The news that Jonathan Rowe has returned to the club after sustaining an ankle injury while training with the England Under-21s was symptomatic of a season that keeps on delivering in the worst possible way.
Things that can go wrong tend to.
Without wanting to tempt fate, it would surprise no one if in this Thursday’s presser, David Wagner announces that Gabriel Sara is out until the new year with a rolled ankle. It’s been that type of campaign and right now, at least to many City fans, we feel like that kind of club.
Much of it, both on and off the pitch, has been self-inflicted, and in terms of injuries, we’ve not picked up more than anyone else – despite some club officials trying to convince us otherwise – but there’s no disputing that ours have been to the good players in a squad that is full of fairly average ones.
The double blow of losing Josh Sargent and Ashley Barnes within seven days of each other was particularly cruel. We can only hope that both are edging ever closer to full fitness and that Rowe’s early return to Colney was more precautionary than anything else.
Hope. Something we’ve done a lot of lately.
But what has been clear this week is that those of us hoping to see a change of head coach are going to be disappointed.
The seeds were sewn by Neil Adams, of all people, in a fans’ forum in Great Yarmouth when asked about the Wagner situation he spoke of a club that doesn’t take ‘knee-jerk’ decisions, that doesn’t believe in churning head coaches at a rate of knots and that “the club is looking at more than just results”.
Final confirmation that Wagner’s position was safe came when he spoke of the club needing to ‘look around the edges’.
The good win in Cardiff, five days after the event in Yarmouth, bought Wagner yet more time, and with Stuart Webber exiting stage left that same day – once he’d been afforded his guard of honour in Cardiff – it became clear that any big decisions were going to be left to Ben Knapper.
As everyone knows by now, Knapper started on Monday – the ridiculous handover planned with Webber thankfully shelved – and was, of course, never going to go in all guns blazing and deliver a silver bullet in the form of a P45. Those hoping for one were always destined for disappointment.
Any lingering doubts about Wagner’s immediate position were quashed once Knapper spoke, which unsurprisingly came via the club’s official channels. If you haven’t seen it…
And to be fair, he came across very well – as you would expect of someone who came out top in what was, we’re told, a rigourous interview process. Aside from all his other undoubted qualities, here is a man who clearly knows his way around a PowerPoint presentation and an Excel spreadsheet.
He said all of the right things, of course – in an in-house interview it’s quite difficult to say the wrong thing – but he did deliver a few important messages, including the one about introducing a brand of exciting, attacking football across the whole club, from academy teams through to the women’s team and the men’s first team.
He also spoke of a good relationship with Wagner, built up over a series of phone calls and meetings.
His whole demeanour wasn’t, in truth, too dissimilar to Webber circa 2017.
But, in terms of the playing side, this is very much the start of a new era for our football club such is the key role a sporting director plays in the structure our club now deploys. Knapper needs to be given time to embed his ideas and ideals and, for now, that includes him taking a closer look at Wagner’s methods, tactics, and plans.
And we have to accept that. We have no choice.
Unless something very drastic occurs, and by drastic I mean a humping (or two) that makes the 6-2 in Plymouth look like a decent performance, Wagner is going to be in situ on Derby Day, which is but 27 days away.
That, for me, is D-Day. Win at Portman Road (as unlikely as that feels right now), and Wagner does a bit more than buy himself a few more days. But lose, especially badly, and the relatively light heat that he felt in the aftermath of the Blackburn defeat will be cranked up several notches.
To be City’s head coach when the unbeaten run since 2009 comes to an end will be no place to be when the majority of supporters have already spent several months questioning your worthiness of the job.
Harsh perhaps but, as I see it, that’s the reality.
Wagner though, as desperate as his situation has become in the view of the fans, clearly isn’t feeling that same heat from within. He’s even been on the receiving end of ‘we have your back’ phone calls from Michael and Delia, so it is well worth noting that the picture as we all see it, is very different from the one seen by Messrs Knapper and Adams.
We, as ever, are perceived to be the ones who are impatient and out of step by those in power.
So, for now, we have no option but to park our reservations over Wagner and hope that in the next few weeks, he is able to extract something out of this ordinary team that helps it perform greater than the sum of its parts.
The jury is still very much out but with two of the bottom three upcoming in the next few weeks prior to the Ipswich game, there should be no excuses or hiding places.
The bad luck I wrote of earlier hasn’t extended to Wagner himself, who can consider himself lucky to still be in a job, but the ball is now in his court and he has a chance to prove us all wrong.
No pressure.
As usual Mr G summed up very well.
Honestly, I did not expect anything that would shake the dust loose, pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. A nice easy introduction, away from those pesky pressmen who would ask difficult questions and, even better, no nasty noise from those horrible fans.
Delia said ‘ignore them, they moan at everything.’
There isn’t much he could do in his first week – the first two big tests, are in the not-too-distant future. First, as you, highlight the derby against that lot – a nasty defeat there after so long of being top dog, will increase the heat under his and Wagner’s backside.
