I think we've made a huge mistake...

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

We should have kept Farke, and the board should have had the balls to sack Webber.

His atrocious recruitment was the problem all along, contrary to his claims that Farke was provided with the necessary tools this season.

Even Mourinho would struggle to get much of a dead cat bounce out of this lot.

Literally the only differential between Farke and Smith thus far is that Placheta seems to have benefited from proper chance, but he might have got that from Farke anyway if he didn't suffer from covid related heart problems.

Farke has been a £1m fall guy to buy Webber a 'punt' at his signings coming good. Well they look just a poor under Smith, so sorry but...

WEBBER OUT! 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by TeemuVanBasten

[cambridgeshire canary 4,971]

It's not Smiths squad. Once the clear out has happened and we start next season judge him then.

[TheBaldOne66 397]

The board show balls? Dream on, they don’t know how to. 
 

We are little old Norwich, the nice lady cooks plaything.

 

Until they sell up we just go on like this 

[Kingston Yellow 158]

Just now, cambridgeshire canary said:

It's not Smiths squad. Once the clear out has happened and we start next season judge him then.

Remind us, who put the squad together?  Who oversees all recruitment?

[Naturalcynic 399]

Just now, cambridgeshire canary said:

It's not Smiths squad. Once the clear out has happened and we start next season judge him then.

Let’s for a moment imagine that next season we’re challenging for promotion again.  Would we really want to go up to the Prem for another season of embarrassment and humiliation?  Until or unless the present ownership changes, the whole thing is pointless and demoralising.

[Yellow Shirt 17]

8 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

It's not Smiths squad. Once the clear out has happened and we start next season judge him then.

Then what’s the reason to have brought him in?

it will be too late to do anything in the summer.

[Dean Coneys boots 1,042]

Farke lost the players I think- lots of signs of discontent with Todd, Gimlour, etc - we needed the change. 

Easy to blame Webber but he has his hands tied by wage structure etc…

Its the investment - it really is. The stale air that needs replacing resides at board room level.

[Monty13 1,621]

I disagree, personally. Farke’s time was up, Webber and Farke failing isn’t mutually exclusive. Farke’s PL record was abysmal and I think we’d be even worse off right now personally if he was still here.

With Webber despite the fact we are again ravaged by injuries and Covid, his recruitment isn’t looking great again. In hindsight there’s a number of errors I think you can point to in the summer and say he gambled wrong.

That said I think sacking him is utterly pointless, every move we make with the playing squad is a gamble at this level and our budget, but overall his improvement of the club has been above expectations. I just think he’s showing he’s reached his football ceiling.

Edited December 26, 2021 by Monty13

[Canary Wundaboy 1,054]

It’s the ownership. It’s all come to a head at once. Smith’s doing what he can with a squad that’s not good enough. Webber’s recruitment has been poor but you have to spend big money to buy players good enough for this league and we simply don’t have enough. The ownership can’t invest to give us more budget because they don’t have any money. We’ve stagnated under this ownership and the “project” and we simply cannot compete in this league without more money. You see all those fans leaving before the end today? That’s where we’re heading.

[spencer 1970 180]

I think we should have waited for Knutsen. We know what Dean Smith can do and he failed with a much better side in Villa so Knutsen would have been a Wildcard/Moneyball style manager. We were pretty much down anyway as not 3 worse teams, but he could have potentially been Farke II. He's just  won the league for the 2nd time with Bodo/Glimt BTW, the ONLY 2 times in their 105 year history.

[Kenny Foggo 929]

New owners or the same old shxte will keep happening. Zero kessons learnt. 

[Hank shoots Skyler 1,992]

45 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

It's not Smiths squad. Once the clear out has happened and we start next season judge him then.

Literally not one ounce of that OP is blaming Smith. 

You're so obsessed with being the first one to reply you don't even care to read the OPs. Come on man. 

[HazzaJet 208]

If you want to criticise Smith for our poor performances then I think you have to also criticise him for not playing Normann or Rashica recently. They had already been doing quite well under Farke and played in Smith’s amazing first two games, so why hasn’t he played them since? Has he fallen out with them or think they’re no good, so going send Normann home and sell Rashica next month? No - Normann got injured in Smith’s second game against Wolves, and Rashica in training before Newcastle and are still out. Had they been available for all the fixtures since then I’m certain we would have picked up 3 points against Newcastle, and probably 1 against Villa.

I’m afraid I just can’t see how Smith can be criticised for our poor performances after all the credit he received after his first two games though, as in my opinion this huge drop in form after a great start under Smith is solely down to all the injuries we’ve received, mainly Normann and Rashica

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by HazzaJet

[city4eva 168]

54 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

It's not Smiths squad. Once the clear out has happened and we start next season judge him then.

