In my time covering the Norwich City academy, Alex Matos has always been portrayed as one of its top talents. This was also the case at Luton Town where he always played with older age groups prior to joining Norwich. But not only was he seen as one of City’s brightest prospects, England thought highly […]
Column
No white smoke yet on the new share issue, so the void is filled with conjecture
Football supporters love nothing more than a good conspiracy theory. Or even a bad one. Our sport is fertile ground for rumour and conjecture. At Norwich City, we’re no different. We can do conspiracy theories along with the best of them. Remember the mother of them all? The one where Dean Ashton mysteriously picked up […]
Norwich City Fans: Entitled to expect more from their club? Or just entitled?
Our club is exactly where it was nearly 60 years ago when I started supporting it – mid-table in the second tier. But then Ron Saunders was appointed as manager in the summer of 1969 and everything changed. We had never been in the top league in our history and the resulting promotion in 1972 […]
Wonderful, horrible, uplifting, gut-wrenching – the world of the Championship
Football people – not least we fans – are notoriously poor at learning from history. But there’s one mistake I’m determined not to repeat. At this point of previous Championship seasons, with City still having a prize to play for, I decided it would help to predict the final outcome if I listed our and […]
So many unanswered questions right now for City fans (and others)…
The fourth international break of the season is with us and, as ever, fans all over the country will have different hopes of what the period will bring for their clubs and equally for their personal supporting aspirations. Burnley fans might well use the fortnight to add some new apparel to their collection, or in […]
In an already surreal season, yesterday we entered the realm of a Mike Bassett fantasy
I need to be careful how I word this. I (and some of my MFW brethren) have been accused in the last week of being overly focused on City winning, of having unrealistically lofty expectations for the Club, and of being professional miserabilists. So…… On second thoughts, if you’re one of those people, look away […]
MATCH REPORT: STOKE 0, CITY 0
Today’s report begins with a bit of Paddy Ashdown-style hat-eating. The most promising news out of Carrow Road this week was that, despite my prediction at the end of my last report, Marquinhos had had his red card overturned and was available for the Stoke game. Given his less-than-stellar performance against Huddersfield, you can see […]
CITY v STOKE (A) – THE PREVIEW
With nine games to go in this ever-interesting Championship season, it feels like City are truly in must-win territory now if they are to give themselves even the slightest chance of finishing in the playoffs. David Wagner will take his men to the Bet365 Stadium to face Alex Neil’s Stoke City off the back of […]
ACADEMY: From 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-1-2, the Under-18s are taking a different path
The general assumption about academy football is that it’s a stepping stone to the first team, and so ideas and philosophies within the club are all connected. However, the 4-3-1-2 formation used by the Under-18s has absolutely no correlation to how the first team plays. So why is it frequently used? Despite this season containing […]
Remember those new shares? When should we expect the white smoke?
Our older readers will know exactly what a B Movie was/is. It has now gained the title of “straight to video” and both are appropriate articulations of a cheap film with a virtually unknown cast, no penny knowingly overspent on scenery and “on location” entailing a short trip to Martha’s Vineyard or Brighton beach depending […]
A new low in a season that’s been jammed-packed full of them…
Just when you thought this lot had exhausted every possible way to lose a game of football… Last night they achieved what the entire Universe assumed to be impossible: conceding a goal after having limited your opponents to zero shots on target. It’s a statistical quirk of course – Martyn Waghorn’s shot that hit the […]
MATCH REPORT – HUDDERSFIELD 1, CITY 1
It was a night for reunions at the John Smith’s Stadium. David Wagner and Stuart Webber returned to the club that established their names and reputations, while Jordan Rhodes and Waghorn (Martyn not Rick) both played south of the border, each remembered by City fans for very different reasons. And of course, there was Colin […]
Sunday was the step back. Can Warnock’s boys stop us taking the next one forward?
Well, having endured the one step back that this squad Ioves to provide, we can probably expect the two steps forward that they also enjoy teasing us with. Huddersfield are an absolute mess at the moment. With a transfer embargo, potential administration, and Neil Warnock having put down his jigsaws and Werthers Originals to try […]
CITY vs HUDDERSFIELD (A) – THE PREVIEW
City will be looking to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to Sunderland at Carrow Road as they are hosted by relegation-fighting Huddersfield Town tomorrow night. Both sides come into this game with a 1-0 loss in their last fixtures – Neil Warnock’s side falling to defeat against West Brom at The Hawthorns. The last […]
Credit due to the Black Cats? Or a display lacking in fortitude and guile?
It’s a fine old line to tread. The difficult one of deciding whether to give credit where it is due to a pretty average side – and promotion rival, in this craziest of EFL seasons – for doing a job on us, or to charge in with all available weaponry and rip our own side […]
The Not-So-Friendly Cup heads north as City serve up 98 minutes of stodge
Classic Norwich City. Classic Championship. Following last Saturday’s gritty win at a place few dare to tread, which made it three wins on the spin, we all fell into that same old trap – getting giddy with belief. We started to dream. Big mistake. Always is. Because… BANG! In a flash (or the space of […]
Sunday’s the day to remember the good times…
I should have been anticipating the footballing trip of a lifetime but I’d picked up a free Eastern Evening News and was instead distracted by the front page headline. It never dawned on me at the time but those four words would have major repercussions for our football club. You could argue they have lasted […]
CITY v SUNDERLAND (H) – THE PREVIEW
As ever when Canaries and Black Cats meet, it’s to my old mate from the brilliant Wise Men Say podcast that I turn, Stephen Goldsmith. We managed to have a whole conversation without mentioning the Friendly Cup – which was a first. *** G. When we last spoke, in August, you’d made a decent start […]
WE MEET AGAIN… SUNDERLAND
Next up, on Sunday, it’s a footballing giant with six top-flight titles and a couple of FA Cups in the bag. So famous they even had their own Netflix documentary. Yes, a club we have a deep-rooted and unusual friendship with – Sunderland AFC. There’s only one place to start when talking Norwich and Sunderland. […]
Wellington’s Redcoats … a goal of the season? … and some set-piece heaven!
I am starting to take this David Wagner geezer just a little bit seriously. Since arriving in early January his record stands at: Played 9: Won 6: Drawn 1: Lost 2: Goals for 19: Goals against 10: GD +9: Points 19. But that record is not the only reason I am ever-warming to our new […]