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"So What Next?" ACN Pod 127
875 Plays10 months ago
Clare joins Jon & Tom to reflect on a very positive Coventry result a prideful showing against Liverpool (in some people's eyes) and work out if it's safe to feel positive yet?
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Transcript
Wave of Optimism at Carrow Road
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to the Long Come Nourish podcast, a cultured conversation across the current canary's context of crushing Coventry. Claire and Punt are with me today to have at it.
00:00:34
Speaker
Claire, we are officially in a playoff race. One point from the top six with our top scorer about to come back from injury and key players are banging form. So is it fair to say we should be feeling full of joy and positivity? I think so. Yes, there is certainly a wave of optimism at Carrow Road on Saturday, which was a bit of a turn up for the books. We haven't had that for a little while. It seemed like everybody was kind of on the same page and pulling together.
00:01:04
Speaker
a good performance against a good team, certainly a good six weeks really. So I think things are starting to become a lot more positive and dare we hope, we'll probably get beaten at QPR on Saturday now after all of this, but you have to enjoy the moments and I certainly enjoyed Saturday and I think the players did and the fans did. So yes, let's be positive, let's believe.
00:01:33
Speaker
Well, I think that is the interesting element of the positivity and the belief that some people feel in that the same people who feel that were kind of wringing their hands maybe just a few weeks ago and trying to understand why David Wagner was still in the job punt, wouldn't you say?
Is Wagner Back on Track?
00:01:51
Speaker
I mean, we were definitely of that parish, as were, you know, we were both were definitely of that parish. We were. I would say. We were. I mean, someone said to me the other day, I think we might even have it as a question, like, are we, as a listener question, are we?
00:02:08
Speaker
witnessing one of the greatest managerial comebacks ever, because I cannot remember, well, one, I cannot fathom the fact that he is getting them to play for him again. And two, I just can't remember a manager being so far past the brink with the supporter base, because let's face it, like if you asked Norwich fans, like probably 98% of them would have returned a verdict of like he needs to go.
00:02:38
Speaker
And now it genuinely is in the balance as to whether I would change him or not at this moment. And that is testament to the fact that the players have kept playing for him. He's clearly a likeable guy, and he's probably kept them on board because of his personality. But not only that, actually, look, we have to credit him with the last two home performances that I've seen against kind of West Brom, and then subsequent against Coventry.
Key Player Impact and Defensive Strengths
00:03:03
Speaker
We were really good, we were really balanced, we just struck a perfect chord between defence and attack. Defensively I thought there were moments when Angus Gunners had to bail us out, but any good side will have to be bowed out by their goalkeeper at points in the season.
00:03:20
Speaker
Defensively, we looked assured, we looked like we had control of some games. I don't want to go overboard because we have gone overboard on the Wagner out-train a few times and we've really questioned the club's decision-making around why was he still here. I don't feel like we should go too far the other way until we have a sustained body of evidence to suggest that maybe we will
00:03:45
Speaker
kind of come up with that playoff push but at the same time like all signs are positive and it just it maddens me almost that
00:03:56
Speaker
Josh Sargent was the missing piece of the puzzle all of this time because how can we be so reliant on one player to turn us from a top five club to when he's gone like a 17th or whatever it was in the form table. We went back and forth on that.
00:04:17
Speaker
But the evidence suggests it really strongly. Like, you know, when Sarge has been here, we've been really good. And when he hasn't, we've been really bad. And it isn't as primary as that. It's not as bad as 17th. Not as bad as 17th, though. I genuinely think it probably is form table, don't I? Well, no, because if you go back to when we played Disgum, we are something like fourth or fifth in the form table since then. And there's a big chunk of that time we didn't have Sarge. So I don't think that's quite the case. I think it is...
00:04:46
Speaker
that we are more like a, we're bang average mid table without him. And yeah, that means you in a championship bang average mid table, you can swing from 10th to 17th. So, so yeah, to an degree, but there's no way this is the 17th best set of football is in the championship. And I think, you know, where, where we were, and you know, many others were putting the hair out about it was
00:05:09
Speaker
we almost exactly to that point around Sargent we know that the sum of these parts even when you take out one of the really good parts should still be better than most of those and you know you're a lot more down on this squad than I am and you have been since you know August transfer window closed
00:05:26
Speaker
I think that I think I still maintain as I did at the start of the season and even through the bad run and that was why I thought Wagner was on such a shaky ground was that I still think on any given Sunday six or seven of our team would get into most starting 11s not the top two or three but the majority of the rest of the championship would be delighted with
00:05:48
Speaker
you know, a couple of our defenders, a couple of our midfielders, one of our strikers at most times. And I think what we've seen is that Barnes on Saturday, to your point about Sargent coming back, you know, Barnes played a fantastic role on Saturday when he came on because he was there as a kind of second foil. He was there as a kind of support person to patrol a specific area and not have to do more than he's maybe capable of doing. I mean, Claire,
00:06:17
Speaker
Who stood out for you? Obviously, Puntz mentioned Saj and I've mentioned Barnes. Is there anyone else that you would single out for praise from Saturday? Well, Saj, obviously.
