Along Come Norwich Season Review – 2021/22

Who’s to blame for the fiasco of this season?

Matthew McGregor

The absolute state of modern football is to blame. The gap between the top eight of this league and the bottom eight is bigger than the gap between the old Division One and Division Three when I first got interested in football. There are question marks over whether that is a sustainable place for our game, but there’s no question at all that it isn’t fun. It’s time Norwich, Fulham, Watford, Brentford and Sheffield United formed our own between-the-league super league.

For Norwich specifically, there’s no doubt the blame lies with the recruitment – which is the responsibility of the Sporting Director. I can’t see how there’ll be any contention over that. We did have ambition, we did have a plan – but it was the wrong plan. We had a bazooka, a machine gun, and a tank, but to buy all kit, instead of buying top-of-the-range, we went to a dodgy arms bazaar in a Czech backstreet and bought old Soviet knock off gear. It misfired, unsurprisingly. 

Nick Hayhoe

On the pitch, the recruitment can only be described as a total shambles and this is, of course, down to the sporting director. The curse of Ricky Van Wolfswinkel is burning bright in that we can never seem to buy a decent player over £10m and, worse, seem to buy total duds. While apparently inevitable transfers such as Buendia’s are now greeted with shrugs by Norwich fans as “just one of those things”, a serious concern is that each time we sell someone for big money then the return we get on the transfer from then spending that money is horrendous. This is quite an unsustainable operation when your model is relying on churning either quality youth talent or polishing lost rough diamonds and putting them in the shop window. 

Off the pitch, the apparently positive culture behind the scenes of a year ago now lay in tatters. A catalogue of bizarre PR decisions, from BK8 right through to Everest climb interviews via a Winter Wonderland, have ripped up what had been years’ worth of goodwill supporter relations. The club have jumped on the defensive too many times and it seems like an “us” (the club) v “them” (the fans) mindset has developed. It is going to be an interesting few months ahead to see if anything will change.

Terri Westgate

There is not one person or one decision that has caused this season’s failure, as I refuse to let the players and coaches completely off the hook on this. Yes everyone will point to recruitment last summer, the loss of some great characters and money spent on underachievers seems to have had the opposite effect intended. We should be more experienced and capable this time around, and yet we struggled from the start. However, you can’t help but look at Brentford, who finished below us last season and didn’t spend big, and be jealous of their points tally. Too many games this season formerly reliable players made mistakes or just seemed to give up. I think everyone involved needs to take some responsibility. Except maybe Pukki, who’s done the best with what he’s had to work with.

Ben Stokes

Paul Buller

Everyone is to blame. You, me, Delia, Stuart Webber, Captain Canary, Puppet Man. All of us. As soon as the fixture list was published, we all said we were down. We said we’d get a horrible run of defeats, we said the media would come after us because of it, and we said we’d lose our beloved Daniel Farke as a result. And oh, look what happened. Aside from that, getting Waitrose money for Emi Buendia and spending it at Asda was pretty bloody stupid. 

Edie Mullen

🕸🏔💩

Maddie Mackenzie

The starry-eyed idealist in me wants to say the Premier League. From allowing despotic states to pump the league with blood money, to (admittedly, a lesser crime) refusing match postponements to teams with actively vomiting players while falling over for a top six club with a slightly peaky looking midfielder, they have manufactured a league where clubs like Norwich are simply not welcome.

Then you look at bloody Brentford, the cheery gits, and the blame probably lies with the club this time around. Terrible recruitment, lack of identity, actively alienating fans – which fiasco do you focus on? Either way, it’s been a mess and there are plenty of senior figures within Norwich who must have some serious questions asked of their approach to the season.

Especially Webber, but you might need a big old megaphone because he’ll probably be climbing Beeston Bump.

Adam Brandon

Pretty much all the same people who took the credit when things went well – Farke, Webber & the players. Twice now they have been found wanting at this level to a desperate degree, and although some of it is lack of finances, not all of it is. Dean Smith can take a share of the blame too for some strange decisions.

Ffion Thomas

Recruitment of all kinds.

What was the point where things went wrong for you?

Matthew

The point at which the transfer window closed, and we had not replaced Oliver Skipp. The gloom descended quickly after that.

