I don't disagree with a lot of the points he's making, but equally as I saw pointed out elsewhere, he does come across as a blend of Alan Partridge and David Brent doesn't he? Whether that's his personality, or whether he's gone for bluster and eye-catching quotes to try and take headlines away from the playing squad, I don't know. I'd hope the latter.
You're much more generous than me, DH. I think the bluster and eye-catching quotes are designed to take the headlines away from the absolute dog's dinner he's made of this season.
I just don’t think we can really lay the blame for this season at Webber’s door. Sure, he’s very senior in the club and so he takes a big share of the responsibility, but I don’t see how it is fair to blame him. There were some cold hard external facts that are not his fault: - We do not have much money. End of. (We have outperformed in terms of spend overall, so that actually shows his skill). - A strong start in the Premier League is absolutely critical. We’ve never survived without one. A strong pre-season is integral to that. Our pre-season was totally ****ed through no fault of anyone at the club. The fixture list was doubly unkind. - Key decisions by players and by referees have gone against us. I appreciate some might argue that’s not a fact, more an opinion, but I disagree. The player decisions when you know they can do better are questions of form, confidence etc. The refereeing decisions have been a shambles. - Injuries. We seem to be repeatedly brutalised by this. I accept any season will have multiple injuries and some lengthy to important players, but for the love of God could we please have a Premier League season where the “spine” stays relatively injury free for the whole season. None of that takes away from the mistakes - poor choices by Farke, bad timing of Farke’s sacking, questionable playing style by Smith and some abominable efforts on the pitch by virtually every member of the squad at times. But it is important to see things in the round as football is full of variables
Yes. I love that bit about how he's introduced at parties. That's how everyone is introduced: 'This is X and he's a teacher.' What does he expect? 'This is Stuart, and he's a deeply interesting and multi-faceted human being who has several projects on the front burner right now?'
The refereeing decisions? every (struggling) clubs fans have exactly the same gripe. Are we right in our opinion and they wrong? Injuries. A table was posted a couple of weeks ago showing how many game days the squads of each club had missed due to injury/illness. We were placed 10th, meaning 9 teams had more injuries impacting their match day squads than us. The fact is all clubs have players unavailable for various reasons of which we are totally unaware.
But of all the teams we've probably got the least strength in depth, so not having players available has a disproportionate effect on us. It's one of the reasons why the 'bigger' clubs were keen on the 5 subs rule, which is designed to make the strong stronger at the disadvantage of the weaker teams.
I think it’s been fairly well demonstrated that the big clubs get decisions we don’t - comparable penalties awarded/not awarded, eg we have had several claims as clear cut as Ronaldo’s penalty against us. I accept what you say, it’s true, but I am reasonably confident we do not get the rub of the green in the Premier League with referees. As for injuries, that’s acknowledged, but in addition to canario’s points I think it’s more about injuries to the “spine” of the team and the timing of injuries rather than purely how many players have been injured. We did have a worse time with injuries in the previous Premier League campaign though.
Seen a rumour this evening that Webber is refusing to speak to local media (presumably Archant, but maybe Michael Bailey? Radio Norfolk?) "ever again". Not sure what triggered that, considering they're usually all pretty "on-brand" with their content. Considering The Times arguably made more from their latest interview with a clickbait title, that's a surprising decision. I've also read that The Times will sit down with Webber again in the summer for a football chat (this one was meant to be entirely about Everest), as a debrief on the season. I wonder if local journalists will get anything similar.
If these latest reports are true, it seems that Webber is willing to put himself on a collision course with the fans. There's an old saying that once a manager has lost the fans, it's only a matter of time before he's gone. I wonder if that is true about sporting directors. I assume this latest reported hissy fit is a response to the Norwich Evening News headline yesterday. As for not speaking to the local press about NCFC but giving another interview to The Times, if true this sums up his grandiose sense of self-importance. Delia and Michael need to grow a pair quickly and sack him. He's done great things for the club but he is now toxic. The sooner he's gone, the better. EDIT: Ward on the board doesn't help matters. She should recuse herself from any decision on this on the grounds of conflict of interest. Whatever you think about Webber's future at NCFC, something needs to be done. This is spiralling out of control and could affect whether key players want to remain at the club, our recruitment for next season, etc etc.
