Cornwall Canaryfan

I hope Wagner is thinking because, after our disastrous form for the second half of last season, I have tried not to think about us at all so far in this closed season. I agree with most of the OPs thoughts but, with the resources currently available, I am struggling to think beyond another 13th place finish, if we are lucky. If only one of our players discovers his inner 'superstar' in the coming season it will be a real bonus. Unfortunately, if we are to make any positive mark in the Championship, I feel we need three or four to do so, which is of course, extremely unlikely. Fingers that Wagner can do a 'Farke' in his second season!

I enjoyed the first three paragraphs Ricardo........

A company promotion meant I moved from Norwich to Manchester in 1983. Hence I went to Wembley, with a Norwich supporting colleague also from Norwich who was promoted to Kendal, with tickets obtained from the match referee, who was based in Manchester & couldn't give his ticket allocation away! Due to this, our tickets were in the Sunderland end. I have several particular memories of that day. My friend & I had made our support for City clear throughout the match & at the final whistle suddenly feared for our safety. We needn't have worried. Several Sunderland fans came up to us, congratulated us & gave us their scarfs! On leaving the ground I bumped into the person who had taken over my job in Norwich two years earlier. What are the chances of that happening in a 100,000 crowd? On the M1 going home to Manchester the motorway was choked with traffic, cars & coach after coach of Sunderland supporters, to the extent that we travelled all the way to Birmingham in one continuous traffic jam. Didn't go above 25 mph or get out of 2nd & 3rd gear. The look of complete misery on the Sunderland faces made us extremely grateful that we had won & did not have to make the excruciatingly slow journey home knowing we had lost. A never to be forgotten day. Would have been nice to have won an FA cup or two since then but I console myself with the knowledge that, for arguably, our biggest ever win, I was there!

During the Paul Lambert era I had a lot of business dealings (nothing to do with football) with the father of a regular City first teamer. He told me that Lambert was a ruthless disciplinarian with whom there were no second chances & that several players found this to their costs. The players initially loathed, & feared, him. Then they began to realise that he was not asking them to do anything that he hadn't done (i.e. wasn't demanding the impossible) & that his methods were producing results on the pitch. Respect for him grew as he was getting the best from the players available & they all found a winning, & never say die, mentality far more preferable to a losing one. Perhaps this is the type of manager we should be looking for? Whether Parker fits this model, I do not know. He was certainly a capable player but I have no idea whether his management style generated confidence in his players in the same way as Lambert's apparently did. Smith does not appear to instill either a winning mentality or improve the players confidence. Their on pitch body language much of the time looks as if they expect to lose &, possibly even worse, don't seem to care.

Guardiola won't feel so bad at missing out on Pukki now.......

0 - 0 is correct. VAR disallowed our 'goal' about 6.30pm.

Living over 400 miles from Carrow Road I obviously don't see them live very often &, particularly in the Championship, TV exposure is extremely limited. Therefore I am not prepared to say my views on Max are worth as much as those of you that see live games regularly but here is my opinion anyway. If you are looking for a top quality full back, one look at our goals against column for the past four years or so would probably make you dismiss any Norwich City player. This may be very unfair on Max. Those of you watching him week in, week out, are far better than me to judge. During our two recent Premiership seasons, match photos of Norwich defenders featured as prominently as almost any other players from the rest of the Premiership teams. Unfortunately, very often a yard or so behind the opposition player scoring against us. Not a good look for anyone hoping to catch the eye of a top team. Again this may be unfair to Max but I do feel there is an element of truth in what I am saying here. He may deserve a place in a better team but, as others have already stated, he doesn't seem to have developed as well as it initially appeared he would.

I haven't read every post in this thread so please forgive me if my points have already been raised. I want to see us promoted to the top division & to establish ourselves as worthy, regular members. It is what a city like Norwich deserves & the club ground & facilities strongly suggest that playing at the highest level is both attainable & desirable. The whole point of playing football with the kind of material &, yes, financial setup we have is to try & rise to the top levels of the game. What is the point otherwise for a club of our size? I think it will be a long time until we see another Leicester seriously challenge for the title, baring a financial calamity so great that even top football clubs are affected. So to progress much the same as we are & challenge for the title is totally unrealistic. But I do think that it is not out of the question to expect the club to work towards promotion for more than a season at a time & to aim for serious runs in the cup competitions. Even without major new investment I think this is aiming high but is a reasonable expectation.

The only way of strengthening our defense, cheaper even than a loan fee, is to invest in a hundred quids worth of timber from Jewsons & board our goal up. Nothing else seems able to keep any opposition out for 90 minutes.

Please fly here quickly then.....

Yes, we seem to be in the minority. I am not writing off what the club achieved the following season, I'm just saying we were more attractive to watch in the first Championship season &, purely from recollection, winning with less nail biting moments & goals coming from all over the pitch. This eased any pressure on our expected goal scorers who were aware that if they had an off day other could step up to the plate. This didn't disappear in the second Championship season, it just wasn't as prevalent. Still doesn't explain why we didn't seem to try in the final 9 games of the 19/20 season & all of last season. The defeats hurt but the manor of them hurt more.

A major contributory factor, but I think the seeds of the 'rot' were sown, for whatever reason, April to June 2020.

Amazing is not the word I would use & I stand by my 'solid' description. I believe the side two seasons before would have beaten the last Championship side more often than not & been more attractive to watch as a bonus.

Just before the first lockdown in March 2020 we were bottom of the Premiership , 9 games to go & just the faintest chance of avoiding relegation. By fairly common consent we looked the best footballing side to ever be bottom of that league, attractive to watch & only just second best in most matches. We came out of lockdown a different side, losing all 9 games & never looking like competing in any of the games. Next season we won the Championship, largely by solid, flareless football, often beating the opposition by a single goal & not doing particularly well most of the time against the sided around us in the table. In my opinion, nothing like the dominant, attractive footballing side we had been two seasons before. Last season all flair had gone along with any belief that we could possibly win any game we contested. This season is too new to abandon all hope just yet but as I type this we are losing 2 - 1 at Hull & it is getting increasingly difficult to imagine any improvement in the near future. So, just what went wrong April to June 2020 that has had such major, longstanding ramifications?

We did have Kane. Fantastic for us as far as I remember.........