Nick

Easy to say with the hindsight goggles on, but the first half of the Liverpool game was an extremely stark 45 minutes in which we seemed to have dismissed everything that we’d done in the previous three seasons and while understanding that we were playing one of the best teams in the world right now, an apparent ditching of the elements of fearlessness that Farke had employed throughout his time. Not only that, the mentality shift…didn’t work and never did. Indeed it never happened at any point during the season and is part of the reason we’ve gone down so meekly.

We may never know the full reason why Daniel Farke drastically changed the playing style for the worse at the start of this season. While Norwich clearly needed to sort out a lack of playing style naivety, this was taken to the nth degree by DF and it baffles me that it was completely thrown in the landfill especially as we’d apparently signed players suited for it. Whether it was his gamble that didn’t pay off, or he was under pressure from Webber, or he simply got it wrong; it put us in a position we never recovered from.

Terri

It’s difficult to say when they were going right. A few times it looked like we might be heading in the right direction, but then it all collapsed in a heap. We have been unlucky with Covid and injuries at key moments. The long wait for the first win wasn’t a great start. It’s more our inability to bounce back when we go a goal down that has been the problem.

Ben

7th August 2021, St James’ Park

It may sound daft, but my heart sank when I saw the haplessly chaotic way the defending looked for each of Newcastle’s goals in the 3-0 pre-season friendly defeat. Each goal appeared reminiscent of so many of the soft ones conceded during the 2019/20 season, far too easy for the opposition and often aided by our own mistakes. It may not have gone entirely wrong at that point, but things certainly didn’t seem in place for us to be competitive and survive.

Beyond this, there was the cruel opening run of fixtures which were always likely to leave us without a point nearly a month into the season. Also injuries to Rashica, Normann and Idah just as each one was hitting some form, Covid running through the squad during December and either sacking Daniel Farke at all or not sacking him soon enough depending on your viewpoint.

Paul

Sometimes success or failure in football just comes down to circumstance and how you deal with it. We were dealt a shitty set of circumstances at the start of the season – fixtures, Covid, injuries – and we didn’t deal with it. For all the radiant positivity that comes from the club’s ‘philosophy’, we clearly didn’t learn from Project Restart (see Grant Hanley’s interview with Jake Humphrey where he says he still doesn’t know what went wrong back then – YOU’RE THE CAPTAIN, YOU SHOULD KNOW) and that tells you everything about how unprepared this club was for the Premier League.

Edie

🗑🇩🇪

Maddie

Watford (H) was a low point. Before then we’d only played properly decent teams, but we just never looked like getting into the game or threatening a side we’d finished above a few months before. Although I suppose you had the relative comfort of the goalless draws against Burnley and Brighton to fall back on, so I’ll have to say Leeds (H). I was in the ground for Farke’s post-match interview: he looked a broken man and it became clear things were only going to end one way.

Adam

Last summer when we failed to replace Skipp and Buendía – the 2 best players from last season. I can forgive the Buendía one, we had Cantwell that we all hoped would step up plus we did spend a lot in his position and not all signings work out well, but not getting in athletic defensive midfielders was strange given it was identified as an issue last time. Also it was always going to be difficult, but the idea to switch to an unfamiliar formation and style made it even more tough – everybody looked lost from that very first game and the new signings didn’t settle quickly enough. The covid outbreak in pre-season didn’t help either and was a piece of bad luck that got the season off to a bad start.

Ffion

A heavy defeat at Man City is par for the course, but we were so absolutely torn to shreds I left the Etihad very wary about what the season had in store. Funnily enough, on the train to and from Manchester that day I was reading “Into Thin Air”, a book about the 1997 Mount Everest disaster. Highly recommended, unless you’re planning on climbing it any time soon.

Is Dean Smith the right man still?

Matthew

All signs point to no. He’s had a long crack at things, and we’re not playing better, we’re not looking like winning games, and we’re not developing an identity. The continued playing of the loanees has really turned me against Smith because it suggests a lack of a plan for the future. He’s had a little bit of bad luck – what could have happened if the Idah-driven use of 4-4-2 wasn’t cut short by injury is the big unknown of this season – but on the whole, it’s been pretty lacklustre and unimaginative. 

