One time QPR media man, and lifetime Norwich City season ticket holder, Phil Harris is our resident Norwich fan this week — and he tells us the natives aren't happy despite the Canaries sitting fifth.
What were the key factors behind Norwich's relegation last season?
PH: Well, it would be easy to shrug one’s shoulders and take the view that this is just our place in the grand scheme of things. For 40 years we have bounced around between the lower reaches of the top division and the middle of the second; bar blissful spurts of pre-eminence in the late 80s and early 90s and a year or two of abject uselessness which led to a single season in the third tier at the end of the last decade.
In calmer, mature and more reflective moments I’m quite happy to reside in this camp and simply accept that we’re a decent club, we do our best, the ball is round and we’re not Coventry or Portsmouth. On other days, however, I can run through a long list of stupid reasons why we missed yet another opportunity to establish ourselves in the Premier League by Norwich-ing the whole thing up in a complacent fug of unerring, almost determined complacency.
Right at the top of said list would probably be an awful summer transfer window after promotion, with inadequate signings and the annual, depressing circus of rumours about actual, proper goal scorers before the inevitable last minute loan signing of an unknown who even Jim White can’t muster up excitement for.
The sale of Bradley Johnson - our player of the season - hung over the campaign and divided opinion cleanly down the middle with, on one side, those who agreed that he may not be up to the higher standards of the Premier League and, on the other, those who felt he was exactly the kind of warrior, leader and all round bustler we needed drag us through the battle.
However, even with a squad that largely remained as was from the Championship, there was still a sense that the abilities of Alex Neil as a motivator and meticulous planner, allied to a united squad with genuine momentum, would see us through.
Neil was universally loved after he turned our meandering season round to get us back up via the play-offs and his commitment to attacking football and hard work appeared the perfect blend. He stayed true to his philosophy in the early weeks and, although there were defeats; joyful victories against (bloody) Sunderland and plucky billionaire underdogs Bournemouth suggested that City were heading in the right direction.
However, it wasn’t to last and an almost complete loss of nerve by the manager on an October Sunday afternoon in front of the Sky cameras, is now recognised by supporters as the moment it all went south.
3-2 down in the second half to Newcastle at St James’ Park, but dominating the game having halved the deficit, Neil took off defensive screen Alex Tettey and embarked on a totally unnecessary gung -ho advance which could not have failed more spectacularly, allowing the home side to romp home 6-2.
Neil took it as a sign that his attacking philosophy was doomed and while a more pragmatic approach may have been welcomed, any sense of collective identity or purpose vanished in a wintry mush of unconvincing, frail and meek surrenders.
Freaked out that they might blow it again, the board threw money at the problem for the first time since, well, ever, and the January signings of Timm Klose from Wolfsburg to martial the defence and Steven Naismith from Everton to bring desire and goals were warmly received by the supporters. And when Naismith scored and won a penalty to put us 3-1 up in the second half against Klopp’s Liverpool on January 23rd, a route to salvation appeared through the murk. Half an hour later, however, a dizzy Carrow Road was reeling from a 5-4 reverse, Naismith was barely seen again to any effect and, for many, this was the point that City’s goose was cooked.
A dramatic last gasp win against Newcastle in April did no more than prolong the agony and when Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland did a job on us the following weekend, the end was nigh.
Yet again, it felt as if we had just allowed it happen, that we sleepwalked to relegation as we had under Chris Hughton two years before. Poor recruitment, board complacency and a muddled manager who appeared to run out of ideas… 2016 was simply 2014 all over again.
Alex Neil kept his job despite the demotion, was that the right decision? Any clamour for him to leave?
PH: Well, despite the disappointment of relegation, I’d say right decision. He remained (and for many, still remains) in credit with the club for the work he did to take control of a vessel that had wriggled free of its moorings after relegation in 2014 and which looked more likely to slide further downwards before his appointment in January 2015.
The second leg of the play off semi-final against Ipswich and the final itself against Middlesbrough were tactical masterclasses by Neil, with City rope-a-doping our energetic but limited Suffolk friends by ceding possession and territory before picking them off as our superior fitness began to tell. Conversely, against a Middlesbrough side used to scoring early and holding firm, Norwich flew out of the gates and blew their opponents away in a first half performance as perfect as one could ever wish for. At that point, Neil was our manager for the next ten years (or at least until a bigger club came calling, anyway).
He certainly did lose his nerve last season, however there is no escaping the fundamental truth that we are not a club inclined to spend big and it would therefore have been unreasonable to lay our demise entirely at his door.
