My thoughts on Wolves away 10/08/14

My thoughts on today and the state of things in general. I'm not very hopeful to be honest. I absolutely hated the Hughton era for all the obvious reasons but the Board reacted to it in completely the wrong way. Giving the job to Adams was (and yes I did say it at the time) a really poor decision and smacked of 'little old Norwich' and the hand of Delia in every respect. If you want success you just don't do things that way and I thought with McNally in charge we'd left all that behind. Adams's failings were clear last season yet (a la Gunn) he got the job full time. Because he's a nice bloke, a huge supporter and 'Norwich through and through'. And yes he is a respected coach at youth level. We have seen that he was not able to keep us up. We will now surely see that he is not qualified to manage in the Championship. Today was the start. It is evident that we have not improved in any way. How Redmond is so highly rated is beyond me. That successive coaching regimes have failed to improve his end product is amazing. Yet he was given a striking role today. Many fans think Russell Martin is not a centre back, that Whitaker is a poor full back, that Ryan Bennett should play. Yet we got today's line up. We are told the club is trying to keep its best players but at what cost? Olsson was poor today, so was Redmond. Hooper is 'injured' (and by all accounts overweight), Tettey, it seems, wants away as does Fer. If we keep such players are they going to apply themselves properly? Not on today's evidence. How can a team be so indolent after a three month lay-off? The team was not 'up for it'. You just have to question the management. I know Adams is a passionate City man. I know Gary Holt is a legend. But have they got what it takes? Is managing the youth team and Falkirk really experience enough? Well it probably was back in the old days when all we aspired to was a mid Championship finish. If that's all you want then I guess it's fine to say 'All managers have to start somewhere' and 'Give them a chance.' But when you've just had three Premier League years the fans are entitled to better The Board have sold us short. Very short. After the Gunn debacle to make the same mistake again is unforgiveable and tells us that our club is being run by amateurs. And no this is not a knee jerk reaction to today. In essence it is a reiteration of what I wrote when Adams was appointed. I am certain City will be a very ordinary outfit this season.

WHY NORWICH CITY NEED A MANAGERIAL CHANGE

WHY NORWICH CITY NEED A MANAGERIAL CHANGE

All this Hughton out/in argument does tend to get a bit emotional and that leads to a clouding of the issues, I think.

I'm a vociferous 'outer', I suppose, but all that means is that I believe that with our current resources on and off the field we genuinely could be doing a lot better than we are.

I agree that players should be considered at least partly culpable but as we all know you can't change a whole team just like that, so what happens in football is that the manager is usually made the 'victim' for on-field failure. Whether or not this is right probably varies in every case but the fact is that if we want to change the philosophy of our playing approach then Hughton and his oft criticised assistants have to go. (I don't really know what Calderwood and Trollope do so it's hard to be fair in assessing their contributions; that said neither seems to be able to alter their superior's at times genuinely unbelievable 'fear' of the opposition.)

And that's my biggest dissatisfaction. Every, and I mean every, (even when you play the bottom club at home) match is approached with a 'game plan' based on respect/fear of the other team. Rigid defensive structure is never sacrificed, players are not allowed to stray from said shape when they feel like it (occasionally it seems Snoddy and Redmond are instructed to swap sides for a few minutes but that's about as imaginative as it gets), the same instructed player will take corners and free kicks even when, as we have regularly seen, they are having an off day and the delivery is consistently woeful. There is absolutely no flair, no imagination, no creativity, nothing is ever done 'off the cuff'.

That approach, I'm fairly certain, comes from the manager, the man who says Palace are 'a good side', that Sunderland is 'a difficult place to come', who believes Hull 'can hurt you in so many ways'.
I wonder when the team last spent the majority of their time preparing for a game by focusing on offensive play rather than on how they will counter their opponents. I am not advocating a total disregard for opposition but suggesting that in certain games (against weaker opponents) the shackles should be removed.

There are other ways, too, that I think a more positive manager might make better use of our resources. Hughton is simply abject when it comes to altering a game from the side. I have always thought this to be probably the greatest quality a coach can have. That ability to see what's happening and by an astute substitution or two, or a team 'shape change' completely alter the complexion of a game. Ferguson (despite his unpleasant character) was a master at this, as is Mourinho, Hiddink, Loew etc) The thing is this takes imagination and that, I believe is in very short supply on the City bench.