Think the binners have been saying that every time they change managers, hasnt got them very far…the heart has been ripped out of our club

[Michael Starr 411]

Yep... ownership is the main issue here, or at least the lack of investment. Webber has his hands tied. We're fishing in muddy puddles looking for a prize fish.

[Alfie54 70]

1 hour ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

We should have kept Farke, and the board should have had the balls to sack Webber.

His atrocious recruitment was the problem all along, contrary to his claims that Farke was provided with the necessary tools this season.

Even Mourinho would struggle to get much of a dead cat bounce out of this lot.

Literally the only differential between Farke and Smith thus far is that Placheta seems to have benefited from proper chance, but he might have got that from Farke anyway if he didn't suffer from covid related heart problems.

Farke has been a £1m fall guy to buy Webber a 'punt' at his signings coming good. Well they look just a poor under Smith, so sorry but...

WEBBER OUT! 

 

Placheta was appalling, absolutely no idea what to do with the ball 

[hogesar 7,391]

1 hour ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

We should have kept Farke, and the board should have had the balls to sack Webber.

His atrocious recruitment was the problem all along, contrary to his claims that Farke was provided with the necessary tools this season.

Even Mourinho would struggle to get much of a dead cat bounce out of this lot.

Literally the only differential between Farke and Smith thus far is that Placheta seems to have benefited from proper chance, but he might have got that from Farke anyway if he didn't suffer from covid related heart problems.

Farke has been a £1m fall guy to buy Webber a 'punt' at his signings coming good. Well they look just a poor under Smith, so sorry but...

WEBBER OUT! 

 

1) You were pretty vocal about wanting Farke out.

2) You were pretty sarcastic to posters including me when I said I didn't think sacking Farke for Smith was worth it. 

3) Despite that, all these judgement calls have come in the past few games, when we've had injuries and covid issues. Any promoted team regardless of finances or recruitment will not compete at this level with 5+ first team players out, especially when that includes two of your best players.

[TheGunnShow 4,193]

Some are focusing solely on Webber's work re. on the pitch/recruitment, but it should be said that Webber's work off it has been excellent, re-establishing us as a club where promising youngsters can go whilst radically improving our training facilities that were in need of quite an overhaul. My biggest concern with Farke going is that we've lost probably the best manager we've had in the last 30 years for being willing to give youngsters their head-start and developing them into very good players. To be fair, Smith did develop a few at Villa though, and a Premier League relegation battle is not a naturally conducive environment for chucking in youth and seeing what happens.

[daly 391]

Money talks in this league and we are the poor relations 

Delia should have gone into Oil instead of Yeast

[Uncle Fred 526]

Delia just has to go been saying this for season we can’t progress as a club with her in charge why won’t she do they decent thing and just go

[Danke bitte 782]

4 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Some are focusing solely on Webber's work re. on the pitch/recruitment, but it should be said that Webber's work off it has been excellent, re-establishing us as a club where promising youngsters can go whilst radically improving our training facilities that were in need of quite an overhaul. My biggest concern with Farke going is that we've lost probably the best manager we've had in the last 30 years for being willing to give youngsters their head-start and developing them into very good players. To be fair, Smith did develop a few at Villa though, and a Premier League relegation battle is not a naturally conducive environment for chucking in youth and seeing what happens.

Not sure there’s even a relegation battle happening. We seemed resigned already 

[norfolkngood 618]

41 minutes ago, spencer 1970 said:

I think we should have waited for Knutsen. We know what Dean Smith can do and he failed with a much better side in Villa so Knutsen would have been a Wildcard/Moneyball style manager. We were pretty much down anyway as not 3 worse teams, but he could have potentially been Farke II. He's just  won the league for the 2nd time with Bodo/Glimt BTW, the ONLY 2 times in their 105 year history.

i think the Romance of a unknown manager with his contacts in a different country with unknown players coming in would have been more exciting than Smith 

i am sure Knutsen would have some real gems up his sleeve 

Smith is a tried and tested championship / PL manager Who has been in the PL failed with a a more expensive squad 

which one is better ? hard to say really but they will all come up against the no money in the end 

Knutsen signs some cheap players keeps us in the league then wants to invest again it will always end in the board have no money 

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,153]

We're not a club who can spend £10m on a 19 yr old Greek winger in Tzolis 'for the future' and not play him when that money could have been better spent on someine for the here and now.

Absolutely reprehensible and disgraceful signing

[tea total 59]

12 minutes ago, Alfie54 said:

Placheta was appalling, absolutely no idea what to do with the ball 

And what options did he have???