Nick

Absolutely not. While it seems any time anyone starts calling for a manager’s head these days, you’re then challenged and expected to give a Gary-Neville-on-MNFesque analysis of why you feel that, I can only rely on my real-time gut instinct of what I am seeing on the pitch. And on the pitch, I am seeing a team in total chaos as to what they are doing tactically, confusion as to who has what role and a complete lack of an attempted cohesive style. If you need further evidence beyond what is happening in front of your eyes, then look at the league table. (In a world of stat saturation, it’s amazing how much insight you can still draw from the good old fashioned league table).

The argument that they are “not his players” has so many holes in it, it’s difficult to know where to start – but the main counterpoint to this is…well, why did we hire him in the first place if that’s so crucial to the success of a manager?

Bin him off, get some young hipster with a master plan and build it all around him (or her) please.

Terri

Was he ever the right man? His job was to come in and keep us up, with the current squad. He failed. And he has less experience than our last head coach of getting promotion out of the Championship. Unless he turns things around, and we have a cracking start to next season, I can’t see him being at the club this time next year.

Ben

Honestly, I have no idea. I still find it quite hard to have any opinion of the man at all. In his defence, it is quite unusual to have your first transfer window pass without being allowed to sign a single player. I am very interested to see what happens this summer as I suspect Smith trusts a large number of his inadequate squad about as much as the rest of us do. He has got a team promoted from the Championship before and has got the best out of some young players at various clubs. I have been surprised by the number of otherwise stoic fans who have turned against him so quickly. That said, a lot of his tactics and team selections don’t always seem to make a lot of sense. Early signs of improvement – some defensive organisation, getting the ball forward more quickly – have completely disappeared and we once again have a team with no fortitude who collapse the minute they concede.

The big problem for Smith is that it’s now hard to argue that we’d be any worse off with Farke in charge. A largely popular manager who won the Championship twice (that would be useful now, wouldn’t it?) This, coupled with Smith’s sometimes tone-deaf remarks to the media, mean he is unlikely to be given much time to show a quick improvement next season.

Paul

I saw a tweet from a Villa fan saying give Dean Smith time, he builds squads around big personalities and he doesn’t have that at Norwich yet. If this is true then yes, he’s the right man, because well, this season. The ability to, say, look up before you cross the ball, or not make a stupid mistake in defence would be a help, too.

Edie

🤷🏻‍♀️

Maddie

What a controversial question! Every time I question him on Twitter my mentions get flooded with people crying “oh, you’re just rewriting history because you loved Farke so much,” as apparently it is impossible to separate your attitudes towards one head coach from those towards another. I think he’s gotten off very, very lightly, and has the lack of activity in the January transfer window to fall back on. If things still look dour by the World Cup then my patience will definitely have run dry.

Adam

I remember completely losing my head and asking for him to be sacked during the defeat to Palace on NYD. That was my patience wearing thin quickly as from Newcastle away onwards I thought we got gradually got worse and Smith had no plan or idea to get us out of it – we had no identity at all. A month after that I was pretty happy with what he had managed to get out of the squad once we switched tactics and had Idah up front with Pukki, finally giving the GOAT some support – it probably wouldn’t have kept us up, but we did look much more competitive.

Then, Idah got injured, and since then he has struggled to find the right formula again so I do have some sympathy with him there. Playing Williams over Giannoulis has been a constant source of concern for me, I don’t quite get his love of Byram either. On a plus note, I have liked the fact he’s given chances to Rowe (although he deserved a start) and Springett. In terms of style of play, I think it has been much clearer away from home these past couple of months where we’ve looked far more dangerous in many games than we ever did away from home in the Premier League under Farke. So overall it’ll be interesting what he does next season and personally, I’m prepared to give him the summer and see how it goes next season, but I wouldn’t be upset if we decide to go with somebody else with a much clearer style of play. My biggest actual worry is we give him too much power in the transfer market with Webber off climbing mountains in Ecuador instead of scouting their excellent conveyor belt of youth talent coming through.

Ffion

I’m far from convinced he ever was the right man but I can’t see a change happening this summer. He’ll have had plenty of time to plan ahead for the Championship at least.

How does this rank in the pantheon of awful Norwich seasons?