00:06:30
Speaker
He's obviously only going to score amazing goals, but I just think his work rate, I love his aggression. I think he's, I've heard he's quite a kind of cocky character off the pitch as well, but I like that. I like that fact that he's got that little bit of steel about him. I saw people comparing him to Emmie Rendea at the weekend, you know, he's got that little bit of kind of aggression that sometimes can boil over.
00:06:58
Speaker
But if you rein that in, just that fight in him, he just wants it so much. And that's got to be a good thing throughout the whole team. He's so kind of passionate like that. So on Saturday, I thought he played a really great game. For me, he was man of the match. But obviously, the goal was amazing. I think every goal he scored has been amazing. I was at Fulham and he scored one like that as well. Obviously, the Liverpool won last week.
00:07:27
Speaker
So yeah, he definitely is a stand-up player and he's capable of winning us a game single-handedly or certainly getting goals without, you know, any other help. So definitely he was the one that stood out for me. I mean, he's one of those that you think when Sergeant come, silly buddy, when Johnny Rowe is back.
00:07:45
Speaker
You suddenly think, well, that is... People preparing for Norwich have now got to prepare for him cutting in and shooting from anywhere. Sara picking up the ball from deep and shooting from anywhere and it actually being on target regularly. Sergeant being able to shoot with real power that goes through goalkeepers. And what we seem to have got back to in the last two games for the first time since
00:08:11
Speaker
those first four or five games where it looks so positive at the start of the season, is the direct ball with meaning, the direct ball with purpose.
Evolving Playing Style
00:08:23
Speaker
We'd gone a little bit direct because we seemed to be bereft of ideas, because it was direct for the wrong people in the wrong sort of balls that Barnes isn't going to be able to chase down.
00:08:33
Speaker
And whereas what happened brilliantly in the last two home games was we were playing angled balls waiting for the situation to be that the strikers on the shoulder, sergeants on the shoulder of the last offender. There were a couple of times where sergeant science had one twos where
00:08:51
Speaker
one of the first half, one of the second half, where in each case, they both had a 50-50 guess as to, I'm going to go left, I'm going to go right, and they got it wrong. And in both cases, either science or sergeant would have been through on goal with a really good opportunity to increase the score line. So I think just the fact that there were so many things that nearly came off and didn't is testament to, like I say, how difficult it's going to be to prepare for Norwich, because
00:09:19
Speaker
We seem to be able to mix it now in terms of being tough. We certainly are not nicely, nicely Norwich at the moment to play in. And Cara Road punt has become a bit of a fortress, you know, in terms of top playoff teams coming here and going away without much, if anything.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's the thing that almost did for Dean Smith. I want to get through a podcast without mentioning Dean Smith at some point, but let's just go back to him for a moment. I still can't believe it happened. Yeah, our home form was really bad under him, and I think that just meant that Carrow Road was a bit of a bleak place to come, whereas Wagner fought all his faults when we went through that really terrible run.
00:10:03
Speaker
was still, he still kind of.
00:10:06
Speaker
had this really nice habit of making sure that he retained his dignity, that he was likeable, that he understood what it was to be a supporter of a football club. And he's very careful in the way in which not only him, but his squad, and it is the squad and the coaching team, now go and thank the supporters as well. And it's a really simple thing to do when done well, but not many football managers do it that well.
00:10:35
Speaker
I saw some Coventry fans laughing at our celebrations at the end as if it was to do with them. Obviously, we do it after every win. But one of their own fans actually commented and said, we complain about the players that they don't engage with the fans. And then here are some players engaging with the fans. And we're complaining about that. Like, you know, I think it's a great thing that they do it at the end of every win.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a brilliant point, Claire. It helps. We used to, when things were really good, we used to talk to the club quite a lot about actually how supporters and players and coaching staff and staff at the club can all be together because when Norwich have been brilliant, it has always been a united front.
Team Unity and Individual Contributions
00:11:22
Speaker
It has always been that everyone's been pulling in the same direction and it hasn't felt like that for some time.
