Norwich City

[rodders0223]

Going well.

[Naaaaarch]

Yeah.

The question when Josh Sargent got injured was can Wagner find a way to stay competitive without him. I think 1 win in 8 is the answer to that. Still take him over Deano though.

We added a bunch of experience to the squad in order to avoid this type of mental breakdown but it's obviously not worked. At least we have the likes of Sara, Rowe and Sargent to pay off that Stuart Webber failure. 

Oh well, big changes on the horizon at the top of the club with a new sporting director coming in next month and the American owners will be majority shareholders soon (I'm sure Delia and MWJ will find a way to linger a couple more years).

 

[VillaChris]

I keep on thinking Idah's going to explode and get 20 goals one season, is he one of those Kienan Davis type's who's permanently injured?

[Naaaaarch]

Idah's one of those players that has all the physical attributes but can't put it together with the mental side of the game. He's always a few seconds behind where he needs to be. 

Our big failure with him is probably not loaning him out to a club where he can be the lead striker for a season earlier in his career. He's never really had a significant run of games here.

He's also had a few injuries along the way that have scuppered any momentum and confidence.

Could certainly see him being a late bloomer, probably once we've given up on him. A good recent example of that would be Carlton Morris. 20+ in the Champs last year and already a few this season.

[Mark Albrighton]

An October to forget for the canaries I think it’s fair to say.

At least their local rivals are famously rubbish, Norwich can take some enjoyment in their poor form.

[Naaaaarch]

It's been about 3 years to forget.

 

 

[Demitri_C]

For them it must be so disheartening seeing ipswich overtake them so quickly

[Naaaaarch]

Town's current success is certainly rubbing salt into the wounds. Frustratingly a lot of the things they've been getting right off the pitch are things we stopped doing about 3 years ago. Safe to say they aren't spending £3m on a 30 year old who's never played out of the Swiss league and only got the move because he was with the manager at a previous club. 

That reset on our horizon can't come soon enough.

[villan95]

Not convinced by David Wagner

[DCJonah]

Should have let Deano build the right culture at the club. 

[VillaChris]

49 minutes ago, Naaaaarch said:

Town's current success is certainly rubbing salt into the wounds. Frustratingly a lot of the things they've been getting right off the pitch are things we stopped doing about 3 years ago. Safe to say they aren't spending £3m on a 30 year old who's never played out of the Swiss league and only got the move because he was with the manager at a previous club. 

That reset on our horizon can't come soon enough.

Have you got a new sporting director yet or is Stuart Webber still conducting interviews claiming the league table is only a small part of things?

Norwich 11 put out today looks nothing special, just a collection of failed prem players like Duffy, Gibson, Mclean and Adam Foreshaw who are just too old now to be motivated again at championship level.

It feels a little similar to when you came down from prem in 2005 and didn't bounce back straight away and then slid down the table and got relegated in 2009. Was with a Norwich fan at Uni at the time who was filling me in on the terrible signings Glenn Roeder was making on a weekly basis. 

Getting in Lambert when you did really did save you and incredible you then got back in the prem so quickly and had your yo yo fun for a decade.

 

[Naaaaarch]

6 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Have you got a new sporting director yet or is Stuart Webber still conducting interviews claiming the league table is only a small part of things?

Norwich 11 put out today looks nothing special, just a collection of failed prem players like Duffy, Gibson, Mclean and Adam Foreshaw who are just too old now to be motivated again at championship level.

It feels a little similar to when you came down from prem in 2005 and didn't bounce back straight away and then slid down the table and got relegated in 2009. Was with a Norwich fan at Uni at the time who was filling me in on the terrible signings Glenn Roeder was making on a weekly basis. 

Getting in Lambert when you did really did save you and incredible you then got back in the prem so quickly and had your yo yo fun for a decade.

 

We've got a new sporting director lined up but he doesn't start officially until the end of next month. He's a guy who's been at Arsenal across various roles for the last 13 years and has a strong background in the statistics side of the game. His appointment is one of the few things the club have done recently that actually does make a lot of sense. Power at the top of the club is also (slowly) shifting from Delia and MWJ to the new American owners. Mark Attanasio made his money running an asset management company and is the owner of a MLB team so I'm sure you can see why this appointment makes sense.

