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But also, he is the Norwich City Sporting Director who really should be seen to be promoting the women's Norwich City team for the benefit of the club. THAT IS HIS JOB. It's potential revenue. It's potential growth for Norwich City Football Club. It doesn't matter what he thinks. He needs to be seen to be backing it. What a moron.

He's on my Official NCFC office desk calendar as the face of May, clutching the badge and cheering It's put me off my work all month (that's the excuse I'm going to use at my appraisal)

It seemed a very good signing at the time and was met with universal approval on this forum. He had a medical all clear. The ultimate appraisal. The unexpected recurrence of the knee problem damaged our club and clearly frustrated the player. He was not your typical sick-note and did not seem one to make the most of an injury. We've had a lot worse. James Vaughan cost a bit, played five games, spent the best part of two seasons on the treatment table at a cost and with high wages then wanted out. Both Norwich and Hayden were exceptionally unlucky. Webber was, however, very remiss in not obtaining a return option in January. Newcastle played hard-ball, as they had every right to do, and NCFC bled even more precious funds for little or no return. I, personally, do not put this signing particularly high on the list of Webber blunders. If he were to be assured a season without injury I would be pleased to have him back.

The amount of energy you're putting into 'providing balance' is a bit weird at this point.

Sure, but that just goes to show how easy it is for the sporting director to support the growth of the women's team, even if he, on a personal level, has no interest in it. He just didn't have to say the other bit and it was really stupid of him to do so. I really admire the way you defend Webber from some of the more mindless criticism of him on this board, Hoggy, but in this case I think you might have gone too far the other way and ended up defending the indefensible.

When you order Skipp on Wish

No not at all. For example he talked about Tzolis, Rashica and various other signings in regards to their transfer fees. He didn't then also feel the need to give his 'honest opinion' on their abilities. By your definition he's lying by omission there too.

I would make a point about Hayden that I have rarely seen to me He seemed like a decent guy and I genuinely think he is as frustrated as anyone that it did not work out. It says something that he was willing to try and get himself on the pitch in the final few games of the season. When in reality he wasn’t fully fit, was risking further injury, his move to Norwich wasn’t going to happen and we were not going up. The easy route for him would have been in February to call time on his time with us disappear to Newcastle and concentrate on getting himself fit for next season but no he was willing to put his body on the line for nothing really. So I wish the guy good luck in the future.

Sometimes I feel I’m on another planet. Yes it was a gamble due to his injury, if he’d recovered and played regularly he could have been the DM we’ve all been banging on about and we’d be in the playoffs now at least. I know it didn’t work out, but it’s over, we don’t have inflated wages like a millstone for years like we did with Naismith.

I think they're clearly trying to remedy it by resolving something of a lack of experience and leadership in the team, building a new spine for the youngsters to build around and especially as Hanley's not going to be near the team until presumably the middle of the season. We'll have much more of an idea by early July re. which players have come through the door and indeed who has gone, but I'm not really a fan who tends to negativity. I've said before that if we're going to play full-on Wagner style at Huddersfield, Wagner needs a clean pre-season with the team to get their fitness right up to par. It seems like he's brought back double training sessions that Smith got rid of, and that Farke used. Changing to such a hard-pressing style mid-season is always a tough ask and it does explain why we looked decent in patches during games, then poor as we couldn't keep the intensity up.

Yes it’s very clear how much MB was trying to catch Webber out with his question: "How do the women's team build on the success of the game at Carrow Road?" Such a tough question served as an excellent curveball for Webber, who fell completely for the bait, having little choice but to go on a rant about him having zero interest in women’s football, him only doing it for Flo, insulting the quality of the women’s game and totally patronising their efforts. MB is truly on another level. Or perhaps he just offered him a softball question about the team’s successes and growth and expected an answer of a similar vein? And was quite shocked with what Webber went with… that, instead? and has quite rightly reported it as such? Have to say this is the first time I’ve read about MB being such a stirrer, his word on here has widely been taken as gospel over the years… but now he’s just trying to trip Webber up? Strange.

Indeed he does. I've got a Teams meeting with a potential client interested in one of our solutions this afternoon. I wonder what would happen if I said, "I'm proud of how it's performing, it's generating us decent revenue and might generate more in the future, but I don't like it, I personally wouldn't use it and think the quality is pretty poor". The only way I'd avoid the sack is if my missus was involved in the decision as to whether to terminate my employment.

Happy to be corrected on the specifics, but it's always seemed to me that the signing of Hayden was pretty similar to the signing of Krul. We got a better player than we could normally expect to attract as a Championship club, because we were prepared to take a risk on their injury past. First time we won the gamble, this time we didn't. But as others have said, at least it was only a loan.

