How was your weekend?
Apart from Friday night, mine was pretty good. Saturday night we were invited round to a friends for drink and nibbles in a pre-Christmas soirée (sounds very middle class when I read that back) and on Sunday we went out for lunch with my mum.
All very nice, except my mind keeps straying back to football and what an absolute shambles this season has turned into for Norwich City.
Despite all the pre-season playing down of fans` hopes by messers Webber and Farke, I think we all thought that a play-off spot was something to challenge for, at least.
I know I did, but I am always optimistic not now though.
We currently sit eleven, yes ELEVEN points off the top six and that for me is effectively the end of it. Even as I`ve just typed that, I`m thinking “what about when Pritchard comes back?” Ridiculous, right?
As an Oasis fan, I was always most excited about any new material from them and in particular I always liked the token Noel sung track on every album. Liam was the heart and growl but Noel`s tracks have always been my favourites.
“Where did it all go wrong?” (Standing on the shoulder of giants) comes to mind.
I don`t have the inclination or strength to write up an exhaustive list of where I think it`s all gone wrong. I`ve written plenty about that already in previous articles and you all have your own opinions too.
We`ve heard a lot about the squad being together and getting on well, team spirit and all that and that is massively important in any team, no matter what the sport but the individual mistakes have been costing us week in and week out.
On paper, the squad looks pretty decent I happen to think but lots of players just haven`t made the impact we had hoped. Josh Murphy has had nowhere near the impact his brother did in the early part of last season. If he doesn`t buck his ideas up, he will not be going to Newcastle for £12m or anywhere else either for that matter.
Marley Watkins is another player who has been underwhelming after proving last season that he is very capable at this level. Then we have the striking conundrum as first Nelson threw his teddies out of his pram before scoring and looking like he was on fire. Then he got that niggling injury and everyone moaned about Jerome and wanted Nelson back.
Well, he`s now back and doing very little apart from his shoot on sight policy, no matter how crazy the angle or position. Against Preston and Barnsley, he hammered numerous efforts over the bar and into the Barclay and against Cardiff at 0-1 up, he chose to shoot instead of squaring the ball to Wes Hoolahan for a certain goal.
At 0-2, Cardiff would`ve been struggling massively. It looks to me like Nelson Oliveira hasn`t got over the summer`s transfer stuff and that needs to change, obviously.
The worst thing about all this is the slightly sick feeling that I get in the pit of my stomach every time my mind turns to Norwich City. I`m genuinely starting to think that the season is over – in December.
I know that Mr Webber has talked about four or five transfer windows to get things right and I do like his straight talking approach, it`s very refreshing, but, what does he mean by that?
Because in another couple of years we will not have Maddison, Oliveira or Pritchard and Wes will have retired. Will we be staffed on the pitch by a group of bang average Bundesliga 2 players?
Highly likely, I just hope it`s all part of a “Masterplan.”
I`m going to try to summon up some positivity this week in the run up to the Sheffield Wednesday game, I`ll let you know how that goes…
OTBC
Share this article