00:11:26
Speaker
So the fact that they recognize that and they're trying to do something about that at the end of games, for me is brilliant. And it does feel like a real collective, a real team effort in the way in which they go about that. I did just want to circle back, Tom, to points you were making about
00:11:44
Speaker
the directness and the fact that we could be direct and I think I just want to single someone else out for praise because I think he gets a lot of pelters a lot of the time and that's Ben Gibson because I think on Saturday he was fabulous in terms of his distribution and you know let's not dress that up I think he was excellent I think he has been look I'm not going to go as far as to say he's been an unsung hero this season and I know he's had his doubters but
00:12:11
Speaker
This is a guy that has had a baby born prematurely, has been really poorly. He's had to deal with all that whilst getting booed by his own supporters at Cara Road. And he has retained an awful lot of dignity in the way in which he's gone about his business. And I actually think has been one of our most capable defenders this season. He hasn't really been the kind of maybe the error prone centre back that we saw last season. I feel like he's been really decent.
00:12:40
Speaker
There was it wasn't just, oh, let's punt up to Sarge or science and see if they can get on the end of it. And, you know, it was it was kind of an area ball. There was a couple of times that he clipped it into to Barnes, like in a really effective and accurate way that I just thought there probably isn't many other players at the club that could play a pass with that level of accuracy. And it just felt like.
00:13:03
Speaker
he was becoming as important as some of the other really strong cogs in the team. And I don't think anyone I've really seen that recognise the fact that Ben Gibson is playing really quite well at the moment. One of the things that has been a positive in the last three, four games with him has been
00:13:25
Speaker
his willingness to not force a long pass or force a long ball. And I think that's where some of the frustration has been. So there has been, there has been murmurs and not necessarily boos, but certainly discontalment when play will seem to almost come to a dead
00:13:49
Speaker
a complete stop when he gets the ball because he would rather stop still than move us in a direction that isn't going to be positive. And I think when that then comes within a game where he then does deliver four or five really good progressive passes,
00:14:07
Speaker
You then go, OK, he's being picky about his options. I think the challenge he has had is at times he's maybe done that. And then the good passes also haven't been a few minutes either side of it. So therefore the kind of the grumbles have happened. He was very error prone last season. I mean, not single him out.
00:14:26
Speaker
we're rubbish at the back in general under Smith and Wagner for larger chunks of last season. So that's not just him, but that is definitely a positive. I mean, I think, Claire, in terms of looking ahead to games like QPR, do you think maybe there's any risk we might raise it against playoff teams and then have a problem against the strugglers? I don't think so now. I think we've got that little bit of the momentum behind us and the positivity amongst the players. We've got John Rose still to come back. I think
00:14:56
Speaker
they can see that it's achievable and I don't think that they will let their levels drop, I hope. I guess the thing about playing the teams we've played in the last six weeks is that they're all really decent teams and they're playing their own games rather than lining up just to stop our players playing. Potentially the next few games we've got there is gonna be a lot more of that and it can get a little bit frustrating when you've got 10 men behind the ball
00:15:27
Speaker
and can we find a way through it but we have got the players on the pitch that can pick holes in that and we are capable and I really think the players believe that now so hopefully they won't let their levels drop in the coming weeks.
00:15:43
Speaker
Well, yeah, there's a couple of basement teams, but then there's also a smattering of the playoff chases as well. So we've got Sunderland and Watford, whose fan bases will both consider themselves going for the playoffs. I mean, Sunderland are one point off.
00:16:01
Speaker
Watford, who we've got a week today as we're recording this podcast, and they're only four points out of it. And then we've also got a QPR obviously on Saturday and then Blackburn as well, who are in 18th and you would think out of it, but then he's the championship, so you never know. So there's a bit of a mixture. I have the confidence at the moment, though,
00:16:30
Speaker
that Wagner's team seem to be galvanised by how well they're playing now, to your point around an amazing turnaround job punt. There is an element of a squad that has felt like it's under siege, you know, they may well have been, you know,
00:16:50
Speaker
to be old-fashioned about it, newspaper clippings put up on the dressing room wall, headlines that have been written, we've been written off, I'm gonna get sacked, you guys are no good, we're terrible, et cetera, let's go and show them. Teams that come through that and actually manage to turn into some good form, they are gonna be galvanized and they're gonna be stronger for that. And I think we are seeing some of that.
