The ACN Seasøn Preview – 2024/25 Editiøn

Before we finally move on, how did you initially react to the Elland Road Catastrophe?

Paul Buller: It was the car crash that was inevitable when you’ve run out of petrol and three of your tyres have punctured. It showed us up for what we really were: a good XI when fully fit but nothing in the tank beyond that. Can I squeeze more out of the car analogies? Of course: That it was Angus Gunn, the safest pair of hands at the wheel this season, who gifted Leeds their dream start, said a lot for how much we relied on him to keep us in the play off mix. Oh, and if I were Borja Sainz I’d still be fuming at having a completely unfit Jonny Rowe starting instead of me. A strange decision that summed up Wagner’s managerial peccadilloes in one.

Nick Hayhoe: After Leeds’ 3rd went in I promptly walked to my local off-licence, bought a four pack of Stella Artois pint-cans and hate-watched the match right to the very end to punish myself for any, and all, of my past and future transgressions.

Nathan Hill: I’d already made peace with the fact our season was ending that night. Play-off defeat should probably be felt as painfully as a relegation but I was…relieved? In no way was that squad, under that manager, prepared for promotion. Frankly, a team with such a short-term approach to the whole campaign, and such a tentative approach to individual matches, doesn’t deserve to go up. The moment the second goal bounced past Angus, my head was turning to the Euros schedule.

The club’s backroom staff would never say it but 2023/24 was always meant to be an interim year, yet we somehow managed to fall into the top six arse-over-backwards. All it achieved was a delay in Ben Knapper’s inevitable axe wielding, so thank goodness that’s now happened and a longer-term project can begin.

Cameron Huggett: Being present at Elland Road for this particular match, let’s just say that I took my time returning to terraces following my half time pint.

But at full time, I felt a sense of catharsis settle over me. Leeds were the much better side, and we were unlikely to beat Southampton anyway. That’s before you even consider whether or not we were in a position to compete for Premier League survival – a feat that becomes more challenging for promoted clubs with each passing season.

Matthew McGregor: With a very deep sigh. Has there been a more foregone conclusion to a season in recent years?

As we are in complete unknown territory with the new manager, what do you think is the best case scenario for the season?

PB: We set too high a price on our best players, they all remain, Thorup suddenly gets a system working and we absolutely walk the league.

NiHa: With the Premier League being an awful place, promotion of any form this season would be almost certainly be far too early for a new management group and will see us crashing like Icarus if it were to happen by some miracle.

Instead I want to see an okay league showing from a team that I feel affinity with (i.e. position irrelevant as long as the vibes are good), and then have a proper run in the FA Cup. Not a “play the B team and lose 5-0 to Chelsea in the 4th round” showing, but a big old fashioned “they don’t like it up ‘em, stick your Swiss system, Norwich fucking City” FA Cup run.

Because of this, we will almost certainly win the league to spite me.

NaHi: I’m not putting a league position on it. The best case scenario is that Hoffball is flowing freely within season one, some younger players are at the heart of it, and Carrow Road is buzzing every other week once again. As someone who commutes into the fine city three times a week, that fourth trip on a Saturday has often felt a chore these past couple of seasons. A few times I simply didn’t bother.

Norwich could be 14th, as they were in year one of Farkeball, but still be producing something far more palatable than anything we’ve seen post-pandemic. This might make the Championship-high season ticket price easier to digest too.

CH: If I can’t be optimistic at the start of a new campaign, when can I be? 

The best case scenario is automatic promotion as league champions. How realistic this is, I have no idea. The division looks strong this year, with the likes of Portsmouth, Derby and Sheffield United (even with a points deduction) all entering the division by one means or another. Plus teams like Leeds, West Brom, Hull and Middlesbrough all looking to build upon their strong finishes last time out.

MMcG: A Danish revolution that blends unexpected break out years for academy stars, with the late-20s wisdom of some veterans, sparks scintillating soccer from some on-song Canaries and an exciting play-off final win against poor old Leeds.

BS: I’m expecting something similar to Farke’s first season – in the famous words of Gennaro Gattuso: “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit 🤌”. In other words, Championship newbie discovers its true horrors in real time etc.

