Badger

Yes, especially considering the atmosphere at home, which has hardly been a wall of sound! I wonder whether we tend to play a too attacking formation away from home with two up top? TBH, I haven't seen many away games this season but the ones I have seen, we have certainly looked vulnerable.

I can never quite get my head around the arguments of those that suggest that, 1. Webber was a terrible DoF + we've got the worst owners. Yet somehow... 2. We have one of the best squads in the division and should be comfortably in the play offs. I'm not sure how both points can be true at the same time?

According to this, our PPG difference home to away is the biggest in the league, which suggests that there is certainly an issue. It has only improved slightly since our home form picked up. https://www.soccerstats.com/homeaway.asp?league=england2

It has been a pretty amazing story. From the old first division to dropping out of the league (with a 30, yes, thirty, point deduction) and now back to the back to the premier league. How could a journalist resist it? https://www.lutontown.co.uk/club/club-history/

Jimmy Bone. Would we have ever gone up to the first division without him?

Exactly this. It's the defensive scrappers that tend to stay up - very solid defensively; direct counter attack and good on set pieces. The old Burnley doing better than the new Burnley illustrates this point well.

If Celtic and rangers were allowed into English football (which they won't be) they would soon be regulars in European football. Celtic's average attendance is the 11th highest in Europe (c 59,000) and Rangers is 46th (c39,000). With Premier league football being more attractive, these attendances would probably increase (e.g. Man U would be a more attractive fixture than Kilmarnock). Revenue would greatly increase with access to EPL TV money and would be further stimulated by increasing "brand value" that regular appearance in the EPL would bring. Their financial power would be far greater than most Premier league teams and they would, I suspect, become attractive to foreign investors. As somebody above pointed out - for this reason it is never likely to happen. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/statistik/zuschauerrangliste

Interesting to see QPR in 7th with only one defeat but Wagner was given dog's abuse for "only" getting an away draw.

Thanks Ricardo

Thank you for the thoughtful reply but ultimately I'm not sure that there is much the club can do about the so-called "disconnect." There will always be the vocal minority who moan and boo at the first sign of difficulty - they have been here throughout my 50+ years as a supporter and much as we might (I) might wish they stopped coming, I doubt they will. When things go well they will shut up for a while, but as soon as it gets difficult they will resume. With regards a "reset" or "5 year plan," I think that we all pretty much know what such plan would look like and realistically there is nothing that the club can do to promise that we will be competitive in the Premier League besides saying that we would be pragmatic, direct and make full use of set pieces, which is the main chance of getting a few years in the Premier League. Announcing an honest and realistic plan would not enthuse fans because there is nothing a club our size can do guarantee regular premier league survival except do what we have already done - survive by trading players + add to it a more pragmatic style of play a la Palace and the old Burnley.

From the article: After returning to Norwich’s first team off the bench against Huddersfield on December 23, Gibson said one of the scariest moments came immediately after their 1-1 draw at home to Southampton on New Year’s Day. As he was walking down the tunnel at the end of the match at Carrow Road, he was met by Jonny Martin, the club’s head of first-team operations, who told him he must call Ashley. “That moment of fear just hit me,” he recalled. “I rang her off his phone and she said Mylie had basically stopped breathing eight times. I went straight to the hospital. That moment was, ‘Wow’. It was, ‘What’s going on?’. I should have been there. Ashley didn’t want to call to disrupt what I was doing in terms of the game. I said to her after, ‘Football is not important compared to that.’ On Wagner - “I’ll never, ever forget how the manager was with me over this whole situation,” Gibson said. “He couldn’t have been any better with me, I’m so grateful for that. I was lucky he was so understanding.”

I don't find it that convincing at all. Uninformed people being critical of things that they don't understand is quite a normal thing - we see it all the time with fans bemoaning the cat-and-mouse games that are played to try to break the opposition and just wanting us to hoof it forwards. We have had some pretty dire football over the last few years - the last time were really good was during lockdown so we couldn't be there. The underlying issue (singular) is that we have not be playing particularly well for a number of years and some fans don't have the patience to wait for the good times to come around again and place all their hopes of simple, instant solutions. The ones now moaning at Wagner and Knapper, are the same ones moaning at Smith, Farke, Neil, Adams Hughton etc. When things improve (which they will), they will be ok for a while, but start booing and moaning at the first significant drop in form and call for more new managers, sporting directors, owners etc.

I don't think that he has done apostrophes yet.

TBH, I think that the club has missed a trick here. If they had put the prices up more in the Thorpe Corner they may have been able to drive away some of "the divorcees" who are probably being hit with extra child maintenance charges as well. Lack of strategic thinking!

Not really likely - it's for next season - Rowe won't be here then anyway.

It might be preferable to meeting you? But, in the spirit of concerned helpfulness, I attach another link. https://www.udemy.com/course/free-online-social-skills-course-communication-interpersonal-skills/

But you just said I was an expert? You are being somewhat mercurial.* (* Thought this might help. https://www.google.com/search?q=mercurial&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB1079GB1079&oq=mercurial&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyDAgAEEUYORixAxiABDINCAEQABiDARixAxiABDIKCAIQABixAxiABDIGCAMQABgDMg0IBBAAGIMBGLEDGIAEMgcIBRAAGIAEMgYIBhAAGAMyCggHEAAYsQMYgAQyCggIEAAYsQMYgAQyBwgJEAAYgATSAQk1OTYzajBqMTWoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 )

Well thank you. I pride myself on being able to communicate with people of all levels and find your praise reassuring. (But stop it now, you will make me blush).

I refer you to my post. As I suggested, there are a certain section of the fan base, who don't like any manager we have had since Lambert who escaped before the inevitable opprobrium was aimed at him.

Possibly. I don't profess any expertise in playground language. I suspect you would know better than I.

Just about sums it up really. Of course you are within your legal rights to do so, but if you had any empathy you would understand why real fans might think we would be better off without you.

As I said in my post above, it has been hard work for all City fans at times over the last few seasons. However, we must not confuse the understandable frustration of most fans with the perpetual anti-club campaigning but a minority of "anti-fans" who oppose everything that does the club does and implacably opposed to it. Think of it as an isosceles triangle standing on its base: the top of the cone has a small number of anti-fans that are simply opposed to the club; below that is a larger group that are impatient and turn very quickly at the first sign of difficulty (fair weather supporters); below them is a larger group who are more patient but can become vocally frustrated etc etc. At the base there is a group of fans that I believe to be the majority, who would not boo the players and club during the game. We might argue about how far down the triangle or pyramid the disillusionment might lie, but sure we agree that we are better of without the anti-fans and the fair weather supporters?

The point is that they didn't like Smith, Farke (except for when we won), Neil, Adams, Houghton either! The last manager who had sustained popularity was Lambert. One hypothesis might be that a number of the more negative "anti-fans" left during this period - one did spectacularly on the pitch itself during the Colchester game + a fans group tried to deprive the club of transfer fans, so presumably some of them left. Success meant that some of these have crept back and said success won't come again until the "anti-fans" leave again. I can't see how driving every manager out is a solution.

Simply nonsense Jim: there is no way that 5,000 people join in the booing. Do you go to games or are you one of these fans that don't go on principle?

I can't recall it when we were 8 games unbeaten at home and in the process of scoring 4 goals!