00:17:16
Speaker
I've talked about in previous seasons, I always am very mindful of how players celebrate goals and how the whole 11 celebrate goals and whether or not, you know, your centre backs always bother running and joining in or whether or not your fullback who wasn't involved in the move, who's the other side of the pitch, joins in and all the rest of it. At the moment, there seems to be a real, real togetherness. You saw it at Liverpool,
00:17:45
Speaker
for the equalizer. You saw it both with the West Brom and the Coventry games. I think this group is maybe stronger and maybe this adversity has brought them together in a way that they didn't feel like a squad rather than a team. And maybe they're feeling more like a team now? Or is that two yellow tinted glasses and a bit too romantic?
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure I like you this positive mate. I just don't recognise it. Yes, I think I recognise all of the things you say and I feel like
00:18:25
Speaker
the squad should be stronger for coming through what they have come
Consistency and Promotion Dilemma
00:18:28
Speaker
through. And they should maybe have a bit more faith in Wagner, if it is indeed Wagner. Because we've said it on this podcast a few times. Sometimes you feel like moments are or were happening in spite of him, rather than actually because of him. And it felt like this was just good players knowing how to play together. And we have looked, but let's not dress this up,
00:18:52
Speaker
We have looked really poorly coached at times this season, like a really badly, badly coached as a collective. And I don't see how the dial just keeps moving. It's almost like a swingometer in an election, and it's a yellow and green one. I don't see how that keeps happening.
00:19:14
Speaker
But it does under David Wagner like ever since he's been at this football club we've been massively streaky he came in like we won what like six out of nine looked like we were potentially going to be making the playoffs beat Millwall at their place everyone thought this was a done deal we seemed incredibly together at that point and it was you know all of the conversations
00:19:36
Speaker
us on this podcast, like you listen to the Pinken boys slightly on the ball, you know, Michael Bailey's podcast at the time, everyone was like, well, we're going to make top six, probably be like fourth or fifth, and this will all be fine. And we'll just coast into the Premier League. And then we had like, I don't know, whatever it was, one win and 11 going into the final days of last season.
00:19:55
Speaker
It's been replicated again. We've started like a steam train, we've had a poor run of form, then maybe put two or three results together, and then another really poor run of form, and now we're coming out of the back end of that, and over the last maybe like 12 games, I guess we've had a sustained period of doing quite well. I don't really know whether there's another streak in us, in terms of does it go the other way at times, I'm really not sure.
00:20:22
Speaker
But let's just hope that we aren't streaky anymore and that we do find that consistency that we need and we're able to function as the collective, as the group that Wagner has moulded and hopefully this is his team in his own image.
00:20:41
Speaker
I'm really concerned about is I just feel like when it's David Wagner with teams that are perhaps playing a bit more of an expansive brand, it feels like we can get at them a bit more than as Clara just kind of referenced a moment ago.
00:20:58
Speaker
maybe if they just say, right, two banks a four, break us down, you know, kind of, we're going to find it very, I think sometimes that's where we found it difficult, where we've had to take the games by the scruff of the neck, where we've had to wrestle the momentum away, and we've had to be the protagonists that feels like it's when Norwich have
00:21:14
Speaker
have struggled a bit more. And it's going to be like that against some of the teams at the bottom of the league. But look, we need to remain positive. We're in a brilliant run of form at the minute, all of our players are coming back to fitness at just the right time. So I do feel like we could we could go and we could challenge. But I can't I can't
00:21:35
Speaker
shake that thought, is this just that we've got a really good squad or we've got a really good group of individuals who can all put moments together and they're suddenly learning how to play together rather than being an incredibly coached, effective team. But hey, let's see what happens.
00:21:51
Speaker
Well, March is a really good month for that because of the teams we've got. And I don't know if you know this punt, but football's not actually played on paper. But if it was, then you would certainly circle March as kind to Norwich in terms of who we're up against. We do have to play a couple of the Northeast boys, but there's an opportunity for us to pick up points. And we could be, in six, seven weeks' time, we could set ourselves up for a really good running.
00:22:21
Speaker
It's how we navigate those few weeks, I think, that are going to be really, really crucial, especially when you look at who some of the other lot in the playoffs are going to go up against. But one thing I want to ask you, Claire, is when we amongst the positivity that you heard
00:22:41
Speaker
on the way home from the ground and around the ground was, yeah, but do you want this lot anywhere near the playoffs? Or do you know, do you know, there is that there is that element of lack of trust still, because we've been like to to punts point, we've had a couple of rubbish runs even in this season. Yeah, after watching Sunday against Liverpool, I didn't feel like I wanted to get back to the Premier League any time in a hurry. Do we really want to be in the playoffs?