Such changes, such flair, such spontaneity are the things which get a crowd off their seats and create the elusive 'atmosphere' so terribly lacking at Carrow Road in recent months. Here, too, is a way that the current regime is failing to exploit the available resources. We are a brilliantly supported club, home and away, but the managerial approach (rigid,measured, calm, passionless, fearful, overly respectful of opponents etc etc) does not inspire the sort of crowd participation which can genuinely help the team. The balance between organisation and passion is immensely difficult but it can be found (Lambert?)

I balk at the question - 'Go on then, who do you think we should replace Hughton with?' as I really do think that's something we pay our Chief Executive £1m plus a year to sort out.

So yes I do think ,and have for a long time, that we need managerial change. If we are satisfied to be in a dogfight year after year (despite having an increasing transfer/wage budget) , picking up occasional points via stifled, frankly miserable football then we should continue along the current path. I would prefer the club to be bolder. If bolder means taking a slight risk then so be it.

To continue as we are suggests to me that the manager's philosophy has pervaded the boardroom; that we are so utterly focused on simply staying in the league that absolutely nothing else matters. If so then much as I love and am grateful to Delia and her allies, much as I admire Mr.McNally, I am hugely disappointed.

WHY PREMIER LEAGUE SURVIVAL IS STIFLING FOOTBALL

How the need to stay in the Premier League is stifling football

 

In common with most Norwich City supporters I have been immensely frustrated watching my team in recent home matches. Chris Hughton’s cautious approach, seemingly driven more by respect for the opposition than by a belief in the positive capabilities of his own side, has produced some of the dullest football I have seen at Carrow Road for many seasons. In particular his reluctance to change things during a game, characterised notably by a stubborn refusal to divert from a ‘one up front’ approach  or to make substitutions in an attempt to win a game has led to Norwich producing disappointing performances in winnable home games against the likes of QPR, West Ham and Fulham. Whilst it is understandable and even, to me, acceptable to seek draws against the very top teams, I see no reason why a team like The Canaries should not be a little more adventurous at home against teams of similar or lower quality than themselves.

I have also been tremendously disillusioned by my team’s approach to Cup football. Despite the apparent revival of the age  old tradition of giant-killing in both domestic Cup competitions this year it is impossible to ignore the fact that almost all top flight sides play seriously depleted line-ups in these games. I enjoyed my day on the terraces at Peterborough only to find the embarrassment against Luton leaving me asking, as I did after the Leicester game at Carrow Road last year, ‘What’s the point?’ I have already decided I will not be going to any Cup games next season, though I have renewed my season ticket. Yes, the team we played in Cup matches could, and perhaps should, have been good enough to win those games but the fact remains that we were not committing all our resources to the pursuit of Cup success.

Let me say right away that I consider Chris Hughton to be an admirable professional, a man of rare integrity in a game not well-known for such qualities. He is also reputed to be an excellent coach, a good man manager and an honest, respectful person. And therein, I suspect, lies the problem. Hughton’s job, essentially, comes down to one thing; keep Norwich City in the Premier League by whatever means possible. Thus, being the focused  and determined professional that he is, Hughton will not allow such a thing as excitement, exuberance or ‘Cup fever’ to distract him in any way from his purpose. At 0-0 after 70 minutes in a home game against, say, Fulham, Hughton and his equally defensive-minded co-coaches, Colin Calderwood and Paul Trollope, are acutely aware that they are still in possession of what could be a priceless point and there is not going to be any abandonment of any prearranged game plan which will put that at risk. Yes there was a long unbeaten run before Christmas and pulsating home wins this season over Manchester United and Arsenal but let’s not forget that, barring the away game at Swansea, the run was built largely on defence and the wins achieved by City scoring a single goal and then defending resolutely.

And it’s not just Norwich. Every other manager of a team in the bottom half of the table is bound by the same imperative – staying in the top flight. The only time that the conservative, cautious approach is cast off is when times get desperate, when a team is falling so far behind that caution has to be jettisoned. Then you get a QPR style cash splurge in a desperate attempt to buy some points, a high-risk strategy that can jeopardise a club’s very existence (just ask Portsmouth fans!) Thank God we haven’t done anything like that at Norwich!

If, however, you are the manager of a team like Norwich City, West Ham, Fulham or Sunderland, sitting a good few points clear of trouble, you take a measured, low-risk approach. Make your team hard to beat, adopt a Nigel Worthington-esque ‘what we have, we hold’ approach and grind out draws, hopefully with the odd win here or there  and come April it’s job done!

