Is it time for a post mortem yet?

[Monty13 2,256]

For me we can trace the start of our failure back to Summer 21.

We sold a player who directly contributed 32 goals. Whether through arrogance or slavish adherence to a wage cap (that apparently prevents us paying the worth of the handful of players needed to compete even when in the PL).

We pushed the self destruct button before a ball was kicked.

The cynic in me wonders whether Farke’s new 4 year contract was to placate ruffled feathers about the strategy of immediately touting our best players for sale on promotion and ultimately selling our star not long after.

We all know what followed, we sold the crown jewel for magic beans.

Farkes fate was sealed and then Smith was a panic choice to replace him.

To me the psychological impact of that season can’t be ignored at this point, these remaining players look a shadow of a Championship winning team.

We then spent money in the last summer betting on bargains that may come good rather than building a team genuinely designed on returning, plus leaving nothing for January.

We wasted a winter break to give time to a project that clearly wasn’t and hadn’t worked.

This summer needs a change of mindset. The arrogance that lead us here needs to be parked.  Humility is needed to prevent past mistakes. How we work within the model needs evaluating. 

No you can’t get swayed by everyone’s opinion, but if you “ignore the noise” you don’t even consider that there may be some truth in the criticism, that you may be wrong…and so much has been wrong.

It is of course all conjecture but I’ll personally never stop wondering if we’d held onto Buendia, kept Hernandez and Vrancic around, brought in just 3-4 signings to bolster the squad and gone again whether we’d have competed much better. A more competitive fight may not have staved off relegation, but maybe last summer we could have sold Buendia to fund a rebuild and the squad wouldn’t be as psychologically scarred. Perhaps even another German might still be in charge. We might have genuinely been continuing to progress, as opposed to now.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

You make some salient points. Our board have achieved untouchable status with some but for me they are far more guilty than Farke, Smith or Wagner for why we are in decline and not a top 26 team.

[mannings bandy legs 399]

3 hours ago, Monty13 said:

For me we can trace the start of our failure back to Summer 21.

We sold a player who directly contributed 32 goals. Whether through arrogance or slavish adherence to a wage cap (that apparently prevents us paying the worth of the handful of players needed to compete even when in the PL).

We pushed the self destruct button before a ball was kicked.

The cynic in me wonders whether Farke’s new 4 year contract was to placate ruffled feathers about the strategy of immediately touting our best players for sale on promotion and ultimately selling our star not long after.

We all know what followed, we sold the crown jewel for magic beans.

Farkes fate was sealed and then Smith was a panic choice to replace him.

To me the psychological impact of that season can’t be ignored at this point, these remaining players look a shadow of a Championship winning team.

We then spent money in the last summer betting on bargains that may come good rather than building a team genuinely designed on returning, plus leaving nothing for January.

We wasted a winter break to give time to a project that clearly wasn’t and hadn’t worked.

This summer needs a change of mindset. The arrogance that lead us here needs to be parked.  Humility is needed to prevent past mistakes. How we work within the model needs evaluating. 

No you can’t get swayed by everyone’s opinion, but if you “ignore the noise” you don’t even consider that there may be some truth in the criticism, that you may be wrong…and so much has been wrong.

It is of course all conjecture but I’ll personally never stop wondering if we’d held onto Buendia, kept Hernandez and Vrancic around, brought in just 3-4 signings to bolster the squad and gone again whether we’d have competed much better. A more competitive fight may not have staved off relegation, but maybe last summer we could have sold Buendia to fund a rebuild and the squad wouldn’t be as psychologically scarred. Perhaps even another German might still be in charge. We might have genuinely been continuing to progress, as opposed to now.

Excellent post. Yes,Buendia was a tough act to replace,but,did we even try?

[Helsinki canary 244]

1 hour ago, mannings bandy legs said:

Excellent post. Yes,Buendia was a tough act to replace,but,did we even try?

It seems Webber had already done a deal with Emi that he is free to go if helps us get promoted, so Webber had over 12 months to find the suitable replacement- but instead he pis ed the money up the wall with a bunch of unknown wingers and crocks from failed German teams - Webber has to carry the blame for this utter meltdown since gaining promotion. He must be sacked. 

[Ulfotto 644]

Post Mortem is a funny turn of phase given it’s just a game right. My two cents is that the over the top frustration is due to the fact we have had some of the best football I have ever witnessed from a Norwich team under Farke and it’s not got us anywhere. We are back in the championship same as it ever was. Somewhere in the last couple of seasons should have been a decent stab at the premier league by that I mean the sort of season Brentford and Fulham are having this year or Leeds first season back.
 

If anything the issue  is/was 18/19 we were too successful and getting promoted that season was not a good thing in the long term however good the ride was. In a sliding doors moment do what Leeds did fail to get promoted at the final hurdle stay in the championship keep the team together go up the following year in the covid season and we have a better chance to have that decent season.

[Monty13 2,256]

1 hour ago, mannings bandy legs said:

Excellent post. Yes,Buendia was a tough act to replace,but,did we even try?

I’d argue it wasn’t tough, it was almost impossible and certainly improbable we could. The arrogance to think it was achievable, to replace the absolute heartbeat of a team in a season when they would be competing in the toughest league in the world and you’d already lost a key player, still astounds me.

People buy into the PR idea we couldn’t have kept him, but I don’t buy it, it’s a smokescreen. Webber touted his sale long before he made it clear he wanted to leave according to Bailey. Say he genuinely wanted 80k a week. Was he not worth  4.16 million that year to Norwich?

Does anyone believe we didn’t spend roughly that in wages on the three players we bought and would anyone not have swapped all three back for one Buendia?

Would Emi have been worth less a year later? I doubt it. We got decent money for him, but it’s clear what we bought isn’t even worth what we spent now.

We wasted both the opportunity and the money, and IMO did far more damage than that to the squads morale, the position of manager and the club’s relationship with supporters.