some pundits he’s in line for a bumper bonus if he can get them promoted.
Leicester: Will their Thai owers sell up and or reinvest in the team? Maddison, Barnes and a couple of others are all wanted by Premier League clubs, Vardy has passed his sell-by date and now lives on a few past glorified memories, and the Belgian, Tielemans, is a free agent, so possibly a bigger rebuild than at City.
Southampton: Well, the locals are getting very vocal, especially at the appointment of Russell Martin, saying the owners are looking at a mid-table Championship manager and are wanting Southampton to be a club of that level. Ward-Prowse could be off – Spurs are mentioned in dispatches.
Can City rebuild in one window to challenge the likes of those three plus Middlesbrough, Coventry, Blackburn for a top six place, with Millwall, Swansea, WBA, Sunderland and Watford all fighting for those spots? And most have settled squads and owners with deeper pockets.
So, possibly, two freebies with Championship experience and a 16-year-old joining the ranks. I just wonder what the thinking is. My questions to Webber would be:
1) Will purchases only arrive once Aarons and other sales are completed?
2) Will there be any investment from Attanasio to fund transfers?
3) When will said American announce any future plans taking the club forward?
4) Has the club arranged any trials for academy players released by Premier League clubs to see if there’s any possible freebies for our academy?
The biggest questions would be, how Long has Wagner got to turn this season’s shambles into a team before you pull the plug? (And will you be buying a nice house in the North Yorkshire dales anytime soon?)
Hi Alex
As you can probably gather by the tone of the article I am suffering from an overdose of questions directed at Stuart Webber and indeed his replies.
A veritable surfeit, in fact 🙂
You’re quite right about the quality coming down with the relegated clubs and I will stick my neck out far enough to say that every team you have mentioned is more than capable of finishing above us with the exception of Coventry, who I predict will be forced to sell star striker Gyorekes and not be able to match this season’s achievements in 2023-24.
Cheers
To pick up some of your good questions:
1. For some of the players we’d like to bring in, we do need to know how much financial leeway we have – ie what we’re getting for at least one of the major departures. That’s why, knowing Emi wasn’t prepared to play for us again, we sold him as early in the window as we could get an acceptable offer.
2. Assuming he’s taking up the new share issue, Mark Attanasio will be putting around £10m into the club. Even if some goes to keeping down our debts, it clearly gives some greater headroom for transfer dealings.
3. I don’t think we should expect further dramatic change in the near future. The new share issue will end Delia & Michael’s majority ownership, and put the Attanasio share on a par with theirs. I suspect that will remain the situation for a while.
One more point. The signings we’re announcing now are players being released by their clubs. More normal transfers, with fees attached, aren’t likely to happen (or be announced) before the window opens.
Hi Stewart
Putting £10m into the club really just covers up how desperate we are for handouts – it won’t buy much in this or any other window.
So we could end up with a stalemate board with no-one having the power to make a decision. Instead of having two families running the club as their own toy, we will have three.
Sadly it just looks like a complete muck and fuddle. Any true friend of our present majority share holders needs to tell them the bread’s gone stale and is past its sell by date, and its time to go.
But are they true friends or just hangers on for the ride?
£10 million goes nowhere in the EFL Championship of 2023.
Despite areas of off-field development where Webber has done extremely well there will always be more that can be done in terms of improvement and from what I can gather this is one area where any money from Mark Attanasio might well be apportioned.
There will be nothing left for investment in terms of players from this source. My reading between the lines indicates that Mark A probably wants something tangible to be done with his money and that will not include purchasing players.
I hope I’m wrong, I really do, or we’re in for a third $hitty season in a row.
You may be right, but that’s not quite the way it looks and sounds to me. The £10m isn’t a handout we’ve desperately sought, but a helpful by-product of this stage of the transition to new ownership.
With Delia and Michael anxious (some would say over-anxious) that the club keeps its identity and community role as they step back, and Mark Attanasio keen to understand what he’s taking on, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see a step-by-step approach. But there seems to be clarity on both sides – including an understanding that the Attanasios will be more hands-on than Delia and Michael about governance and management of the club.
We’ll see, of course.
*The £10m isn’t a handout we’ve desperately sought, but a helpful by-product of this stage of the transition to new ownership.*
That’s nice and positive, let me be the last to deny it. But the trouble here is that quite a few supporters are no longer buying into the concept of softly, softly where Mark A is concerned.
Strictly personally speaking, it is something I would like to see happen as well, believe it or not, particularly if the short-to-medium term result is us getting some clear direction again and if the Attanasios can provide it, that’s an undeniable positive.