Then the January window, when will he be given, think we can guess that one, with Sara’s words and now injury he may well be here longer. Strangely Rowe has picked up an ankle injury so that may curtail any sale. Loans and freebies look the order of the day once again, I expect nowt else for the foreseeable, until they (D&M) have sold up
I am just sitting back and seeing where we go. We will be treading the same footprints of the past, or will we see some new ones being forced until the sticking plaster starts to come off as I am bloody sure it will?
But looking forward to having something for a time to enjoy and get behind.
Hi Canarylad, are Delia’s thoughts re the fans on record somewhere as I haven’t seen this quoted and I imagine the average fans would be shocked to know this is indeed what she thinks. Personally, I am convinced she thinks like this having seen her in action at an AGM a few years ago. The way the club communicates with the fanbase is dire at best. Perhaps they don’t need our season ticket money anymore?
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Hi Gary
Are we seeing a Roeder team being built on Freebies and loans all we need is Wagner to repeat an outburst about it being his team for it all to really turn bad.
Knapper sounded like he was reading the Webber script from 2017 with just a couple of minor changes.
As Canarylad says nothing will change until D&M depart stage left, Attanasio won’t let her get hands on his valuables any time soon.
Let’s hope the Norfolk Group are trying to whittle her stubbornness down to give them more control but even then I’m not expecting a vast change in the clubs financial fortunes.
Has BK got a list of potential replacement if he axes Wagner or will it be from the fringe with a temporary Narcis Pelach taking control but the big concern is the January recruitment, let’s hope for some unexpected good news.
OTBC
While Rowe will be a big miss I don’t go along with that we’re missing Barnes getting a good pay day for doing very little from what ive seen apart from winding up refs mind you he’s not alone ;
Hi Kev
Barnes has never been a high scorer fir any club.
It’s his nuance to the opposite defence and hold up play bringing others into the game but especially his dirty tricks that’s missed for me, city are too nice to play against and our midfielders are a sift touch especially McLean who loses more possession than Gibson.
Hi mate unfortunately he done none of that in the three games i saw before his injury almost nil contributions thought he wasn’t interested.
Five weeks and ten games starting next Saturday.
Let’s hope we get a new manager bounce from a new sporting director.
If not I fear the natives will get restless.
The assessment of Jon Rowe’s ankle becomes important for the team’s balance. Barnes Sargent and Sorenson can’t be back in contention for starts soon enough for me.
Borja Sainz , an odd one , great fanfare when he arrived, a niggle, and now on the bench but not on the pitch apart from a couple of cameos. Overhyped or underutilised.?.
Pretty accurate if rather depressing summation of the state of affairs.
Wagners rather indiscreet release of the cat from the bag viz a viz aunties phone call served to up the ante.
Whether or not it was done with delias blessing is a moot point, I suspect it was and was delivered in her familiar fan baiting style.
Adams as befitting his role as a delia favourite toed the party line. His assertion that the club is looking at more than results is an insult to the intelligence. The results are appalling and wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere else.
Regarding Knapper, I was slightly uneasy when he was announced and nothing I’ve seen since has changed that opinion. Young enough to be malleable and molded to the “norwich way” and grateful enough to be handed his first big job not to rock the boat.
We move on to qpr on Saturday and what has become a must win game. With the smiths, Adams and apparently knapper all aligning themselves heavily with one of tge worst lerforming city managers in city history a defeat would be interesting to say the least.
Forget this nonsense about bec0ming another watford. Simply because we sacked a poor manager last season doesn’t make it wrong to sack another complete failure of a manager now. Failure cannot be tolerated, there has to be some minimum standard or we will become a laughing stock.
I suspect the reasons for not relieving wagner of his duties are purely financial and nothing to do with sport. Par fpr the course.
Wagner may well have had phone calls with Knapper, and from Delia and Michael, giving him their backing. But that’s just the headline that’s fed to us. I have little doubt that there will have been far more in-depth discussions and a clear message that for such backing to continue is, as always, dependent upon much improved performances.
I’m certainly not buying in to ideas that our season is already over – that hasn’t been said in this article, but many have said so elsewhere. If I remember correctly Alex Neil was only recruited after we had been beaten by Preston, then in League One, in the FA Cup in January. And we were promoted in the play-offs (as were Preston) 4 months later with the same squad that previously looked pretty ordinary.
As for spending money, there have been plenty of Championship teams promoted without spending a lot, including ourselves. Of course, the issue then is having a squad capable of staying up, but let’s tackle one problem at a time..
As for Rowe, we obviously await news, but I’ve commented before about the large number of injuries that these young breakthrough players seem to collect when faced with the rigour of the Championship twice a week. I wonder if it’s one reason we haven’t gone for a Ramsey or Marquinos type loan signing this year so far (Hwang isn’t quite the same circumstances). We’ve had a lot of loanees over the years who’ve promptly got injured and never produced their best, including one H Kane a while back.