Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
"The Club Is Hiding" ACN Pod 104
64 Plays2 years ago
Tom & Jon weigh up the possibility of the club taking a brave, if seemingly obvious decision to change the manager ahead of the world cup break. We chat through potential replacements and what else could be done to turn around the gaping hole where the love-in between club and fans used to be.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome to the Long Come Norwich Podcast. Some jaunty drawing about the journey Norwich fans have been on to genuinely judge themselves as jealous of the joyful way Burnley played football. Burnley! It's an emergency bod with just me and the punt on it. Let's get after it. John, it's time. Yeah, you're
Is Dean Smith's Style Right for Norwich?
00:00:44
Speaker
right. I just don't see how it's tenable anymore that
00:00:50
Speaker
that Dean Smith remains in his position. I tweeted last night that Stuart Weber, by his own metrics, had come out last season with regards to Daniel Farka, or he'd come out this season about last season's Farka sacking. And he'd kind of put it down to the fact that Daniel Farka's style of football wasn't going to meet Norwich City's stated goals, which was to stay in the Premier League. And if we apply the same logic to that,
00:01:18
Speaker
is Dean Smith's style of football going to meet our stated goals of top two this season or even top six or promotion this season? I don't think there's any real sign that we're going to be a top two side is there? I don't think there's at the moment right now with the seemingly the team in free fall.
00:01:36
Speaker
We might be a top six side, but I wouldn't want to put my mortgage on it. It's arguable that we could struggle to make the playoffs. And look, I've seen some Villa fans online on Twitter saying, oh, look, Dean Smith had his bad patches with us, but he always kind of brought them through the other side and made sure that they did then progress as a club.
00:02:00
Speaker
But, I mean, what's he been in charge, 11 months and maybe, I don't know, three or four weeks of those, I felt like we've had a plan or he's got them completely motivated or the club is, you know, kind of functioning as a unit.
00:02:17
Speaker
And it doesn't feel like we're functioning as a unit yet. I think I've probably said on pods before that other clubs look like more than the sum of their parts. And we just don't. And that is a real worry because I think that is a failure on the head coach. And so that is, for me, why, well, along with a multitude of other reasons, why he probably needs to go. And he needs to go now.
Comparing Norwich and Burnley: Leadership and Gameplay
00:02:44
Speaker
Limp on until the World Cup, which is what four or five games away. Let's do it now. Let's get some fresh impetus in and let's see the club kick on because we haven't got a bad squad of players. You know, we've got an imbalanced squad of players, but they're not bad players. They are players that are perfectly capable of competing at this level. And right now for the last eight games, we just haven't been.
00:03:08
Speaker
I don't think it's an imbalanced squad. I think the injuries are making it seem more imbalanced than it is. This squad is easily the best we've had at this level in terms of the way we've seen most of these players play. And I actually include in that a couple of the disappointing people of the last couple of months, people like Nunez. I've seen him tear up the championship. I saw him do it three or four times about two months ago. Where's that guy gone?
00:03:36
Speaker
The starkest thing for me last night, and I kind of alluded to it in the intro, is company had something like 133 days up to Tuesday to get, we were recording this Wednesday, the day after the Burnley embarrassment. I mean, 1-0, unbelievably flattered Norwich.
00:03:56
Speaker
He had 133 days, I think I saw, to implement his team, his style. And, you know, this is Burnley. He was affected. That 133 days might as well have been a week. Think how far he had to drag that club of knuckle draggers kicking and screaming from the way they've played football for more than a decade.
00:04:14
Speaker
to effectively last night, centre backs, strolling out and pushing upfield with the ball. Everyone wanting to play the ball quickly. Wing play, everyone knew who to get the ball to and how to get the ball quickly to that lad on the left hand side as quickly as possible.
00:04:34
Speaker
I can imagine whilst he's, you know, everyone's favourite Burnley player at the moment, I can imagine his indifferent delivery if it doesn't improve. I think that is probably going to be something on the Burnley podcast that gets spoken about his kind of, you know, his feast and famine in terms of final ball. But my goodness me, he gets you off. He looks like a slightly more informed version of O'Neal in terms of he gets you off your feet up to the edge of the box and then sometimes it's great and sometimes it isn't once it comes in.
00:05:00
Speaker
I mean, this is the thing, that 133 days, Smith's had, you know, 320, 330, and it is, you go back to the things he said, even recently, I think we can out football anyone in this division. No, we can't, you haven't shown that at any point.
00:05:19
Speaker
other than kind of 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there this season. And you've also, and we haven't done it against the better teams. You said when he first came in that he wants to play fast football and he wants to get forward quickly and he wants to play progressive attacking football. And we do none of those things. What was brilliant in terms of solidifying in my brain that it's gone from
00:05:46
Speaker
I don't really enjoy this football very much. We need to make a change here ASAP. It was just the stark contrast in speed. I've been complaining all season about well and last season although you don't know how much of it was lack of ability in the Premier League.
00:06:02
Speaker
But I've been complaining all season, including when we were winning and in the top two or three, how slowly we move the ball is I don't even care if it works or not. That part to me has always been irrelevant. I don't like watching it. It is boring.
00:06:20
Speaker
I watched the game last night with my dad and on the telly we weren't there so we can't claim elite status and just the two or three, I think I actually made a note of it and put it in the chat to you punt. It was something like 33 minutes until we strung together five passes or more and actually had a piece of play that looked like we decided to move the ball from one bit of the pitch to another bit of the pitch and it wasn't based upon, well there wasn't a Burney player there.
00:06:50
Speaker
Whereas as soon as they got the ball for that first half an hour, all they were doing was immediately looking to move the ball quickly. And I thought Cantwell's work rate was immense in the first half last night. He was pressing and he was flailing his arms around getting cross about the fact that other people weren't pressing in the way that he wanted them to. And I don't think our press was particularly terrible.
00:07:12
Speaker
From the first bit, the midfield press was bad. There was too much of a big gap between the front three and then the ones behind. And as you know, you all go or none of you go. It doesn't work if only three of you were doing it or only two of you were doing it. They were just brave and that was a word that the commentators used.
00:07:30
Speaker
that they were just brave in the way they move the ball to beat the press and and they were happy to step up and move with it and it feels like that's something that max would do i mean i know on bamitelli isn't available but he was doing that early in the season it's something that nunez was doing earlier in the season what happened
00:07:45
Speaker
How have our players gone backwards in confidence and ability? I know we haven't won for a while, but these are players who are not brand new in their careers. They've gone through periods where they haven't won before. They know form will come back. I'm not having this as form. These are players who, for some reason, the kind of stagnant coaching system that seems to be being applied to us has made a player like Max look far more average
00:08:12
Speaker
then we know he's capable of being. He should be hitting his prime. He should still have another two gears to go into in terms of where he is in his career. Yet this has been his weakest season. Why has
Fan Engagement and Communication Issues
00:08:22
Speaker
it been his weakest season? Because he basically is trying to do everything at about four miles an hour. And so therefore, when he looks up, he hasn't got anywhere to go. Because he's taken too long in receiving the ball, and he doesn't do a quick one-two to kind of shoot down the wing.
