This season is starting to remind me of Neil Adams in the Championship. Started ok but things tailed off and the club nearly waited too long to make a change. Alex Neil just about had enough time to turn things around and make the playoffs. This season, things don't seem right and it seems Smith is rapidly running out of support. The world cup break comes at an ideal time to make a change, if the club are minded to. If performances/results don't improve in the three games before then, it'll be interesting to see if the club take action. Hopefully Webber has a shortlist he can leave with the rest of the upper management, he's going to be off climbing mountains during the world cup break...
The strange thing is that 3 weeks ago this was not an issue as we drew with Reading to extend a 9 game unbeaten streak. That and West Brom were the only draws, with all of the others wins. There was some concern about whether our play was entertaining enough, but few were complaining about being in second place. We've now lost 4 of the last 5 games, all by a single goal and now it's all about whether we should sack Smith. We now have 5 games before the break which could well decide Smith's fate. We badly need points to regain ground and get back in touch. They will probably be make or break for Smith's position.
I'd prefer (reluctantly) to see us lose all 5 if it forced the board to act in the best interests of the club. Which is no ideas, no direction, no improvement so....GET RID!
I don’t think it’s true to say there were no concerns. It was very weird in that we were winning and yet multiple people were saying it wasn’t feeling right. I admit I was one who was saying the results should override the technicalities of the performance, so I can’t claim to have been anti-Smith at that point, but it’s clear that many fans saw Smith’s style as a problem even while we were winning
What I actually said was this: "There was some concern about whether our play was entertaining enough, but few were complaining about being in second place."
Just listened to Michael Bailey's post-match thoughts from Burnley. Among the doom and gloom about the game, he also doesn't expect the club to be considering Smith's position any time soon, thinks the club are strongly at odds with the growing fan sentiment on that topic. Interesting to hear that the club appear to have gone into a "bunker mode" since the middle of last season - in terms of external communications and accountability. The standard pre/post-match press conferences is about all that is on offer to journalists. I presume this all traces back to the newspaper headline Webber took issue with in February/March time? I know that led to Webber's post-season debrief being conducted in-house and published on club media, plus an interview with Henry Winter rather than EDP/Athletic, etc. Sounds like local journalists have had a far tougher time of it. Nick Mashiter has said similar, suggesting this might at least to some degree have caused the disconnect between manager and fans. EDP/Pinkun clearly hit by this blackout too, example: Club responded eventually to say they'd conduct an interview with the NCFC Finance Director in-house. Accounts were released on 17th Ocotber, broken down on twitter by the excellent Keiran Maguire (link below). That promised interview has yet to surface. It's just baffling comms from the club, considering in the mean time there's been swirling concern and commentary about the size of the spending on loan fees, wages, and the club reporting an operating loss, and the £73m in transfer fee add-ons the club might yet face. It's not like the club finished the accounts the day they were released, why were they not accompanied with the kind of sit-down interview, whether internal or external, that would allay fears? It's really hard to say what the club are actually doing well right now, weren't we meant to be trying to set higher standards in every area? I can't see much that has improved or even been maintained since 2018/19? Communication? Clearly not Finances? Getting concerning, see points above. Attansio's involvement still appears unexplained and he's not spoken to any press as far as I'm aware? Beyond the club internal interview when everything was confirmed. Youth development? I think they get credit here still. Transfers? Who was the last player signed who was indisputably a success, and looked capable of becoming a Premier League player? Have we got any transfer really right since Buendia and Pukki in 2018? In terms of squad construction, have we had a squad this poorly put together since Webber came in? Infrastructure? The Colney upgrades were funded by 2019, even if only completed in 2021. Carrow Road has some new banners, lights, screens...is that enough?
