Yellow and Green

I've always wondered about this, and the psychology of joining Norwich as a step up from a smaller club vs joining Norwich as a step down from a bigger club. Huckerby is the only example I can think of where a 'big name' has properly enjoyed a successful time with us.

I agree with (I think it was) Connor Southwell's assessment of his performance, in the sense that that was what I was hoping for when he signed - doing the hard / boring / dirty stuff - largely holding the ball, moving us further up the pitch and generally linking the play - for the benefit of the team. As others have mentioned, we saw this at the beginning of the season, and his performances suffered as a result of Sargent's absence. Opposition defenders must hate playing against them, when they're together.

I've just had a look on Transfermarkt to check our stats - with and without Josh Sargent. Here they are: Games with JS starting: 8 Won: 6 (75%) Drew: 1 (vs Saints) Lost: 1 (vs Leeds) Games without JS (including two recent sub appearances): 22 Won: 7 (32%) - all opponents are currently in the bottom half of the table Drew: 4 Lost: 11 (50%) Sargent has scored 6 goals in 10 appearances, which is an excellent record and I'm delighted that he's bossing the Championship now that he's first choice striker. He's only 23, so he is only now coming into his peak. Whilst I believe Wagner could've adapted to Sargent's loss quicker and better, the above stats do put his absence into perspective. It also makes the remainder of the season rather interesting, if we can keep our key players fit.

Players only travel when the deal is 99% agreed. The wages would've been discussed a while ago. If this does turn out to be true, I would assume either Gibson or Batth will move on, considering their contracts are up at the end of the season. He's a decent player, whose profile fits the aim of lowering the age of the squad.

True, but he can't come out and say that Idah and Hwang aren't up to it. It would send completely the wrong message to the squad. What I do agree with is that he should've adapted the system (which was working well up until that point) much earlier. He was far too slow to realise that it wasn't working and confidence from players and fans sapped as a result.

And, for what it's worth, I have a feeling Delia's comments during that interview explains the delay in Wagner's sacking, when she said that the press had underplayed the impact that the injuries had on the performances and results. I think Knapper is waiting to give Wagner a few games with a fully fit Sargent / Barnes partnership up top. If performances and results don't improve soon then he'll be gone for sure. Now that Sargent is near enough fully fit, I'd imagine that he'll have Hull, Bristol Rovers and West Brom to show what he can do. In all fairness, Wagner was shafted when Barnes and Sargent got injured; it completely ruined his approach, where JS and AB dropped deep. We had a blistering start to the season before they were crocked. DW failed to adapt and the life seems to have been sucked out of the squad / stands.

I actually disagree and I think it raises the question about how much a Sporting director should speak publicly during a season. He can't just speak to the press whenever we've had a few bad results. When you think about it, there's nothing that he can say that would appease fans right now, apart from 'I agree he's rubbish.. I'll sack him tomorrow'. It's not going to happen. If I were in that position, I would make it clear that I would speak on dates x, y and z so that there's no uncertainty. Speaking at the end of the season and at the end of the Jan transfer window is fine for me. I do agree that he seems a bit of a wimp though. He didn't give much of an interview when he first started and his AGM stuff was quite low key.

When you think about how a typical squad will consist of 25 players, over half of them won't get in the starting eleven. The youth players, having previously been in purposefully small youth teams, mentally won't be used to not pick picked automatically. They then need to go through the process of either a) working super hard in training to impress the manager, b) taking your chance when you come on as a sub or c) waiting for an injury. Ideally, they would be playing week-in, week-out but it's simply not the reality. If you listen to James Milner's appearance on the High Performance podcast then you'll see the attitude and determination that these kids need to learn.

Cantwell was sent to Holland because they didn't think he could take getting lumps kicked out of him every week. It was an excellent call by Adams, if memory serves correctly. Whilst I get the logic, sending youngsters abroad is quite bold and won't work for everyone. As for the young centre backs, it is very much part of their game to be physical, battle it out and dominate their opponent.

It will be interesting to see how the CB situation develops over the next couple of years. We have a set of ageing centre backs in Hanley, Duffy, Gibson and Batth, and a clutch of highly rated lads coming through the youth ranks, including Adegboyega, Warner, Tomkinson and Brad Hills. With Batth and Gibson's contracts expiring in the summer, it will be interest to see if we invest in this area of the pitch or give these guys a chance. Whilst we won't want to block their progress / pathway to the first team, the CB position is obviously important and experience is needed in that area of the pitch. Loaning in a left-sided CB for a season might be a decent shout.

Very true, and the current system where the forwards drop deep doesn't suit him. Idah is actually a complete forward, who has decent pace, height, movement, dribbling and can finish from close range or hit one from outside the box. The thing to remember is that he's only 22. You only need to look at Pukki's career to see that strikers need time (/and the right manager or system) before they firing on all cylinders.