The facts that Norwich have scored just one goal in six games, that our top scorer has just five goals and that we have scored less than a goal a game in the league will not particularly bother Hughton and his staff if we survive. What is probably more important to them at this stage is that we have kept seven clean sheets.

Perhaps what is most galling about all of this is that in many ways Hughton’s approach is spot-on! Keeping your employers in the Premier League has become the be-all-and-end-all of management at all but the very biggest clubs. Maintain that status for a few years and you might be able to nurture a little ambition as the big bucks from the TV companies kick in and allow you to compete for the world’s top players. If you’re lucky you might even get a Europa League place or reach the point where your reserves become good enough to win a domestic Cup!

So that is what we Canary fans have to look forward to. We need to work on our patience because things aren’t going to change anytime soon.

IT'S GOALS THAT COUNT BUT WEAK REFEREES DON'T HELP!

IT’S GOALS THAT COUNT...BUT WEAK REFEREES DON’T HELP!

 

As I mentioned to Rob Butler when I dropped into BBC Norfolk to have a go at ‘Canary Mastermind’ last week (10 out of 15, 8 from 10 on the NCFC section –not bad) I have got a little bee buzzing around in my bonnet just now regarding referees, again!!

What’s annoying me particularly is the way that so-called ‘smaller’ teams (not just Norwich but the likes of Wigan, Southampton, West Brom, Swansea, you get the picture, I’m sure) get a raw deal from referees when it comes to big decisions against so-called ‘big’ clubs. Or perhaps it’s more realistic to say against the ‘big’ managers.

How else can you explain Chris Foy ‘bottling it’ when Andrew Surman was felled against West Ham? Oh yes, it was ON THE LINE! What an amazingly brilliant decision by the laser-eyed official! Rubbish! I refuse to believe that Foy knew it was ON THE LINE. It was a lucky, cowardly guess. Surman fell two yards into the box and in normal circumstances, ninety nine times out of a hundred a penalty would have been given (a hundred out of a hundred if it had been a Manchester United player!)

But Sam Allardyce has cleverly cultivated his persona, helped by his friendship with Old Chewing Gum himself, so that he intimidates referees, as do Ferguson, Wenger, AVB and even the otherwise admirable David Moyes. As did Mourinho in recent years and Clough, Shankly, Dalglish, et al in the past.

Nice guy, Chris Hughton does not provide such an intimidating presence, nor does Roberto Martinez. So don’t expect anything to change soon!

Remember Steve Morison almost losing his shirt to Assou–Ekotto at White Hart Lane? No penalty. Remember Sebastien Bassong tangling with QPR’s Djibril Cisse at Carrow Road? Penalty given. Then referee Mark Clattenburg added insult to injury by allowing Bobby Zamora’s equaliser after blatant encroachment. Not that QPR are a particularly big club. But Norwich aren’t, and as far as good referees go, Clattenburg isn’t. Danny Welbeck’s dive against Wigan at Old Trafford? Penalty, of course!

Have we had any penalties? Oh yes, a dodgy one at home against Scunthorpe in what I still call the League Cup. Which just goes to show that, on a different level, when we are the ‘bigger’ club, the referees are just as weak and intimidated.

 

Because, make no mistake, it is weakness amongst referees which causes this constant problem. They are not cheats, just gutless and easily intimidated. I genuinely believe something needs to be done about this by the FA. Referees must be instructed collectively to ‘grow a pair’. And don’t believe any of that rubbish about it even-ing itself out over a season. That’s a myth perpetrated and trotted out ad nauseam by the big egos that enjoy the referees’ favour; those of us that watch the game know it’s a lie. Just bear this in mind: on December 4, 1993 Ruel Fox scored a penalty for Norwich at Old Trafford and in the next TEN years only three more visiting teams were awarded penalties (all missed). I’ve read all sorts of articles saying it’s just because the top teams defend better, it’s not because referees are intimidated. Hogwash! I would rather believe the evidence that my own eyes see than be brainwashed by the football mafia!

Having said all that, and recognising that had a few decisions gone their way Hughton’s team could well have two or three more points at this stage (3 from 5 games) than they have there is no hiding the fact that goal shy City (2 in 5 games) are in need of some fire-power. I have been hugely impressed in all games by the number of chances created and do not subscribe to the view that Hughton is a defensive manager. Robert Snodgrass, in particular, has been the architect of many goalscoring opportunities and indeed the squanderer of several himself. But Hughton must surely be wondering what the solution is. Can Holt and Morison play together in a Hughton team? I doubt it. Can Simeon Jackson convert his tireless running and harrying into more goals? Does the answer lie in Harry Kane or should the club have invested heavily in new blood in the summer?