It wasn't just that the play was not entertaining during that unbeaten run, Rick - at least for me as someone who has always been critical of Smith. It was the fact that we were relying on the individual quality of some of our players during that unbeaten run and getting results because of that. In short, we were less than the sum of our parts: in my opinion, much less. Following the Burnley game, lots of people are comparing what Kompany has achieved in just over 100 days in charge with what Smith has managed to do in almost an entire year. We still lack any recognisable direction or shape and our players, with the exception of Sargent, have all shown signs of regression: in the case of key players like Hanley, Pukki and Aarons, serious regression. But if you look at DH's post above, it seems that the club couldn't give a damn, at least as far as the fans are concerned. We're now an irritant to them, and no club that treats its own fans with such disdain can ever hope to be successful. A few people on social media are criticising the fans for not being supportive enough. No, it's the club's responsibility to turn this around and there is no sign that they are about to accept this responsibility. We had worked our way into a great position for a club of our size and they (IMO, mainly Webber, with his childish petulance and pathetic ego) are just tossing away all our good work over the last few years.
We didn't play well at Burnley, but neither did they for an 'in form' team playing at home. They were gifted the win via the penalty, but for all of their midfield dominance they produced little in the final third other than a lot of hopeful crosses and a flurry of off target long range shots. Their overall team rating on WhoScored was 6.63 to our 6.34. Neither rating is anything to shout about and if it wasn't for the penalty, they would have drawn at home with a rating below ours. I'll be interested in seeing more about the accounts, but my growing feeling is that our current problems are more to do with our recruitment in recent years, as suggested by DH above. Webber gained a lot of credit with the recruitment of Pukki and Buendia, but his failures far exceed his successes. We've thrown big money at players who have disappointed or disappeared. I just hope Sara isn't another of those. Sargent has finally impressed this season and may yet prove to be an exception, but overall the returns have been small. If we have been borrowing to do that then it's worse than I thought. Changing the manager won't change that.
I never liked Deano and Shaky , they have the appearance and demeanour of a couple of fat middle aged guys you see at Stanstead airport off on a jolly to play golf at Polaris World on the med. Neither appear very bright , Shaky just waddles around shouting and waving his arms and Smith always seems a bit smug and lacking of charisma leadership and ideas He was brought in to keep us up and we ended up playing even worse , and since that he's been tinkering with the team and formation to see if anything works . We don't even have a first choice keeper anymore and he's so frightened by Pukki's past heroism he plays him every game. Sargent took his chances as the main guy then got dropped to the wing . .None of the new players have improved our team and the best performers last game were deemed not good enough and loaned out last season Tod , Mcallum and Hernandez Tomkinson thrown in out of necessity. Sara is looking like another Wolswinkel, Hayden hasn't impressed and Nunez went from superstar to dog **** in a matter of weeks . If Webber is responsible for signing players then he's failed too
Largely distorted by the amount of games Smith had at Premier League level, in relation to his games at Championship Daniel Farke's win percentage in the Premier League was 12-13%
Don't think there is any paywall DH. All you need is to be logged in to a free account on the club website.
See the interview with the Finance Director (above). Borrowing was a mechanism for managing cash flow (e.g. after taking a £35k hit from Covid).
I think the finance questions were fairly meh. The answers were either "trust us we're doing things properly" or "it's more complicated than the questioner thinks", there's not really any more insight into the types of thing that will cause fans to worry. These are questions the club hand picked, why would you choose to answer a question that you can't give a straight, helpful answer to? There was a question of how many people are in the "key management personnel" category in the accounts (for whom pay isn't disclosed) and what do they do? The answer is simply "I can't disclose individual wages" - but that wasn't the question at all. Few "high"-lights: Can we spend in January? Not without selling or "alternative financing". Safe Standing - out to tender, aim to have rail seating in place by 2024/25, following a full fan consultation. Not budgeted for yet. Stadium Development: No firm plans in place yet, feasibility studies ongoing. Highest priced season tickets in the division are justified due to supply and demand. Club believe price is fair. 13th highest when in the Premier League. Clear plan for the fans? Read the financial report. Happy with disconnect between club and fans? "Overplayed by social and through the media". Fans are supporting the club because they keep turning up. Doesn't believe it's the case that there's a disconnect. Fans haven't given players the backing to win games at times. Scared of facing journalists? Club have changed stance due to a break of trust. Proud of in-house content/channels. "All about engagement and making sure fans feel connected in other ways".