However we can’t have it all ways and there remains the possibility that once Mark A and his team are *ready to go* that could put an end to a serious level of outside investment for another generation.
Maybe I’m a live for today type but *sorting it out on the pitch* is my prime concern this summer!
Hi Stew
Thanks for answering those questions for Alex and indeed all of us 🙂
As to your final point, absolutely. The same applies to any players we might actually have already *sold*, as it were but Rangers were able to announce Kieran Dowell at an earlier stage as he too had become a free agent.
As for Mark Attanasio we’ll have to continue to wait like a regiment of Horseguards in the rain – completion of this new share issue is taking on the life of Methusala before our very eyes!
Cheers
I have to confess Martin that I too cannot get excited regarding the signings of Barnes and Duffy.
But that probably says more about me 😂I criticize the club for signing too many youngsters for the EPL, and now I start moaning about signing “experience” for the champo. The poor club just can’t win !
However both signings could be just what we need. The team DW has been forced to pick at the end of last season was on many occasions was really lacking in experience.
Whether you are a fan of Stuart Webber or not, we have to concede that losing Grant, Ben, Kieran and Kenny for the run in was a disaster. I got the feeling at the time that Onel was playing with an injury, you have now confirmed that Martin.
Duffy at 31 could still do a good job for us for a couple of seasons, while with Ashley Barnes I just hope he is more Dion Dublin than Steven Naismith👺
However if this trend of buying older players continues then I would truly worry. The team lacks legs as it is. We need pace in all areas. So we need some younger player as well.
Although my hypocrisy seemingly knows no bounds I stand by my opinion that too many kids don’t keep you in the EPL, but Burnley under Vincent Company have proved that young, pacy super fit youngsters can get you out of the Championship.
So I am hoping to see more of the 23-28 range coming in Martin.
Isn’t it funny how one season staying in the Championship suddenly the fixtures for next season seem massively harder than they did at the start of our last season.
As you say we will have Boro, WBA, Coventry, Sunderland, Blackburn, Watford, Stoke City and perhaps Millwall, Swansea and Sheffield Wednesday fighting for promotion and playoff places along with Southampton, Leicester and Leeds United.
And although I doubt it Plymouth and Ipswich are possible outsiders.
Lets put it this way getting out of the Championship is going to be a damn sight harder next season than this.💛💚
Hi Tim
Yes, Onel was really struggling towards the end and at one point Wagner almost, but not quite, admitted to getting him to play through a pain barrier.
Naismith didn’t have the anatomy to play in a back four at the tail end of his career but that notwithstanding the very mention of his name affects me the way it appears to affect you 🙂
1p5wich and Plymouth? I’ve seen enough of both to think they are well capable of survival at a minimum and the Biners certainly know where the net is. Should Wednesday overcome Barnsley later today – as they surely deserve to – I would put them very much in the same category.
As you and so many of us are saying, next season is going to be highly competitive and it’s a fight we must be prepared for.
And that’s where my doubts begin.
Cheers
Tim at least the oldies are freebies so nothing to lose there .
Hi Kev
Sure they are – although the signing-on fees these two will get as free agents will doubtless not be disclosed – like all the Brucie Bonuses!
Cheers
It’s worth remembering that, after Farke’s first season here, most fans weren’t impressed and the talk was to give him another maximum ten games before getting rid. They didn’t like the way he was scouring the lower German leagues for “losers” like Vrancic Hernandez and Stiepermann,they didn’t like the style of play. The new additions hopefully will bring us something different which will make us less predictable.
Good luck to the Scottish lad, trouble is I can only see him being loaned out to a lower league team who will only see him as back up,not playing, then being released. If he did do well,we’d sell him to another lower league team and think that was a success. (Saxon Early) Adshead was a big prospect having played(and scored) for England U19 alongside Saka. Like Morris we never gave him a chance, we say we are sending out youngsters “for experience” but then judge them on how they perform in leagues that rely on older,more experienced players. Why don’t we use our excellent training facilities to develop our own players? instead of sending them out to experience rejection and failure.
This is where we’re going wrong, Farke was able to mix his experienced German imports that he knew with talented youngsters from the development squad. OK Gibbs could be called an exception, but he is the product of another team.
Hi Gil
*Why don’t we use our excellent training facilities to develop our own players?*
I think that’s a very good question that I’ve only a partial answer for, if even that:
However the Academy youngsters are trained, coached, brought on, whatever, there comes a point where they have to be tested away from the relative comfort of under-21 and under-23 level and since the demise of the old Reserve Leagues such as the Football Combination I don’t see an easy way of doing that tbh.
