https://theathletic.com/3284500/202...ion-from-the-premier-league/?source=twitteruk The Athletic's "where Norwich screwed up" article was always coming, but I'm surprised they didn't at least wait a couple of days to pretend they wrote it once relegation was confirmed... A few interesting points: A change in recruitment plans in the summer. An initial plan to have a small, competitive squad like Burnley went out the window because there were fears that Farke's training regime would lead to injuries. The club recognise now that 9 signings was too many, and fewer more pricey signings would have been smarter. Kabak arrived with no proper pre-season with Schalke, with the season already begun in England. Farke threw him straight in and he clearly wasn't up to speed. A fee was agreed early in the window for the DM Robert Andrich, his £60k p/w wages became a stumbling block (but were within our wage structure). He would have had a full pre-season in Norwich, unlike eventual replacement Normann. Andrich is now starring for Leverkusen as they push for top 3 in Germany. Every other signing was viewed as "a project". The Buendia sale was meant to finance a CB, a DM, and a forward, as per Farke's requests. Keiran Scott's departure meant we lost an experienced negotiator and had to rely on agents more, which cost us financially. Webber was stretched to cover Scott's role. Omobamidele and Idah impressed Smith/Shakespeare more than they originally expected, which brought them into the first team more than they had under Farke. The Covid-hit Villa game was an attempt to continue to build momentum from a positive performance vs Manchester United. Four players played with temperatures, although weren't Covid-positive before kickoff, one was sick in the changing rooms at half time. Byram was brought on to play DM because he told Smith he had experience there - he didn't. Smith knew there was no money for January when he signed. This was the result of the sponsorship furore in the summer. The extensions to Gilmour and Williams' loan agreements had kicked in before Smith joined, so it wasn't easy to ditch either and allow Smith to bring in another loan signing of his liking. Norwich did reach out to Christian Eriksen. Wages and a desire to play in London prevented it. Smith wants to change the culture at the club, to introduce more leadership, desire, and physicality. Rupp is expected to leave when his contract ends in the summer. Likely takeaways: Recruit fewer players going forwards, who are more ready for the league, and add physicality and a real desire to win, and push others to win. Two years ago we moved on quickly from first choice targets and got Plan B/C options in the building early. This year we held out too long for Plan A options, which cost them a pre-season, and that was expensive. We'd have done better to stretch the finances for Ajer and Andrich and got them in the building before pre-season, rather than pay marginally less (or at least delay payment) to get Kabal and Normann right at the end of the window, even if that meant for example we couldn't sign Tzolis.
The Buendia sale was meant to finance a CB, a DM, and a forward, as per Farke's requests. So Farke got none of the things he requested (unless we count Sargent as a forward, although with his scoring record I think that might be called artistic licence).
I guess Kabak, Normann and Sargent were the three incomings meant to match Farke's requests, but to me it feels like a failure of scouting/recruitment to end up signing Normann and thinking he's the DM. I know as a fanbase we hoped that's what we were getting, but it's not our job to identify players!
Did we really do any eye-tests before we made these signings? A cursory glance would have shown that Normann is not a DM, that Sargent is severely lacking in basic technique and ball skills, and that Kabak is an erratic and ill-disciplined CB (although I think he has talent and could do very well if he develops better judgement about when to stay back and when to bomb forward).
Gary Gowers verdict on our complete pig's ear of a season. https://norwichcity.myfootballwrite...-ask-the-usual-suspects-for-more-of-the-same/
Quite a few articles flooding out now that we're officially down. When will the club say anything, I wonder?
Sacking Farke looks like an error now we are down. I think that we would have been better placed with him. Having said that I don't want to slag off Smith. He did his best. It was just a bit of a panic appointment. We were probably going to go down anyway.
