Catastrophic Canaries
This weekend marked the end of Norwich City Football Club’s premier league stay following their strong promotion campaign last season. In spite of having 4 games left to play out, the canaries relegation became fact following their loss to boss Dean Smith’s former team Aston Villa on the 30th of April.
Their relegation seemed inevitable as early as November, where they went winless up until a win against Brentford which marked the last game for then coach Daniel Farke, who was sacked just hours after the game. It seemed as if new boss Dean Smith would turn things around for the club, but he has failed to impress, leading to dismay from the fans at his work with the team. A Norwich fan since the 90s, Michelle stated ‘He’s done nothing for the club, the players are much lazier now’.
This isn’t the first time the club have achieved promotion just to be dropped again the following season, and with this seeming as if it was a more promising campaign before it started, fans are growing sick of it. ‘We’re not good enough for the premier league’ 17 year old Danny says; ‘we were always going down’.
But it’s not all dark days for the club, some fans are looking on the more positive side of the relegation; back to easier fixtures in a league the club seem far more confident in. 24 year old Sam says ‘we will be back to winning ways in the championship. It could bring back the love around the team’.
Fans are calling for the heads of the board of directors as well as the new coach Dean Smith, with protests taking place outside the stadium this Sunday at the home game against West Ham. Unsurprising following the fact that the team went from being ‘unstoppable’, to not spending a minute outside the relegation zone.
‘It’s being run like a business’, says Michelle, who feels the owners aren’t doing what’s in the best interest of the fans.
A new start?
But as previously mentioned, this isn’t the first time the club have been relegated, and its almost certain they won’t give up on making it back into the top tier again next season. They were relegated three times across the last decade, but always make it back, with their longest run in the championship not lasting more than three seasons.
But will it happen with an ageing squad, with the top 5 appearance makers of the club all being over 31 years of age. A new revamp is needed, and this is why fans are calling for a change. Lifelong fan Kev says ‘we need younger lads if we’re gonna carry on at the top level’.
The club must now set their sights onto a positive end to the season in order to send them into a new start on slightly better form.
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