Norwich fans were beginning to hope that their team had turned a corner, with victories against Brentford and Aston Villa, despite the two teams we came up against being very poor.
Soon after, Norwich were completely outplayed by Huddersfield and lost 2-1, with Howson’s swift equaliser being our only consolation. The calls for Alex Neil to be sacked have been common since Norwich were relegated earlier this year, but it has since intensified as Norwich find themselves tenth nearing the halfway point.
I was very late to the “Neil Out” bandwagon, and unlike most, didn’t turn straight after the embarrassment we faced against Brighton, and I personally began to lose faith sometime near the defeat to Derby.
There won’t be a huge wealth of option’s if we do sack Neil, but the main options appears to be Gary Rowett, Sam Allardyce or potentially, Roy Hodgson. But, knowing how the board has been over the last few years, can we be confident knowing that the manager will be sacked before it’s too late, like what happened with Chris Hughton during his time in Norfolk.
On the topic of the board, are they perhaps more to blame than the manager himself? No. But is the board to blame at all? Yes!
Where it’s fair to say Alex should’ve done well with the squad he has available in this league, the board did not allow him the freedom to complete many transfers and are to blame for the fact that long-running deals such as the McCormack saga, for example, were never completed.
But; who employs the board? The owner, Delia Smith. She’s done so much for the club during her tenure, saving the club from financial properties and overseeing City climb the leagues and have a rather positive decade or so. However, it’s gone sour. It feels as if her involvement in the club has gotten lesser, and as the Barclay chanted on Friday night, she should either get involved and make changes, or sell the club to someone who will.
The first order of business for her would be to fix the board, and maybe then look at new managers.
Despite what’s been said against Delia, it seems vital to me that I point out how lucky we are to not be under foreign ownership, in a corrupt ownership or even have owner’s who don’t show their face! Clubs such as Hull and Blackpool are good examples of club’s in turmoil, and clubs are being sold to shareholders abroad at a rapid pace. Foreign ownership isn’t necessarily a bad thing on its own, but it can remove the homegrown aspect of the game and most things become more centred on the money side of the sport.
And don’t even begin on the fact that Delia has allowed her nephew Tom Smith to become a director, a man with no real experience or knowledge, and thus saw Stephen Fry leave the position as director. That whole ordeal was mindblowing, to say the least.
Anyway, that’s my amateur view on proceedings.
Just be happy that we aren’t Ipswich, who are still below us naturally, and have an owner who illegally sells tickets to the Olympics and has his face blurred out in public.
