Daniel Farke says that if his Norwich City side are promoted then he gets the feeling that there would be a week long yellow & green party.
In an interview with Sport.de today, Farke also insists that Norwich are still “outsiders” in the promotion race, despite currently leading the Championship table.
The interview is written in German, so what follows is courtesy of Google Translate…
An entire region dreams of promotion to the Premier League. And Farke, the architect of the football fairy tale? He stays cool.
“We are quite relaxed,” said the coach of Norwich City in the “SID” interview and described himself and his team, despite the 15 points ahead of the first non-play-off place as “outsiders.” But it is clear: We are greedy and want to reach the maximum “.
In addition to greed, the 42-year-old has returned the Canaries (“canaries”) above all the faith. Three years after their last descent from the House of Lords, they dream of the good old days on Carrow Road. Of games against Klopp Liverpool or Pep Guardiolas Manchester City.
“The promotion to the Premier League would be a sensation,” says Farke. Currently you have “the feeling that the canaries are really flying and if we should rise at the end of the season, then there is a week-long green-yellow party.”
“All the Germans! So many Germans!”
Farke is following in the footsteps of David Wagner, who made the climb in 2017 with Huddersfield as the only German coach to date in England. The parallels are striking: Wagner had previously coached Dortmund’s Bundesliga reserve and then handed the baton to Farke.
Norwich City can look back on difficult years. It was not until Farke took over the scepter at the traditional club in the summer of 2017 that things started to climb again. In the shadow of Klopp’s great successes, the former top league scorer in the east of England has since provided for a new “German wave”.
Eight professionals with German citizenship now play for Norwich, plus several other players with Bundesliga experience. The fans like the seal of quality “Made in Germany”, they sing in the style of a Blur song: “All the Germans! So many Germans!”
However, Farke does not attach any importance to the nationality of its actors. “The quality of the players is important, the passport does not matter at all,” he says. It is crucial that “the boys identify completely with the club and our way of playing.” Of course German players sometimes talk shop talked in their mother tongue, but basically only English is spoken on the training ground and in the cabin. “
Forgotten in Germany, celebrated on the island
The path from Norwich to Farke is amazing. While the top teams in the Premier League are losing billions, City has generated more than 60 million euros in transfer surplus in the last 18 months.
So Farke steered the German Right Wing Onel Hernández of Eintracht Braunschweig or attacker Dennis Srbeny of SC Paderborn for little money on the island. “We have no choice,” says Farke: “Our owners are very down to earth and do not throw money around.” Crucial in scouting new players is “quality, character and affordability”.
The concept works. Forgotten players such as Moritz Leitner, Marco Stiepermann, Hernandez, Christoph Zimmermann, Srbeny and Tom Trybull are suddenly among the top performers. Former Schalke-based Teemu Pukki from Finland leads the scorers list in the English Championship with 23 goals.
For me, this signals that Daniel Farke is still trying his best to play things down, to try to remove any pressure from the shoulders of his players, as a head coach should seek to do.
However, the secret is well and truly out now, with only Manchester City now having scored more goals in the four English leagues than the Canaries.
I like the fact that he says “passports don’t matter” and that all that matters is the quality and that “the boys identify with the club and our way of playing.”
We all know this already, but we’re in safe hands.
OTBC