The end of the yo-yo - Interview

Norwich have made a model of being a yo-yo club, but with David Wagner struggling to breathe much life into Dean Smith's stodgy side it looks like that cycle of up and down is coming to an end according to Jon Punt from the Along Came Nodge fanzine.

How would you assess Norwich's season overall?

Meh, it’s been an absolute grind, although I’m fully aware that given we sit in the top half of the table on the cusp of the play-offs that sounds sort of entitled.

The thing is, the whole season has just felt like a bit of a chore. And not a good chore like changing the bed sheets, it’s been way more like having to clean the bathroom. Insert your own shitshow jokes here.

Even in September or October when it looked like we might trouble the automatic spots, something felt off. Performances didn’t marry up with results and the style of play could be described either as pragmatic or non-existent. It felt like we were getting by on having some good players at this level, and their individual quality produced moments which won us a few games. Once those moments started to reduce in frequency, we sank like a stone.

And yet here we are, only a point or two off the top six, but that says way more about the quality of the league than any success we’ve enjoyed.

Norwich league results so far…
Cardiff 1-0 Norwich Sawyers 49
Norwich 1-1 Wigan Aarons 62 — McClean 29
Hull 2-1 Norwich Estupinan 43, 62 — Nunez 72
Norwich 2-1 Huddersfield Sargent 6, Sinani 16 — Jones 81
Norwich 2-0 Millwall Sargent 50, 75
Sunderland 0-1 Norwich Sargent 76
Birmingham 1-2 Norwich Hogan 50 — Omobamadele 63, Hernandez 90
Norwich 3-0 Coventry Pukki 14, Sargent 45, Dowell 81
Norwich 3-2 Bristol City Pukki 11, 23, Sargent 65 — Conway 44, Semenyo 77
Norwich 1-1 West Brom Byram 63 — O’Shea 9
Blackpool 0-1 Norwich Pukki 21
Reading 1-1 Norwich Hendrick 60 — Hanley 50
Norwich 2-3 Preston Sargent 2, Sara 76 — Riis 25, 51, Parrott 80
Watford 2-1 Norwich Louza 18, Davis 31 — Sargent 45
Norwich 0-1 Luton Morris 62
Sheff Utd 2-2 Norwich Osborn 61, McBurnie 72 — Pukki 3, 16
Burnley 1-0 Norwich Rodriguez pen 82
Norwich 3-0 Stoke Ramsey 38, 71, Sara 77 - Powell 90
Norwich 0-0 QPR
Rotherham 1-2 Norwich Rathbone 49 — McLean 17, Ramsey 50
Norwich 1-2 Boro Sargent 7 — McGree 64, Crooks 90
Swansea 0-1 Norwich Pukki 1
Norwich 0-2 Blackburn Gibson og 4, Dolan 86
Luton 2-1 Norwich Campbell 61, Woodrow 90 — Pukki 69 (giggity)
Norwich 1-1 Reading Idah 53 — Carroll pen 83
Norwich 0-1 Watford Bayo 86
Preston 0-4 Norwich Pukki 13, 69 (giggity), Dowell 16, 28
Coventry 2-4 Norwich Allen 20, Palmer 26 — Rose og 6, Hernandez 10, Sargent 18, Dowell 65
Norwich 0-3 Burnley Zaroury 8, Vitinho 54, Ekdal 60
Bristol City 1-0 Norwich Sykes 24
Norwich 3-1 Hull Dowell 18, Sara 58, Sargent 89 — Greaves 14
Wigan 0-0 Norwich
Norwich 3-1 Birmingham Nunez 27, 36, Tzolis 90 — Colin 53
Norwich 2-0 Cardiff Sara 33, Marquinhos 37
Millwall 2-3 Norwich Bradshaw 20, Flemming 53 — Sorensen 38, Bradshaw og 55, sara 65
Norwich 0-1 Sunderland Ba 15
Huddersfield 1-1 Norwich Hanley og 65 — Sara 26
Stoke 0-0 Norwich
Norwich 0-1 Sheff Utd McAtee 62
Blackburn 0-2 Norwich Gibbs 11, Sara 55
Norwich 0-0 Rotherham
Boro 5-1 Norwich Ramsey 7, Hackney 41, Archer 43, 45, Akpom 45 — Sargent 45

Feels like the yo-yo may have yoed its final yo, why haven’t City been able to replicate the previous bounce back seasons?