I wouldn't say it feels like the post Worthington era quite yet but there is certainly a sense of deja vu about the club right now. Ironically it's feeling very similar to the club that Stuart Webber inherited back in the summer of 2017. A squad full of aging Championship pros with big contracts and recent experience at not being good enough for the Premier League. That second Premier League transfer window where he wasted significant money (Rashica, Tzolis, Gibson, Normann, Kabak, Gilmour ect) has seemingly scarred him and he's been chasing his losses ever since. That second relegation is absolutely the point where we should have parted company with Webber and that isn't even a case of hindsight being 20/20. 

The Roeder era was something else entirely. He'd shove a club icon like Darren Huckerby out the back door and then bring in 15 useless loanees from the Premier League over the course of one season. In terms of attitude around the club he actually felt a lot like Dean Smith (not something people on here will believe, I'm sure). Obviously Roeder was nastier about it but they both very clearly gave of a feeling of being too big for the club and not really wanting to be here. Of course Roeder had just been managing West Ham and Newcastle and Smith has just left your lot. I've been watching since the Worthington era  and Hughton is the only successful(ish) 'name' manager we've had. Obviously Lambert was a name but that was only as a player. 

We are really in a weird transitional period right now at pretty much every level of the club.

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Naaaaarch

[delboy54]

I always lookout for the Norwich score, did my apprenticeship in the 1970's up in Lowestoft and went to quite a few Norwich games during my time there.

Certainly easier than trying to get from Lowestoft to VP !

Cannot stand Ipswich though despite living 45 mins away from there, never forgiven their fans singing about the IRA just after the pub bombings in Brum.....different times I guess, thankfully.

But I still don't like Ipswich

[rodders0223]

Question. Are Norwich the number 1 club for blaming and abusing loan players?

 

Brandon Williams on Instagram

https://www.reddit.com/r/Championship/s/J

[Naaaaarch]

Ahhh Brandon Williams. He got some stick after a game at West Ham and then went home and gave some back on instagram in the form of posting a picture of his middle finger. Then went into full damage control afterwards posting a picture of his dog and implying that people followed him home and that's what the middle finger was about. I don't think people followed him from London to his Suffolk home and if they did I would have thought he'd be going to the police and not Instagram.

A majority of Norwich fans actually liked WIlliams, he was one of the few that showed some passion on the pitch that season. There's even a slightly cringe enduing image of some Norwich fans with a 'Please stay, Brandon' banner.

Could some weirdo have followed him home? Sure. is it more likely that a man that would wear his own initials on a chain is just a bit of a w? I think so.

 

[Dodgyknees]

53 minutes ago, Naaaaarch said:

Ahhh Brandon Williams. He got some stick after a game at West Ham and then went home and gave some back on instagram in the form of posting a picture of his middle finger. Then went into full damage control afterwards posting a picture of his dog and implying that people followed him home and that's what the middle finger was about. I don't think people followed him from London to his Suffolk home and if they did I would have thought he'd be going to the police and not Instagram.

A majority of Norwich fans actually liked WIlliams, he was one of the few that showed some passion on the pitch that season. There's even a slightly cringe enduing image of some Norwich fans with a 'Please stay, Brandon' banner.

Could some weirdo have followed him home? Sure. is it more likely that a man that would wear his own initials on a chain is just a bit of a w? I think so.

 

He should have just sat on his phone and sent a photo of an expensive car.

[Zatman]

6 hours ago, Naaaaarch said:

Ahhh Brandon Williams. He got some stick after a game at West Ham and then went home and gave some back on instagram in the form of posting a picture of his middle finger. Then went into full damage control afterwards posting a picture of his dog and implying that people followed him home and that's what the middle finger was about. I don't think people followed him from London to his Suffolk home and if they did I would have thought he'd be going to the police and not Instagram.