[The Great Mass Debater 1,033]

47 minutes ago, Monty13 said:

Farke’s PL record was abysmal 

But WHY was Farke's PL record abysmal?

Previous season Sam Byram for £750,000 was our only permanent signing. I think only Oldham in 92/93 spent less in PL history. We tried to play in the PL with German 3rd tier players and free signings. What the hell was he expected to achieve with that?

This time around we invested more but he had the heart of his midfield ripped out and not replaced in Skipp and Buendia and we recruited injured, unfit and previously relegated players who were thrown together with a disrupted pre-season with Normann and Kabak coming in as late as they can do.

Farke was a great fit for us - he wasnt a sodding miracle worker. Neither is Smith. And honestly, neither is Webber. I blame Webber for pushing the board to sack Farke when it was obvious the problem was not the manager, but the players.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,033]

16 minutes ago, Michael Starr said:

Yep... ownership is the main issue here, or at least the lack of investment. Webber has his hands tied. We're fishing in muddy puddles looking for a prize fish.

In that case this guy should be head of recruitment...

 

[Olano 85]

7 minutes ago, norfolkngood said:

i think the Romance of a unknown manager with his contacts in a different country with unknown players coming in would have been more exciting than Smith 

i am sure Knutsen would have some real gems up his sleeve 

Smith is a tried and tested championship / PL manager Who has been in the PL failed with a a more expensive squad 

which one is better ? hard to say really but they will all come up against the no money in the end 

Knutsen signs some cheap players keeps us in the league then wants to invest again it will always end in the board have no money 

Knutsen would not have saved Norwich this season.

 

His magic is that he have one style find players for nothing to that stayle.

 

Knutsen have signed a new contract with Glimt. Knowing all og his best players is leaving in january

[Samwam27 381]

I think its unfair to say Smith isnt improving us. Hes inherited a poor side, and since then lost 4 of our best players in Omi, Normann, Rashica and Henley.

Under Farke we werent scoring and letting in goals.for fun, things arent improving but covid and injuries have ravaged our squad, and many of the summer signings are showing as being poor recruitment.

Gilmour has offered us nothing all season and we need a midfield that protects the defence. LOSING Rash and Normann are huge blows and the only two signings out of all of them that look to have improved us. 

We have no creativity or threat without these two, Cantwell seems a long way off, Tzol an enigma 'for the future' and Sargent, well not sure about anything!

Kabak has errors every game, so its going to be bleak unless Smith is able to dabble in transfer market and be brave to return luxury loan players. If Webber says funds arent available Webber is wholeheartedly to blame for this mess

 

[Monty13 1,621]

Just now, The Great Mass Debater said:

But WHY was Farke's PL record abysmal?

Previous season Sam Byram for £750,000 was our only permanent signing. I think only Oldham in 92/93 spent less in PL history. We tried to play in the PL with German 3rd tier players and free signings. What the hell was he expected to achieve with that?

This time around we invested more but he had the heart of his midfield ripped out and not replaced in Skipp and Buendia and we recruited injured, unfit and previously relegated players who were thrown together with a disrupted pre-season with Normann and Kabak coming in as late as they can do.

Farke was a great fit for us - he wasnt a sodding miracle worker. Neither is Smith. And honestly, neither is Webber. I blame Webber for pushing the board to sack Farke when it was obvious the problem was not the manager, but the players.

Don’t agree. To compete at this level as a small, non rich side everyone needs to punch above their weight and that includes the manager.

Farke showed over 50 games he just couldn’t do that.

Yes he’s had a poor standard PL squad, but it’s not that poor to take the full blame of his record, or if it was he wouldn’t have won two Championships.

Plenty of promoted teams over the last few years have had squads arguably no better than ours and put in much better performances and achieved better results.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,033]

7 minutes ago, Monty13 said:

Don’t agree. To compete at this level as a small, non rich side everyone needs to punch above their weight and that includes the manager.

Farke showed over 50 games he just couldn’t do that.

Yes he’s had a poor standard PL squad, but it’s not that poor to take the full blame of his record, or if it was he wouldn’t have won two Championships.

Plenty of promoted teams over the last few years have had squads arguably no better than ours and put in much better performances and achieved better results.

 

Farke punching above his weight was to get his team promoted in the first place (players were also punching above their weight - hence why many were released or cancelled as they had no re-sale value). To get that team to stay in the division without further investment is to ask fo a miracle. To not appreciate that and then criticize Farke is unrealistic in my opinion. Farke could not turn water into wine. Only Jesus can feed 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish

Edited December 26, 2021 by The Great Mass Debater