At the time, a warm weather training camp seemed like an undeserved reward – the tweets which followed by fans were less than optimistic. However, what would follow could turn out to be the most crucial turning point for the Canaries since the appointment of Alex Neil and before that, Paul Lambert’s appointment when results were far from in the favour of the Norfolk team.
At the time it was announced Alex Neil’s team would be catching a plane to Abu Dhabi, the Canaries were sitting in 17th place on 24 points, they’d been on a winless streak in the Premier League since their 3-1 defeat to Stoke, despite a successful festive campaign collecting 11 points in 7 fixtures, including draws against Arsenal and Everton and wins against Manchester United and Southampton.
However, in a space of 11 days (excluding City’s defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup third round), Norwich saw defeats against Stoke and Bournemouth, whilst a comeback against Liverpool still resulted in the team losing in a 4-5 defeat. An identical defeat to the one they suffered on Boxing Day against Tottenham may have been expected but reality hit when Aston Villa left City making the 161-mile journey back home with no points in a must-win fixture. To top it all off, just as City fans were feeling a change ahead of Valentine’s Day against West Ham, two quick goals in the matter of two minutes from the Hammers saw the Canaries drop two points at home.
It was a downhill spiral, a sinking ship which didn’t seem to be salvageable. January signings failed to make a lasting impact and only made City’s failure a mystery when changes were put in place. Calls were beginning for Alex Neil’s departure, with his inexperience of managing and incapability to change his team around – however, the board stuck by and to his credit, Alex Neil kept trying.
City’s early departure from the FA cup saw City given a two-week break in which it was announced the team would be jetting off to Abu Dhabi for warm weather training, the response wasn’t the happiest from the fans:
Twitter: @NorwichCityFC good old Norwich reward failure (@steveburrows79)
Twitter: @Dean81Steele haven’t got a game. Our managers decided as norwich have been playing so well, they’ve gone training in Abu Dhabi!
(@foreverdreamin6)
Twitter: @pinkun Nice while us fans spend hard earned cash to see them under perform on the pitch.. REWARD, training in the sun.. ABSOLUTE JOKE !! (@Carljr19)
“Welcome Home” presents couldn’t be much tougher than a fixture against league leaders Leicester City. However, City displayed possibly their best performance against the Foxes, only for Leonardo Ulloa to nick all three points away the Canaries. However, the biggest lesson learnt that day was the Canaries were finally taught how to defend. Solidly. Not just that, Alex Neil’s team gave Leicester the toughest possible competition they’d seen all season and they could have been defeated easily, with Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond having chances, despite only one of the team’s total shots being on target.
More of the same followed in their subsequent fixtures against Chelsea and Swansea. Whilst Alex Neil showed against Chelsea his awareness to change the game plan, many saw the Swansea defeat a repeat of pre-Abu Dhabi despite chances coming aplenty.
As the majority of fans will repeat, “good performances mean nothing if there’s no points to show for it” and it’s true. And when the points finally show for it, fans are too on edge for an opponent’s last-minute goal to celebrate until the 90 minutes are over.
A 0-0 draw against Manchester City was the beginning. Running 5km more than their opponents, they frustrated the Sky Blues. Defended like they’d been born into it, City’s display was seemingly going to end in a goal for Manuel Pellegrini’s side in the dying minutes. It was something fans had come accustomed too. But no, when the whistle blow at full-time, the focus was not on the defence but on a particular striker – not Cameron Jerome or Dieumerci Mbokani, but a starting debut worth applauding from Patrick Bamford, with his 38th minute shot hitting the woodwork a continuation from his substitute appearance against Swansea.
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Whilst Norwich isn’t the same attacking threat as they were last season, their defence and their persevering attitude in recent games have proved the team under the management of Alex Neil can avoid the drop and had the “crisis holiday” occurred earlier, maybe the team could have edged further up the league. Maybe it came too late but with Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Sunderland keeping them company at the wrong end of the table, one game in hand and the next fixtures on the horizon, City must make points count. The Yellows may also want to rely on results of those around them, with the likes to Swansea, West Brom and West Brom still to go on the fixture lists of their rivals.
With Alex Tettey out for the remainder of the campaign, Alex Neil has proved he can work around the injured Norwegian – Gary O’Neil and Jonny Howson have shown improved performances or continued their season’s form. And with injured Nathan Redmond’s blow against Manchester City keeping the winger sidelined under the final few games – there’s still nothing to say Alex Neil will be struggling, with Robbie Brady and Matt Jarvis both fulfilling their role in midfield, and Martin Olsson being welcomed back into left back with a man of the match award to his name for Sweden.
But if there’s one lesson from this ramble – it’s that because of whatever happened over in Abu Dhabi, City may still have a fighting chance of survival in the final few weeks and if their grip fails them, the Canaries learnt how to fight without damaging their wings for the first time this season.
