The 2018-19 Season

After this season you wouldn't discount any possibility . Watching our play at times it's been up there with anything that The Premiership has to offer.

 

Vrancic stats, versus all other central midfielders in the football league:

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Indeed - if our play had have been Citeh or Liverpool or The Spuds then the pundits and journos would have been dining out on it for days. Our football at times has been exquisite and a joy to watch. More of the same Saturday chaps.

 

Mick Dennis provides an insightful look at the sources of our success this season:

http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...em-via-a-route-both-improbable-and-beautiful/

The sources are many and varied, but they also have a common purpose. One that particularly stands out is the sea change in our recruitment methods, perhaps best summed up by the signing of EMI Buendia:

"Webber said: “It started with the guys in data, who flagged him (Emi) up for high statistics in a really underperforming team. Kieran Scott (head of recruitment) went to watch him, came back and said he was unbelievable. I then got involved, watched him and then by using my contacts got into Getafe to make the deal happen at a time when they were struggling for money. He added: “Buendia was at loan at Cultural Leonesa, who are owned by Leeds United. Luckily we got there under Leeds’ noses”. Brilliant. The much-feted Marcelo Bielsa sends spies out with pliers to sneak close-up views of other clubs training and we’ve nipped in and shown we know more than him about a club with which he is associated."

Brilliant indeed, as was the signing of Pukki on a free transfer and all the other signings which has produced a team performing far beyond anyone's expectations. Long may it continue!

 

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Amazed the Sheffield Utd back 5 all miss out. Joe Lolley, Reece James, Jarod Bowen and Dan James can all feel hard done by too!

 

Naming 3 strikers means that other attacking players like Buendia or James get forced out.

 

With Aarons and Lewis supplying the ammo, that front six -^- has plenty of goals in it!

 

Also From yesterday’s MFW – Martin Penney is convinced that we’re going UP, UP, UP and it’s hard to disagree with him and I really liked this comment - Gary G said yesterday that Delia, Michael and Ed Balls deserve much credit in setting down some different foundations from which we’ve achieved so much.
http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...ebratory-dead-rubbers-to-come-going-up-up-up/

 

I would have loved to have seen him play HIS PART in this squad, but despite all the 'gnashing and wailing' before the season even started, it has been SUPERB!!!!
And we NEEDED the £Ms we got for him.

 

And we'll inevitably see the likes of Aarans, Lewis, Godfrey and Emi all 'do a Madders' at some points soon - self-financing sustainability at the Carra is like rocking horse scheisse, so we need to 'bolster the funds' by building a superb squad...and having to watch it get dismantled in front of us

 

The at least £100M at the end of next season should help!

 

The £20m budget is designed to avoid any need for another Madders situation. Madders wasn't asking to leave (unlike Pritchard) and the young players we have now are playing every week and excelling. Aarons and Lewis both made the team of the year alongside Pukki and they are building a huge future. We knew we could lose them if we didn't go up this year and the same could happen next year if we don't survive in the PL. SW is doing everything he can to prevent that as we won't need to sell and would have parachute payments as well. The football we've played this year and our cup games against Chelsea, Arsenal and Bournemouth convince me we have a good chance to survive next year.

 

I just HOPE that most of the squad will stay until the end of next season!!!!
#havefaith

 

Apparently Leeds are fuming about SW getting in to sign Buendia before them:

"Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber told the Daily Telegraph last week how his club’s recruitment team “got in there under Leeds’ noses” to prise away an “unbelievable” player from cash-strapped Getafe. A Leeds source told Football Insider that there has been anger among senior club figures at Elland Road they were unaware of Buenda’s immense potential and did not use their Leonesa relationship to sign the player."

Pity that, for such a big club. It doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if SW hadn't pulled that off.

 

Further evidence that SW is being proactive about hanging on to our young stars:

www.footballinsider247.com/revealed-club-to-offer-new-deal-to-21-year-old-wanted-by-liverpool-to-replace-big-name-star/

Godfrey in this case, but similar new offers to the others as well. I wonder if Klopp and Farke's Dortmund background encourages Klopp to look our way.

 

'The two and a half hours that elapsed between City’s players dropping to their knees at the Bet365 Stadium and Brentford beating Leeds on Monday encapsulated the rollercoaster ride that is being a football fan.'
https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwi...umn-championship-rollercoaster-ride-1-6015185

 

DEFINITELY worth reading and one of the best articles I've read in the last week - http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...re-rarified-times-and-now-for-one-big-finale/.
Also read the comments by her fellow MFW writers!!!

 

Did you see my reply to Martin and do you know what we were talking about?

 

Whoscored's statistical TOTY:

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And out of interest, the best NCFC XI statistically:

I think that's our statistically best performing XI, rather than one made of the best individually rated players. The numbers differ slightly to each player's season rating, due to it only counting games where Whoscored think we played 4-2-3-1 and not 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3.

Notable omissions: Kenny McLean scored 7.23 over the season, Trybull 6.95, Hanley 6.91, Klose 6.85, Vrancic 6.84 (vs Leitner's 6.82 for the season), Cantwell 6.64, Rhodes 6.36.

Interesting really that those are the only players we've made significant use of (18 of them) this season. It's been a tight-knit squad this season. With the exception of Srbeny who has been a frequent benchwarmer, nobody else in the squad has really seen any meaningful game time. From memory, this is exactly what Webber laid out when he first joined the club, that we'd cut down to a lean squad to maximise the impact of the money we have on the pitch. Clearly there's still some wages to be cleared, but that should be achieved this summer.

Looking ahead to next season and the "limit" of a 25-man squad, it looks like that's not going to pose any issues. The 19 players mentioned, plus McGovern and Heise, leaves us space in that core group for 4 others. That's about in line with what's been suggested by Webber, but I'd expect Srbeny and perhaps Cantwell to leave on loan.

 

Just read it Dave!!