Crisis club

On December 27th, Norwich City sacked manager Dean Smith and his whole coaching team.

So another new dawn fades.

Smith was appointed 13 months previously after Farke was sacked. Smith having been sacked himself by Aston Villa the same week.

Smith had a proven track record in assembly teams in the Championship and Premier League that competed and won.

He seemed a good fit at norwich, a good crop of young players along with an experienced squad that had been promted from the Championship two years out of three.

He failed to stop relegation, so a good season in the second level was expected. Recruitment seemed to go well, and after a slow start City won 7 games in a row to lift them into the automatic promotion places.

But fans were not happy.

Despite winning games the team wasn't playing well, and unless performances improved, defeats would follow.

Which is what happened. Two defeats before the World Cup break meant that a reset was needed, so an extended warm weather trip to the US was planned and took place, with the club flooding social media with images of smiling and apparently happy players.

When games restarted, City won at Swansea, scoring the only goal in the 1st minute, but not impressing with the way they played and hanging on for the points. Then came two defeats, the one on Boxing Day at Luton spelt the end, especially when Smith did not acknowledge City fans after the final whistle as he walked off the pitch.

Two games with interim coaches in place have lead to two more defeats, yesterday loss to Watford, while not all bad, only lead to one shot on goal the whle game.

Its not really a crisis, the club is just about still in the play off positions, and some good results will cement that. But, will changing the manager really help?

It will if the reality is that Norwich have the players of the requires standard and a squad of depth needed at this level.

But if the previous paragraph is wrong, then it would lead to the conclusion of a failur in the club in recruitment of players and coaches. Personally, I belive the squad is good enough, but clearly something is wrong, and unless that is fixed, then the mess will continue.

Social media has made following a team in trouble a painful experience, with fans of rival factions, "keep the faithers" or "sack the managers" abusing each other eith on Twitter of FB. I unfollowed most over the course of the season.

Do we, as fans, have unreasonable expectations of the teams we support No one has a right to always win or be promoted every year, it has to be earned. Last time we were relegated, Farke turned a losing mentality into a winning one within half a dozen games in, Smith doesn't seem to have been able to do that.

A new coach is to be appointed later this week, and then the games will come thick and fast.

Fans will get angrier, and demand scapegoats.