00:08:39
Speaker
Like I say, it is almost irrelevant of the results because we've been saying this since August. You know, we play slow, boring, turgid football. And not surprisingly, any team decent enough to be in the top eight come the end of the season. And you look at the table and look at who we've lost to and who we've drawn with. And it basically bears out almost exactly apart from Cardiff.
00:09:00
Speaker
Effectively if you're any good in this league you will beat Norwich because we play slowly enough to just shuffle side to side and control and he needs to go and and It is I tweeted last night that it feels like we are drifting both on and off the pitch and my biggest concern is that
00:09:20
Speaker
Stewart Webber of two years ago probably sacks Dean Smith even before last night. He's probably sacking Dean Smith. Two years ago, Stewart Webber is sacking Dean Smith in the changing room before he gets on the bus like he did ala Farka. If this is 2020, that version of Stewart Webber, the anonymous Stewart Webber
00:09:41
Speaker
I have no confidence that there's going to be the corner graphic that we all want tweeted from the admin anytime soon or even at the World Cup because I just think, who are the clubs going to make that call? We don't hear from anything, we don't see from anything. What a mess in such a short period of time.
00:09:58
Speaker
I think it's interesting you say that, that you don't think that he will or that he would. I think the key, the way I heard it anyway, the key factor and the way I read it actually in terms of when Daniel Farkasacking occurred is that the nail in the coffin seemed to be when Stuart Webber went to senior professionals at the club
00:10:19
Speaker
on the played staff and said what do you think and all of them were in agreement yeah it's probably now and from you know we had Connor Southwell on the pod last week he's still off the view that the players quite like Dean Smith and the players are playing for Dean Smith and the players are pretty comfortable with the training methods and the schedules
00:10:43
Speaker
I just use the word comfortable that I don't think I want my place to be comfortable I quite like the fact that when Daniel Farka came in he upset quite a few of the players in terms of new schedules and double sessions and all the rest of it and look we know there was a few players that that went to the press about that and leaked stuff but you know what actually it got a reaction out of that squad so it worries me that
00:11:09
Speaker
Maybe the players may be in quite a nice comfort zone and they haven't perhaps got that, as you said, the hunger. You know, has Stuart Weber got the hunger? Don't know. You know, we don't hear from him. But have the players got the hunger? I think there's a real big question mark over this squad at the moment. A lot of them have been there and done it before. Have they got the desire to go again?
00:11:28
Speaker
Not so sure. I don't think there's an issue there. Again, if you point to individual things, look how angry Aaron's is getting. That's frustration for me. I think he looks really pissed off because, as you've just alluded to, actually, is it a failure of coaching? Is it that he doesn't quite fit in with Dean Smith's system in the way he wants to play? Is it that the way in which Dean Smith wants to play doesn't get the best out of Max Aaron's?
00:11:56
Speaker
I don't know but that he cuts a frustrated fig and actually this this bit really worries me and is actually there was individual moments of brilliance over the last I don't know say like 10 games which got us goals but they were
00:12:16
Speaker
There was pieces of play around that that would mean that we created chances. I think Ramsey was key to that and actually him playing in the 10 meant that we could link the play a bit better. It's Pookie making things on his own at the moment. We created a chance for Campbell, but even when he scored the two goals, he's scored those two goals against Sheffield United because he's run down the goalkeeper and then he's made something out of nothing himself from a lofted high ball from, I think it was Max Ehrens.
00:12:46
Speaker
We're not creating chances anymore and Dean Smith can jabber on all he wants about XG and all the rest of it. I'm certain that in the last two games we'll have lost on XG. I know we definitely did for Sheffield United and I'd be astounded if we didn't last night for Burnley. We didn't have a shot in the first half, not just on target. We didn't have a shot in the first half. And he's coming out with all we had the second most shots in the division and we've had kind of top of possession stats or whatever it was.
00:13:13
Speaker
But actually, we don't look like a purposeful, cohesive outfit. We don't look like a team who's going to score loads of goals. We don't actually look like a team who defends brilliantly. I think we defend competently, but it doesn't look like we defend brilliantly.
00:13:29
Speaker
So what are we and i think that's the question now what is. What is no city is it as a team anymore what is it in terms of i don't like if we come back to philosophy. That just reeks of the whole kind of fuck a web build the cultural all the rest of it.
00:13:48
Speaker
But there is a fundamental question. What is the philosophy now?
Calls for Change: Leadership and Playing Style
00:13:52
Speaker
What is the plan now? It's not good enough that the club say, all right, we want to be top 26 or we want to be top 17. But you need to tell us how you're going to achieve that now. And that's the bit that's missing for me. And this might sound like, I don't know, a person in a supporter group who's a bit disenfranchised because the club doesn't talk to us as much as they used to. But actually, that's what made our football club
00:14:17
Speaker
different that's what made our football club better because they did talk to support groups they did talk to supporters they did tell us what the plan was going to be and it almost feels like
00:14:29
Speaker
I don't know, they've kind of gone into their shells in so much, it almost feels like, as you know, Neil Ashton, or whoever it is that's advising the Webbers, you know, kind of Stuart and whoever else kind of takes their lead from Neil Ashton, almost like he's running the Tory Director of Communications. The tactic is,
00:14:49
Speaker
rather than actually kind of face any scrutiny, they're either hiding in a fridge or they're walking away from the lectern before anyone else can ask questions. It is a real worry to me that the club are, their engagement pieces of work are just talking to us rather than talking with us. I think that's
00:15:11
Speaker
There's not even enough talking to us, John. There's not enough talking to us. Well, but, you know, they will argue that, oh, they put together a lovely flashy 70 page set of, um, you know, kind of accounts and they're doing YouTube videos with Sam Jeffrey. And then there's, I think there's one in the pipeline with Anthony Richards, but they can cherry pick those questions. You know, they control the narrative and we talked about narrative in the last pod, but you know, they are controlling that narrative right now. And that says to me that it is a club that is scared of its own tail.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah, my issue with that whole blackout nonsense is that we've got really, really, really good local media and they went a bit too hard in the club's opinion on one particular element, but it wasn't as hard as a big section of the fanbase would have wanted them to go on it.
