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Webber interview with the times

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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stuart-webber-if-we-lose-im-upset-but-my-life-isnt-to-appease-norwich-fans-dz97jfprq

A few quotes that stuck out to me. 
 

I sleep easy at night because ultimately as I said to Delia and Michael, ‘If 90 per cent of me isn’t enough, it’s fine because I’m already ready to walk out the door. I’m ready for the next stage of my life.’ But they wanted me to stay and I’m incredibly grateful to them for that.

 

Balancing the books is a win. Having good owners is a win. 


That’s why I don’t get angry or upset if we get relegated because I look at it and go, ‘Norwich City and football will go on for ever, long after I’ve disappeared’.”

 

 

 

 

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Being paid a massive salary at the end of each month is also "a win."

I suppose it reveals the difference between supporting the club because it is your job and supporting the club because it is your love.

The first is for Christmas, the second is for life.

 

 

Edited by BroadstairsR

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2 minutes ago, BroadstairsR said:

Being paid a massive salary at the end of each month is also "a win."

I suppose it reveals the difference between supporting the club because it is your job and supporting the club because it is your love.

 

Yeah it comes across as his job at Norwich is getting in his way 😁.  He doesn’t sound as committed as someone should be in such an important role. Really think it’s time he moved on. 

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He just always comes across as a bit of a t**t to me. And one who seems to be almost blackmailing the club with his “I’m ready to walk out the door” lines. 

I very much hope he’s taken a pay cut for these “pockets of time off” and the 90% commitment we are getting. 

 

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Fair play for what he is doing. However, would you get this at any of the other clubs we want to be competing with. With our self funded model and having to watch the pennies wouldn't we need to be working twice as hard as a club? Sounds like we are being that nice club again, webber sounds like he's on his way out, feels like he's more of an advisory role in transition with Adams in line. Would mean no breaks in his CV either for future work.... I was director of football whilst also climbing mountains. 

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10 minutes ago, hurricane said:

Fair play for what he is doing. However, would you get this at any of the other clubs we want to be competing with. With our self funded model and having to watch the pennies wouldn't we need to be working twice as hard as a club? Sounds like we are being that nice club again, webber sounds like he's on his way out, feels like he's more of an advisory role in transition with Adams in line. Would mean no breaks in his CV either for future work.... I was director of football whilst also climbing mountains. 

Exactly. Comes across very unprofessional. If a sporting director says to the owner I can only give 90% to this job then you should sack him on the spot. 
Also not getting angry and upset at relegation is very telling. 

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13 minutes ago, hurricane said:

Fair play for what he is doing. However, would you get this at any of the other clubs we want to be competing with. With our self funded model and having to watch the pennies wouldn't we need to be working twice as hard as a club? Sounds like we are being that nice club again, webber sounds like he's on his way out, feels like he's more of an advisory role in transition with Adams in line. Would mean no breaks in his CV either for future work.... I was director of football whilst also climbing mountains. 

Don’t even think “fair play” for what he’s doing. It’s an ego driven vanity project. And they’ve created a charity as a by product but he clearly would have done it anyway and it doesn’t actually do anything yet. 

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He's done great things for the club and we're in a much better position than when he arrived, especially off the pitch. But being the Sporting Director of a football club that is trying to establish itself in the top league isn't a part-time job that you fit in with your other commitments. If he can't devote 100% of his energy to his role with the club, he should do the decent thing and resign and let someone who can give that devotion take over. We'd all say thank you very much for how you've improved our club and everyone could move on.

Edited by canarybubbles
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Same article here without pay wall.... 

https://archive.ph/DWXnE

This quote made me smile ;

 I get introduced, even at a wedding, ‘This is Stuart, he works for Norwich City’ or ‘He used to work for Liverpool.’ It’s like my identity is just around my job and I really dislike that.

If the man that high up appears to be embarrassed about who he works for, he's one of the few in a position to change it. Make it something to be proud of. Although it must be said, whenever I've been introduced anywhere, certainly socially, rather than professionally they don't introduce me a "this is xxxx he works for company, as where I work is irrelevant in that circumstance. 

