Matt Morriss

SwearyCanary Here's a little challenge for you. Seeing as though as you like to throw the insults about to anyone who disagrees with you, calling them clowns and idiots and on meth. How about you do what I suggested we all do 2 years ago, and post under your real name, and even link to your facebook. Still it seems im the only one to have actually done it as I dont see anyones elses real name on here. Everyone posts under a pseudonym. I would wager the tone of your comments would change overnight if you did. You might even disappear completely. Under your anonymity you come across as cowardly and childish. And back to the national embarassment thing, me personally i dont give a $hit what Talksport or Match of the Day say, still doesnt hide the fact we were referred to as a national embarrassment by the main talking heads in football. You seem to be unable to distinguish between someone stating a fact and their own opinion. Fact is we where a laughing stock last season every where you looked in sports media. Opinion wise did I care what they said? not really. Do I care about the team I love grossly underperforming however, yes of course. Theres a difference.

Unfortunately none of this matters when your bottom of the Prem getting tonked 7-0 by Chelsea. Results are all that matters and the media will label you an embarrassment. We didnt hear much from Match of the Day, Talksport and Sky Sports about our fantastic training ground improvement, being debt free or storming the Championship twice after the Chelsea game.

No, because we only spent £50m and that quite clearly is nowhere near enough to transform a Championhip team into a regular Prem one. Maybe it does if you only spend it on 2 players. But Webber's game plan was to rip 7 players out of the squad, 2 were forced of course in Emi and Skipp, and you can argue others had to go, Tettey, Stiepi, Hugill etc. but still thats 7 players that needed replacing. So the £50m had to be spread too thin on £7m/£8m players. Players in this price range does not a Prem team make. A couple of £25m players would have done the trick. We also needed to have kept Emi and either acquired Skipp or spent £25m on replacing him. The gameplan was doomed from the start.

Except that it was. I saw more hoofed longballs in the Cardiff game that I saw in 4 seasons under Farke, and I tweeted as much after the game.

Stop ruining the messageboard by calling people 'total clowns' and 'on meth' just for expressing an opinion different to yours. thats what this place is all about, for debate and for everyone to give their own opinion. Its prudent to remember pal, in life in general, that the world doesnt revolve around you, and not everyone thinks the same way you do. If you disagree give your own opinion and explain why you disagree. Dont call people clowns and on meth. Especially when the guy was right. We WERE a national embarrassment last season. We were talked about in various media on how pathetic we were.

Well evidently not mate as Villa sacked him.

You can argue all you like, I still think youd be wrong. Farke wasnt on the verge of screwing up the Championship at all. His first season he simply did not have the players he wanted to implement Farkeball. Second season he had the players, and after a few games where it wasnt clicking he made the fantastic tactical decision to drop Rhodes, push Pukki up front and bring Stiepermann in as the number 10. The rest his history. And if you think Chris Hughton would have kept us up last season I also think your wrong. The defence wasnt good enough, and we would have scored even less goals so I fail to see how this would have represented an improvement on what happened.

Said this last season. Noticed it with Aarons first, that he seemed to be going backwards. Other players followed. If individually players arent progressing and in fact are regressing, then as a whole, as a team how on earth are we going to be in a better position than the Farke days?

No Sam, its called speculation, posing the question and having an opinion. I never said I was stating scientific, indisputable fact. Im sure it was said though that he was gutted to be sacked at Villa, boyhood club and all that I believe. That bit I think was fact.

Yes, he was so shocking. With players from the 2nd and 3rd tier of German football, and bolstered with the absolute quality that was Patrick Roberts, Dennis Srbeny and Josip Drmic. Not to mention an horrific injury run that saw 11 players out at one time, and no centre backs for weeks on end. We had a Premier League 11 that could match anyone in the league (except Liverpool!) and it showed with the Man City, Newcastle, Leicester, Arsenal and Spurs results. Fact is we didnt have the squad depth which was the Board and Webbers fault, and Covid and the lack of fans hit us for six. Had Covid not hit, we'd not had the injury luck and the Board had spent £50m-£100m like every other bloody team Farke would have kept us up, no doubt in my mind. Remember the Man City game? Arsenal? Leicester? Spurs at home and the FA Cup? We were ready to make the leap to regular Prem Football and the board pi$$ed our chance away. Then last season he has 8 instrumental players ripped out of the squad, including star players Emi and Skipp, and Cantwell going awol. And he’s given Tzolis and Gilmour, who were atrocious, and Rashica, Sargent, Normann and PLM, who were abysmal. But no your right, Farke was the problem and was shocking in the Prem.