At the two home pre-season games I saw some brief signs of the team looking to get the ball forward quickly and take the initiative, which felt like a pleasant novelty. I’ve been saying this since 2021, but I’d just like to watch a team that looks like it has a coherent plan. To hark back again to the 2017/18 season, fans will forgive a lot if they can see progress and feel like things are moving in positive direction.

Without wanting to look back too much, it is incredibly frustrating that the squad looks like it might need longer than has been available to be fully deprogrammed from the peculiarities of Wagnerball. It’s maddening given what we were told about the implementation of a club-wide coaching ethos, which if followed, would have avoided exactly this problem.

At the start of last season I said play-offs with no conviction, so I’ll just say that again (with no conviction).

And the worst?

PB: We accept bids for all our best players, ending up with the league’s smallest squad made up of teenagers and thirty-somethings, who get relegated with the worst points total in the history of the Championship.

NiHa: Things not gelling to a proposed system is one thing, things not even appearing to be a system at all is quite another. With a strong leadership group heading up the playing squad, if things go wrong at the outset and pressure falls onto the management group then we could be in for a bumpy ride through the lower-table mediocrity slide.

NaHi: Again, not putting a league position on it. The only way to get relegated from this division (if that’s a genuine fear) is if you actually try to. We’ve also seen how a team totally bereft of identity and relying on momentary flashes of brilliance from Sara, Rowe, Sainz, etc can finish in the top six. At the moment, Sara aside, those players are still here and we should have a more clearly defined style to our play – so that’s already a net positive. The only way the season flops is if the football flops and none of the players we need to see grow show signs of doing so.

CH: Clichés about the Championship’s unpredictability aside, I think the worst outcome for us come May 2025 is that we find ourselves mired in mid-table obscurity. Parachute payments aside, our ability to win promotion from the Championship is a significant boon to our reputation, and must surely be an important bargaining chip at this level.

MMcG: If we had a pound for every time someone cited Farke’s first disappointing season, we wouldn’t have had to sell Sara to Galatasaray. Our squad is still too strong to need to end up in the bottom third of the division. But I don’t think any of us would rule it out entirely.

BS: As I write this, Gabriel Sara is the subject of a bid from has been sold to Galatasaray. Whilst there was a sense of inevitability that he would be off, the reality of his exit is still alarming given how many goals he was involved in last season. If we were to lose Rowe and/or Sargent too, then it really would be time to freak the hell out – who would be left to create or score any goals?

Away from having our best players pinched, I do have a slight worry that lovely Johannes, with his doleful eyes and Wacky Uncle Glen don’t know what’s about to hit them in the brutish Championship. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few rude awakenings akin to the one Farke notoriously suffered at The Den.

What sort of state do you think the club is in off the field?

PB: We can officially categorise ourselves as “mid-table championship club that blew several good chances to cement its position in the Premier League and now has one, maybe two seasons to avoid doing an Ipswich (the bad Ipswich)”.

NiHa: Mixed is the way I can only describe it at the minute. With football being in such a mess it’s almost passé to mention it, I am still very sick and tired of the club doing, and agreeing to, silly little Modern Football nonsense things that always end up to our detriment in the long run and also go against any notion that we are a community club.

There also appears to be a lack of clarity over the World’s Slowest Takeover from the Attanasios, and the fact they are apparently looking to invest in another football club is making me a bit nervous.

Still on the plus side, the club isn’t in the hands of an autocracy with a bad human rights record, we don’t have some weird crypto-gambling shirt sponsor and we don’t have (to the best of my knowledge) fan social channels non-ironically posting graphics of the line-up of lawyers who will be defending our case against whatever charges we are up against on any given week. So that’s something.

NaHi: The same sort of state as all the other clubs without parachute payments. Everyone in the Championship who falls into that category have very little room to maneuver in the transfer market until a big sale is made and, now, neither can we.

We’re set to receive over £20m for Gabby Sara (supposedly, if you include all of the contract clauses) but no doubt the accounts in November will still highlight the immediate need for more Premier League football, and why more and more Norwich City football matches are being priced at thirty seven pounds sterling.

For what it’s worth, I don’t believe a fully Attanasio-led model looks much different to this either, but you’d hope we could at least patch up major gaps in the squad without having to strip ourselves of a prized asset first.

