--- title: "How did we get to this point again?" canonical: "https://readnorwich.com/2016/03/07/how-did-we-get-to-this-point-again/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "Alex Murray" section: "First Team" published: "2016-03-07T11:45:21Z" modified: "2016-03-07T11:45:21Z" --- # How did we get to this point again? Saturday afternoons are becoming more of a chore than fun now. What’s it now? nine losses out of ten? One win in 2016? Fun times. It’s not fun to wake up on a Saturday with literally no confidence that your team can actually win a football match. I mean yes, we’ve been here before many times but have Norwich actually ever survived a relegation battle? It’s the same old mistakes as well. Recruitment has been poor since the summer on a multitude of fronts. It all started with bringing in Lee Darnbrough in as our chief scout in July. Darnbrough joined from Burnley, who suffered relegation at the first time of asking last season. It’s fair to say that their recruitment wasn’t the greatest, I mean George Boyd? In the Premier League? When you want to survive? It’s not been much better here. It took Norwich an age to do any sort of business in the window. I mean for a while the only transfers we’d actually done were the signings of both Dorrans and Mulumbu from West Bromwich Albion. And they’ve hardly torn up the league this year have they? ![Mark Thompson/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readnorwich.com/readnorwich/2016/03/508736560.jpg) The scouting was poor and the signings themselves have been as well. Robbie Brady has been a breath of fresh air for Norwich this season, but that’s about it. Even he took forever to get done, as Norwich took ages to negotiate and sign a deal for the Irishman. Signings such as Dieumerci Mbokani have been poor. He can certainly score tap ins, hold the ball up and use his head well, but his ball control is Van Wolfswinkel-esque and is basically useless outside the area. Yes, he’s scored a few goals, but he’s hardly been the player that some people hype him up to be. Goals have been a problem all season, and Norwich have failed to rectify the lack of a clinical “franchise” striker. Benik Afobe eventually went to Bournemouth for about £10m. Norwich had the opportunity to sign the striker in the summer but refused to pay Wolves’ asking price. He’s now banging in the goals for the Cherries, who look certain to beat the drop, and what are Norwich left with? Cameron Jerome, missing from 5 yards out. ![Julian Finney/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readnorwich.com/readnorwich/2016/03/513203960.jpg) Bournemouth and Watford are both perfect examples of what Norwich should’ve done. They both recruited heavily during the transfer windows, making sure they replaced as much dead wood as possible. They now both look certain to beat the drop. They recruited mainly from abroad. Why? You can get twice the player for half the fee. Norwich, on the other hand, spoke in the summer about how they would stick to mainly UK-based players. Why? We spent £8m on Steven Naismith. £8m. Dimitri Payet, that fantastic attacking midfielder for West Ham, was signed for a rumoured £11m. He’s probably worth double that now. Naismith is probably worth about half his value already. It’s not just recruitment either. I’m not one of those that feels the need to rip into Alex Neil every week. I’m not his biggest fan, but he’s done some good things this season. “Some good things?” you say. Well, he’s made quite a few mistakes… Firstly, Jonny Howson on the right wing. Why? He’s not quick, and he’s probably Norwich’s best player when he’s played in the middle. We have Nathan Redmond. USE HIM! Then you’ve got those games. Yeah, you know what I’m on about. Newcastle away, Watford away, Bournemouth away, Villa away and to be fair, you can add Swansea to that list as well. These were the games that Norwich simply failed to turn up at all. Completely gutless performances which made many seasoned away travellers question why they even bother anymore. Neil simply got his tactics wrong, and when everyone realised that he had, it was too late to fix, as Norwich were obviously losing. ![Alex Livesey/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readnorwich.com/readnorwich/2016/03/493225638.jpg) I take particular objection to the Watford game. We decided to play the long ball game on what was probably the windiest day of the year. Yeah, me neither. So, we’re back here again. Twitter is obviously in absolute meltdown and many have simply given up all hope. Remind you of anything? Oh yeah, it’s the last time we were relegated. What a fun time that was! You look back at that year, and the same old mistakes keep repeating themselves. Norwich recruited poorly, with basically all of their signings turning out to be hopeless wastes of space, and Hughton’s main tactical decision each week was “Hmm, two strikers or one striker…?” He was eventually sacked, and replaced by Neil Adams, who turned out to be even better! ![Jamie McDonald/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readnorwich.com/readnorwich/2016/03/458194152.jpg) You know the rest, but it has to be said, mistakes have been made time and time again at Norwich City over the past few years, and it needs to stop. Whatever happens, we need to start over, get a clean slate, and finally turn us into a stable, Premier League club. Neil needs a backroom full of experience, talent, and know-how. He needs to bin the hopeless scouting team who would probably take about a year to tell you that Lionel Messi is an alright player, and get someone in who can do their job right! He then needs to get rid of the dead wood who should’ve left Norwich years ago. I’m looking at you Russell Martin, Steven Whittaker and Kyle Lafferty. We all want Norwich to be stable. Nobody wants a yo-yo club like West Brom were a few seasons ago. Norwich need to be stable, and right now, we’re really not. And that might just send us down.