LOVED this comment in The Athletic

I often think back to Farke’s first competitive game as Norwich manager, away at Fulham in August 2017. Nelson Oliveira, who most Norwich fans would have started, was on the bench. He came on, scored a late equaliser and raced to the dugout showing Farke the back of his shirt.

After the game, Farke gave a press conference - one of many at that time - in which he spoke passionately about Norwich, how lucky he was to be manager, how lucky the players were to be playing for the club. With reference to Oliveira, he said he was never interested in the name on the back of the shirt; the only thing that mattered was the name on the badge. Oliveira played a few more games, but that was basically it for him at Norwich.

Farke had laid down a marker and he hasn’t wavered from it since. Everything is about not just the team, but the club. Anyone who forgets that - even for a minute, see Buendia and Cantwell earlier this season - is out of the team.

You can trace everything that’s happening now - the intricate passing, the togetherness that makes Jordan Hugill as important as Pukki, that allows an 18 year old like Omobamidele to slip into the team like he’s always been there - back to the early days of his reign, to a belief in the collective over the individual. And in Teemu Pukki, you have the direct opposite of Nelson Oliveira: an almost preternaturally selfless footballer.

Sure, we might come back down again. To be honest, I wouldn’t care if we did, as long as we can hold onto the philosophy that Farke and Webber have put in place. I’d rather have what we have than anything any of the other Premiership clubs can offer.

I mean, of course I’d love it if they can persuade Emi to give it another roll of the dice, or if Skipp can be persuaded to stay for one more season, but if those things don’t happen, they don’t happen. We’ll still be Norwich and that - more than ever in this mad footballing world where a 20 year old Erling Haaland can be hawked around Europe like a piece of meat - means something that the nay-sayers and doom-mongers and Robbie Savages will never ever understand. OTBC.

Posted By: thebigfeller on April 8th 2021 at 10:50:31

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