CH: It’s hard to say given that we’re so early into a new cycle. What I can say is that, for me personally, getting things right off the pitch is essential. As long as we have sensible ticket pricing, engage with supporters in a transparent way, have a good matchday experience, and operate in a responsible and conscientious manner, we are not the problem if that does not translate to success on the pitch.

MMcG: It has felt for a while like the relationship between the club and the fans is like a marriage that has run its course, but with both sides trying their best for the sake of the kids (players). The fresh air that Thorup and his impressive assistant Riddersholm have brought in could be the spark that gets everyone thinking about what made this thing of ours special in the first place, but it’s going to take some great performances on the field and some effort from everyone else to discover the heady days of a few years ago.

BS: No idea to be honest. I like what I’ve seen from the Sporting Director level downwards but I don’t have much confidence in anyone operating above that. We all wondered what the Knapper/Wagner dynamic was like and the prompt jettisoning of the clearly-not-his-guy guy answered this.

We are now missing our regular financial bonus from having little holidays in the Premier League, presumably the reason for the quietest summer transfer window in a long time, and there still needs to be more done to treat our women’s team players like respected athletes rather than an afterthought.

What is your Andrew Lawn Crazy Prediction of the Season?

PB: Brad Hills to be top scorer.

NiHa: Ipswich have a last minute winner against a big team ruled out by a bullshit VAR decision, are dubbed the humiliation of English football, get relegated with a record low points total and then enter administration as a result of their bizarre spending spree. That’ll teach them for being excited to be promoted.

NaHi: Onel to actually score at Carrow Road, with a shot that deflects through the legs of a couple of defenders and somehow squirms under the goalkeeper, who should definitely save it.

Elsewhere, it could be a fascinating race to the bottom in the Premier League™️ but sadly, I think Leicester (and not Ipswich) will have that clinched early doors, especially if they are docked points.

CH: We beat Ipswich in the FA Cup, further compounding their miserable season as they slide towards a humiliating relegation.

MMcG: Norwich will get to the FA Cup semi-finals, be drawn against Ipswich, and win 3-0 at Wembley.

BS: I guess it’s not the boldest prediction to say that teams who finished strongly last year could be in the promotion mix this time, but I do think QPR, Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City could all do well this time around.

I liked the brief glimpse of José Córdoba we’ve had and feel we could do with him in various areas of the pitch. So my prediction is that he will play in every position this season apart from goalkeeper.

What is your favourite thing about or from Denmark?

PB: If you’re single on your 25th birthday, it’s tradition in Denmark to drag you out into the street and cover you from head to toe in cinnamon.

NiHa: In the summer of 1986 the Danish national team wore the greatest international football kit of all time at the World Cup. Half and half stripes, chevrons, shades of red. It had the lot.

After the tournament was over the Danish kit manufacturer, Hummel, considered where to go next with its designs and settled on a template that contained its chevron pattern woven directly into the fabric. Happily, Hummel was Norwich’s kit supplier at the time and thus, with it, an iconic Norwich City shirt was born.

Even silly little fanzines still use the design as inspiration for their websites.

NaHi: It certainly isn’t Carlsberg. It has probably got to be Lego, as unoriginal as that answer may be. But it is quite apt given the building job that needs to happen this season.

CH: Hygge is a Danish concept, and one that’s somewhat hard to define (entire books have been written exploring it). It’s a feeling, a mindset and a way of life.

Imagine. You’re sat in front of a crackling fire. It’s the dead of winter. Rain patters faintly on shuttered widows; whipped by a North Wind blustering through barren branches. Night is settling in. You finish your rich hot chocolate, pulling soft blankets tight around you and your loved ones. At last, you pick up your favourite book.

That’s Hygge.

MMcG: Hygge: the very Danish sense of creating a warm atmosphere around you, enjoying the good things in life, and doing it with good people who you like and who like you. A bit of that in the sunshine at Oxford would go down very nicely.

BS: 1992 was the first Euros I watched with interest, so the plucky Danes getting off the beach to come and win the whole thing in their gorgeous Hummel kits will always be fondly nostalgic to me.

Other than that, well it’s Lego isn’t it? The invention of Lego is one of the finest things that the human species has ever achieved.

If Jacob Sørensen was a Lego brick, he’d be your standard 2×4. Utilitarian and unheralded yet solid, versatile and unpretentious. You miss them when they aren’t available. Plus they both cause a lot of pain when you stand on them.