Matthew

At least Glenn Roeder wasn’t our manager?

Nick

This is the worst I have experienced (in person – Covid season was beyond a nightmare for…well everything) since I was a kid in the late 90s, and I include the Roeder relegation season in that. While anger is easy to direct and let go of, ennui and embarrassment are far more difficult to deal with.

Terri

Norwich once lost 6-1 to Port Vale. Not a Champions League level, big spending top flight team like a Chelsea or Man City, second tier also rans Port Vale! And I was there. The club was in a mess in the late 90s, and that 96/97 season was worse than this one – and we didn’t even get relegated. Also the year Roeder got us relegated to League One, that was worse. But of all the top flight relegations I’ve experienced first-hand (there have been five) I think this is the worst. Or maybe it just hurts the most as it’s so recent.

Ben

Pretty, pretty high. I was thinking about this very question after the West Ham game and I think it may well be the worst that I’ve experienced. I started supporting the team around 1990, and since going to my first game at Carrow Road in 1992, I’ve seen teams managed by Megson, Hamilton, Roeder, Hughton – even Jim Duffy for crying out loud. I’ve seen 7 (seven) relegations, including one to League One, but even that season included a Leroy Lita hat-trick against the eventual champions. This cursed season would seem to have one single highlight – the away win at a dreadful Watford, who managed to have a season pretty much as bad as ours. It’s hard to believe now that the win at Vicarage Road and Josh Sargent’s foot dangling fluke majestic scorpion kick gave us momentary hope that the escape was on. So on balance for me Clive, this has been the most miserable, depressing, soul-crushing season of ennui and despair of the last 32 years. Oh yeah, there was also the reveal of a shit new club badge.

Paul

It feels like the Glenn Roeder/Peter Grant era. And that wasn’t fun, was it?

Edie

🥈

Maddie

I got my season ticket in December 2018, which means this is the first season where I’ve been to every home game. It is not one I’ll remember fondly.

Adam

Feels quite similar to a couple of years ago, but personally as I totally expected it this time, it doesn’t feel as bad – probably in the minority there. Obviously it is right up there, although some of the campaigns at lower level I will automatically consider worse.

Ffion

It’s certainly the one I’ve enjoyed the least – I’ve had no qualms about leaving Carrow Road early on several occasions, which I’ve never previously done. Our performances were probably slightly more abject during Project Restart, but at least back then we didn’t have to get on a train home packed with jubilant opposition fans after each dismal defeat.

Did anything positive happen at all?

Matthew

The most positive thing that happened for me this season was the Covid test I got the day after being at our gutting defeat at Elland Road.

Nick

Not as far as Norwich City are concerned, no.

Some might point out the fact some young players broke through but frankly, I am not sure I really feel good about that right now with the knowledge they will just be sold to sit on Newcastle’s bench in a Europa League game within the next two seasons.

While that’s more of a Big Football problem than a Norwich City one, we can’t keep this system if every time an offer comes in and we do our traditional thing of buying utter crap with the big money we then receive. Every single time Norwich spend more than £10m on a player, we end up buying utter dross. Not a half-decent still could be a squad player – dross. This cycle cannot continue indefinitely as it is not sustainable.

The only glimmer of light with regards to wider football is that Ipswich, who are getting their act together behind the scenes, were still a shambles on the pitch and can’t even make the playoffs in the Third Division.

Terri

Pukki reaching Grant Holt’s NCFC goal tally is quite something given how low scoring this season has been. I had some nice times hanging out with my mates, but other than that…

Ben

In keeping with the general theme of the season, any sparse high-points were usually followed by a swift, head-on collision with horrible, horrible reality. These are the bits I do remember briefly enjoying:

There was the aforementioned evening when Josh Sargent got acrobatic, Idah and Rashica looked like potent attacking threats and a drum-inspired away end just had a lovely old time.

The 2-1 win against Everton which, at the time of writing, may well have helped to contribute to their hilarious relegation.

Adam Idah really starting to grasp the opportunities Dean Smith has given him and, on a couple of notable occasions, looking like a real pain to try and play against. He then promptly got injured of course.

We didn’t have a gambling sponsor for one season, although by accident rather than design.

