A lot of confusion on here right now

Last season, Clement was being hailed as one of our best managers ever. When all he did was what Roeder did in 2007/8 - and when Clement's record everywhere has been that of an impact manager who couldn't keep it going.

Last season, first Knapper was a disgrace. Then he wasn't. Now apparently, he is again.

In the summer, there was tons of optimism. Now it's all evaporated. If Knapper's a disgrace, why was there such optimism in the first place and why did these players look so good for so much of last season?

Also last season, we started it with one of the worst managers any of us had ever seen. Look at him now. He's doing absolutely fine in the league below - so maybe he wasn't an idiot in the first place?

This is a notoriously competitive, unpredictable league. Who thought Swansea would be where they are right now? They've been nothing for almost a decade. Who thought Burnley would start the way they had (until today) either? So are those two clubs magically full of geniuses and idiots now? Or is it just football?

In our case:

- We don't have parachute payments
- Our location works against us, hugely
- So does Brexit: the rules around which would've stopped us signing either Buendia or Pukki
- Our underlying xG stats last season said we were significantly overachieving: 13th on xGD, 19th on xGC
- Our owners clearly know baseball. We don't have the faintest idea if they know football
- Our obsession with the 'Norwich City way' doesn't do us any favours - because it's bloody hard to perfect, invariably leaves us defensively soft, and our fans wouldn't tolerate a much more defensive approach

We had a generationally brilliant manager. We sacked him. It might be 20 years before we find someone as great as him again. We had no right to do what we did under him at all.

Keep the manager? Sack the manager? Keep the sporting director? Sack the sporting director?

The bottom line for me is the context in which we operate makes it hard. Very hard. Very few neutrals and pundits thought we'd do that well this season. We thought we knew better. At this point at least, we didn't - but football in this league is actually pretty random an awful lot of the time.

It might turn around. It might not. Or we might end up simply being what we are. A roughly mid-table Championship club which will have its moments of glory and despair, but ultimately is what it is.

We don't belong in the Prem; we don't belong in League 1. And for over 30 years now, round and round and round we've gone, always ending up in roughly the same destination.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Oct 10, 16:47:25