00:15:58
Speaker
And can we not be grown ups and move on from the fact that this needs to be a kind of symbiotic relationship in both parties? If ever we could see that both parties need each other to get what they need out of life, this season has been it. Now again, I don't think
00:16:15
Speaker
i don't think that we there is going to be an announcement coming i don't think it will happen if we lose on saturday i don't think it will happen even during world cup because currently we are two games off within the league we're two games off top and you don't sack your manager when you're two games off top because effectively what what other managers who come in then go oh hang on so what i've got to i've got to be
00:16:35
Speaker
I've got to be within a really good mathematical chance of promotion, win more games than I lose during a season, but I also have to fit the ghost of Farka, or I need to try... I don't think that's not what we're asking for, but Lorne made a really good point, Lorne X of this parish, it's about time he did, last night saying, you know, it's time, I'm ready to love again, I'm ready for a new project.
00:17:02
Speaker
I was thinking similar along the lines of people say well because of the accounts we can't afford to sack Smith and get anyone of a decent calibre that we'd need to pay compensation to because obviously we have to pay off Smith's contract and again
00:17:17
Speaker
We haven't said it explicitly. We're 17 minutes into asking for someone's job to be terminated. He seems like a very nice guy and I wish nothing but success to him in his future career. His football stinks. I wish nothing against him as a person. He seems lovely. He seems like a really nice guy. I'd love to play around and golf with him, but oh my goodness me, your football is awful.
00:17:37
Speaker
and it might not be with other teams and it might not have been with other teams before when you had Grealish and when you had other things and you had Emi and you didn't play him properly. I'm just talking about my beloved team that I don't think you care much more than, I don't think you care much more about it than if you were, I don't even want to offend another profession because there's probably people who love every profession.
00:18:03
Speaker
The analogy I'm trying to draw is I think he cares about as much about Norwich as he does about the black socks that I wore today. They haven't got a pattern on them, they're just blacks. I needed to put something on my feet in between my feet and my shoes, so I just put some black socks on. I honestly think that we are just that much of a kind of stepping stone that he wanted to job in football. A job in football became available. The training facilities are quite nice. The money was probably decent. We had a half decent chance of staying up if we had a miracle or five.
00:18:30
Speaker
and we probably would be alright in the championship because the contract length meant that we were going to keep most of the squad. So it's a Christian gig and he's fine and he's either going to be paid out or he's going to stay his tenure. I can't see us get rid of him but I want us to get rid of him and I don't mind if we have to go left field again and it's not about Farka who, let's have it right, I took a long time to warm to
00:18:57
Speaker
and you know and I don't have this kind of mess ionic and I thought he should have walked away as I keep reminding everyone before that most recent Premier League season he should have quit after the second championship then he should have gone and taken a German job or waited for a German job which was obviously his career trajectory and I'm delighted he's doing well there because he is a lovely guy and he should have walked away and he again he could have a statue because he would have been perfect blah blah anyway
00:19:22
Speaker
I'm ready to start again and I think the narrative is and the emotions around it are such that if we were to get in a guy from the Danish third division or they've just won the Norwegian cup or they are they've done really well a league one team or whatever it might be.
00:19:41
Speaker
then all of a sudden the expectation notches goes down a little bit and we go, do you know what, lads, this is actually going to have to be a bit of a rebuilding year. We think we can make the playoffs, but I've got a system that we need to get back into. And it might be next year that we target him, but hey, we'll see what we can do for the rest of this season. But I need time to get my, my side of football in. But my goodness me, it's going to be good. And like that heavy metal football kind of announcement stuff that Jurgen clocked in is another person I don't like very much. But
00:20:09
Speaker
I think knowledge fans are ready to buy into another project i almost feel like because we are never going to. Be one of the big six we never gonna win the premier league. I don't want to do sports washing be great to have some lovely ethical money that gets us to compete in the premier league but.
00:20:29
Speaker
I think knowledge fans we need we need a story we need something to be interesting because for us it can't just be let's get to the premier league because yes that's joyful to win games and win a trophy that's great but then we know how awful and soul destroying the premier league can be so we always need to root for a guy or root for a system or root for the fact we're doing it differently.
00:20:52
Speaker
With Smith, it no longer feels like we don't even feel like the underdogs anymore with Smith. Somehow we feel, it almost feels like we're part of the establishment because he's sort of a too big a name and playing too basic a style of football. I mean, anyway, I ramble over the place there. I'm just so fed up with it. It just feels so difficult to get behind. It feels so difficult to get a passion about. So let's talk about another specific. Let's talk about tactically, the formation. This godforsaken
00:21:23
Speaker
unacceptable sticking to formation that doesn't work for Pookie and it doesn't work for Sargent and we've literally got proof of what happens when you have just Pookie or just Sargent that it works better. It's your job as a man manager for one of them and just play one or try a 4-4-2. Do something different, it's so good. He kind of did didn't he? He kind of did in the first
00:21:46
Speaker
If you remember, we go back to the first, I don't know, 35 minutes against Preston at Carrow Road. And what, we should have been 3, 4-0 up quite easily. And that was with Sargent and Pookie both playing through the middle. And it was whether you want to call it a diamond or a 4-1-3-2 or a 4-3-1-2 or whatever iteration of the numbers that you wanted to throw out there, we had two strikers up front. And it looked like that was going to get the best out of the both of them.
00:22:16
Speaker
And Dean Smith has been quite candid that he wanted to impose Norwich, you know, he wanted Norwich to impose themselves on other teams in this league. And so, you know, when we went two forwards up front, I was like, OK, I can kind of get behind that because you've got two strikers in a relatively decent run of form. Let's go and do that.
00:22:36
Speaker
And then we just kind of bought it since then you know we threw the game away against person
Tactical Challenges and Player Development
00:22:40
Speaker
but i wasn't because of our attacking price that that was in a kind of because of fragility at the back and and to make a couple of areas and address all the rest of it so i don't really see why.
00:22:51
Speaker
I mean, you've talked about a tactical rigidity. I think actually he's all over the shop with it. I think he's played 4-2-3-1. He's played 4-3-3. He's played Sargent out wide. He's played him through the middle. He can't get the best out of Pookie and Sargent together. He found that for 20, 25 minutes. That Preston, 35 minutes, we talk about us not putting a performance together for a half. That was as close as we got to it. That was as close to us going, yeah, do you know what? We look really fluid.
00:23:21
Speaker
And if that's what we were doing most weeks, fine. The first half against Sheffield United, although we didn't create a load of chances, there was something there. It felt like that was a lot, lot better. But it was Pookie creating things by himself.
00:23:37
Speaker
which is a concern. It almost feels like, and look, we have to mention the mitigation of the injuries because that is an issue. Even then, it still feels like Smith and Shakespeare are just throwing mud up against the wall and seeing what sticks at the moment.