Overall however, I’d say the best thing was that once again Teemu Pukki managed to get into double goal-scoring figures for the worst team in the Premier League. Imagine what he could’ve done if we’d had a half-decent midfield or not spent about two-thirds of the season not playing to his strengths. Ok Emi isn’t about anymore to set him up 37 times in every match, but Teemu still diligently makes the runs, finds the space and never really grumbles when those around him either don’t have the vision or ability to take advantage. He’ll easily get 20+ goals again next season and it’s vital we keep hold of him.

Paul

If you’re Stuart Webber then yes, everything is positive. Abject failure, national humiliation, club and fans arguing, poor return on player investment, Covid, injuries, sacking one of our greatest ever managers, goals conceded… if you can’t find positivity in this then you are clearly a loser and you don’t deserve to climb Mount Everest.

Edie

🕊🥅 + N1 🔥😈

Maddie

Lungi made his debut away at – oh, no, we got beaten 3-0 at Spurs.

Lungi sat Ronaldo on his – oh, no, he scored a penalty and we lost.

Lungi looked bright against Watford when he – oh, no, he went off injured and didn’t play for another 4 months.

Adam

Pukki is still great so let’s hope he stays. An obvious one, but there are clear signs that our academy has come on leaps and bounds in recent years – looking forward to Omobamidele, Idah, Springett and Rowe all playing a part next season from the evidence we’ve seen so far.

Ffion

We’ll always have Watford away.

What’s happening next season?

Matthew

100 points, 100 goals.

But seriously, we do have the guts of a superb Championship team. We really do need a CDM in the mold of Skipp, and we probably need some reinforcements up front, but a team of Gunn, Byram, Hanley, Omobamidele, Dimi, New Skipp™, Lees-Melou, Cantwell, Dowell, Idah, and Pukki has the potential to boss the Championship once again. 

(I was just joking about Todd, obviously.)

Nick

Caveats are caveats, but the big caveat here is how the next three months go and who, even, the manager could be. I can’t see playoffs at this moment in time and, considering we are a streaky team and our record in seasons with disrupted calendars (December World Cup don’t forget!) a top-half finish could even prove tricky.

Terri

I know the joke is that we’re a perennial yo-yo club, but it feels like next year might be a transitional season. Obviously, I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t have great confidence we’ll bounce straight back. The coaching team and squad has changed so much since our title-winning seasons, and we could be spending matches blooding young talent and building for the future. But I don’t have a great record of predicting the future, so who knows.

Ben

After this season’s misery, I’m looking forward to a bit of a clear-out and seeing how the squad has developed come August. Loan players will obviously slink off without fanfare and there are question-marks about a whole load of others. Will Cantwell be rehabilitated? Who’s going to be first choice in goal? Will anyone really want to buy a single one of our players and how will that affect how much money Smith is given to spend? It doesn’t seem likely that there will be a massive transfer fee coming in as has happened for the last three summers. HMS Piss the League II may well end up being more of a container ship wedged in a canal compared with 2020/21’s dreadnought.

Some combination of the players who’ve done it before, a scattering of promising youth and hopefully some much-needed new faces should have us in play-off contention at least. If Frank Lampard’s Comedy Everton Vehicle go down, they should have the resources to walk the league. Watford bounced back last time and there will be those unsuccessful in the play-offs this time. You could imagine both Leeds or Burnley being teams who make a pig’s ear of it and end up nowhere near promotion. If Sunderland go up I’ve got a feeling dear old Alex Neil could have a very good season with them.

Oh and the kit will feature a shit new badge, did I mention that?

Paul

Delia, Michael, Webber, Ward, Smith and ‘Shakey’ will all be gone by Christmas, having been fired after an aggressive takeover bid by poultry magnate Michael Foulger’s consortium of the world’s leading meat producers and the Norwich City Supporters’ Trust. Carrow Road will be renamed the ‘Cargill Meat Solutions Arena’, Colney will be repurposed to house over 400,000 intensively-reared birds and Norwich’s pre-season tour will encompass ‘goodwill’ visits to five of the globe’s highest meat-producing countries.