00:23:09
Speaker
I mean, you obviously want to be successful in the season, don't you? But do we want the reward of winning the playoffs? Personally, I don't, but I'd love to have another go at the playoff final. We had such a great time last time, potentially against Ipswich, which would be, oh, can't even imagine. But yes, it would be, I think,
00:23:36
Speaker
a great thing to get there, but I'm not particularly sure I want to get the reward at the end of it, no. I think it would be so funny to, so funny to be switching to the playoffs, but I can't, I'm not ready to want, I'm not ready to want the playoffs yet. And that's, that was kind of why I asked the question, because that, you know, because
00:23:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's why I wanted to bring it up. I was so proud of that performance we put in against the field previously. That's the only kind of example we've got of a must-win game of the last two years, really, where it felt like genuinely this one game matters a huge degree.
00:24:24
Speaker
And they came through it so brilliantly. And I thought Vaga handled it great. I think that the players handled it great. I need to see, I guess if we are even in that situation, we will have had more games like that where we are up against the team in seventh or a team in fifth in order to cement being six or whatever. So therefore, I guess by then they will have to have been far more battle proven, you know, because you don't fluke your way. Do you not think we've shown that in the last six weeks because we've played
00:24:52
Speaker
five of the teams above us and come out with a decent return. And yep, that's fair. You know, they were all tough games. And, you know, even we got criticism for the performances against Southampton and Hull, but but we got four points from those games, even if we didn't perform well, I think the players we've got are capable of turning it on when they need to. And we've got big game players as well. So
00:25:19
Speaker
I think that would be fairly crucial if we did get into the playoffs. But there's only one, I think probably only one spot left in the playoffs, maybe two if West Brom stutter a bit. But there's a lot of good teams going for that place. And even if we do our best, we still might not make it. So it's all conjecture at the moment anyway, really.
00:25:41
Speaker
It's one of those things where, you know, as long as, as long as scum losing the playoff semi-final, I'm not, I'm personally fine with finishing eighth or ninth, because if we did do that, it means we're going to win more than we lose between now and the end of the season.
00:25:58
Speaker
we've got so we know we're not gonna lose everyone going into the following season and you know if we can continue to play more like we have in the last two or three games than some of the drops before then that's a positive thing and as we said even in the podcast that was titled why because we didn't know why we're still here.
00:26:17
Speaker
he does seem like a thoroughly brilliant bloke so if he can keep this going for another few weeks without it being you know looking like another streak has come to an end i think there is a groundswell of opinion punt that is of all of the managers that are likely to turn around for a run of form where they get sacked
00:26:38
Speaker
he probably was in the best position to do it based on the fact that no one ever was calling him out for how he behaved on the side of the pitch, how he behaved in press conferences. He never seems to take it for granted. He never seemed to be self-subsessed. He never lied. He never come out and tell us we were brilliant when we were crap. He would sometimes obviously protect the players a little bit, but he would never, rarely would it be, I don't know what game he's watching. He would sometimes skirt around that, but never to the extent of some other people.
00:27:06
Speaker
yes i think that's that's why he's got he might be the first person and you know we said it at the time no one turns around from here once people stop doing it is usually a single figure number of games when people start saying you don't know what you're doing before subs even come on the beach you know it's usually a single finger number single figure number of games sometimes you might get eight or nine but usually it isn't
00:27:28
Speaker
How close do you think we are to getting back to that moment again? Because I always think when it's turned to that degree. Three losers out of four, three losers out of five. I think we're a couple of results away from
00:27:43
Speaker
this all kind of not necessarily going south as it did before but it could do in terms of like as you say groundswell of opinion but to your point about Wagner I think he's really self-aware and I think he he reads the room really well and he is able to strike a tone either in press conferences or you know post-match interviews which
00:28:04
Speaker
just strikes a chord with people and I think that's Daniel Farka was brilliant at PR with supporters. David Wagner is really good at PR with supporters. He's not at Farka-esque levels but he's good at it and I think we should recognise that for what it was and I think if Dean Smith had had that level of self-awareness that he probably would have got a lot more time from Norwich fans and they wouldn't have been chanting Dean Smith
00:28:30
Speaker
And alongside that, do you then think that partly the reason that he is still here is because the players believed in him as well? Because he was that kind of manager that they like him and they don't particularly want him to go perhaps. We don't know what's going on on the inside, but you get the feeling they're playing for him and they never really weren't playing for him.
00:28:54
Speaker
And I think the, the noises that I'd heard before is there is a core group of players that really like him. And then there's some others that were on the periphery, like look, that's natural behavior with football, isn't it? Like if you're not, if you're not getting picked, then you're going to be pissed off.
00:29:08
Speaker
But I wonder, I really wonder about this is like, so the what next?