00:23:58
Speaker
Well, that's the bit about coming back to what's the plan and what are we looking to achieve and how are we looking to achieve it and has that been communicated to us? And it hasn't. We don't know what a Norwich team should look like. And you say, you absolutely hit the nail on the head when you said, look, we're
00:24:16
Speaker
We're ponderous and we're slowing the build up. And Dean Smith has said, no, we're going to be quick front to back and we're going to be dynamic and effective and we're going to press. And we're not doing the things that he says that we should be doing. And it's his team. This is his team. 11 months in with personnel that he is quite happy with, otherwise he'd have tried to ship them out over the summer. This is definitely his team. And on Ilhanandes is now almost some kind of fixer to bring off the bench.
00:24:45
Speaker
He probably wasn't good enough for us in the last championship campaign where we won the league. You know, he was a real bit part player. So I don't know. I think you say about this being the best squad that we've had at this level. I feel like it's maybe, well, now I feel like it definitely has regressed from 18, 19 and 2021. The main reason behind that is no Emmy Buendia, of course. So we haven't got that chief creator, but it's still a failure from, you know, the club's perspective and the recruitment side that
00:25:14
Speaker
that we're not stronger than we have been and we've thrown a lot of good money at bad players.
00:25:22
Speaker
We have done that, but I think that we do have a better squad in terms of how many injuries we've had this season, 2021 and 1920 or whichever, the two championship most recent promotion winning seasons, we wouldn't have been able to weather the storm as well as we have this time. And when I say as well as we have, I mean, the players that are coming in and the players that are filling in,
00:25:51
Speaker
I've seen have good performances there helping us out and I fundamentally believe that apart from yes we don't have that talismanic Emmy Buendia figure who was you know best player in the division that that year and almost everywhere else on the pitch we're stronger the fact that cruel can have a wobble and we can bring gun in and gun can play well the fact that we've got um you know some good depth with when it comes to kind of attacking midfield we've got genuine options Dowell would get in most
00:26:20
Speaker
Championship starting 11s, Cantwell would, Sargent would, Pookie definitely would. And this was the point I was making too. But I guess you judge them by output and we're not seeing the output at the moment, are we? Who's faults that? I've seen the output. That's the difficulty, isn't it? Who's faults that? And it comes back to the managers.
00:26:39
Speaker
Yeah, this is it because the point is it always comes down to the manager because it's his responsibility. And if Max is regressing because he's getting frustrated with his performance, whose job is it to fix that? We were told that we've got, you know, brilliant. We were almost more excited about we were told to almost be more excited about Shakespeare than we were about Dini. We were told to be almost more excited again, because then we then we then got this handsome England set piece. What an absolute embarrassment that is. Again, I'm sure he's a lovely chap.
00:27:08
Speaker
and he's very handsome but my goodness me we are terrible at set pieces this season really bad I mean you might as well just not have bothered what a waste of talk about wasting money on signings what is the point other than to make the bench slightly more handsome what is the point of him
00:27:28
Speaker
you know if he's on performance related pay in any way then maybe we need to have a whip round for him because we are not conceding fewer goals from set pieces and we are not scoring more so what's the point of it? It's such a weird one. I mean I haven't looked at the conceding and you know have we scored more but you know the eye test is are we doing anything creative off set pieces which is what he did with the England team you know there was all you know kind of
00:27:53
Speaker
There was a uniqueness about what the England team were doing a lot of the time around set pieces. There's none of that. It's almost like, well, it's completely reliant on the delivery into the box from an attacking perspective. And if it's quite good that we might get someone on the end of it, usually that would be Grant Hanley or Kenny.
00:28:08
Speaker
Neither of those can usually have the ball that straight unfortunately bless them so nothing really comes of it. That is very strange to me that we haven't tried to be more creative when we have got someone in full time to look at this particular aspect of.
00:28:25
Speaker
of play, which is something, you know, we were always told about marginal gains and, you know, the fact that we're always looking for them. So it encouraged me that we got a set piece coach in. Oh, me too. Especially because we've been at it set pieces for years.
00:28:43
Speaker
Just as you go through the whole situation from not replacing Ben Kay off the pitch, Webbers fall out with the media. There's some fantastic people at the club, so he's really top exec, great person, good values, really good person.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think you and Michael are wonderful. The heart of the pub is still in the right place. Yeah, so it's very impressive. You know, Sam Jeffrey, absolutely fantastic, Jen. You know, really, really works so hard to...
00:29:21
Speaker
drain every possible penny out of the local economy's businesses to try and pump more funds into the football club, and he is terrific at that job. We are really lucky to have him. There are some fantastic people at that club, but in the really key
00:29:37
Speaker
off-the-field stuff that affects the on-the-field stuff, to put it not as any more eloquently than that, it just feels like there's a great big shadow where we had this figurehead sporting director who, when things were choppy, would either come up to deflect things off the manager or say something reassuring about the long-term plan.
00:29:59
Speaker
And in times like this where, again, last night I was able to predict, I think I did it about, I tweeted about seven or eight minutes. Well no, so I tweeted with about three or four minutes to go in the game that that chance that Pookie created with a beautiful touch over the shoulder and turned and had a shot with about, I think it was either in injury time or just before 90 minutes.
00:30:24
Speaker
And I tweeted straight away, that will be the high XG chance that Smith mentions in his interview as the reason that we didn't get something from the game. So effectively by that logic, as long as Pookie takes every decent chance he has all season, then we should draw most games. Because he was the same against Sheffield United, basically saying we were only this way. And yes, Sheffield United was a more encouraging performance generally. Brilliant. OK.
00:30:49
Speaker
We still didn't really play great football for any real passages of play during that game. Certainly nothing like when we were at Preston or early in the season when Nunes was firing. And then what happens is he comes up with the local media and says yeah well obviously Pookie had a chance to score and we would have come away with a point.
00:31:05
Speaker
that cannot be your tactic to just hope that the greatest striker that Norwich has ever had bails you out and he is the greatest we've ever had so he probably will bail us out every now and again but that is not a plan that is not a fingers crossed is not a strategy it never has been it never will be and I wanted I really want to
00:31:23
Speaker
I want us to get to the bottom and I want someone to ask Smith and for him to be forced to answer questions along the lines of what has happened to Max? What has happened to Nunes? Nunes looked like technically not quite at Emmys level but certainly Edge of Sea Emmys level and capable of changing a game. First half yesterday
00:31:48
Speaker
completely anonymous, not much better in the second half and the last few games he's just not really been about. It's really strange, obviously we had Adam Brandon on who's a Chilean football expert when we signed him and he was over the moon that one of his best players to watch was coming to Norwich, let alone coming to England, coming to Norwich. And to start with, he lived up to the hype and
00:32:12
Speaker
So again, it's not a case of, oh, what a waste of money. Well, he's not a waste of money because I've seen him do it in the championship against some fairly decent opposition at times. So he's good enough. Your job is to is to is to play into it. Similarly, a fistball on the floor in Topuki gives him the opportunity to take a clever touch, buy a yard and then get a shot off.
