2 weeks Ago
It was definitely time to go. I have been critical of Johannes Hoff Thorup for much of this season and despite being dealt a tough hand at times, it’s clear he should have been extracting much more from what was a perfectly capable Championship squad. And for all the talk of stats, ‘underlying numbers’ and tiresome notions of ‘transition’ and ‘patience’, the club’s sporting director ultimately agreed and correctly decided to pull the trigger after more Easter Monday misery at Millwall.
I was sat at my desk in London at the time and can honestly say it was the most stunned I recall being at a piece of Norwich City breaking news. Despite being the worst team in the division for almost two months, a remarkable degree of regression and hopes that another summer squad shake-up could rectify our recent run, I think it’s fair to say none of us expected Ben Knapper to relieve the Dane of his duties so ruthlessly before the start of next season. But fair play to him, he’s only gone and done it – and while it does obviously function as an admission of his own failure plus pile yet more pressure on his next Norwich City appointment, it was without doubt the right move given the club’s staggering nosedive towards the Championship drop zone.
There are many out there on social media who still refuse to criticise the increasingly inept-looking Thorup and claim it was his players downing tools that led to his shock demise. To a certain, albeit limited, extent, they have a point – and there’s no denying that many did look to lack the requisite desire, hunger or fight as City slumped to being the division’s worst team over an alarmingly elongated period. But I’m sorry, and I know many Thorup-obsessed fans are still too stubborn to admit they may have been wrong, but is it not a manager’s job to motivate players, gain their respect and get them on board this ‘project’ so many were all so infatuated with? These very same players did not throw in the towel or stop fighting for the previous manager when the going got tough, instead resiliently rolling their sleeves up and helping haul David Wagner’s side back from autumn adversity.
And correct me if I’m wrong – wasn’t this the same group of ‘individuals’ who ostensibly bailed the much-maligned German out and by remaining loyal to his regime, propelled themselves into the play-offs? At the end of the day, it is the manager’s responsibility to get the best out of his squad and once he loses the dressing room – which appears to have been the case since the middle of February - the end is inevitably nigh. And on top of that, let’s not kid ourselves that this is a poor Championship squad. Do people really think that an experienced, expensively-assembled group consisting of Josh Sargent, Borja Sainz, Marcelino Nunez, Kenny McLean and co should be the worst team in the league over a 10-game period towards the end of the season where we should have been seeing real signs of ‘progress’? These players did not come into this season with some sort of agenda against Thorup and were hellbent on sabotaging it from the start.
Instead, and for reasons that remain unknown, a case may be made that they never bought into his ways of working, and feared for the direction of travel under his stewardship. If anything, you can argue that some of these experienced players who are now under the spotlight have a genuine affiliation to the club, fearing we were sleepwalking towards the third tier under Thorup and aware that a change was required to prevent us from more decline. Let’s be honest, if there were more than just two league matches remaining under the increasingly out of his depth-looking young coach, we would be heading back to League One.
This season will end with the club’s lowest Championship points tally since that dismal 2008/09 nadir and ultimately, the buck stops with the manager. So credit where it’s due for making the correct call, Knapper – now over to you to get the next one right too..