Long-term Strategy and Wagner's Future
00:29:13
Speaker
And look, you know, we are of an understanding that Ben Knapper is going to be doing some media before long, you know, once the after the transfer window is now closed, that, you know, he is he is going to speak, whether that's to, you know, the the the local outlets or whether that's that's a club preparing if you not so sure. But, you know, we are going to hear from him soon. And I guess the question on on in my mind anyway is,
00:29:38
Speaker
So what next? Because actually the club's metrics last season were top two, all right, top six at a push, but, you know, we wanted to be promoted automatically. They were really quite categoric about that. That's what we're going for. They failed. Like we failed abysmally in that regard.
00:29:56
Speaker
They kind of shifted ambition this season and said like top six. And what if we fail this season? Like what if by the club's very own metrics, David Wagner fails two seasons out of two in terms of like his stated objectives or the club's stated objectives.
00:30:14
Speaker
Is it alright that we finish 8th or 9th but actually we're winning more than we lose and it's quite nice and the manager's a good bloke and all the rest of it? I don't know how long that washes for without someone from the club, i.e. Ben Nappa, coming out and going, here's the long-term vision.
00:30:31
Speaker
The massive part of me that is trying not to be overwhelmingly negative is just like, so what is the plan? Because it can't be David Wagner. Because if it was David Wagner, then maybe we'd have seen a few more experienced heads kind of recruited this window. And it would have been players that had been recruited to play the style of football that Wagner plays. But I didn't see that in the window. What I saw is that
00:30:56
Speaker
All right, we shipped one out who was unhappy and we shipped one in, you know, because of as a stopgap. But it didn't seem like, especially as there was indications that it was Atanasi Akash to spend, and he mentioned that in interviews, didn't seem like a wholesale backing of this coach. And I think the club is in a really precarious position. And the next two months will probably decide his future in terms of, you know, what is the plan? No one knows today at the moment. And, you know, Napa has done his audit and
00:31:24
Speaker
He's presented that to the board, again, from noises that we've heard. But what he says is going to be absolutely fascinating, probably more so than most times when Weber came out to talk. And when he did talk, everyone would listen, regardless of whether we thought he was striking the right tone or not. But actually, it's never felt more like we're at a massive crossroads. And I just don't know what's going to happen next. And that's the really interesting bit for me.
00:31:55
Speaker
It's nice to be heading into a crossroads off the back of some decent football and some nice goals though, eh? Yeah, 100%. So speaking of crossroads, we reach you crossroads in the podcast where we are going to navigate to some listener questions.
00:32:09
Speaker
OK, well, this is one that I can answer. I'll take this. But this is from Norwich Pure on Twitter, or we call it Norwich Purr, who identifies as a 20 percent. I think that is very important. Right. When will the Barkley flags be coming back? Feels like we're approaching a crucial point of the season and the players have always said how much they like it.
00:32:29
Speaker
I would say keep an eye on the Barkley for the Watford game next Tuesday because we are hoping that there should be some level of representation in terms of flags. However, I would just make a plea at this point that is always incumbent on the right amount of volunteers being available.
00:32:46
Speaker
and lots of our volunteers' personal circumstances have changed over the last 18 months to two years. So if you are really up for coming to the ground probably three hours before kickoff or maybe two and a half hours before kickoff and putting flags on seats, we would be well up for hearing from you. So get in our DMs and we would gladly have you as part of the Flag Putter Outre team. There you go. Claire, have you missed the flags?
00:33:15
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it would have been a bit weird having them when we were rubbish in the middle part of the season. Exactly. But then again, maybe if we'd had them, we might have been so rubbish. I don't know. The chicken or the... I don't know if flags mean results. That's quite the statement. But yes, it would be lovely to have them back and it certainly feels like the right time to be bringing them back and sort of gather up that positivity that's finally coming into the ground again.
00:33:45
Speaker
and keep going with it, yeah. I'm excited. So yes, watch this space, I would say. But yeah, we are definitely hoping to have something in play for Watford. Beyond that, who knows? Well, what we got next? Let's have Norwich fan Geganrecht, who always asks this question. So very big thank you. But he asks,
00:34:08
Speaker
Do we really want to get promoted this year? And I guess, Claire, you've answered that to an extent. So, Tom, what do you reckon? Yeah, I mean, I think you always want to get promoted because it's one of those sort of rhetorical questions where you get this slot in the Premier League, really.
00:34:28
Speaker
But look at Luton. They are making a real go of it. If you get some luck and if you get a couple of shrewd transfers that really work out for you, I'm blanking on the midfielder who seems to have found a home there. What's his name? Ross Barkley. Ross Barkley.
