Match Day Thread Norwich vs Spurs

Canos epqualised against Leeds Burnley 1-2 down

 

Leeds 90+4 & survived

 

Burnley and Watford, between them, have a goal difference of 1 more goal than Norwich in the PL this season - a bit of a pointer to just how bad it's been

 

I heard the pundit say we are the lowest scorers on 23 in all the English & European leagues .

 

Yes, I know we got one point more (Wow!) than two years ago, but this has been our worst season in the PL by a country mile.

From the very beginning, with the fracas about pornographic sponsors to not completing our recruitment before the season started, this has been an utter and abject failure. And we are left with a DoF who doesn't give a damn as long as he can use us to fund climbing mountains, a manager who has the power to inspire of a lump of concrete, and an owner who sits like Miss Haversham among her cobwebs and wedding cake. If we get out of the Championship next season, it will be via the trapdoor, not the elevator.

 

You under estimate the quality of the Premier league & over estimate the Championship.

Record for most relegated ever but that means by default we are good at getting promoted.

 

IMO, not next season, not if we keep Smith. I will be delighted to be proved wrong, but I just don't see anything like the ability that is required to get us back up again. We'll still have a decent squad, I imagine, and a decent manager might make us competitive. But not Smith.

Robbie will come on soon and tell me how wonderful Smith was at Brentford. Yes, he inherited a team which finished in the play-offs (fifth) before he arrived, and then he took them to the heights of 9th-10th-9th during his management period. And after he left, they made the play-offs again twice before finally getting promoted. He was truly inspirational, wasn't he?

 

Gozo is on the sherry

 

Red wine, actually. In vino veritas.

 

It's Buckfast Blue nun or nothing for me

 

To paraphrase Churchill, tomorrow I will be sober but Norwich will still be relegated.

 

It reminds me of WWF wrestling it's all rigged.

Probably magnetic balls

 

Can somebody switch the lights off when they go………

 

Never going to blame DS for this season's debacle, but I'd take Farke back in a heartbeat. Webber used him as a scapegoat to hide his own shortfalls in the window.

 

The season is over hurrah! The game rather summed up the season, we can play some good football, but so many mistakes costing us goals or just not anticipating anything. The area of the pitch that needs sorting first is the midfield it has been woeful this year. They have been putting pressure on the defence and offering Pukki about 2 chances a game and scored naf all

 

So the fact they twice made the play-offs after DS left was nothing to do with what he did when he managed them? And three consecutive top ten finishes in the second tier was failure for a team that had spent all but the preceding season in the third tier since 1993? Funny, then, that Aston Villa thought he was the man to get them promoted to the EPL, rightly as it turned out -- but there again, no doubt they were looking for "a manager who has the power to inspire of a lump of concrete". Maybe, on the other hand, they did some due diligence and noticed that, when Brentford finished the 2017--18 season in that "lowly" 9th place (we managed 14th if you remember), they did so being "widely regarded as the Championship's entertainers", Smith having "built an attractive passing style of play on a shoestring budget."

 

You believe he's a very good manager; I believe he's the epitome of mediocrity. As I've said before, we'll just have to wait and see who is right on this one because he's going nowhere (sadly, in my opinion; thankfully, in yours).

If I'm wrong, and he's guided us to promotion by playing attractive football with a clear identity which bodes well for the future, I will come on here a year from now and eat humble pie. If you're wrong, and we've sacked him at Christmas as we hover above the relegation zone looking clueless, will you?

 

Of course he won't, however if you read his post again, you'll notice that he hasn't actually given his opinion, he's just asked some questions and made a couple of statements to give the illusion that he is giving his view. It's deliberate, IF it all goes wrong he'll play both ends against the middle and challenge you to find a post where he said he support Smith.

 

Correct. My post was in response to the ill-informed nastiness of Gozo's caricature of the man and his time in charge of Brentford.

As to my opinion(s):
1. I think the decision to terminate Daniel Farke's contract was the right one.
2. I don't believe Dean Smith was at the top of Webber's list of possible Farke replacements, but I think he was a good choice and a good fit for the club as it is.
3. I think he's a good coach, more adaptable than Daniel Farke.
4. Dean Smith's teams play attractive, attacking football based on getting the ball forward quickly, and pressing teams high in their defensive third.
5. It will take time and several new acquisitions to build a Norwich squad capable of successfully delivering that style of play; but the squad that Smith builds will be much better suited to survival in the top tier.
6. There is no point in getting promoted next season only to suffer the same ignominy as this season and two seasons ago; our target should be promotion in 2023--24.