00:32:32
Speaker
So it does not take Pep Guardiola or Vincent Kompany to watch a replay of that and go, hmm, Pookie's ever so good and has been for the last few years when he gets balls drilled into his feet or cut back to him to his feet and then has the opportunity to do that, open his shoulder up, stick his tongue out and one touch past the keeper thing that he does so well.
00:32:56
Speaker
Why don't we try and do that more often? Why don't we create patterns of play that is going to get a ball to the place where the next logical ball is to get it into him? Likewise, Nunez is our most creative technical player. I'm having him in the squad. I'm having him on the 11. He's having to do slightly more of an 8-roll than maybe we would ideally like him to because of injuries or whatever. Hayden needs a bit more help, although Hayden does look positive. We'll come to him in a minute.
00:33:20
Speaker
Why are we not working on the training pitch? Well, I guess they must be working on the training pitch. Why is whatever they are doing up colony, Neil, having no effect on us being able to get the ball to Nunes in an advanced position? Last night, I know Bernie at top of the league, but then we were five minutes ago, so I don't think we're out of order comparing the two. Why is it that after a year with our team,
00:33:44
Speaker
versus, you know, three months, four and a half months of Vincent companies had, why is it that he, really early in his managerial career compared to Dean Smith, why is it that he has got players playing with that kind of intensity, that speed, that clear system, that clear pattern, confident to like volley the ball back to the goalkeeper, confident to stride out from defence and ghost pass three of our players and beat the press that way? How has he instilled that so quickly?
00:34:13
Speaker
Whereas we've got players, we don't seem to be able to get newners on the ball in the final third more than twice a half. I mean, it's just ridiculous. It's the most basic thing in football. If you've got a really big lad, like set up a diag, set up a quick switch, which is going to enable you to be able to have an extra second to put real quality into the back stick because we've got a big lad up front.
00:34:37
Speaker
These are just simple coaching things you don't need a badge to understand. You put strength on weakness. People target Max with their tall guys all the time. They know a diag across to the back stick where our right back is is going to be often where chances and goals will come from because Max is not very tall and people go over the top of him a lot, nod it down and people score from that chance time and time again.
00:35:04
Speaker
it's it's so basic and obvious that obviously they know that it's a case but where is the where is the progress that we've made under Smith this season you know we've gone backwards we've gone backwards since he took us over with the players he's had the players he's brought in have looked positive into and then gone backwards as well Ramsey's flashed and I don't know for me you know again sure he's a lovely lad but he I don't think he's championship level um I think he I think he's destined to be a solid league one player
00:35:34
Speaker
But, you know, I can't see the logic of keeping Smith beyond the fact that, well, we are, you know, we're seven points off top, or whatever it is, seven points, yeah, three games out.
00:35:50
Speaker
And so, you know, seven points off top. We want one result away from being in the playoffs again. You can't sack a manager maybe when that's the case. But the problem is if you wait until we have four results off the playoffs, three results off the playoffs,
00:36:06
Speaker
Then all of a sudden it's then a way bigger job to try and instill a new style of play. So then you can't instill a new style of play because everything has to be about the results because we haven't got much time left because you sacked Smith too late. And then we end up with someone who we think is a quick fix again.
00:36:21
Speaker
Which is why again, going back to what Lorny said, I'm ready to fall in love with the project again. If that means that there's going to be huge team turnover,
Fan Dissatisfaction and Cultural Disconnect
00:36:30
Speaker
if it doesn't work. We have one big lump this season, and if it doesn't work, loads of people have to go because of the state of the accounts.
00:36:37
Speaker
So be it. But I want that to be under someone who has got a plan for what we're going to look like in five years time. And so I'm ready to buy into that. I'm not ready to buy into. Let's see if we can get out of the division and do just enough on XG to scrape through because that's not worth my season ticket. And I think this is the bit that
00:36:56
Speaker
So there's a really good question that's come in and it is tongue in cheek, but it's from Andrew Kent on Twitter and he says, what's the point anymore? And, you know, look, that seems like he's taking the piss a little bit, but actually that gets to the, you know, the absolute heart of the issue for me is that I
00:37:18
Speaker
Look, contextually, fans of other clubs can go, you know, this is completely entitled Norwich fans. And, you know, you're just too used to bobbing up and down and having a successful team in the championship. And, you know, this is just another little bump in the road and you'll be fine. But it's just so much more than that, because we haven't got the thing to buy into, as you say.
00:37:42
Speaker
And the reason why I feel, you know, kind of so disconnected from it, I guess, is that we've we felt what good looks like. We felt what good fan engagement looks like. We felt about what good comms looks like. We've we've been able to be on the on the receiving end of of just the most wonderful, you know, kind of two or three years. And I don't put that completely down to Daniel Farker and the football that he played.
00:38:07
Speaker
I put that down to the way in which the club operated in the way in which the club did everything in the right way and i'm i said on the last pod but the club with definitely at pains to say that the culture will be tested when things go badly and it's really easy just to just say that i'll call just brilliant when when things are going well.
00:38:25
Speaker
The culture is being tested now and the club is hiding and that's what it feels like and they don't think they're hiding. I think that's the problem here is the noises that I hear is that they think that actually maybe the engagement went too far the other way and maybe we are all just entitled supporters and it will be fine when we win a few games.
00:38:44
Speaker
It won't because we were saying this when we were winning games. The disconnect is massive and the culture of apathy is pervasive and I worry that
00:39:00
Speaker
fans will turn away in their droves this summer. Well, as empty seats are ready for the loot game. And I've already seen it on WhatsApp this afternoon. You know, the shouts have already started. Bought tickets available for Stoke, yet not going to make it for Stoke game. And that wasn't, you wouldn't, you would basically, you would take the argument with your better half about the fact that, nah, it's a home game, mate. I can't do that run to the children's party. I can't,
00:39:29
Speaker
I can't help you mow your lawn I can't help I can't go and help my uncle sort you know lift his heavy TV you know all these things that are basically reasons that people give now they think you know what for a quiet life I'll just miss a football because I know what's gonna happen with you we're gonna play for about seven and a half minutes and if Pookie does more good things than we make mistakes then we'll win I mean and it's
00:39:51
Speaker
I said this on the previous podcast with Connor. I really, really like this team. I love teaming. I mean, one of my favourite players of all time. I mean, why wouldn't he be? But it's not exactly a controversial opinion. I'm not doing that for clickbait.
00:40:07
Speaker
I love Timu. I love Todd Cantwell. I've never been on Todd Cantwell's back. I've always defended Todd Cantwell because he's the local lad and I think he's got an amazing ceiling and I've always thought he could be... I wanted someone to sit down with him and say, I'd like you to be captain of this football club and let's get you on a path to become that.