A majority of Norwich fans actually liked WIlliams, he was one of the few that showed some passion on the pitch that season. There's even a slightly cringe enduing image of some Norwich fans with a 'Please stay, Brandon' banner.

Could some weirdo have followed him home? Sure. is it more likely that a man that would wear his own initials on a chain is just a bit of a w? I think so.

 

I remember Norwich fans giving Aaron Ramsey stick for being a Villa youth product so was called Deans son

Both turned up in the Premier League more recently than Norwich

[Naaaaarch]

He got that for a couple of weeks from a few vocal ones on the internet but it was obvious within a few weeks that he was a decent little player. 

Most of the nastiness towards him was after his departure and whilst I don't agree with it you can't say it didn't look suspicious.

The loan is cancelled just after Smith leaves based on the fact he's going to be out injured for months. He'd have gone home to Villa to get his injury tested. He turns up at a Boro, a club with another former Villa staffer, less than a month later. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but if I was Villa i'd 100% have overstated that injury to get him out to club in less of a mess than our own.

Will probably be a long and painful and long race to the Premier League  if we were to go head to head with Deano now. We're almost certainly going to need a big rebuild and Smith is not going to get a side that's anywhere near challenging. 

I'm somewhat surprised at how cheaply you let Ramsey go for, although I guess it's hard to turn down £15m if you don't see him in your team any time soon. He had a really good natural ability to find space and he was  excellent at using his body to maneuvering away from people/win fouls. He was fairly bright and efficient when it came to using the ball and still has time to grow out physically. Another season in the Championship is probably what I'd have given him, hell I'd take him on loan from Burnley in January. Build some bridges, heal the world.

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Naaaaarch

[Zatman]

35 minutes ago, Naaaaarch said:

He got that for a couple of weeks from a few vocal ones on the internet but it was obvious within a few weeks that he was a decent little player. 

Most of the nastiness towards him was after his departure and whilst I don't agree with it you can't say it didn't look suspicious.

The loan is cancelled just after Smith leaves based on the fact he's going to be out injured for months. He'd have gone home to Villa to get his injury tested. He turns up at a Boro, a club with another former Villa staffer, less than a month later. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but if I was Villa i'd 100% have overstated that injury to get him out to club in less of a mess than our own.

Will probably be a long and painful and long race to the Premier League  if we were to go head to head with Deano now. We're almost certainly going to need a big rebuild and Smith is not going to get a side that's anywhere near challenging. 

I'm somewhat surprised at how cheaply you let Ramsey go for, although I guess it's hard to turn down £15m if you don't see him in your team any time soon. He had a really good natural ability to find space and he was  excellent at using his body to maneuvering away from people/win fouls. He was fairly bright and efficient when it came to using the ball and still has time to grow out physically. Another season in the Championship is probably what I'd have given him, hell I'd take him on loan from Burnley in January. Build some bridges, heal the world.

 

Thats not true though. Was either yourself or another Norwich fan on here fuming about Ramsey and him being Deams son and that Smith didnt appreciate Cantwell

[Naaaaarch]

Probably somebody else or you're thinking of weirdos on twitter. I've seen more Villa fans referencing Norwich fans making comments like that than Norwich fans actually making the comments. Of course I've seen far worse comments from Norwich fans in regards to Ramsey but that was only after it went full panto after he left.

Smith 'not appreciating' players like Cantwell certainly sounds like something straight off a Fifa playing teenager's twitter account. There absolutely was hope (but not expectation) that the Dean Smith man management we'd heard so much would be able to drag Cantwell back up to the levels he was at previously. It was obvious from pretty early on that it was not going to be like that though.

95% of my personal frustration with Smith was team selection in that front 4, I must admit. I get that he wanted to make us more physical but when your physical options on the wings are Hernandez (awful) and Sargent (really not a winger) it just didn't make sense. Especially when his preferred striking option was Teemu Pukki, a player in need of a very specific type of service.  If he'd been willing to adapt for a season I think there's a good chance he'd still be here now. Similarly if Pukki was sold replaced with an actual decent physical wing option.