Edie

👷📚🦺

Maddie

I take it you don’t mean the complete farce of a World Cup held in the winter (Winter! Honestly! Chucking mugs of Horlicks in celebration following a Harry Kane penalty, I think not) to combat the insane summer heat levels in a state that never should have been allowed to host it. It’s such a tough one to call. The last Premier League season ended with such a whimper that no one thought we’d go on to destroy the Championship to quite the extent that we did, but the inner workings of the club weren’t in quite as much turmoil as they are now.

We have a squad of very, very good Championship players, but Dean Smith’s record in the league is a tad confusing. Using the Jack Grealish cheat code in much the same way we clung to the Emi Buendía variety, his cabbage-less Villa side did boss the playoffs; their form fell away dramatically when the captain was injured for three months. His Brentford sides were less successful but did finish above Norwich and played some very attractive football. I’d hate to call it so I’m going to sit firmly on the fence, thank you very much.

Adam

I think we will be in the playoff mix, if we hang outside for too long it’ll be interesting how long Smith gets especially if Neil Adams is part of that decision – a man who will know from experience how difficult it can be to lead a team straight back up and how changing managers halfway through can have a massive impact.

Ffion

Start poorly, blame it on the curse of the new badge, change manager during the World Cup break, then storm the league from December.

If you had to pick one former Norwich player in their prime to play for us now, who would you pick?

Matthew

Is it cheating to say Emi Buendia? Because if not, then Emi Buendia. If that is cheating, then I’ll go for Ian Crook simply to see him build the relationship with Idah that nets him 20 assists in a season.

Nick

Ian Crook. That’d sort the drunkenly dropped kebab box that is our midfield out.

Terri

Iwan Roberts. Firstly because the thought of him up front with Pukki makes me drool (he always had great partnerships, with Bellamy, McVeigh and Huckerby), he always knew how to get a goal out of nothing, but mostly because he gave everything he had for every second of the match. His head never dropped, he kept pushing forward until the bitter end. And my god we’ve missed that spirit this season.

Ben

The obvious answer after our last Championship campaign would be Emi Buendia. It was never going to be a simple case of finding his exact replacement, players like that just don’t come along very often for clubs like us. It would’ve been nice if we’d been able to find a player or two who possessed even a fraction of Emi’s vision, creativity or ease in position, not to mention the willingness to move around the pitch to find space or dropping deep to take the ball from defence to relieve pressure. I was partly being contrary when I used to tell anyone who’d listen (nobody) that he was our best defender a lot of the time. But when the team was under pressure or looking to close out leads, he was so often the outlet for the defence and then beating a player, finding space or just retaining possession – all things lacking since his departure. After a season of being so meek in the centre, just give me any creative or combative former midfielder and I’d be happy. Tettey, Wes, Crook, Hucks, Bradley Johnson – we’ve been devoid of any of their attributes.

Paul

Gary ‘Not Two but Three Lungs’ Holt. Can you imagine the shock our current set of players would get if he was on the pitch with them? Just his sheer velocity would scare them into action. In fact, can we re-sign him? Even at the age of 49 he’d put in more miles than most of this season’s midfield.

Edie

☘️🇮🇪

Maddie

Two words. Wesley. Hoolahan.

Adam

Given we are about to head into a Championship and we were close to unbeatable with him in the side – Emi Buendía.

Ffion

Oliver Skipp.

“Still, good news about…?”

Matthew

…the away day in Blackpool next season. 

Nick

Me discovering the Coach and Horses matchday chips for the first-ever time.

Terri

The vegan pies in the Barclay. Now if they could just get a decent beer in there as well…

Ben

The team that finished 11th in the Third Division continuing to be shite.

Paul

I mean, seriously – relegation! Yay! Out of the spotlight! Lots of games we might win! No one picking on us on TalkSport! No Alan Shearer! Good old-fashioned grounds to visit! Cheaper tickets! Evening matches! Singing and flag waving at Carrow Road! Blood and guts defending! 20+ goals from Pukki! More exclamation marks! Sorry. Too positive?

Edie

🐐

Maddie

Daniel Farke’s 4 year contract extension, which will take him to Summer 2025! Right lads? Right?

Adam

Teemu Pukki signing the year extension, but I do worry he will still go. As I said earlier, the talents coming out of our academy would be my other thing.

Ffion

… having a whole summer holiday to play with our new toy the SoccerBot.