00:40:24
Speaker
Nunez is a wonderful player to buy into, such a lovely big smile on his face. What a likeable guy, Sargent, what a likeable guy. Hayden, in these early days, seems like a gentleman of a footballer and seems like he's got a high ceiling. Oma Bamedeli, brilliant local, not local, brilliant academy player that we've brought through. Tomkinson, what a great story, hand lead, legend, hilarious bloke.
00:40:54
Speaker
Cruel, love is the fans, gun with his dad. This is a really, really great squad that we want to get behind. It is not the players. That is not the issue at all. I don't want a big wholesale change of players. It is not that we're not good enough. It is not that we've not got the ability in the squad. That is not a problem because we have basically, we're seventh in the league and we haven't got out of second gear more than two halves this season.
00:41:19
Speaker
that's how good our squad is we're basically playing basic football taking chances when other people make mistakes and that is good enough to be seventh after what quarter of the season maybe a bit more approaching a third of the season i'm not really good at maths so if there is no there cannot be any boo boys when it comes to the squad and what is really refreshing
Potential Managerial Candidates
00:41:41
Speaker
not not is that there is very little vitriol towards the players you know there are there's a few people who you know like to get on Kenny's back and I'm not the biggest fan of Ramsey and the rest of it but generally everyone seems to be of the same opinion which is it's not the players mate it's it's the way that the players being
00:41:59
Speaker
Applying themselves in this system or systems or you know If you want to credit him with having more than one formation to be honest, mate I think you were being very kind and saying he's had different formations He said the same kind of formation with the tiniest of tweaks as to where those little counters going I think he's buried it up, but I think you you touch on
00:42:18
Speaker
On the real salient point here, I've never ever seen, well one, the fan base so united, actually no, I have seen the fan base so united in thinking that managers should go, but not recently. You're talking about Worthington or whoever it might be.
00:42:37
Speaker
But actually recently, last days of managers, there's always people that would come out in support of them, the usual suspects, but people that will come out in support of the manager and find something there.
00:42:50
Speaker
I can only see one or two people really saying that Smith needs or deserves any more time. I think it's vested interest to me. I think it is vested interest, but the old history thing, they look at the sources and look where the sources are coming from. There are a couple of people on social media to whom they've got a little bit of access to Smith.
00:43:11
Speaker
for one reason or another, and they're giving it the... Oh, it's not him, it's Weber, or...? Is that Dean Smith's fault as well? Yeah, and there isn't anyone left, I don't think, with us. And basically, like you say, it's united with one voice, and it's...
00:43:30
Speaker
I don't we we always are reticent to call for for managers to be sacked we were with Farka and you know because obviously he also had achieved great things and I think to be honest in the Houghton and if we'd been doing this podcast in the Houghton and Roder and what have you days we would have been
00:43:50
Speaker
Again, we would probably, just because of the sort of people we are, try and leave it as late as possible to call out all of the negative situations, but say, look, this is still someone's job at the end of the day. The issue is, it's not just the stuff on the pitch. It is making it worse to go to Carroll Road and something needs to change. The biggest, quickest, easiest shot in the arm is a change of coaching style. Now, here's a provocation for you, John.
00:44:17
Speaker
would you accept, because of the money situation, if they said, oh, well, we can't do it, would you accept an internal promotion to the end of the season? Who the fuck are you promoting internally, Craig Shakespeare? Neil Adams. So hang on.
00:44:34
Speaker
What? To be the head coach or to be the sporting director? To be the head coach? Well, no. To the end of the season. I think the question is... I would take that over Dean Smith and Shakespeare to the end of the season. Oh, wow. I mean, it does feel very... Because again, because I... Neil's days, though, doesn't it? It feels like we've got the squad and we just need someone to motivate them. But that comes...
00:44:57
Speaker
That comes down to, can we afford not to? And we're going to get to that place quite quickly. Or can we afford to second? Ultimately, we've seen what the accounts say. If we don't get promoted this season, maybe next. Financially, we're absolutely screwed without wholesale, well, without an absolute fire sale of our best talent. And everyone knows it because it's laid bare in the accounts.
00:45:21
Speaker
I would like to come on to Matthew McGregor's question that he sent us on Twitter, which was, or which is, who should Norwich's new manager be and when should he or she start? Now I think we've got
00:45:36
Speaker
So the he or she should start as soon as is humane, humanly possible. But Tom, I guess, Emma, Emma, someone she's on sabbatical. She's just had a major operation. So I'm sorry. She's brilliant.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, would be fantastic. But, you know, it's absolutely not in any kind of place. And actually, I don't even know if she'd take an orange job. Given that. Too low down. Yeah. Well, I think she got offered a job at League One level and turned it down from what I'd heard.
00:46:13
Speaker
But who else is out there? I don't think even under Smith will get relegated. But what I mean is she's turned down one at that level and made the point almost like, well, I'm managing at Champions League level in the women's game. So I kind of get her logic.
00:46:30
Speaker
but also don't at the same time, you know, because reasons. But, you know, that's for a whole other podcast, mate. You know, she's a phenomenal coach and will go on to do brilliant things in whatever way she chooses to do. So what about who and when? So Gerardo Cianni. Tell me about that particular person you've just mentioned, Thomas.
00:46:58
Speaker
And so this is someone who I've got it on very good authority. He's a Swiss coach. I don't know how to pronounce his name as you may have got out. He's also... Say it again. Say it again. So he's Jerry. C-O-A-N. C-O-A-N. So it's pronounced S-E-O-A-N-E.
00:47:17
Speaker
Yeah, so he is a Swiss coach and he has been at Luzern and then he also did a stint. He's done a stint with the Switzerland under 21s.
00:47:37
Speaker
when he was when he was playing by the way and but he's been at Bialavakusan and before that young boys and what he was he led by Bialavakusan to finish third in the Bundesliga which is their best finish in seven seasons
00:47:53
Speaker
and then he's just been sacked because of a poor start to the season. So, Collo, who has contributed to lots of the Long Conure stuff, has decided that that is the correct appointment, and I can't think of a better, I can't say his name, and so hopefully the first press conference would be, you know, maybe Michael Bailey could give it to us phonetically, although we say Max Aaron's and Max Aaron's wrong all the time, so maybe Jerry would forgive us.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah, I want to be Jerry in the pacemakers. I want I want him and so Gerardo's here on That's that's who I want to get in and he'd love it. He comes I know if he gets a house in dis if he gets a house in dis and he's Swiss we go Yeah
00:48:40
Speaker
What about Knutson? Because he's still at Bodo Glimt. He still has them playing. All right. Compensation might be too expensive. It's got to be someone out. It's got to be someone out of... I don't think they'll do it unless they're out of post. I just... Again, it comes down to, can we afford not to? And I think... That's the worry for me, is that ultimately we wouldn't...
