With the Championship trophy sitting pride of place on the Carrow Road mantelpiece, Stuart Webber has embarked upon another challenging offseason, reshaping Daniel Farke’s squad once more. Unlike previous years, he actually has something of a “war chest” this time, mainly thanks to the club-record sale of Emi Buendia, albeit some of this has already […]
Headteacher’s Report: Andy H delivers his 2020-21 end-of-term appraisal
We watched with tremendous pride from afar as Herr Farke’s class represented us with the intelligence, creativity and courage which has become their trademark. Another successful year means we will once again be facing our Oxbridge-level counterparts next term, but we will do so full of confidence and steadfast in our resolve to keep improving […]
READING PREVIEW: By 5:00 pm tomorrow, will City be ‘Championes’ once more?
Okay, I confess. If Watford hadn’t won on Saturday, this would have been about half a paragraph long because we’d have had the title and Reading are out of playoff contention so both teams would be on the beach. Yarmouth admittedly, but the beach nonetheless. But bloody Sarr had to go and score didn’t he? […]
TERRIERS PREVIEW: Plodders… water carriers… and Frazier Campbell worldies
A Tuesday night at home, under the floodlights, with promotion inching closer. How good would it be to have Carrow Road packed to the rafters for this one? Sadly, we’re still a few months away from such lofty ambitions of normality, but as the potential for such activities gets closer and closer, so does the […]
LUTON PREVIEW: Buoyant Hatters at the Carra, after two big wins on the spin
So once more, I’ve drawn the lucky straw and got the preview for the same team I did earlier in the season. If you want to know how that went, I’m sure Mr Gowers will be kind enough to insert a link here. Having read it back, I wasn’t far off. Luton, coming off a […]
COVENTRY PREVIEW: Ball-playing Scots… lumpy loanees… & that nice Mr Robins
This could have been a very different task on paper had Norwich not done a professional demolition job against Stoke on Saturday. Despite throwing opportunities at the opposition, having a week of uninterrupted preparation allowed the instinctive passing, movement and creativity to flow in the final third in a way that had been absent in […]
CARDIFF PREVIEW: Moore to step into the Bluebirds’ Big Sean Morrison™ breach?
Alright, I can save us all a lot of time on this one. If Mr Gowers would be so kind as to <INSERT LINK HERE> you can see my Cardiff preview from when we played the home fixture less than a month ago. You’re welcome. [nice try, Andy – Ed] What you want more?… Jeez… […]
Headteacher’s Report: Andy H delivers his half-way appraisal of the Class of 2021
As the famous composer B. Jovi. once said, “Wooooooohhhh, we’re halfway there”. Herr Farke’s class were very low on confidence after a difficult last year, but they have done us all proud with a sparkling return to the results we always knew they were capable of. We all hope they can continue in this vein […]
CARDIFF PREVIEW: Beware the kick up the backside. The Bluebirds are on the rise
Having just watched us reinforce our place at the top of the Championship table by beating a decent Reading side without really getting out of second gear, it’s difficult not to get a little carried away by dreams of promotion and thinking about how great the football will be at Carrow Road on Saturday. So […]
LUTON PREVIEW: Buendia… Hogmanay… Priti Patel… knife-throwers… & Mr Jones
Wednesday sees our beloved Bundesliga boss lead his bedraggled, battle-weary B-Team to Bedfordshire for a battle against Luton’s basement-bothering boverachiever’s. Okay, I overreached on the alliteration at the end, but there is one key B that will be in our favour at Kenilworth Road: Buendia. While City somehow managed to give a pleasing facsimile of […]
BRIZZLE PREVIEW: Kidney stones… 3-5-2s… Chris Martins… and dodgy defences
I’ve just finished watching Bournemouth 1 Bristol City 0 on Wednesday night on the red button in preparation for this preview. Never let it be said that I won’t suffer for you all. I had a kidney stone a couple of years ago, and on balance I had more fun sweating in fear and pain […]
DERBY PREVIEW: Trouble at t’mill and restless fans aplenty in both camps
I’m not usually a fan of previews. They all seem a bit formulaic. You take the one main talking point of the moment and bang on about it, whilst giving a cursory nod to the opposition and their form. Not much to write about. Not usually much fun to read. But this one might be […]
Webber’s given us a great shot at this league. But will that Lady Luck play ball?
As we prepare to launch into a new season there are a couple of topics I considered writing about for MFW. I thought I’d try and condense them into two mini-rambles instead. Topic One – Is this the season nobody sees live? The current plans are that the club will look to try and get […]
“Operation Restart Part 2” – But what will City’s squad look like when it’s KO time?
2020-21 will be better. If for no other reason than it isn’t 2019-20. We’ve had a season of brutal kickings and now that we’ve had a chance to lick our wounds, we have to roll up out of the dirt, dust ourselves off, and come up swinging. Easier said than done after ten dismal defeats […]
Headteacher’s Report: Andy H delivers his 2019/20 end-of-term appraisal
To coin a phrase, “Whoops”. Unfortunately, the school has experienced the most traumatic year. An Annus Horribilis as terrifying as that of former Chair of Governors Chase, that none of us who have experienced it will ever forget. Mr Webber and the Board of Governors chose to use this year’s bursary on improving the school […]
Each game an arduous torture, another reminder of what might have been
As a Norwich fan, you become hardened to disappointment but I think this season has to be up there as one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had over the years. Coming up we were magic. Unstoppable and unplayable. We had a manager who had embedded a style that was aesthetically sumptuous, and a Sporting Director […]
Where do we go in the short-term? Is there a temporary fix that can make us better?
The reports from Colney pre-Southampton were that the players were confident and that Farke was unusually bullish about his side’s chances of hitting the ground running after the enforced season hiatus. For 20 minutes, this looked well-founded. The Canaries looked sharp, and they were dominating possession. Obviously, there was some rust and we gave away […]
Be friends to our players (and each other). Lift them up. They’ll take us with them
We’ve just experienced the Caroline Flack weekend. Whatever you thought of her or her situation I think it’s safe to say we all had a “Seriously?” moment when we heard the news. She was a figure that most of us recognised from TV over the past 10 or 15 years, and despite all her recent […]
Headteacher’s Report: Andy H delivers his pupil-by-pupil half-term appraisal
After the excitement of the last school year and our incredible results, we have been given full academy status and are now competing with the best schools around the country. Our funding remains at a very modest level and so we are finding it difficult to meet the outstanding scores we achieved previously. Any donations […]
This is not prudence over ambition. This is all about believing in this group of players
With preparations for a season in the top-flight well underway – the 5-1 win at Luton confirmed this – it’s time to consider where we set the bar for Daniel Farke’s squad of freshly-minted Champions. A traditional approach for any promoted side is to target 17th and hope we overachieve and with the vast disparity […]