I like the idea of loans out to Europe, as in Todd Cantwell returning from the Netherlands a much more adult and rounded figure than when he left us. Sure it won’t always work out that well but to me it’s an improvement on, say, Jon Tomkinson’s experiences at Stevenage.
Like I say it’s not guaranteed but everything mus be done to mitigate them *experiencing rejection and failure.* at an early stage in their careers.
You make a fair point about Liam Gibbs too, which I’d largely forgotten until you reminded me.
Thanks – good comment.
A few years ago , seagulls were following trawlers and getting football fans into philosophical confusion. Fast forward ( great name for a TV show) and we stand upon the shoulders of giants, trouble is Davies, Holt , Bryceland and Deehan are all figures in our past.
Now we look to the future , might as well stop off at the Ramada Inn and enjoy a glass or two , and contemplate what’s to come. Managed decline as some feel or a new beginning .
How the hell do I know what’s to come. I’m pretty sure my guess is as good as Webber’s though.
Bring on the window and the trading of the horses, so saddle up the palamino and let’s take the ride.
Hi Bernie
It was sardines rather than seagulls mate, as you well know.
Mangaed decline or a new beginning? Now there’s one for Emlyn on the original [and still quite possibly the best] AQoS.
Like you I simply haven’t got a scooby where the thinking lies right now.
Cheers
Late again to the party. Bank holidays always throw me out. There is only one certainty for me, Thank the Gods that, the season is over. A squad overhaul is talked about a lot. Sam Byram, Kieran Dowell and Michael McGovern along with Josh Martin and Danel Sinani, none of which you could say were regulars. 2 out on loan, one (future captain) constantly injured. Keeper getting his badges, not seen in the 1st team since 20/21. Dowell clearly wanted to leave despite being wanted by Wagner or so we were led to believe. Some serious quality has to be added as these could only be termed as fringe, the nucleus of the squad who performed so badly, still remains
Possible 3 up for sale, Maxi, Big Andy along with Samba Sara, added the latter, as who would not snap off a hand if, 20-25mill were offered. He would be sold with few questions. Perhaps a combined total of in the region of £50 Mill could be raised, although I still wonder why Max is still here after all the supposed interest. Are we seeing some of our lads actually better than what others see ?
Then we come to another major and old banana skin question, who the heck trusts our current system to buy wisely, and not to slap a few million on some obscure French player or someone who turns up on a hired mobility scooter ?
Hi Lad
Always better late than never – ask Sheffield Wednesday supporters 🙂
We haven’t got enough to raise £50 million through player sales in my eyes, not even if we chuck in the Carrow Road cat, and I don’t mean Kevin Keelan.
*Are we seeing some of our lads actually better than what others see?* is a very difficult matter to judge. Cantwell? Once thought of by us at £30 million, Max too.
Cantwell went to Rangers for not much more than a tenth of that and Max seems to have finally stagnated – you could see it coming. 18 months ago. Maybe £10 million now, with a year to go on his contract?
However the figures being bandied about for Omobamidele and Sara are far north of what I think they are worth but you never know in football, Webber might get lucky again with these two.. Madders should bring in a few bob but I can’t think of anybody else worth too much.
Beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder in football too!
Cheers
I have little faith to be honest! We are back on the experience train again which should have been done when Farke got us into Premier League first time round! Lots of youngsters with little experience with no old heads to guide them. It is important to get the right experience in Midfield and the defence. I don’t see how getting a 31 year old centre forward with proven experience of not scoring alot of goals is going to aid us? It seems to me with no clear out of recruitment or the current coaching staff, we are back to the very definition of insanity!
Ipswich Town are reportedly looking at Macaulay Langstaff? This player from Notts County is 26 and Notched 42 goals last season. I have seen him play he managed to score a hatrick in 7 minutes! Surely with the wage structure and transfer fees these are the players we should be looking at?
Norwich have got a serious goal scoring issue and we need players with experience of scoring on a regular basis.
With a current wage bill this season of over 600k a week the Fan Funding model is unsustainable!
Hi Greg
I like what you are saying – cos I agree with you 🙂
Lambert had the eye for a bargain and developed it into a fine art while he was here. Considering the modest pools he fished in his success rate was superb to find the square pegs for the square holes that had to be filled for his style of promotion, as did Farke in a completely different way.