I still expect Grant Holt to come good. I still reckon Steve Morison is a decent player. I still rate Jackson. I still believe in Hughton. But after a sluggish start and with seriously tough fixtures ahead I do not want this to become a pre-Bonfire Night crisis. Thus I hope that Hughton has the wherewithal of his predecessor to juggle his offensive resources effectively over the next few games so that City can score a few goals, perhaps cause an upset or two and pick up a few points!

 One or two referees with a little bit of backbone might help, too!

To The Sunday Times Sports Editor

Congratulations to John Aizlewood for his early entry into the least accurate football report of the season competition (Norwich v QPR)! To suggest that QPR 'could claim with some justification that all three points could have been theirs' was as close to the truth as the ridiculous assertion that 'Ji Sung Park imperiously controlled midfield'. These might be misguided opinions but stating 'Pilkington switched wings' was just blatant fabrication. Failing to mention Green going unpunished for handling outside the box excluded one of the game's major incidents.

Sloppy, uninformed journalism. Did he even attend the match? Was he paid for this drivel?

 

SO WHAT DO YOU KNOW, ALL YOU SO-CALLED FOOTBALL PUNDITS?

SO WHAT DO YOU KNOW, ALL YOU SO-CALLED FOOTBALL PUNDITS?

Headed by the alarmingly unfunny Mark Lawrenson, the nation’s football experts made Norwich City favourites for relegation when the 2011-12 Premier League season began. However, not only did Paul Lambert’s team finish in a comfortable 12^th position, but in truth they never looked in danger of relegation at any stage. Add to that the facts that they took points off every other team except the top two, and had in Grant Holt the highest scoring Englishman apart from Wayne Rooney, and you begin to see not only the magnitude of Paul Lambert’s achievement but also the sheer ineptitude of the lazy, overpaid couch potatoes employed by the nation’s football media.

‘Ah, that’s just wisdom after the event,’ some may say. But I beg to differ. The truth is that such is the media’s obsession with the Premier League that only those with a genuine interest in football in the lower divisions pay proper attention to developments outside the top flight. Hence there were few if any pundits properly aware of the remarkable work that Lambert and his staff had already done at Carrow Road in the previous two seasons.

Thus it was all too easy simply to trot out the clichés as the season unfolded. Yes Lambert took players without Premiership experience and molded them into a formidable unit. Clearly he and his staff were able, like Brian Clough and his ilk in years gone by, to instil into their charges a belief and team spirit which allowed them to mix it with the higher paid stars of the domestic game’s elite.  However, what they failed to observe was that this had already been going on for two years.

Both League One and The Championship are notoriously difficult from which to gain promotion. Just look at the travails of ‘big’ clubs like Leeds United, both Sheffield teams and former top flight fixtures like Derby County and Nottingham Forest. Yet Norwich City had gained successive promotions at a canter, playing open, expansive football, scoring goals freely and backed by tremendous support. Additionally they had demonstrated a remarkable determination when times were tough, evidenced by their incredible record of scoring late goals in important games.

Any truly astute observer should have recognised Norwich City’s potential and seen that they looked a far more likely survival prospect than several of the other teams whose annual fight against relegation had become almost traditional.

As things unfolded the same lazy ‘journalists’ fell back on timeworn excuses for their inaccurate predictions; Norwich had ‘momentum’ they said, gained from their two years of success, they were apparently unafraid of their opposition as their players were not scarred by previous failures. Sorry, chaps, but these are just facile attempts to cover up a blatant lack of knowledge.

When, around February, I heard the far too smug Lawrenson observe that Paul Lambert did not have the depth of squad to rotate his line-ups like the big teams the end of my tether was close. He had clearly paid no attention to the way that the Canaries were set out in game after game. Such were Lambert’s regular changes of line-up, even during games, that even the most avid Norwich followers were unable to predict his selections. Few, if any, teams adapted as frequently as City to the challenges posed by different opposition.

The BBC’s ‘Match Of The Day’ programme remains the nation’s flagship football programme and eventually its researchers picked up that many Norwich fans were dissatisfied with its coverage of their side. Thus we heard Gary Lineker make reference to this and the overpaid, under-prepared ‘experts’ it employs claimed that they had always given Norwich credit where it was due.