He deserved the opportunity to put it right, he deserved the opportunity to repeat the successes of our previous season at this level. We’ve never been a particularly trigger happy club when it comes to managers and the dismissal of a man who engineered one of the greatest and most enjoyable days in the club’s history would have been not only quite ‘un-Norwich’ but also pretty perverse.
Assess the club's summer transfer business for us…
PH: Looking poorer with each week that passes to be honest. Without what appears to be any kind of actual recruitment strategy, we have overloaded the squad with neat, tricky inside forwards, to the extent that the hugely promising James Maddison has been farmed out to Aberdeen on loan.
Alex Pritchard, signed from Spurs for £8m, can’t bed in because we didn’t really need him (I think we just trolled Brighton to be fair) and feels more and more like a superfluous signing given that Wes Hoolahan remains a peerless holder of the shirt he covets.
And yet a defence which barely deserves to be described as such has not been strengthened at all and a forward line composing of literally one striker (the tireless Cameron Jerome), was enhanced only by the addition of Nelson Oliveira — a player who is ‘settling in’ but who doesn’t exactly look like a forward for whom parachute payments were invented.
Sergi Canos, another tricksy lightweight bought from Liverpool for £2.5 million, has not been seen in the league since a surrender at Birmingham in September and Alex Neil’s former Hamilton colleague, Michael McGovern appears to be our number one goalkeeper purely on the basis of not being John Ruddy.
In terms of outgoings, Nathan Redmond will ultimately play for England and is naturally a huge loss. I also personally felt that the failure to pin Gary O’Neil down to a two year deal was a mistake. A leader and organiser, we miss his fight in the middle of the park.
And yet, despite all the concerns; despite a lopsided squad and the leakiest of defences; keeping hold of more able players such as Robbie Brady, Johnny Howson, Hoolahan and Timm Klose, means there is a group of players pretty much as good as any in the division.
And the start to the season?
PH: A month ago, I would have told you that, despite some rusty displays, our superior quality was getting us over the line. Top of the table, with eight wins from our first 12 games, supporters were reasonably content but never entirely able to shake off the nagging sense that it wasn’t going to last. Few of the victories were racked up without some wobbles at the back and the ease with which nearly every opponent, Rotherham and Burton included, made our defence look uncertain was utterly maddening. Only Bristol City were defeated without a breach and most of these early successes were secured at the expense of teams at the wrong end of the table.
So, it won’t have come as a surprise to many who harboured fears that City were kind of winging it that we have now gleaned just one point from the most recent 12 on offer. This run began with a frustrating draw at Craven Cottage (having led 2-0) and was followed by a Carrow Road defeat to a smart and wily Preston. Then came an abject 5-0 surrender at Brighton which probably ranks as one of our more pathetic capitulations in recent seasons.
A 3-2 home reverse to Leeds, after losing a last 16 EFL Cup tie to the same opposition the week before, has topped off a lousy month and if our relegation last season were not similar enough to our travails in 2014, we are now experiencing a very real sense of déjà vu as a bright start to the Championship season is followed by a listless, nervous and meek drift down the table. It is worth noting that a run like this two seasons ago spelled the end of Neil Adams reign as manager.
Norwich have been leaking goals of late, including some real defensive howlers, who's shouldering the blame for that?
PH: Recruitment, again, is obviously an issue and a failure to add a single defender to the squad in the summer means that Alex Neil, not unreasonably, could suggest he is stuck with the hand that was dealt him.
Ultimately though, the blame must be laid at the door of the manager. The personnel doesn’t really seem to matter; as equal opportunity offenders, each defender appears as determined as the next to deliver a dopey and infuriating rick. It is the greatest exasperation for supporters that Neil does not appear able to address the most basic organisational issues and, if anything, the situation appears to be getting worse.
Russell Martin, a good man and respected club captain, is not (and may not have ever been) the answer at centre back and Timm Klose, of all people, is worryingly off the boil. Ryan Bennett divides opinion and is in and out of the side in a manner which leads one to believe that Alex Neil really doesn’t know either way himself. Out of favour are Sebastian Bassong, who appears beyond redemption, and Steven Whittaker , recipient of a shiny new contract only to find himself third choice right back within weeks.
Ivo Pinto is a well-liked buccaneering full back who, in true Alex Neil style is more about the buccaneering than the back, but who plays with heart. Martin Olsson is a better but grumpier defender who increasingly looks like a player with an eye on the escape hatch in January. It’s a total mess at the back and it is hard to know, without surgery in January, how things can improve.