00:34:51
Speaker
and you know he's pulling the strings and he was outstanding at the weekend for them against Newcastle just gone and you know you get you get either a loan of someone of that ilk or signing of someone of that ilk who's sort of wanting to rebuild their career or was like us with Ollie Skip obviously that was a league below
00:35:12
Speaker
But, you know, it's the sort of person who's just kind of one removed and they want to make sure they get a good season worth of games. Like you, Billy Gilmour, if Billy Gilmour works out as a signing, all of a sudden it's a, it's a different proposition. So, you know, you are wrote, you know, as Webber has, you know, was key at pains to say, you know, we make five or six bits of transfer business going from championship to Premier League. We probably need five of the six to be home runs.
00:35:39
Speaker
But that could happen. You know, it might happen. It's low odds. And we are maybe, you know, shopping in a lower end than most. But Luton haven't spent, you know, they haven't sort of cheated it in the same way Brentford have. They haven't thrown 150 mil to transfer windows in a row or whatever. You know, they have not completely bankrolled it in like the way of your Bournemouths and what have you, your forests.
00:36:02
Speaker
it is doable to have a real go of it and create some really magic memories and going back to the man city game, the new castle game, there are special memories of eventually relegation seasons.
00:36:19
Speaker
When it comes down to it, yes, I would win tonight. I would be worried. And actually, I'm answering that question with the recent memory of the Liverpool game, where we had far from our strongest team, and I was fairly proud of the performance. We were outplayed because they're a far better team. In the same way as we'd be outplayed several of the weeks if we were to go in the Premier League.
00:36:40
Speaker
But the heart and the desire and the structure and we could see how they were trying to contain them and it was in places working and eventually they got through and that was to be expected. But if that's the sort of fare that we were served, I don't want to lose 5-2 every week, but if you can see clearly that is the plan, that is going to work against
00:37:03
Speaker
Um, some mid table and some of the lower down down too. So yeah, you know, if, if, if somehow we sneak up, brilliant, but you know, the main thing is maintaining this run of it being enjoyable to go to car road again. I mean, I, I, that's the thing I'm focused on ahead of.
00:37:19
Speaker
promotion. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Claire, this might sound like quite an insane question to ask, given that I've just labelled David Wagner as maybe not particularly the most effective coach that we've ever had. Do you think Wagner's brand of football might be more effective in the Premier League than a Daniel Farker brand of football? Yes. In a word, I think potentially yes.
00:37:48
Speaker
We'd certainly, um, you can see with, um, Oh God, I've done a blank. Now the team that got promoted last season at the top of the league that begins with a B. What's the team? Burnley, that's the one too many B's. Um, Burnley, you can see what's happened to them and they play similar style of football to what we were under Daniel Farker. They're trying to be the best at their own game and they're failing miserably.
00:38:19
Speaker
Um, I think a bit more steel about David Wagner's Norwich than there was Daniel Farkas, um, bit more grit. Um, yes, I think, I mean, it's, I don't know in the back of my mind, I just feel like we'd be Sheffield United next season if we did get promoted rather than Luton, but it would be very, no one wants to be Sheffield United. We were Sheffield United. So we were in that position.
00:38:49
Speaker
That's my issue, is I just have trauma from that. But I think it would be very interesting to see how a team under David Wagner would fare. If we kept this squad of players and added some sort of, like you said, more experienced players like a Ross Barkley, I do think we could give it a better go. But I don't know.
00:39:15
Speaker
I do feel like we would just be Sheffield United again. Well, it's down to Napa, isn't it? So what we've got that's different this time is Napa. And maybe he has got a better knack of finding a gem. You know, who knows how big Sid is going to be. That's the first test of a Napa era player. You look good in the five minutes that he is on.
00:39:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, all three of his interactions with the football were sensible. You know, I heard someone I heard someone on Canary call describe his movement as really, really positive. And I thought, you know, that is a wonderful couple of four minutes that he ran around. Yeah, brilliant.
00:39:55
Speaker
I love it. But even the fact that people are finding positives in that is it shows what a January signing can do, that people are willing to try and read something into five minutes of a big bloke running against a team of 10.
00:40:12
Speaker
I'm not surprised there was some space for me to run into. That's the thing. I mean, Wagner's Huddersfield, 16 points, I think they finished with, based on what I just Googled. So it doesn't look like they were particularly difficult to beat.
00:40:33
Speaker
Yeah but they stayed up for one season. But I said 17-18. So I'm just thinking about whether or not he will have learned from the unsuccessful season. So Dean Smith went straight from a struggling club to a struggling club.