What they seemed not to realise was that their failure lay not in recognising good performances when they arrived but in their surprise and disbelief at them. The same could be said of the crass and excessive response to Swansea City’s similarly impressive Premier League season. Had these football legends been watching properly as Brendan Rodgers developed his philosophy at The Liberty Stadium they would have been less taken aback by what they saw; the Welsh side had already passed their way to promotion week in, week out through the previous season.

At least next year the same pundits will not be able to hide behind the same old ‘breath of fresh air’ platitudes and will be forced to come up with something new. Both Norwich City and Swansea will be faced with the challenge of building upon their impressive first seasons back in the Premier League. Those who explain their performances to the nation will have a challenge, too; to wake up, pay attention and properly to understand what they are watching.

UP TO 9TH BUT I'M STILL ANGRY!

UP TO 9^TH BUT I’M STILL ANGRY

Norwich City are 9^th in the Premier League. In the last three days they have enjoyed a brilliant 2-2 home draw with Everton and an even better 2-1 away win at White Hart Lane. The country seems, at last, to be taking notice of Paul Lambert’s amazing Norfolk revolution and giving credit where it’s due.

But tonight I am actually an angry Norwich City fan. And I suspect that my ire is something shared by supporters of several other Premier league clubs, and, at this moment, those of Wigan Athletic in particular.

The fact is I have just about had enough of the weak, feckless and frankly dishonest refereeing that we witness in English football’s top division every matchday. I really have had enough. When is somebody or some organisation actually going to have the courage to do something about it? Last Saturday evening on various radio phone-ins the subject was at least addressed but I fear that it will soon be forgotten amidst the euphoria surrounding Sir Alex Chewing-Gum’s latest title triumph.

What we see every week is an outrageous insult to the players, management and supporters of the so-called ‘lesser clubs’. I am not sure how or when a club enters the elite club which is blatantly favoured by referees but there must be some secret method of entry.

What I do know is that Norwich City aren’t in that club, and nor are Wigan Athletic.

Last Saturday the gutless Andre Marriner followed up his appalling performance in the February game at Carrow Road against Manchester United with an even more embarrassing display in Norwich’s game with Everton. The visitors’ left-back, Leighton Baines, was booked after about 25 minutes for a trip on Elliott Bennett. Fair enough. No complaints from either side. Just before half-time a reckless high challenge on City’s David Fox should certainly have spelled the end of the game for Baines and seen Norwich playing against ten men for the entire second half. However, Andre Marriner, to use the common parlance, ‘bottled it’. Or perhaps I should say he demonstrated to one and all that David Moyes has been granted access to that elite club of managers who must not be upset. Even so when the reprieved Baines blatantly blocked Russell Martin in the game’s dying minutes Moyes himself must have been fearing the worst. But no, again the spineless Marriner refused to apply the law, preferring to keep ‘in’ with the highly-respected Moyes.

Add to this blatantly sycophantic decision-making Marriner’s ludicrous failure to penalise Steven Pienaar for obstruction when he virtually sat on the ball in the build-up to Everton’s second goal and you need no further evidence to rule that here is a very poor referee indeed.

We deserve better officiating than this in the Premier League and  Wigan Athletic, too, deserve better than they got at Stamford Bridge last Saturday when a brave away performance which arguably might just have kept them up (and earned them the estimated £90m which goes with that) was totally undermined by utter incompetence from the referee and, in particular, his assistant. Both the home side’s goals in a 2-1 win were so far offside that even a Sunday League linesman with a raging hangover could  have seen it! Proof positive that Wigan’s Roberto Martinez has yet to become a member of ‘the club’.

And so to White Hart Lane today. Let’s not allow the euphoria surrounding what was arguably  Norwich City’s finest league win for years to obscure the fact that Michael Oliver, supposedly one of our finest up and coming officials, is another who lacks the courage needed to perform properly at the highest level. City were denied two, if not three, excellent penalty appeals. But it is the first of these, when Ledley King’s blatant wrestling to the floor of Grant Holt was waved away, that most damns Oliver. His refusal to apply the laws of the game fairly and without bias shows without question that Harry Redknapp enjoys the favour of the game’s officials so clearly not shared by Martinez and Paul Lambert.

I don’t know the intricacies of the referee assessment system. I do know, however, that the time has come for something to be done. Somebody somewhere must act now to bring an end to this farce!