I think there's merit in this. Smith was gutted he lost the Villa job wasnt he? Dont think his heart has ever been in the Norwich job and it probably never will. He is such a boring manager i think because he's just not interested enough. I think he's here for the money and the pay off when he gets sacked. Mourinho does it, nice little earner when you get sacked!

he wasnt sacked with Villa mid-table. They were at the bottom looking at a relegation scrap with us when he was sacked.

Well said, you couldnt make it up. Webber sacks a manager who was given £50m to spend to replace 7 VITAL SQUAD PLAYERS instrumental to our success, including star players Emi and Skippy, and appoints a Premier League manager who just got sacked because Villa were a mess and not winning games, after he was given £300m to spend.

Errrrr, no....they were all Webbers signings. The point is, that you are missing, is that Farke got the team promoted with misfits and Bundesliga 2 players, that had no right to win the Championship in the manner that they did. Then he was given players to bolster the squad in an attempt to stay in the Prem of the quality of Patrick Roberts. And people lambaste Farke for not keeping us up first time. Your suggesting that crop of players was weaker than Farkes team in the first season. I think that fact that they managed to stay in the Premier League for 3 seasons under 2 managers that were hardly Pep Guardiola and are now nowhere to be seen says it all about the quality of the player we had.

I think at this stage, after Smith failed so miserably with the same squad Farke had, and it being abundantly clear that the recruitment was so bad last season, that you have to be pretty clueless about football to suggest Farke was the problem. Try going into a prem season after losing your best 2 players, having your hand forced with a supposed Chelsea wonderkid who turned out to be about as good as Fozzy Fotheringham, and being furnished with Bundesliga 2 forwards that just got their club relegated, and a Greek raw kid that clearly wasnt ready or suited to English football let alone the Premier League. Everyone seems to forget our first season in the Prem. When we completely matched Man City and actually beat them. Nearly beat Arsenal, beat Leicester, and Spurs in the cup and for me the only reason we went down was 1 an horrendously bad injury run and 2 the obvious atrocious backing from Webber and the board. Farke got given Patrick Roberts, Josip Drmic and Dennis Srbeny ffs and was told to go and keep us in the Prem. Had we not had the bad luck of injuries, Covid and no fans, 0 centre backs at times and something like 11 players out at one time, and on top have actually given Farke some premier League quality to strengthen the team, I firmly believe we would have stayed up. Last season Farkes task was even harder.

Spot on. It amazes me the amount of people that still think sacking Farke was the right decision. The same people keep banging the 'its not his team' crap about Smith. They'll be saying it in 2025 when he's still here and were bottom of the Championship.

Absolute tosh. Grant Holt, Wes Hoolahan, Johnny Howson, Bradley Johnson, John Ruddy, Leon Barnett, Zak Whitbread, Andrew Surman, Simeon Jackson, Adam Drury, Ryan Bennett. Weaker team? Nonsense. Farke had misfits and Bundesliga 2/3 players as the OP suggests. And Webber bought him Patrick Roberts, Josip Drmic and Dennis Srbeny to bolster the squad ffs!

We used to have a guy with style in charge.

Its a funny one but I think we are actually in a fairly unique position this year squad wise. We sent out a lot of good championship players on loan, who we know can perform at this level, and which we welcomed back. So they kind of were new squad additions for this season. Hugill, Hernandez, Cantwell and Sinani, plus Gibbs and the returning Idah and Andy, all weren't in the picture last season. And all I think walk into most champ teams. For me we didn't need to do any more business than we already have, with Hayden, Sara and hopefully Nunez. If they were fit they probably would have played today.

One game in? Instant success? Smith has been here since November 2021 pal. We've watched utter dross since, completely devoid of all the positive attributes we were treated to under Farke. Even during Farkes first season in the Prem we had some unbelievable moments. Man City, Leicester, Spurs in the cup. There wasn't one great moment under Smith after the lucky new manager bounce win in his first game when the Southampton keeper gifted us 2 goals, apart from perhaps Watford away, when they were at the worst. Sacking Farke in my opinion, which has been the same since the day he left, was a catastrophic error that we are paying for right now.