@By Hook or Ian crook it's an interesting question and a difficult one to answer. The board have a more complete view of the situation as they know DW personally, watch the training sessions, understand the internal issues and are able to speak to people with great experience within the game, including the players. Stuart Webber, in particular, will know exactly what DW is capable of, having led Huddersfield to promotion (and kept them up). The fans, on the other hand, can see the dross played out on the pitch every week. We can also compare how other clubs react in similar situations, and how rare it is for managers to turn these situations around. To add to this, hanging on to Dean Smith for far longer than we should have is still fresh in the memory. The counter argument (to some) would be Daniel Farke. What I am sure of is that people in leadership positions need to stop criticising the fans. This '20% whingers' comment is on par with the 'small group small group of divorcees' comment, which drove a wedge between the board and the fans. It's arguably more damaging as the criticisms she's complaining about, and they need to rise above such petty behaviour.

I write this as a huge MB fan, and think he's the best NCFC journo, but is there anyone who knows: 1) What other areas he's now covering for the Athletic. 2) How often he will attend Norwich games. 3) How often he will produce any kind of content (articles/podcasts) for ncfc, or is it just a 'when I have time' type of thing? It's been 2 weeks since the last ncfc article (three games have passed since then) and the few pieces produced over the summer were minimal. Any info would be great so I can set my expectations!

Here's an excellent interview with Brighton's CEO, Paul Barber. He discusses a range of topics that highlights what Norwich (and a lot of other clubs) didn't do - before and after promotion. More relevant to this thread, I doubt they'd be in for Sara; his replacement will already be at the club. To paraphrase PB: "The worst time to negotiate a transfer is when you've just recieved £80 million in transfer fees. We can usually predict who will attract interest 12-18 months in advance so, using our extensive scouting network, we buy their replacement in early, send them out on loan for 6 months so that they're settled and ready to go." The Buendia situation comes to mind! Brighton bought Caicedo for 4.5 million, and sold him for 115. Similar fees were paid for Mitoma, Undav, Enciso and the fella (whose name escapes me) who scored at the weekend.

Agreed. He was making quick, intelligent decisions and finding good positions. It's worth remembering how young he is, and how difficult it is to play in a struggling side. We've been rubbish ever since he joined and the team in general have lacked confidence. Webber noted this when discussing Rashica. I'd be gutted if we sold/loaned him out. My fear is that we need the money and he is one of our few sellable assets. Added to that, we have a number of left wingers, who he hasn't been able to outperform to date. I doubt Wagner would bank on him being our first choice winger, with Sainz and Fass starting and Hernandez being close behind.

Whilst they made a frightening number of individual mistakes last year, it's the same personnel that was barely troubled during the second promotion season. I don't personally think a cdm would be the be all and end all - there were other factors that caused our demise, including possession, confidence and fitness. We'd certainly need one in the PL though.

Some are suggesting that the club aren't looking to recruit a cdm this season, opting to continue with one of the current midfielders (McLean) dropping between the centre backs in the quarterback role. Whilst it is a nice way to build up an attack, this tactic is at the core of a few concerns I have around our playing style: a lack of defensive protection, seemingly operating with one man in midfield, poor build up play/chance creation. We'll see.

It looks like he plays on the wing but gets in the box if the ball is on the opposite flank. Most of his goals were from central positions on the usual YT videos.

He's right footed. Nathan Redmond?

Hmm Transfermarkt says that he played LW in every game that he played last season. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/borja-sainz/leistungsdaten/spieler/634461 Either way, I hope that he's been signed to play in his proper position. It irritates me how clubs say player x 'can play all across the front line'... I think Josh Sargent has proven that one to be utter BS.

Obviously hope he does well and all but I'm a bit disappointed that we've signed another left winger. It's early days of course but I make that 7 players who can play there..

A classic hindsight post. You opted not to post this at any point in the last five months, did you? You just decided to post this nugget of wisdom a few hours after Everton stayed up. Footballing genius.

He openly said that one mistake was not signing more players last summer, as it would've given the squad a refresh psychologically. He also mentioned that he was too loyal to some members of our squad by keeping them on. On sacking Farke - many fans agreed with the decision (although not quite in the manner that transpired). It's still a divisive topic, which seems to be a 50/50 split. On signing Hugill - he's not a bad player, and certainly wasn't to blame for either of the two poor seasons that we've experienced. He was a strong third choice striker, and seemed like a great personality to have in the squad. The only criticisms I'd have is that he is only a good option in the Championship (not the PL) and he wasn't suited to Farke's style. I may have missed the comment about wanting players that we can't afford. Can you share the quote? I have a feeling that he said we can't afford the same calibre of players that established PL clubs buy.

He literally said that he's made loads of mistakes whilst at the club, and hopes the next person can learn and build on from them. He also said, on pretty much every interview, that he was fine with criticism, however he was not ok with abuse. He even said that he welcomes criticism towards him, as it means that other people don't get it. Shock horror, when you actually listen to what he says (without a pre-determined bias), a lot of what he says is actually quite reasonable.

He didn't say that people were stupid. He did say that people don't fully understand, which is an entirely reasonable thing to say when there is only a small handful of people in the country who have experience signing football players. As he referenced, the reality is a far cry from a football game, which is as close as most fans get to doing his job. Webber's problems are a) he isn't the best person to communicate when things aren't going well, and b) he's already upset most of the fanbase. Evidently, they're sensitive to any sign of a dig. On a different note, you've provided an incredibly selective list of players there, spanning four years.