Popular Post Naaaaarch Posted December 29, 2022 Visiting Supporter Popular Post Share Posted December 29, 2022 It was an appointment that made a lot of sense on paper. We're somewhere in-between the projects he had at Brentford and Villa and we needed parts of what he brought to both of those. In the end nothing worked out, nothing improved and this will go down as a wasted year at NCFC and for Smith (massive bag of cash aside). He didn't even seem to be that popular in the dressing room which is one of the things I thought was guaranteed with Smith. A few players he directly managed as well as about half of the development side 'liked' the news that he'd been sacked on social media. I'm guessing they weren't celebrating his time in charge. I think it's safe to say we're going to see a significant bump in enthusiasm on the pitch tomorrow night. His relationship with fans here was always strained before turning outright weird at the end. If you met him in the Sainsbury's car park or one of those meet and greet events they put on for the kids then you'd have nothing but a lovely interaction with the guy. However when it came to football he and the Norwich fans just never clicked. He never really tried to cultivate anything with the fans with fans, he seemingly didn't believe in the simple stuff like thanking away fans for traveling and so on. More than that though I think it was incessant quoting of stats when questioned on bad performances - 'We might have just lost our 4th game in 5 but look at how many times we inserted ourselves into the opposition half'. Yeah, okay Dean. His press after the last couple of games was pretty extraordinary. The comments about a narrative being against him and fans taking joy in bad results was nuts. He mentioned people doing it for likes and follows which could have made sense if thousands of fans in the stadium weren't letting him know how they felt. Respect that he doubled down on it though in one of the later press sections though, I think he wanted New Years off. Not sure if any of you saw it but the last thing he said to our press was along the lines of 'things haven't gone well, I'm the villain'. I thought it was a pretty poetic end even if he didn't mean it that way. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post maqroll Posted December 30, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted December 30, 2022 I think Dean was really hurt by the Villa sacking and he jumped to Norwich more out of spite against Villa and less about actually wanting to manage Norwich. I thought at the time that it seemed odd and that he should've taken the rest of the season off and had his choice of multiple jobs in the summer. Now his stock is tumbling and he may find it harder to get a high profile job now. I hope he takes time off now and starts afresh in the summer or beyond. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tayls Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 1 hour ago, maqroll said: I think Dean was really hurt by the Villa sacking and he jumped to Norwich more out of spite against Villa and less about actually wanting to manage Norwich. I thought at the time that it seemed odd and that he should've taken the rest of the season off and had his choice of multiple jobs in the summer. Now his stock is tumbling and he may find it harder to get a high profile job now. I hope he takes time off now and starts afresh in the summer or beyond. I don’t think he’ll be too short of offers from the championship. His team were still fifth when he was dismissed from his role and his achievements with us are there for all to see. My concern is that he will stick with Shakespeare as his number 2, because I don’t think that works particularly well. For me that is when the wheels started to fall off when in charge of us. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted December 30, 2022 Author Share Posted December 30, 2022 10 hours ago, Naaaaarch said: It was an appointment that made a lot of sense on paper. We're somewhere in-between the projects he had at Brentford and Villa and we needed parts of what he brought to both of those. In the end nothing worked out, nothing improved and this will go down as a wasted year at NCFC and for Smith (massive bag of cash aside). He didn't even seem to be that popular in the dressing room which is one of the things I thought was guaranteed with Smith. A few players he directly managed as well as about half of the development side 'liked' the news that he'd been sacked on social media. I'm guessing they weren't celebrating his time in charge. I think it's safe to say we're going to see a significant bump in enthusiasm on the pitch tomorrow night. His relationship with fans here was always strained before turning outright weird at the end. If you met him in the Sainsbury's car park or one of those meet and greet events they put on for the kids then you'd have nothing but a lovely interaction with the guy. However when it came to football he and the Norwich fans just never clicked. He never really tried to cultivate anything with the fans with fans, he seemingly didn't believe in the simple stuff like thanking away fans for traveling and so on. More than that though I think it was incessant quoting of stats when questioned on bad performances - 'We might have just lost our 4th game in 5 but look at how many times we inserted ourselves into the opposition half'. Yeah, okay Dean. His press after the last couple of games was pretty extraordinary. The comments about a narrative being against him and fans taking joy in bad results was nuts. He mentioned people doing it for likes and follows which could have made sense if thousands of fans in the stadium weren't letting