Michael Nelson, Anthony Pilkington and Elliott Bennett are just three acquired by Lambert while Farke [not without help from Stuart Webber, Kieran Scott and others I will admit] gave us Emi, Teemu and a good few Germans too.
Both the promotion winning Lambert and Farke sides had that necessary balance to prosper – now we have it neither in terms of age and experience or the ability to play people in their natural positions on the pitch.
This has to be sorted out very quickly, so I’m not disappointed in the arrivals of either Barnes or Duffy.
Cheers
Hi Stewart
I just don’t get the idea of an investment banker going slowly into a foreign country and investing into a business without having any idea how it works.
His cronies would have had every bit of information available on City’s situation prior to him making Michael Foulger an offer, and would have requested a full audit prior to taking up any further share issued by the Club.
The big question that should be asked is, is it them getting cold feet or our present owner’s hanging on for dear life to the last residue of celebrity status?
No one associated with City wants to see a dragged out takeover or a return to fans in the ground verbally abusing staff, but the lack of free-flowing information that was promised builds up grievances and animosity. A little bit of information from people who have a smidgen of info just stirs the pot for those looking for trouble.
The Club, Smith and Jones plus the Attanasio’s need to be more open with their paying public. They say no news is good news. I say no news is disrespecting your paying customers and taking their goodwill granted.
There in a nutshell Alex, lack of clarity from the Board time and again.
I’ve said it before…”Let them eat Cake” “Treat them like mushrooms” etc, etc.
They have a thinly veiled contempt for the fans, lets be honest.
And I mean REALLY thinly now.
Thanks Tim
Is it evolution or revolution we need ? I suppose it’s a bit of both with a big wad of openers to get everyone on side nitpicking doesn’t help anyone and kills the atmosphere at games.
Distrust by the upper management sweeps over the ground and must effect the players and then there’s the supporters Distrust of the upper management so it’s a never ending circle.
Is there away to get back on an even keel ? I would use openness we aren’t a secret itellagency that needs everything done behind closed doors it’s a business privately owned that’s in the throws of a long drawn out investment/takeover,either or both sides need to let those paying customers know what’s going on plus the other shareholders that aren’t involved in this deal as it effects the valid their shares but they seem to be forgotten along the way.
I think that once that feeling sinks in it is impossible to eradicate it. It is just possible that the Board considers it’s in-house propaganda sufficient in terms of clarity in that it tells oi polloi what they [think they] need to know.
if that is true, Lord help us.
I imagine people at the Club would love to be saying more about the share issue and its take-up – but they’re simply not at liberty to. Until the deal is sewn up and approved by the authorities, anyone making public statements about it would be breaching the rules.
In other areas I agree about the lack of communication with fans, something we’ll hopefully see improve. But on the share situation, the criticism is misplaced; I’m afraid we just have to be patient.
So as long we’re into a pregnancy pause, let’s hope it doesn’t take as long as an elephant gestation of 2 years to come out for all to see 🙂
I don’t see how the Attanasio’s can’t come forward and say “it is our intention to buy the club outright in the next x months/years”.
There are plenty of instances of potential owners of other clubs making their intentions known.
It’s not an outrageous ask.
Hi Dave
You would expect it to be the way you suggest, I agree.
But Stew’s right when he says it doesn’t work like that.
This is the UK, after all 🙂
Cheers
When the current share purchase is confirmed, Mark Attanasio could certainly say something like that if he chose. Some in his position do, some don’t. But it’s his choice – not something, I’d suggest, the we have a right to demand.
Meanwhile, the answer to Alex B’s original question – why don’t they tell us what’s going on with the new share issue? – is that they can’t.
Miscellaneous tropes about the current custodians of our club number 11 – celebrity status.
Being a majority shareholder of a medium sized provincial football club gives you no celebrity status at all, and never has done. Some celebrities do become owners of football clubs, but doing the job of overseeing a football club is a thankless and precarious responsibility.
Hi Mike
You and I enjoy a couple of contrasting views here I think.
In terms of celebrity, Delia had that before she got involved with NCFC, of that there’s no doubt. I personally have never suggested she joined us to crank that celebrity up a notch – but it’s hardly done her any harm as what journalist wouldn’t like the story: *TV chef takes over at Football Club*? at the end of the millennium, long before the reality TV crowd, and members of manufactured pop groups became *famous*.
*Overseeing a football club is thankless and precarious*?
Sometimes. It depends on what you do and how you do it. Some owners – not just celebrities – do everything they can to obviate responsibility.
Cheers
Well done Hatters, a squad worth less than a Citeh sub, that’s ambition and self reliance (whoops funding).