Webber is scheduled to do another long interview with The Times (Henry Winter) post-season. Given rumours that he's refusing to speak to local media, it'll be interesting if that's all we get. I think that Gary Gower's article is just a moan, short of ideas other than "sell up Delia". It asks how do we break the promotion/relegation cycle, but only offers "just don't get promoted", or a cowardly attempt to pin the blame on the owners by asking Delia and Michael to think about their plans for the club, but doesn't offer anything actually helpful. In terms of this season, obviously it's been an abject failure on the pitch, that's clear. And that stems from recruitment failures last summer, and a lack of a clear tactical plan under either manager. The first point may well feed the second, because I'm not sure there's a tactical plan on earth that would make this collection of players better than the some of their parts. Last summer's recruitment feels like someone read the first part of Moneyball where it talks about identifying undervalued players, and skipped the bit where you bring people in to do a certain job and build a cohesive team. But we actually did a lot right two summers ago, and we need to do the same and better this summer. We got signings right in the Championship, and the mood around the club reset quickly. We need to repeat that. Recruit hungry players desperate for success or to prove a point, and replace those who have reached the end of their cycle with the club. Those who have been with us for the last 4 seasons need to be up for a fight again, not scarred by past failures. There's a place for McLean, Krul, Hanley, Pukki, Zimmerman & Aarons, but only if they're in the right place mentally. Recruit to fit a clear gameplan for 22/23, and know in advance how you intend to evolve the plan and the personnel into future windows/seasons. Ignore the noise, but also avoid it being created in the first place. Gilmour being a prime example of a high profile addition who brought media attention and criticism. Off the pitch, we need to move into a new phase of our development as a club if we're going to punch above our weight. If the finances won't come from outside, we need to be doing everything we can to develop and sell players. Colney may now be at a good standard, but we need to move beyond that. We can't just settle for having a decent academy and decent training ground, our academy setup needs to push to mimic those of clubs far above our level, even if on a smaller scale. All of this will make us more attractive to a potential buyer too, hopefully. We also need to figure out how to make our loans more successful, and perhaps the U23's need some attention. The current squad can't compete at the level they're at, and any real talent in our organisation is going elsewhere because the level isn't competitive enough for them anyway. Brentford pulled their U23s out of the Youth Premier League system so they could instead play "invitational" matches vs competitive lower league sides, maybe that's a model to folow. Another suggestion for pushing club development off the pitch to another level would be to develop a network of teams working together to develop players. If Norwich won't be sold any time soon, then we need to be putting long term plans for success in place. Even if it takes 5 years for these plans to even start to look productive, the sooner we start the better. And if it even leads to one extra £30m player being develop by Norwich, it probably pays for itself. We should look to build both a local network to get players first team football in an environment where they can be supported easily from Colney ( and with Norwich aiding the development of the local footballing area) and also look at how we can strengthen our overseas recruitment/player development). King's Lynn have just been relegated and there are doubts as to whether they can afford players on full-time contracts next season, there are doubts over who manages the team, etc too. It's an ideal situation from a Norwich perspective, to capitalise and put a long term partnership in place. Norwich could step in and offer support with coaching and developing coaches. We could loan them 4 players who could go straight into their first team (we've done it before with Simon Power, Archie Mair, Alfie Payne, etc). Lynn have struggled for attendances, perhaps seeing the "NCFC Stars of tomorrow" would convince Norwich fans to watch them more. Norwich could assist players leaving our academy with a move to KL, helping transfer that NCFC culture, build the link, and those players will know that KL are being closely watched by Norwich so there could be a way back if they impress. It'd make Neil Adam's job easier if we have a pool of players in one place too! League One is a regular destination for NCFC talent to prove themselves, but recent loans haven't gone to plan. In an ideal world, we focus on working with Cambridge and figure out a mutually beneficial scenario where we ensure players are getting gametime there. Perhaps that's balancing the players loaned to them so there's a mix of "Josh Martin"-types who will need plenty of game time whilst underperforming to get him up to speed, and "Danel Sinani" type players who are probably good enough for a higher level and make a big difference on the pitch for them. Someone like Sinani, Famewo, Bushiri, etc who the club seem to have accepted won't have a long future with NCFC can be used to boost the development prospects for talents the club think can push on to a higher level. A team in Europe could act as both a "finishing school" for our homegrown players, and a development route to get youngsters from Europe eligible for UK visas. From a quick look at the immigration rules, a player at a Belgian Premier League team playing 50% of the first team's minutes will be eligible for a visa, regardless of how that team perform in the league/Europe, or the individual's international appearances. Looking at the likes of KAS Eupen and SV Zulte Waregem in the lower reaches of that league, their squads lack any serious talent, but are regularly playing the likes of Anderlecht, Genk and Brugge. To pick a random player, "Jens Cools" of KAS Eupen is a 31 year old DM who is out of contract this summer and has played his entire career in and around Belgium. Transfermarkt haven't considered him as being worth more than £500k in a decade. I know nothing about Mr Cools, but in theory he'd be eligible for a visa to join us this summer. The point isn't that we should sign 31 year old DMs from Belgium, but that that spot in that team/league could be occupied by young talents we've scouted from anywhere in Europe, or be filled by a loanee from Norwich's own academy, who can go out and get first team experience at a good level. Make that Cantwell-style loan a regular thing, and create a route so Soto-type signings can get work permits. If we want to work with Eupen's scouting network to help both teams, that could work too. Norwich seem to have a stronger idea of the Greek market, you could invisage a scenario where we're signing players like Tzolis directly to NCFC and loaning them to Eupen, but also helping Eupen sign Greek talents we've identified to their own system.