him know how they felt. Respect that he doubled down on it though in one of the later press sections though, I think he wanted New Years off. Not sure if any of you saw it but the last thing he said to our press was along the lines of 'things haven't gone well, I'm the villain'. I thought it was a pretty poetic end even if he didn't mean it that way. Sounds like he is turning into steve bruce if thats what his final comments were. He needs to take a break learn from his mistakes and bounce back. He will im sure of that. He also needs to get himself a better back room team as him and Shakespeare have been disaster together 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 1 hour ago, Tayls said: I don’t think he’ll be too short of offers from the championship. His team were still fifth when he was dismissed from his role and his achievements with us are there for all to see. My concern is that he will stick with Shakespeare as his number 2, because I don’t think that works particularly well. For me that is when the wheels started to fall off when in charge of us. It’s funny isn’t it, because I think most of us are sceptical about Shakespeare, and yet our best season under Smith involved Shakespeare. But it’s clear that Shakespeare definitely prefers a more negative style, which only keeps fans happy if you win most weeks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 25 minutes ago, KentVillan said: It’s funny isn’t it, because I think most of us are sceptical about Shakespeare, and yet our best season under Smith involved Shakespeare. But it’s clear that Shakespeare definitely prefers a more negative style, which only keeps fans happy if you win most weeks. Shakespeare came in the season after we finished 11th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 18 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said: Shakespeare came in the season after we finished 11th Nope - joined us in August 2020. We finished 11th in the 2020/21 season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 12 minutes ago, KentVillan said: Nope - joined us in August 2020. We finished 11th in the 2020/21 season. Thought he was the ROK replacement but you’re right my bad. God we’ve had so many bloody coaches on that touchline its hard to keep up 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naaaaarch Posted December 30, 2022 Visiting Supporter Share Posted December 30, 2022 I think future employers will look at Smith's job here more through the lense of what his successor achieves than what he did/didn't. I don't think the 'we were 5th' line holds much water when we dropped to 10th last night without playing and are closer to the bottom than the top when it comes to points. If the next manager fails too then it's easier to write of as were this season's basket case, akin to last season's WBA. That being said he's an English manager with a mostly positive track record, he'll not struggle to get a new job. I assume it'll be an upwardly mobile Championship club. It will have been a learning experience though that's for sure, one that most managers face much earlier in their careers. He also wouldn't be the first manager to be surprised at how intense the Norwich job can be. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 3 hours ago, Naaaaarch said: I think future employers will look at Smith's job here more through the lense of what his successor achieves than what he did/didn't. I don't think the 'we were 5th' line holds much water when we dropped to 10th last night without playing and are closer to the bottom than the top when it comes to points. If the next manager fails too then it's easier to write of as were this season's basket case, akin to last season's WBA. That being said he's an English manager with a mostly positive track record, he'll not struggle to get a new job. I assume it'll be an upwardly mobile Championship club. It will have been a learning experience though that's for sure, one that most managers face much earlier in their careers. He also wouldn't be the first manager to be surprised at how intense the Norwich job can be. The Norwich job is no where near as intense as Villa. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Condimentalist Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 Was a poor move for him to go to Norwich a week after being sacked here. Felt like an emotional rather than a rational decision. It's like getting dumped by the love of your life and instead of processing it, getting a random bird pregnant on the rebound and trying to style it out even though she's obviously a poor comparison. He clearly wasn't as good for Norwich as he was for us and I hope he takes some time now to reflect on the past few years, do some other things, spend time with his family, and come back when he's ready. I truly believe he's a top bloke and a top manager but he needs to look after himself and recharge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 37 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said: The Norwich job is no where near as intense as Villa. In general, you’re right, but I think the specific situation Smith found himself in at Norwich was tough. At Villa, he was always able to rely on the goodwill of most of the fanbase, even when results and performances were shaky. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 1 hour ago, mikeyp102 said: The Norwich job is no where near as intense as Villa. I dunno, both come with unrealistic expectations, could also argue that villa give their managers more tools to do their job well too Norwich are more of a nothing team imo, they come across as not really trying to me, especially in terms of PL survival, they set themselves up to fail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villatillidie95 Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 I think with Norwich they need to get rid of Delia Smith as owner, the fans should put pressure on the owner to sell up, the days of local ownership of premier league teams is over these days, if she can't get the team to be competitive via paying PL wages then they will keep repeating the yo-yo process of promotion followed by immediate relegation. Elton John sold watford, Alan sugar sold Spurs etc, someone with greater spending power would be interested in taking on Norwich, maybe not NSWE wealthy but atm they do not help themselves with the ownership setup. As far as Smith is concerned, I did think he would do better there, they are quite far off automatic promotion which they should not be with the squad. Its true smith is wedded to his formations too, however I don't think he will have trouble getting another job. He should go back to how he played at Brentford becuase they were so good there before he got the villa job, since he came to us and then norwich we never saw that style, it was more pragmatic and clunky, however did serve its purpose and helped get us promoted. That type of play wont get you automatic promotion though which is where i think it has cost him in this instance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naaaaarch Posted December 30, 2022 Visiting Supporter Share Posted December 30, 2022 3 hours ago, mikeyp102 said: The Norwich job is no where near as intense as Villa. My point was that the Norwich job catches managers off guard. Most will naturally go into it with preconceived ideas about the club and the area. They think of the plucky underdog sides in the 80s and 90s, the nice celebrity chef owner, decent if not a tad soft football and probably long away trips without a motorway. What they don't consider is that Norfolk is a 1 club county of a decent sized population and not a huge amount else to do. It's very much a fishbowl type scenario here. There are certainly far bigger clubs than Norwich where that isn't the case. That's not even taking into consideration expectation levels which obviously isn't always a part of the equation but it at the moment. 37 minutes ago, Villatillidie95 said: I think with Norwich they need to get rid of Delia Smith as owner, the fans should put pressure on the owner to sell up, the days of local ownership of premier league teams is over these days, if she can't get the team to be competitive via paying PL wages then they will keep repeating the yo-yo process of promotion followed by immediate relegation. Elton John sold watford, Alan sugar sold Spurs etc, someone with greater spending power would be interested in taking on Norwich, maybe not NSWE wealthy but atm they do not help themselves with the ownership setup. Coincidentally moves are being made towards ownership changing hands here. We were recently bought into by an American businessman, a guy named Mark Attanasio, who owns the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. He and his family are clearly being groomed to take the reigns in the short/medium term. Delia and Michael Wynn-Jones have always been insistent that they wouldn't just sell to the highest bidder and would only pass it onto somebody with similar values. They've obviously seen the landscape of football ownership change first hand over the last 25 years and they clearly fear the thought of Norwich City FC becoming a soulless husk. Reading between the lines and looking at how they run their MLB side we aren't going to be signing superstars but when we do next promote we shouldn't be as hamstrung by our uncompetitive wage budget. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louis Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 I wonder where he'll go next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 It's like when you get divorced. The love or your life. Your one true love. Mother of your kids. You've experienced the highs of life and ticked all the boxes that there isn't much left to do in life. So you find a new partner and she's nice enough but she isn't your wife, she doesn't make you feel the way you did before, and she's fine but day after day week after week you start to hold it against her. You start to resent her. You blame her. You can't bear to look at the sight of her. Or something. I don't know. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 Winning the Norwich fans over always looked like a big ask because when they were promoted they played some fabulous football, but so did Fulham when they got promoted and the outcome in terms of Premier League survival was the the same. I thought Deano was experienced enough and pragmatic enough to produce a different and more sustainable outcome. The fans wanted jam today and jam tomorrow, and clubs often don't have the financial clout to achieve it. Norwich have taken a gamble to try and save their season, which you can't blame them for. Deano will get another job and enjoy his football elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 He needs a break and to have a think. Crushed to lose the Villa job and jumped on the first thing offered. Towards the end of the Norwich, even he didn't believe and that's always the death spiral. Would wait until the summer and see what offers come his way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 Needs to get himself on sky, good break for him and means we'll no longer be represented by gabby, Richards or even Lee hendrie Won't happen but I think he's got a good enough personality to do the Saturday show with Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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