We never lose to Cardiff. Won 7 out of the last 9 I think I heard. The fact we lost today is very telling, especially as Cardiff were $ hite last season and werent great today. 3 things I am convinced of now. Dean Smith lost the dressing room in December, there is no tactical gameplan being coached to the players on how to manufacture goalscoring opportunities and how to win games of football, and we should never have sacked Farke. At our level, and the self funding thing Farke was perfect. He moulded Bundesliga f@#£&# 2 players into a Championship winning team for god's sake! Twice! Smith spent £300m at Villa and still got sacked. Clubs in a mess. We are a rudderless shop with no captain.

I'm still of the opinion that Dean Smith lost the dressing room in December. Perhaps not in the traditional sense where it's obvious the players have downed tools and aren't fighting for the manager, but the players sure as hell aren't playing for the manager. And vice versa the manager isn't playing vicariously thru the players. And what I mean by that is that Dean Smith's influence doesn't seem to be evident in any player on that pitch. You could sense under Farke it was. Each individual player seemed to improve and be playing at 100% of their ability and beyond. As if they had been 'coached' to perform at a higher level. They all had a clear plan it seemed and they all excelled in their individual positions and jobs. And as a team it showed. Aarons, Hernandez, Emi, Stiepermann, Vrancic etc. All improved greatly under Farke and reached the absolute peak of their footballing powers. Under Smith every player in the squad had gone backwards. Look at Rashica today. Awful. No progression of players. Zero tactics on how to manufacture goalscoring opportunities. No obvious game plan on how we are going to set about beating the opposition on front of us. There is simply no 'Deano Effect' on this team. The players seem to be just playing football because it's their job as professional footballers, and they know how to play football. Theres no individual or collective influence on how we play to a man or as a team on the whole, that is tangibly and recognisably attributable to Dean Smith. The complete opposite was the case under Daniel Farke. The whole club was dripping wet from head to toe in Farkes methods for 4 years.

Wed Aug 10 EFL Cup 1: Birmingham City This is wrong, its Tuesday

I just cant get away from the whole 'Farke was the problem' thing. If that really was the case then Smith would have come in and done better, to really prove and confirm that Farkes methods werent working, and we should and could be doing better, with a different manager. I dont think we were really ever going to survive with this squad, but if we were currently in Leeds position, right in the thick of it with every chance of staying up, then even with that you might argue that sacking Farke was the correct decision. Personally I think to justify the sacking of Farke and appointment of Smith then being closer to Southampton on 40 points by now and id hold my hands up and say Webber got it spot on. I'd even consider it if we were doing a Leeds. But the position we are in, relegated with 5 games to go, worse than 19/20 and the current state of the teams performance, and individual regression of certain players, giving up by half time with most games over by half time. This for me, along with the appalling mood and disconnect of the fans to the club currently, is clear proof that the Farke sacking and apppointment of Smith was a catastrophic error. I am strongly of the opinion had we stuck with Farke there is no way in hell the above scenario plays out. Down with 5 games to go, the team an absolute tactical, effort and performance mess, off field tensions and massive fan disconnect, protests and Delia bashing.

Im not sure that was the case, there certainly seemed to be a bombshell moment after the Brentford game when it was announced. At least from an emergency 8pm Saturday Night Canary call standpoint. Horrible day, a win at last and I was absolutely gutted in the evening when the news broke. I knew it was the wrong decision so it really done my nut in, I was so angry at Webber. But again though I refer to my overall point. If the general feeling really was that he should have gone then I have just got to question whether the majority of the fans really know what there talking about, or are they just looking at the league table. This of course is based on the fact im certain im right that Farke wasnt the problem. The guy got a rag tag bunch of players, and lets make no mistake about it, they were rag tag, Pukki, Buendia, Stiepermann, Hernandez, Vrancic, Zimmermann, Trybull etc. No one had heard of these players and certainly no Championship teams were going shopping in the Bundesliga 2nd and 3rd divisions. But Farke got the absolute best out of them, got them giving 110% every week (which is mathematically impossible he's that good) and we stormed the Championship and won the league twice! Remember the late wins? the Millwalls and Forest's. The Leeds away crunch game. Farke got the absolute best out of bargain basement players, and more importantly got them dying for the shirt and giving their all right to the very last second. Then people were surprised and blamed Farke when those same Bundesliga 2nd and 3rd division players struggled as clearly the Prem was just a step to far to ask of them. Ditto this season. Under Smith the players have given up by half time in every match, bar Chelsea at home and the Man Utd games.