Webber's appalling to the fans.... There, that's better....

I think usually fans come into each new season with a sense of hope. Atmosphere is often at its best day one where anything is possible. Two or three signings that address key weaknesses, maybe a couple of solid pre season results to get excited about and I'm sure Carrow Road will be buzzing for the first game. At that point we need to the team to do their part and give the fans hope that can be sustained past August.

Easiest way to answer your point Tilly is, to give continuity to the panel half the group will remain for another 12 months, all were given the option of reapplying or stepping down as we all signed up for an agreed 2 years period. In light of the latest government white paper and the changes within it from the original Crouch report the club has decided to allow certain groups to put a representative forward for a seat on the panel. The original panel members staying on for a further 12 months. will be replaced by supporters who will be elected as per original basis of membership, so election process is delayed and not completely kicked into touch. The EFL is encouraging clubs to have more involvement with trusts, as the feeling is supporters trusts will help protect clubs from major changes that fans are opposed to, that may well put a club at risk. Groups have been identified (by the club, not the panel) for a variety of reasons, and some may not take up a place, some will be disappointed they are not involved at this stage, but may well be in some way in the future. Some already have dialogue with the club more than others, what this looks like going forward is anybody's guess at the moment, and in the case of the trust they have it in their terms that they have 4 meetings a year with the club and that will continue, certainly for the foreseeable. Someone once said change is a challenge, not a threat, and i believe that is case here and as always only time will tell.

Yeh it often is. But......🙂

No, because he wasn't even directly asked about whether he liked women's football or not. And even if he was, he could have answered in a negative way without being so disparaging, even with **** analogies that don't even make sense (it's patently not like trying to get a Sunday League team to the Premier League). King Canary gives the guy too much credit; he IS a moron.

Should never have been sacked in the first place.

Completely and utterly embarrassing. It's like playing Monopoly but getting to start with houses on all greens but being beaten by someone who started with a ten pound note and nothing else. Still, I'm sure the person responsible for this utter cluster**** is being held to account.

More minutes than Hayden...

If you don't wish to watch women's football that's your choice. If you are Sporting Director at a club with a woman's team you have a responsibility to help build that team and the revenue it potential could bring to the club. He can 100% say he doesn't watch women's football as an individual. As an employee of NCFC it's really unprofessional.

So what you're saying is, you don't listen to anything the IMF says, until they say something you agree with?

Nothing to do with them winning then. The change at Carrow Road during the 18/19 season was all because the team started winning. In the Aug/Sept the atmosphere was awful with players being booed during the game. Farke's football was supposedly rubbish and Webber was clueless. Then we started winning and Farke was on a horse with all those flags and banners suddenly appearing. There's no chicken or egg argument to be had. Only when the team is winning do the club and fans unite. And not surprisingly the more often they win the stronger the bond becomes.

This sounds right up our street 🙂 A big injury, sign him up. Im glad we've learnt by all these old lessons 😉

I think it's a difficult balance for the club. Originally we were of the opinion (although I don't want to speak out of turn) that the OSP should remain as just nominated fans, but it was clear that the club wanted to have some supporter group representation also, as @Lessingham Canary says, due to the recommendations in the govt white paper. Can you have 1 supporters group and 11 fans? 2 and 10? And so on and so forth. The easy decision of course is to split it 50/50, so that's the route the club has taken. As someone standing down from the panel, I don't personally believe it's the best course of action, but the OSP has been either forgotten about by fans in general or overshadowed by the Trust. So perhaps this new way of organising the OSP will help it flourish. My fear is that the meetings get bogged down in the different agendas each group has, but that is for the nominated Chair from the club to resolve and for the terms of reference of the OSP to be stringently followed.

Haha no problem and 37 is the new 27 they say ;- )

Troy Deeney has just been released by Birmingham. Just our type of player - 35 years old, 11 goals in 2 seasons. What's not to like?

Lovely Jubbly!

No. Wagner needs to be given a proper chance, with the summer and winter transfer windows.

Yes, I'd like to see him back at CR. I genuinely think sacking him has set us back 10 years. Yes, he struggled in the PL, but he did the best with what he had. It was crazy logic to give him a four-year contract and then sack him after 10 games, ignoring the circumstances behind it - the behaviour of some of the young egos, the truncated pre season because of covid, the late arrival of Norman/Kabak, what was imo a fixed fixture list to make it as difficult as possible for us (the PL don't want a self sufficient club in their league, they want money to be at the heart of it), the loss of Skipp/Buendia without replacing them.....the list goes on. He was the fall guy when there was no need for a fall guy. He was still fighting to find a way to win - and the players, apart from Cantwell, were still playing for him. Then he got that elusive first win.....only to he sacked. Ridiculous. I suspect he ruffled a few feathers amongst some of the senior players at BMG, who might not have liked his anti-ego approach. There is no place for ego in a Farke squad - and that is a big reason why he is well suited to us, a club that doesn't need big egos getting in the way of things. Smith and Wagner have made little difference except for showing that they can't make a difference. Wagner will get next season and probably rightly so - but he better succeed because another disappointing season will only make the sacking of Farke look even worse.