I wonder if we were higher up the league, or won a trophy he would view it differently. 

Has any club won a trophy whilst he's been there? 

Edited by Greavsy

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He does come across as blunt and arrogant at times but climbing Everest etc isn't like going around Dereham looking for balloons, it's really quite incredible.

For all his faults Webber seems the kind of person who will fully commit to what he does, ok so having 90% of him doesn't sound great but I bet he gives 110% when we do have him.

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Why would the players be driven to giving 100% when he has given a green light to 90% effort being acceptable. 

Should be leading by example. 

Only at Nodge. 

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25 minutes ago, canarybubbles said:

He's done great things for the club and we're in a much better position than when he arrived, especially off the pitch. But being the Sporting Director of a football club that is trying to establish itself in the top league isn't a part-time job that you fit in with your other commitments. If he can't devote 100% of his energy to his role with the club, he should do the decent thing and resign and let someone who can give that devotion take over. We'd all say thank you very much for how you've improved our club and everyone could move on.

He says he tried to leave  but Delia and Michael begged him to stay. The owners seem happy for him to give 90%  and pursue his other interests instead of replacing him.

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3 minutes ago, CanaryCuddles said:

He says he tried to leave  but Delia and Michael begged him to stay. The owners seem happy for him to give 90%  and pursue his other interests instead of replacing him.

If this is right - and we only have his take on this, not Delia and Michael's - the owners were wrong IMO. No one is so important that they can offer 90%. Imagine if we were thinking about signing a new player and he said, 'Yes, I know I'm good, but I'm only going to give 90%'. He'd be shown the door.

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2 minutes ago, CanaryCuddles said:

He says he tried to leave  but Delia and Michael begged him to stay. The owners seem happy for him to give 90%  and pursue his other interests instead of replacing him.

That’s a huge problem. The fact the owners begged him to stay, after he said he won’t give 100%, tells you everything you need to know. They get too personal with staff and let it effect their decision making. 

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Absolutely ridiculous.  The arrogance of the man.  His performance as a full time employee has been extremely mixed.  Now he’s working flexi-time with a side hustle as a part-time mountaineer.  
 

Usual farcical management by Delia.  As if Ed Balls, Stephen Fry, her nephew et al at the Board Meetings in recent times, along with perennial humiliation in the PL didn’t already scream of “amateur hour”…. This is just another incredibly embarrassing episode. 

 

“Webber climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895m) in January, Snowdon (1,085m) in February, and in June heads to Ecuador to tackle Cotopaxi (5,897m) and Chimborazo (6,268m), then it’s on to Mont Blanc (4,809m) in September, and Island Peak (6,160m) in the Himalayas in November. Then Everest.”

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90% gets you a botched change of manager. I think it’s time he moved on - his heart is seemingly not in his role at City. 

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5 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Oh that's nice, pretty much saying 'Oh well who cares if go down I'm out anyways' real niccccce

We can argue on here about how talented he is. But surely not even his supporters can deny that he is arrogant and self-aggrandising. Has he noticed what has happened this season? Is none of it his fault?

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This, this shows the problem with being a nicey nicey club. No other club in the country would "beg" someone to stay who says they can only offer 90% (and I would bet that is on a good day, most of the time it will be 70%) if it were me I'd have let him walk out the door if he's ready. There's plenty of other people out there who can do his job. 

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1 minute ago, canarybubbles said:

We can argue on here about how talented he is. But surely not even his supporters can deny that he is arrogant and self-aggrandising. Has he noticed what has happened this season? Is none of it his fault?

Of course it can't be his fault, did you not know, he is the messiah incarnate and everything he touches must turn to gold! 

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2 minutes ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

Of course it can't be his fault, did you not know, he is the messiah incarnate and everything he touches must turn to gold! 

No, - He's a very naughty boy........ 

