The amount of negativity and arrogance shown by fans during the summer and winter transfer windows is astonishing. The number of fans who consistently moan about transfer dealings, as well as the people who moan at the people who moan (ironic I know) is also so frustrating. This is especially frustrating given the fact that the majority of them have little or no clue as to what they are going on about.
Norwich fans are among the worst when it comes to talking about transfers. Although, they are the mainstay of my twitter followings, meaning they are the majority of fans that I see tweeting about transfers. There are just countless amounts of Norwich fans who are so out of the times that it is just unbelievable. The Premier League, and the transfer market, has changed in paramount to the change in revenue that the Premier League has had. The amount of TV and commercial revenue that the Premier League and it’s clubs profit from has sky rocketed in recent seasons and the pay-out for the 17 Premier League teams that stay up this year will be the biggest that it has ever been.
Now, with this in mind, as well as the amount that was gained from promotion (Yes, I know it does not all come at once), surely Norwich can afford a decent level of player? However, for some bemusing reason, there are still plenty of Canary fans that think Norwich are able to fight for their place in the top-flight without spending much money. If you had to describe the Norwich fan base’s mood in one word after the summer window, it would be melancholy. It was a depressing window for the majority of fans, including myself, as Norwich only spent a net of £4m, which to try to stay in the Premier League is painstakingly cheap.
Yet, there was a contingent of fans, mainly the more seasoned of fans, that believed this was acceptable. It is just so difficult to comprehend their logic. For starters, our defence this season is exactly the same as the one that we got relegated from the Premier League before with, and they have arguably got worse. It is an embarrassment that no centre back was signed in the summer. You can say all you want that “The club tried their best”, but that is a shocking excuse. If that is their best, then they should not be part of this football club. Alex Neil came under unjust criticism for the affairs that went on. David McNally and the head of recruitment are the ones that should be under-fire. This is because, being frank, they failed their jobs. Well, at least they failed their transfer window job.
I think that Norwich’s head of recruitment really failed during the summer. Lee Darnbrough joined the club as head of recruitment in July, having had a poor record of signing players at Burnley. However, he failed to buck the trend, continuing his poor performance at his job at Norwich. It took them over a month to sign Robbie Brady. Starting with stupid bids of £2m and £2.5m, that were just a ridiculous waste of time. We ended up signing him a month later than we could have done for an inflated price of £7m. He then failed in what seemed like a million attempts at trying to sign a centre-back. Deadline day went past and Norwich were left with just three senior centre-backs, one of which is a natural right-back.
If this was not frustrating enough for Norwich fans, if you tried to tweet your frustrations, you would be barraged with replies from fans who think that Norwich didn’t need to sign any players. Despite letting go off three centre backs in the summer and replacing them with, well, no one. I think that any fans that think that is acceptable really need to evaluate their outlook on football.
It is not just Norwich fans who have this problem however. I recently saw two ends of the spectrum from Southampton fans. The first person I saw said that Southampton should sign Paddy Kenny. Now, talk about being out of the times. He clearly had no knowledge of current players outside of Southampton and still had his standards at the low standard Saints were at not that long ago, when they were in League One. Then, later the same day, I saw a Saints fan say that they should go for Harry Kane. It just gets worse doesn’t it? Fans these days can never seem to get the right balance between realistic and unrealistic signings. They either underestimate their clubs wealth or overestimate. Either way is just as frustrating to someone who actually understands the transfer market in any way.
To be fair to a lot of fans, the transfer market is a constantly revolving, ever-changing entity and is very hard to keep up to date with. Player prices fluctuate every day and clubs throw money about here, there and everywhere. Regardless, I really think that some fans need to really try to learn more about what they are talking about, before they go around throwing claims about this, that and the rest. They just make themselves look silly.
How do you view the transfer window? comment down below.