00:49:09
Speaker
The kinds of sums that you're talking about to pay off managers and to then maybe get someone out of a contract elsewhere.
00:49:19
Speaker
are the kind of sum, well they're not even the kind of sums that we've dropped on players this summer. And I just think that the head coach, manager, whatever you want to call them, it's just such a key position that we need to get right this time. And it's almost like, and we said it maybe with Dean Smith, but it's almost like Stuart Weber's legacy. And I really feel like he wants to leave a legacy at Norwich.
00:49:41
Speaker
OK, so depends on the next appointment. Let's go through these and you give me a yes, no. So Javi Gracia, the guy who managed to keep Watford in the Premier League the first time and he got into their first FA Cup in 35 years. Are these all managers out of work that you're just going to chuck at me? No, they're going to be realistic ones. I think this is a realistic option. No.
00:50:04
Speaker
Okay. Sean Dyche. Um, no. Good. Um, can't pronounce his name. Um, uh, Beelzer. Um, if we could afford his salary, I would take him in a heartbeat. Okay. So I think he would immediately galvanize this squad and we'd be fine.
00:50:35
Speaker
But he would also probably want about five million a year. So no chance. OK, well, I think of the of the year after. Oh, yeah, 100, 100 percent. All three of those that I just mentioned, not including dice, I think are realistic options that they would consider having the conversation. A quarter quarter. What's his name? He's just gone west from that.
00:51:01
Speaker
I liked the way he tried to play. He was almost a Farka-style where he didn't have the good enough players to play the way he wanted to play, but he overachieved.
00:51:13
Speaker
Let's ask this in a different way, because we have had a question along a similar vein, which was from Ollie Royal. I'm just going to try and find it. He said, how many other teams in the championship would you prefer the head coach of here instead of Smith? So if I read you out. Yeah, let's go through. Let me read you out the ones. I think this is filtered by, or this is length of service. So it's longest serving first, which is Mark Robbins at Coventry. What do
Endorsement for Change and Future Hopes
00:51:40
Speaker
you reckon? Yes.
00:51:40
Speaker
Yes, please. Gary Rowlett at Millwall. No, I will drive him away from the training round myself. Nathan Jones. Luton. Really? I take him. No, you love Luton. No, you're not organised. Whatever. The Tesco trolley boys are organised. Doesn't mean I want to watch their football.
00:52:06
Speaker
Okay. Nigel Pearson. Did we get the answer? Yeah, I knew your answer. Liam Richardson. No. Russell Martin at Swansea.
00:52:19
Speaker
Silly question. Top of my list. Is that genuinely like he would be? It's time. He'd be bonkers to come because he's onto something really, really good with his ones. He's got them playing fantastic. I mean, I know you won't have any sense of this and even if you did, you couldn't say it on this podcast, but do you think he would come if offered?
00:52:40
Speaker
I'm not sure he would come right now. I think he has said publicly, it is his ambition to manage Norris City Football Club. He hasn't said that since he got his previous job to this one, because why would you say that? Because he's mad. However, I fully think that he feels there is
00:53:03
Speaker
not unfinished business, he didn't start it. But I do feel he thinks that he knows how this club works and he has seen it through good times and bad. And I do think that he would love that on his CV. However, I think he's got a really good chance of being a Premier League manager with Swansea next year. I also just think if he comes here, or if and when he comes here,
00:53:28
Speaker
I don't think he'd be afforded the same amount of patience as perhaps other managers would. I think just the fact that he, I don't know, he was the scapegoat, wasn't he? There are some idiots in a fan base who don't realize what we had there. I mean, with regards to looking at the Norwich job, I think it's got to be someone who doesn't have
00:53:51
Speaker
we want someone on the up but it's got to be someone on the up who is either out of work already because they maybe went slightly too high with their most recent appointment because the point is you've got to look at that squad and look at the accounts and think you know what I've got a short window with this squad of players to I mean almost anyone they employ who has got any management experience
00:54:17
Speaker
He's going to have, he's going to have a top half team. They're just too good not to be. Should we go through the rest of the championship managers and you can give me a quick yes or no here. So we've got Paul Heck in bottom, X Norwich, Ryan Lowe, Preston. No. Paul Innes. Don't be stupid. Yeah, correct answer. Michael Beale. Who's he managed? QPR.
00:54:42
Speaker
No. Turned down Premier League jobs recently as well. I think I'd take him. Michael Appleton. John Dahl Thomas. Yes. Vincent company. Yes. Why would he come? John Eustace. Alex Neil.
00:55:06
Speaker
Uh, it would be hell right now. Part, part, part of me would, part of me would, would love it. Love. You'd love to see it, but, uh, no, it's just not, it's not going to happen. Is it? So no, no, I mean, I, but I would take him, um, Tony Mowbray. No, God, no, Slavon, Slavon Billage. Yes. He wouldn't come. I don't think we could afford him, but yes. And lots of X and orange here. Mark Fotheringham.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yes, but not now. Andy Dawson. No, no. I mean, it's just, just go back. Mark Fotheringham. Yes. With a big smile on my face. Of course not. Yeah. Bless him. But to be fair, I can't see your face at the moment because I am reading out lists of managers and I've only got one monitor where I am. Um, where are we? We said, oh no, Matt Taylor. No.
00:55:53
Speaker
Richard Beale at West Brom, Michael Carrick at Middlesbrough. Well, Richard Beale isn't West Brom manager anymore, is he? Michael Carrick's only been there a week. Just hypothetically, who you would take from the other championship teams. I wouldn't want to be Michael Carrick's Norris City. And to be honest,
00:56:12
Speaker
I wouldn't want to be Vincent Companies, Norris City in that same way. Although, you know, having now seen the way he's got them playing, as I said in the intro, I'm jealous of Burnley. That shouldn't be a sentence that's coming out of your mouth. I just wouldn't have, I mean, I've been there. I'm not jealous of the place. My goodness me. I went to Stoke for the first time today. It's fucking awful.
00:56:36
Speaker
Yeah, was any part of that a surprise? No. They blew the sick. They literally, they boo injured players. They are a funny part. I didn't go to the football club. I went to the Emma Bridgewater factory outlet. It's an absolute shithole.
00:56:52
Speaker
Oh, she, well, she wants to go. So it's a shame. She's got no interest in listening to me factory outlet. She wants to go there. Yeah. Yeah. That's all right. It's got a nice cafe. Okay. I'll do something. I mean, so, um, what, one good thing about Stoke is they're guaranteed at least one goal because Dwight Gale hasn't scored in 15 championship games. Exactly. Alongcoming orange.