Given rumours that he's refusing to speak to local media, it'll be interesting if that's all we get. If he continues to refuse, he should be sacked. It's his job to communicate with the local media, not to throw hissy fits because his pride has been wounded. He needs to remember that he is an employee, not some god from on high who is doing us a favour by being here, especially after a season in which calling his contribution 'mixed' would be a huge compliment. It would also help if any interviews he does give are not full of pretentious, self-regarding management babble. Last summer's recruitment feels like someone read the first part of Moneyball where it talks about identifying undervalued players, and skipped the bit where you bring people in to do a certain job and build a cohesive team. Spot on. Your suggestions re players, the academy, links with KL, Cambridge, Europe etc all sound very interesting, DH, but I think something much more basic needs to happen first, and that is preventing the gap that has opened up between the club and the fans from becoming a gulf. That means decisive action from the Board whichever way they decide to play this. A club divided against itself wins nothing and is almost certainly in danger of further serious decline. Now that we're officially relegated, there's no excuse at all for further dithering.
Looking at the Athletic's analysis, many of us on here could have written similar. The lack of a proper PL quality DM was the biggest mistake IMO, but I'm not convinced Andrich was the answer. Like Normann, he's a CM who can also play as a DM and he's another with no previous experience of the PL. My choice would have been Okay Yokuslu, who is a DM who can also play as a CM or CB and had played in the PL the previous season with West Brom and has 39 caps for Turkey. The Athletic's interpretation of Farke's wishlist of a S, DM and CB sounds about right, but we didn't have the money for a genuine PL Striker unless we threw the whole budget at that alone. It was less about replacing Pukki and more about supporting him so we spread the risk by signing Rashica, Sargent and Tzolis to boost our attack. That seemed a good decision at the time and Sargent and Tzolis looked to be the real deal with 4 goals in the cup win against relegated Bournemouth. Unfortunately, the brutal start to the season made it tough for all of the new players to settle in and confidence dropped through the whole team. Rashica has finally settled in and looks to have a good understanding with Pukki as do Sargent and Dowell, but it just came too late to have a real impact as defensive mistakes and the subsequent drop in confidence have undermined our performances. I hope the Athletic's assertion that: "Smith wants to change the culture at the club, to introduce more leadership, desire, and physicality" is true as that is our best chance for pushing on from here. That's what made Lambert's team a success with two consecutive promotions and then PL survival. That's where we need to go from here. We have a good core of players to play that kind of football and hopefully Smith and Shakespeare can get us ready for that over the summer.
Agreed with the leadership desire and physicality, but also team spirit. Watching the recent games players have been snippy at each other (especially noticeable with Normann amongst others). I used to be a lifeguard at the Sportspark in Norwich and players who were doing rehab used to come there for fitness. They used to work hard, but also a certain Grant Holt was making sure they were having fun doing it and messing about at the same time. I am sure there are bargains in the lower leagues with good characters ripe for the picking to shine a league or two higher.
This is something which I feel hasn't been focused on nearly enough, or even hardly at all. Looking at it from the outside, it seems that a sense of unity and togetherness disappeared this season, especially compared to the 18/19 season when the squad seemed so harmonious and to really enjoy being together. I know it's easier to be united when you're winning, but I suspect that having so many new faces had a very detrimental effect on squad unity, with the regular playing of four loan players, the loss of key figures who had been around for most of the Farke era, and the fact that some of the new intake seemed more interested in their own ego rather than the good of the team (thinking especially of Normann here, although I know some of you will say this is pure speculation on my part, and it is). Add in more speculation about Cantwell possibly (note I said possibly) doing all he could to poison the well, and the negative comparison with former years looks blatant. We just seemed less happy as a group, and that fed into the results - cause as much as effect. Interestingly, during the same period there are rumours (more speculation!) of a high turnover of non-playing staff due to unhappiness. Wonder if that's true? This season has been awful, the worst for me since the relegation to Division One, and much worse than two years ago. I also think we are in a much worse position as a club than we were when we were last relegated. It's much easier to break things than to build them.
Team spirit is absolutely the other essential quality and I think Smith worked hard on that as we won his first match in charge against Southampton to build on the Brentford win before that and then we drew the next two matches. Confidence flowed for the first time but we then had a 3-0 loss at Spurs and were pipped by the Ronaldo penalty against ManUtd. The Covid decimation then occurred and we had 3 more losses in a row and confidence dropped taking the team spirit with it. My hope now is that Smith and Shakespeare can make the right additions to our core squad and be ready for the off in the Championship. The younger players can develop more thoroughly a level below and we can come out of it full of confidence and that vital team spirit.
So who do we want to join us in the Championship next year? In league 1 we will have Wigan And Rotherham promoted with MK Dons Sheff Wed, Sunderland and Wycombe in the play-offs. So you may know I have a soft spot for Wycombe so would want them promoted. Premier League looks like a fight between Leeds, Burnley and Everton to avoid the final spot. I kind of want Everton to get relegated as they would be financially in an awful position.