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Personally, I'm happy to stick with SW and let him do things in his unconventional way ... until we end up in an equal or worse place to where we were when he arrived.

His arrival has brought with it two EFL titles, Pukki/Buendia/Krul/Vrancic/Rashica etc., a clearing of the debts, a dragging of the facilities into the 21st century, an awesome academy with an army of prospects and the minimum expectation to at the very least always be a major contender for a trophy lift.

There's more to life than work. If he has an ambition to climb Everest and raise money for a worthy cause then we should be flexible and generous enough to support him ... especially if he has shown to the owners that it won't dent the progress of Norwich City F.C.

Sure, we all wanted to survive in the Prem this time or at least look more competitive but the circumstances of 21st century football and the size of Norwich's punch always made that a tough challenge - very few fans on here thought we would finish higher than 17th in August - despite expecting the signings to be better than they were.

Give the guy a break - yes, familiarity breeds contempt but he's done a very good job here that a lot of fans from similar sized (and bigger!) clubs remain envious of.

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51 minutes ago, Greavsy said:

 

Has any club won a trophy whilst he's been there? 

I'm sure you might be able find some pictures of Stuart Webber with a big shiny trophy for winning the Championship.

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While I strongly believe that we'd be in a far better position if Webber had left in the summer (before the disastrous transfer window) and we still had Farke, I dread to think of the depths we would fall to with Dean Smith under and Neil Adams as DoF. Continuity is important so a smooth transition is going to be far better than a sudden change.

I totally agree with the sentiment of not being defined by your job and not being a slave to 'giving 100%' to your work. Life is far bigger than that and I respect anyone who chooses to challenge themselves. Although I do think climbing Everest is an absurd risk on a personal level!

Sometimes I think people just wish for change without really considering the implications (see Brexit). Often sticking with the imperfect status quo is the better choice - as long as it's in a progressive state of continuing improvement.

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1 minute ago, A Load of Squit said:

I'm sure you might be able find some pictures of Stuart Webber with a big shiny trophy for winning the Championship.

Doh, my bad, of course. 

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4 minutes ago, Cantiaci Canary said:

Personally, I'm happy to stick with SW and let him do things in his unconventional way ... until we end up in an equal or worse place to where we were when he arrived.

His arrival has brought with it two EFL titles, Pukki/Buendia/Krul/Vrancic/Rashica etc., a clearing of the debts, a dragging of the facilities into the 21st century, an awesome academy with an army of prospects and the minimum expectation to at the very least always be a major contender for a trophy lift.

There's more to life than work. If he has an ambition to climb Everest and raise money for a worthy cause then we should be flexible and generous enough to support him ... especially if he has shown to the owners that it won't dent the progress of Norwich City F.C.

Sure, we all wanted to survive in the Prem this time or at least look more competitive but the circumstances of 21st century football and the size of Norwich's punch always made that a tough challenge - very few fans on here thought we would finish higher than 17th in August - despite expecting the signings to be better than they were.

Give the guy a break - yes, familiarity breeds contempt but he's done a very good job here that a lot of fans from similar sized (and bigger!) clubs remain envious of.

But it is denting our progress. His heart isn't in it. There is a saying, 'You are only as good as your last game'. By the same standard, Sporting Directors are only as good as their last season. 

Edited by canarybubbles

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33 minutes ago, Greavsy said:

Why would the players be driven to giving 100% when he has given a green light to 90% effort being acceptable. 

Should be leading by example. 

Only at Nodge. 

Agree. Doesn’t sound like the right man for the job any more. 

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Part of me wonders if he's deliberately said these things in the hope of getting sacked and walking away with a nice little nest egg. He won't resign because then who would fund his mountain-climbing?

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59 minutes ago, glory.win or die. said:

He does come across as blunt and arrogant at times but climbing Everest etc isn't like going around Dereham looking for balloons, it's really quite incredible.

It takes some balls as the death rate is still 1 percent. There's a 1 percent chance he will die attempting it. 

It isn't incredible until he pulls it off. At the moment it's all talk. 

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