00:57:13
Speaker
Yeah, so to wrap up, because this quick half of our emergency pod's gone on a bit, I feel really deflated. Last night was not the last straw because I felt the same way with Smith since the start of the season. But last night was just such a clear,
00:57:41
Speaker
one team's going places, one team is nice to watch, one team has a star in the system and you feel that actually they could swap out four players. Do you remember when we had that Bournemouth Cup game and we swapped something like seven players and it still looked like Farkas football, and yes I know we're going on about Farkas again, but it's not about him, it's just like company, that's a really good example of a system whereby because it's so ingrained in how everyone is playing, if you swap three players it still looks like you all know where you need to stand and what you need to do.
00:58:11
Speaker
I just feel really deflated about my club feeling so rudderless on and off the pitch. And I just think there's two ways it changes. One is a style and a swagger and a system is evolved out of the mess we've got now. And it actually starts looking like a football team that you want to watch. Brilliant. If Smith can do that,
00:58:41
Speaker
I'm all aboard the Smith Bus. Brilliant. Three games in a row, or two out of the next four, or three out of the next five games, we spend the majority of the game looking like we know how we're trying to get from A to B, and we do the same thing more than once, so therefore it's a pattern, not a fluke, and we play exciting football in some way. I would completely rescind my Smith Out status and say, yeah, well done mate, you've finally cracked it.
00:59:07
Speaker
So that's one opportunity. The other opportunity is to change the manager and start a new chapter. So basically you have two or three games of Shakespeare maybe doing it, or Neil doing it, or someone doing it for two or three games up to the World Cup. And then they've got the World Cup training where you've got everyone but Josh-ish. Am I right in saying that?
00:59:29
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much. Island aren't there, are they? So, everyone but Josh and Scotland aren't there. So, everyone but Josh until we come back again Christmas time. It's a great time. What a blessing for teams like us who are underachieving to really get going and get a massive new bandage of bounce.
00:59:48
Speaker
They're the only two options because limping on as we are, winning every now and again, which I'm sure we would, if we kept Smith to the end of the season, we'll finish top 12, probably even top 10, maybe even top eight, because we just got better players than everyone else. It just depends how much, well, not everyone else, but a lot of other teams. It just comes down to,
01:00:06
Speaker
how much the players down tools and get fed up with it. Because I know Connor might say he hears this, he hears that. I'm not having it. Campbell's fed up. You can see it. Nunez is not playing with the same smile he was. Handley's fed up and complaining more than he normally would, saying things like, it doesn't really matter. There's bigger things to deal with. Crawl's out of the team. Pookie is visibly frustrated, way more than we've seen him previously, because he knows he's going to get very, very little service, and he has to basically score everything.
01:00:36
Speaker
It's the the players event if they go by the same logic of all eventually enough senior players have told us They're not happy it could be too late. And so so the answer is not just winning a few games and it will go away It won't it is something fundamentally broken Smith has chosen to go with this kind of keep the supporters at arm's length thing Because that's his way fine mate, but we don't want managers like that. That's not managers like that is not how we Operate we want we're a small
01:01:04
Speaker
city club. We are a provincial place. We are regional. We've got a real sense of identity. We're similar to Bristol in that way. We're similar to the south-west in that way. We're similar to the north-east in that way. It is more than just a football team. And I know every football team thinks that, but there is something about the mentality of Norwich fans and where we are stuck out in nowhere compared to where else in the country.
01:01:31
Speaker
We want our manager to take us on a journey and really include us and make us feel like we're in on something and we're so lucky that we get a ticket to be on this bus and it might actually take us three seasons and we can see it's not quite coming off yet but we can see where we're trying to get to.
01:01:51
Speaker
I want that again. I don't care if it's an English manager, a foreign manager, a female manager, an alien manager. I don't care. But I
Conclusion and Fan Encouragement
01:02:01
Speaker
want to jump in a car excited on Saturday lunchtime to go to Carrow Road, as opposed to, well, I bought two season tickets. So, you know, I'm going to go. And I think that's the worry, isn't it, that I
01:02:16
Speaker
I don't care as much as I used to. And in fact, if I wasn't going to go to a game, I really wouldn't be that bothered at the minute. I am going out of duty. I'm going, you know, in the next couple of home games on a Saturday, I'm going because I've bought my daughter's tickets and they want to go. And that should be a real worry for the club that people that have supported him through thick and thin, people who've had season tickets in the Peter Grant days and the Glenn Roder days and the Chris Hooten days,
01:02:47
Speaker
don't care as much and this isn't about the brand of football as much for me because you know the football was dour then and probably more dour than it is now. It is the fact that we don't feel as connected to this football club as we did and we we feel like it is regressing to an extent that it leaves us disinterested
01:03:08
Speaker
I don't think that winning a few games of football is gonna fix that for me i think it is gonna need someone to come out and say here's the plan we want you back on board here's how we think we're gonna do it.
01:03:22
Speaker
And that doesn't seem but doesn't strike me as if that's going to be forthcoming for years, maybe. And I think that really worries me. I think the position, I think the start of football does play into the to the field of togetherness personally in that you think, yeah, but my team play like that. And that's how my team plays. And I love the fact that my team plays. So I think it helps. But I think there's a bit about being talked at not getting that. Don't you get that as well? It's a valid element of it.
01:03:49
Speaker
So, let's do some guarantees for Saturday, aside from Dwight Gales scoring at least one. What is your guaranteed score line and your guaranteed Norwich scorer? I'm going to guarantee that we will lose 2-1 and I'm going to guarantee that there will be a goal
01:04:10
Speaker
a Norris City goal from a corner purely because we've talked it up now. We will talk it into existence that will be scored by Isaac Hayden.
01:04:23
Speaker
Nice. I thought he has looked really positive, so if we can keep getting minutes in his legs, other than a silly booking, I think he looks the business. I think we will win and Smith will do a single clap on the very far touchline and not having interested in involving himself with us.
01:04:42
Speaker
We'll win and we'll maybe play for 10 minutes and do that really frustrating thing that we did a few games ago where you think, yeah, there's a team in there, but you've only managed to get them to play for 10 minutes and that was enough to beat Stoke. And we've won maybe 2-1, obviously, because Light Girl has a score. We win 2-1, the Norwich scorer is going to be... I like Hayden, that's a great shout.
01:05:07
Speaker
But the Norwich score is going to be Campwell, because I think his performance in terms of work rate deserves it. So he's going to score at least one of the goals. We're going to win 2-1 and we're all going to sort of be sat there on Saturday going, oh, I'm pleased we won. I enjoyed cheering two goals.
01:05:24
Speaker
We're no further forward, and I think that is the overwhelming feeling at the moment. Anyway, if you are still with us, thank you for listening to the Long Come the Road Podcast. He has been punt, my acknowledging exists, I have been me, and enjoy the game on Saturday, I hope.