Still in the play-off places despite that, any pressure on Neil?
PH: He hasn’t lost the Carrow Road crowd yet and new chief executive Jez Moxey has been wheeled out in front of the club cameras to ‘assure’ supporters that his job is not under threat. But Alex Neil will know as well as anyone that the pressure on him is currently greater than at any time in his nigh-on two years at the club. There is a large constituency of supporters who are certain that he doesn’t have the ability to turn things round; that he blinked and bottled it last season and that a slide further down the Championship table is inevitable as long as the Scot remains in charge.
As is often the case, supporters of other clubs will find it hard to believe that a manager who has achieved so much can face the chop during what appears to be the midst of a mere blip. However, there are genuine, legitimate concerns about him and while I don’t personally subscribe to the hoary old guff about him losing the dressing room, there does appear to be a tiredness and a staleness to the team which is absolutely the manager’s job to resolve.
Substitutions rarely seem to have a positive effect and his stubborn adherence to a 4-2-3-1 formation, regardless of opposition, sometimes feels a world away from the adaptive, imaginative selections during the early months of his Canaries career.
I’d really like him to turn it round, but - reasonably or not - defeat at Loftus Road will pile further pressure on Neil and the Board, particularly as January looms and the opportunity for squad surgery presents itself. Will Neil be given the chance to spend and address the squad’s issues? It’s a critical and uncertain time and QPR could be the immediate beneficiaries.
Key players and weak links in the present side.
PH: Two players stand head and shoulders above the rest in the recent history of Norwich City. Grant Holt is missed terribly — a monster of a player and one of the most influential and charismatic figures ever to wear the yellow and green. The other, thankfully, is still with us. Evergreen, magical, a wizard from a bygone age; Wes Hoolahan is a man who makes things happen and despite being our longest serving player, he is seemingly at the peak of his powers.
Elsewhere, Cameron Jerome never stops working as a lone frontman and deserves more credit for his efforts than he gets. The Murphy twins, young, home-grown and exciting, promise much for the future and Timm Klose remains our best defender by some distance.
And yet, it is almost as if every player, as one, has let their standards slip in recent weeks and it is hard to go in to this game with a huge amount of confidence. The international break may have helped the squad to collectively gather their thoughts, however there is a charcoal brittleness running through the team at present and it goes without saying that the defence is there for the taking.
Confident of promotion straight back? Presumably that's priority 1, 2 and 3?
PH: Again, if you’d asked that question a month ago, the answer would have been different. Before we allowed Fulham back in to the game at Craven Cottage, it was hard to look past Newcastle and Norwich as the top two. Now it is almost impossible to say where we will end up with any confidence, given the uncertainty surrounding the team and, to a certain extent, the manager. Going straight back up is always bloody hard and doing it two years ago was a wonderful achievement.
This time though, I’d probably put a few bob on us missing out, particularly given how strong Brighton are looking. Most Norwich fans were ok with the sacking of Chris Hughton, as a last gasp throw of the dice to avoid relegation in 2014, but he was never a bad manager, and is certainly an outstanding leader at this level.
It goes without saying that supporters are desperate for the team to do well and for the club to be the very best it can. However it is also true that our last two seasons in the Premier League have been pretty miserable affairs and the ongoing philosophical argument, about the actual benefit of Championship success, is hard to resolve.
Overall, we are debt-free, very well run, boast a modern(ish) redeveloped stadium with a waiting list for season tickets and have enjoyed some wonderful moments in our recent history. However it also feels like we are at a crossroads. Can we remain a ‘top 30’ club, let alone establish ourselves in the top flight? Who do we want to be? How much can we actually achieve? Without new and considerable investment it is unlikely that we will break free of the holding pattern we have largely inhabited since our first promotion to the top flight in 1972.
There is a very deep well of affection and respect for Delia Smith and her husband Michael Wynn Jones as majority shareholders, however, while there is gratitude for the consistency and security of their tenure, there is also a growing itch for change which, while not overwhelming, cannot be entirely dismissed.
In a recent interview with The Times, Delia and Michael made it clear that they would never surrender control to overseas owners and although for some, there was a reactionary whiff to their assertions, you could understand their determination to safeguard the long term future of Norwich City and not expose it to the whims of billionaires who have wrought such damage to the fabric of other previously well run footballing institutions. Good people wanting the best for a good club? In uncertain times, that’s no bad thing.
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Pictures — Action Images