I hope never to have to see this particular group of players represent our fine club again

[TheGoogler 324]

I like to think I'm measured in my responses to what happens on the field. I remember on relegation to league one, thinking this was a good chance to see some changes made at the club. I remember relegation with Alex Neil and thinking we had a good young manager who will learn and bring us back. 

I'm obviously wrong a lot too.

I also like to think I have a good grasp on the "this is just a game" mentality. You hear of some whose moods are defined by how we do on the last game. That's definitely not me. 

But this relegation feels different. I feel angry. I feel hurt. I feel disappointed. I feel rather stupid to feel like this.

I guess it's because last season was so good. The squad was everything I wanted in a Norwich squad. Young, hungry, disciplined, playing things the right way (as I saw it). We came up with hope and inspiration. But instead of getting a season where I thought - to be honest - we'd be relegated but with everyone nodding their heads in admiration of what a good go we'd given it with such an inexperienced side, we've had a season that has peaked so very early and then tailed off in the middle and then nose dived into what is the worst I've seen since that relegation into L1. 

Yes I know the pandemic brought the season to a slamming halt. Yes I know it must be difficult and very strange playing in an empty stadium. But I feel like we've not just been relegated, we've lost that intangible quality, that thing that made last season just so special. It looks like we have a squad of players who thought getting to the Premier League was job done, and a management staff clueless as to how to change it. 'm just left feeling like I don't want this Norwich City to be our Norwich City any longer. Get rid of the lot, Stuart Webber. Let's see some passion and pride brought back in. 

Excuse my long and rambling post!

[sgncfc 1,228]

Posting so soon after a bad result is never a great idea!

Before the lockdown we got almost universal praise from everyone for the way we played. People are now saying we are the worst team ever for not even having a go at staying up, but they all have very short memories - at the end of February when we beat Leicester we were still in it. Since the lockdown we've been so off the pace it's like we'd given up. I just think it was inevitable that it would impact some teams more than others and our football depends on the stuff that's missing. It's hard to be passionate and proud when no one's watching if that's all you've got. That's why we've been so bad away from home all season I think - the home crowd lifted them to play at a level beyond and without that they've sunk back to our normal level, which is substantially below what is needed to survive.

I'm not counting the last 9 games as valid because of the situation - I don't think it's fair to judge anyone on such an unprecedented basis. We're down, and I think we would have been anyway, but not quite in this manner.

I don't think it will carry over, even with the same players; but some will be moved on anyway, and new ones will come in and they will create a new atmosphere. Doing again what has already been done is very difficult without new blood and I expect the "out" door to be quite busy.

[Surfer 1,547]

I think Farke explained it well. The loss of crowd support and moving to 5 subs dramatically altered the competitive balance for the bottom 3 or 4 teams. Add in our horrendous luck with Zimmerman, Hanley and Byram getting injured too and you could forsee the attitude of "we are snakebit" seeing into the squad. We have not been good enough, fair enough, and there are players I would like to see leave - Klose, Drmic, Stiepermann - and players I am resigned to us losing - Cantwell, Aarons, Godfrey - but overall I have confidence that this team will bounce back next year. We have too much quality for the majority of the Championship teams to handle us, we just need to beef up a bit for the next time we are in the EPL.