Ugh, I’ll try and keep this brief. Norwich’s success in the second tier has been largely built on a few excellent youth products being provided with a nurturing pathway into the first team, coupled with some razor-sharp recruitment for bargain basement prices. All while having an excellent head coach to organise them and provide a clear playing style.

Max Aarons, Jamal Lewis, Ben Godfrey and Todd Cantwell all made the step up, while Teemu Pukki on a free and Emi Buendia for an initial fee of £1.5m is quite frankly, ridiculous.

Those things have stopped happening by and large. Recruitment has been mediocre at best but more often than not pretty poor, while we also haven’t had the same level of talent emerge from the academy, albeit a few are starting to show signs of promise.

In short - we’ve stopped doing what we were good at.

Dean Smith, discuss. Must have a bloody good agent that bloke.
Deano must have gone to the Frank Lampard School of Failing Upwards, his appointment came right out of leftfield.

His time at Norwich was just really weird. Smith’s body of work prior to his tenure here seemed pretty good and on the face of it, he felt like a decent enough appointment. Someone who knew how to keep a club up in the Premier League, but could mix it in the Championship if needed.

Smith did neither particularly well and failed to win over the fans because he didn’t seem to want to bother. That might be harsh, he turned up at a Fans Forum once and made some noises in the media, but you never felt like he meant it. Like he got Norwich, or that he wanted to be here. Maybe he was jaded after his experience at Villa but who knows.

Personality or motivation aside, the football ranged from dire to average and you could tell the players just weren’t into it. That never ends well.

David Wagner - what do you think, what's he changed, how's it going?

The football definitely has a bit more purpose and style but injuries and perhaps mental fragility has seen us regress back to the mean of late.

He’d started to get some productivity out of Kieran Dowell and Onel Hernandez, and had they both stayed fit we might have been in the top 6 right now. Hernandez is back now and is our best chance of chance creation under Wagner.

What was done in the January window, what needed to be done?

We probably should have added to our midfield ranks, particularly defensively, but January is always hard to find the right fit. In the end we signed Marquinhos on loan from Arsenal and recalled Christos Tzolis from his loan in Holland who are both wingers. Neither have really brought much to the squad so far.

Summer Ins >>> Gabriel Sara, 23, CM, Sao Paulo, £9.45m >>> Marcelino Nunez, 22, CM, Catolica (Chile), £3.5m >>> Isaac Hayden, 27, DM, Newcastle, Loan >>> Aaron Ramsey, 19, AM, Villa, Loan >>>

Winter Outs >>> Todd Cantwell, 24, AM, Rangers, £1.7m >>> Jordan Hugill, 30, CF, Rotherham, Free >>> Danel Sinani, 25, AM, Wigan, Loan >>> Daniel Barden, 21, GK, Maidstone, Loan

Stand out players and weak links in the side?

Gabriel Sara is the one you should look out for, if he plays well then those around him tend to raise their own games and we’ll be in with a chance. However, often he has been isolated in midfield due to the system we play and he’s asked to do too much.

You can definitely get at us defensively, Hanley and Gibson are both ruled out for the season and we’re down to the bare bones at the back.

Play-off chances?

Pah. Forget it.

Norwich are still seen as a bit of a model club, sensibly living within its means, but I see a lot of criticism online from Norwich fans of Webber, Delia etc. Where is the club at the moment for you?

We’re at a crossroads for sure. American investors have started to dip their toe and will probably take over fully in the next few years, but their track record suggests they’ll look towards infrastructure projects rather than remodelling the team.

From a playing perspective, this squad has reached the end of its cycle. Pukki is off in the summer and will likely be joined by Aarons, Krul and others. Some of those under contract aren’t the right fit either, so it needs a total refresh, but that can take money that we don’t have. Wagner miracles required next term.

Links >>> Norwich Official Website >>> The Pink ‘Un — Local Press and Forum >>> Eastern Daily Press — Local Press >>> My Football Writer - Norwich City >>> Along Come Norwich - Blog

The Twitter @puntino, @AlongCameNodge, @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

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