00:40:58
Speaker
You wouldn't have thought there was a great deal of reflection in the two or three days in between losing his job and interviewing, for one, to really reflect, watch some game tape, think back on how he could have looked at some other managers and how they're deploying their troops from a distance. And maybe, therefore, Wagner does benefit from, actually, this is my second go around with an underdog. What do I do differently?
00:41:27
Speaker
You know, road the success has looked quite often. People do look at your Blackpool, et cetera, whole, you know, there have been minnows that have rode a bit of a successful first season back and managed to maintain some momentum. And then the momentum dissipates in the second round of transfers don't work out, et cetera.
00:41:43
Speaker
Maybe he benefits from that prior experience and that we find some way of developing something. But to go back to the question you asked Claire, I completely agree. It will be fascinating to see if Farka wins a playoffs, which I think he will.
00:42:01
Speaker
It'll be fascinating to see Leeds under Farka with the money that Leeds have got to buy some better ammunition. It'd be really interesting to see Farka in the Premier League for exactly that reason because you feel that he had a bit of time out. I think he will have learnt a thing or two and we'll look at how he approached it.
00:42:21
Speaker
But he'll also have the necessary finance to maybe look at how his football can be progressed into the Premier League. I think he'd be just fine if he took Leeds up. And that is still a big if. I think they're going to be playoff bound, aren't they? And then it is a lottery from there.
00:42:37
Speaker
I'm just reviewing the rest of our questions and they are all essentially like, are we going up? Or would you like to go up kind of one? So we had lots of them, but just all of a theme that we have already dealt with. Well, let's just move straight to guarantees then. John, I'd like a guaranteed score line for both the QPR game and the Watford game and just one score from each of the games to be guaranteed. Thank you very much.
00:43:06
Speaker
Okay. I'm going to say, no, no, cheers mate. Well, um, I'm going to say that there will be no goals on Saturday and that there will be a board draw at Loftus road. Um, which on the face of things, like in a way point, you could go, Oh, that wouldn't be the worst. But then we are playing Watford and we don't traditionally do that well against Watford. So I worry that we may lose that one, one nil and we will lose a lot of momentum.
00:43:31
Speaker
I want neither of these things to happen and I want six points from the next two games. It just almost feels like, I don't know, like I hate playing teams like QPR and Watford because it feels like peril is around the corner. So I don't think we're going to score any goals in the next two games. Sorry mate. Right Claire, get rid of old Doom merchant over here and give me some guaranteed results and some scorers.
00:43:57
Speaker
Well, I think we'll score because we do tend to score in most games, don't we? Yeah, you'd probably have really good. No goals. Yeah, we're good at scoring goals. Okay, I'm gonna say I think it will be tight on Saturday, but I'll say one nil to Norwich. And the scorer will be, I'll go with science again, because, you know, he's on a roll.
00:44:24
Speaker
Will it be 20 yards, 30 yards or 40 yards? Halfway line, halfway line. I love it, yes. And then Tuesday, we will win because I'm going and so far this season, I haven't seen us lose at Carrow Road. I've got an almost 100% record. I've seen one draw and the rest of them have all been wins by some miracle. So we will win, I think, 2-1 and the one scorer or two.
00:44:53
Speaker
One score, Johnny Rowe, he'll be back. And Sarge. Oh, there you go. I will split the difference and say that I think we'll go win on Saturday. And I think we are due a biggie. I think we've got a three, four goal win in us. And I think it's coming. I think it's coming.
00:45:17
Speaker
I think I'm going 4-0 and likewise I think that Ro is going to be back and just score straight away because it's just funny that the second he returns, he's just like, oh no, this is the thing I do, I score all the time, that's me. Is he supposed to be back on Saturday? He's in the squad, we should be in the squad now. He's training, I think. Yeah, and Minio needs to play for 30 seconds to score.
00:45:38
Speaker
and then and then I think we will draw at home to Watford and I personally think four points either way they come keeps us very nicely tidy in in the race keep it interesting for for another little while at least and and yeah I just I'm delighted that
00:45:56
Speaker
there's so much positivity. It was so nice to, what are we now, three home games in a row to just be walking out of a car road going, I think I know what the plan was. I think the players seemed to know what the plan was. We did things in the same way several times and good opportunities kept getting created and there was some good singing and we were against a decent team. I thought Coventry were excellently coached.
00:46:20
Speaker
and their fans are always terrific, they always make a good noise, got a lot of respect for the Coventry fans and I was just thoroughly happy that Carrow Road seems to be something nice to look forward to going to, which it hasn't been for a lot of this season. So enjoy QPR, everybody, enjoy Watford, everybody, and do mind how you go.