I think this is a cop out. If you visit the Norwich City website and click on the link "Teams" you will find "First Team", "Under 21s", "Under 18s" and "Women's Team". You will see from my comments on the thread about his interview I have tried to be balanced and give credit where it is due, the same can be said on the thread having a pop at our Academy. It is not what Stuart Webber says that is the problem it is how he says it. For me this is not a gender issue but a Norwich City issue.............

Leeds look dead and buried, don't they? First, they have to win and hope Everton lose, or win by three goals if Everton draw. Then they also need Leicester to fail to beat a team, West Ham, who will be totally focused on their European final. People always called Smith an unlucky manager. I've never seen it that way. Employed by a club who were happy to give him time and didn't fire him despite three mid-table finishes, get a new job with a club who had the best squad in the league on paper, get promoted with this squad after a penalty shoot-out in the play-off semi-final, survive because of a fluke technological bloomer, get offered a new job days after being fired for failing to get a club which had spent hundreds of millions anywhere near where they wanted to be, and then given a lifeline by a team who had Maddison and were well placed to get out of trouble (especially given their goal difference). The only thing he's good at is interview technique.

Need a creative midfielder - hoolihan, Maddison, Buendia type. Otherwise all other signings are virtually pointless.

Statistical noise. A unique identity junked for no good reason other than to placate the baying hoards who think its possible to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Perfectly put. It could be that Webber thinks Wagner is actually an arsehole, that yellow and green is a horrific colour combination and that steak should be served well done and never anything less. However it would be stupid to say those things out loud in a media interview no matter how 'honest' they may be. He's not a moron so I think he's got to know that saying what he said is going to get picked up on and become an issue. It just seems he doesn't really care. He's also got to realise that seeing the SD of the club saying the women's team are 'really poor quality' and that he isn't interested in it will probably upset the players, coaches etc who are working so hard to raise the profile of the NCFC women's team. A bit of empathy wouldn't go amiss here. I've known people who will say they are 'brutally honest' or 'tell it like it is.' Those phrases are usually a code for being an inconsiderate arsehole. You don't have to lie, but you can leave bits out.

Cards on the table, I run a ladies football team and have on and off for the last 20 years or so I know at least one of the ladies who plays for norwich city as I work with her webbers comments were misguided but in true style the team are laughing it off. those who try and compare the two need to stop, the ladies are proud of their game and the woman’s game has gone from strength to strength in recent years, its never them that compare themselves against the men. went to knebworth fc presentation today and there were more girls teams there than boys, it’s a growing sport long May it continue

If his team's performance on the field this season isn't going to get him sacked, his views on women's football and other controversial elements of these interviews aren't going to get him sacked either.

A bigger capacity just means more people will decide to pick and choose when to attend. Personally I don't see us filling a 35k stadium on any regular basis. 30-32k seems more than enough but there appears to be little prospect of enlargememnt in the short to medium timescale. As to a new stadium, i thought we had sent Tom Cavendish off to investigate the Lettuce bacon and tomato triangle at Thorpe.

Injuries can happen to any player at any time we can sign a injury free player fit as a flea never had a injury and he could be out for the season after one game that happens and nobody can see that happening thats your luck but to sign someone with Hayden's recent injury record was a disaster waiting to happen

I'm not sure his goals and assists are that relevant as a DM. He was bad signing for a key position but he was only here for a year. He'd go a long way to beat Naismith or Jarvis in terms of financial damage.

Great, he will fit right in. Can he promise to miss half the season for us?

Surely we have to be looking at better that Lewis Wing !! Good non league player but hardly pulled up any trees in the professional game has he?

Of course voting is compulsory 😄 I'm leaving the panel too, but the six remaining are all doing a great job + understand the challenges that will come with representation now appearing from supporters groups. And, I'm pleased to say that the taps in the South Stand are being replaced in the summer. My two years were worth it for that alone.

Nobody cou,ld have done better with what he had to work with.

Plus you get additional content with the press conferences, Wagner is pretty good, but still nowhere near some of Farke's epic chats where he can go for 15 mins on one subject.

Tom ince coming in? Paul ince confirmed as manager in december then lol