Season Previews

[Branston Pickle 3,657]

I was having a scout around the other day to see if there were (m)any pundits/experts/journos who saw anything other than relegation for us this season.  Given the supposed gap between the Champs and PL it does seem obvious to go for (most of) the promoted sides and I think most of our supporters would say it’ll be tough.  I’ve said I reckon we’ll somewhere be in the bottom 6,  hopefully at the top of it.

It has to be said there were many of the predictions who thought we’d drop (though mostly not seeing us finishing bottom), but there’s also some who see us as being likely to be a bit of a surprise package and that we’ll be fine.

One of the best was this (unfortunately I don’t have the name of who wrote it):

Norwich to be the season's surprise package

Nobody expected Norwich City to storm through the second tier on the way to being crowned champions. Even fewer would predict them to enjoy a comfortable time of things back in the big time, but Daniel Farke's side are equipped to make the inevitable purveyors of doom and gloom eat their words.

 

Norwich were surprise winners of the Championship and are built to surprise once again in their return to England's top table.

 

The Canaries have a clear identity throughout the club, instilled by their excellent sporting director, Stuart Webber, and a wealth of exciting youngsters who play slick passing football from front to back. Their full-backs, Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis, have turned plenty of heads higher up, and the Argentinian schemer, Emi Buendia, is destined for huge things. Finnish striker Teemu Pukki finishes the chances off, and Norwich do not intend to tweak much, if anything, for the new campaign.

 

The division's lower half tends to reward stability and gradual improvement against spending splurges and delusions of grandeur -- contrast Eddie Howe's Bournemouth with Fulham's disastrous ripping apart of the good habits that had brought them up in 2017-18. Norwich sit in the former camp and they should live to fight for at least a second season at the top.