Chris Goreham: Norwich City head coach has a secret quality

It was an image to suit the mood of a team attempting to complete a full year unbeaten at home.  

The accompanying caption didn’t quite do justice to Cordoba’s intense expression. “The Sunday roast will have to wait” it declared. As intimidating football receptions go it’s not exactly up there with Galatasaray’s infamous ‘Welcome to Hell’ banner. Telling visiting teams to delay their potatoes by a couple of hours feels more like an apology than a threat.  

This is the constant dilemma that exists around Norwich City. There is pride in the ‘family club’ feel at Carrow Road and rightly so. It’s an image that has been carefully curated during the Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones era of majority ownership and for good reason.

Whenever empty seats are visible at home league games these days it becomes a talking point. It’s a far cry from the late 1990s when there was a desperate charm offensive to encourage Norfolk people to get behind their team. As recently as the 1997/98 season the average league attendance at Carrow Road was a mere 14,445.  

Granted, the team was in the doldrums in those days. Bayern Munich and all that was already a distant memory as those crown jewels were hurriedly sold off and replaced by too many cheaper fakes who couldn’t muster so much as a decent challenge for the play-offs. 

The idea that crowd numbers are entirely dictated by results is a misnomer. The average attendance stood at 24,541 in the season that City were relegated to League One. Last season it was 24,920 for a team that made the play-offs. Swathes of empty seats were visible at many matches as fans gradually began to lose faith in the direction of travel under Stuart Webber and David Wagner.  

Yet Wagner must take some of the credit for the 12 months without a home defeat, completed in barnstorming fashion against Middlesbrough on Sunday. The German can boast 17 of the 24 unbeaten matches on his record, including a memorable East Anglian derby success.  

The most recent seven, under the stewardship of Johannes Hoff Thorup, seem to have given the old ground a renewed vigour. Achieved without star players like Gabriel Sara and Jonathan Rowe who were sold in the summer.

On Sunday he was shorn of Angus Gunn and Marcelino Nunez through injury and found his side 3-1 down with 20 minutes to go. It’s early days by Thorup seems to possess whatever that secret ingredient is that magically galvanises players and fans alike to achieve what seems beyond them.  

Carrow Road was jumping as the Canaries pushed for a fourth goal on Sunday, right up until the point that Kenny McLean’s late red card made protecting a point the priority.  

There is a delicate balance between being a family friendly, community-minded club while also maintaining a rousing enough atmosphere to inspire the team. Norwich City appear to have found the right mix for now. 

Thorup talked poetically afterwards about the Sunday kick-off being appropriate for the place he considers to be his church.  

“I hope people enjoyed it,” he said before admitting that he personally hadn’t done so. Those comments speak of a coach that understands football fans want more than just grinding out workmanlike victories.

People often say it’s a results business but, done properly, it’s also the entertainment business and a community that one feels an integral part of.  

Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was right when, during COVID, he described football as “the most important of the least important things”. That’s what it means to those who consider following their team as a good use of time and money at the weekend.  

Games and experiences like Sunday are certainly worth delaying the Sunday roast for.  

Long time coming... 

Football fans enjoy a good moan. They are famous for it. Entire newspaper columns, websites and (of course) radio phone-ins have been dedicated to the fine art.  

You can’t blame fans. They pay good money to follow their team and it all comes from a good place. Each one is desperate to see their club progress to whatever the next level up is. Season ticket holders at Manchester City still moan, groan and grumble when a pass is misplaced.

George Long's penalty save helped City rescue a point against Middlesbrough (Image: Paul Chesterton)   

Norwich City supporters find themselves in unusual territory. Complaints from the stands are usually aimed at the manager. After him the sporting director is next in line followed by club owners. Those are the three areas that are the most obvious in which to campaign for change. So where does that leave Canary fans when they already have that wholesale change? 

Johannes Hoff Thorup is new, Ben Knapper only really started to enforce his vision in the summer and Mark Attanasio is in the process of taking over the club.  

That frustration has to come out somewhere, leaving some of the players as the only available outlet for it.  

That’s why it was impossible not to feel pleased for George Long when he pulled off that match-turning penalty save on Sunday. Since replacing Angus Gunn he’s been blamed for many of the six goals in games against Stoke, Preston and Middlesbrough.  

I’m no goalkeeping expert and I’m sure he could have done better for at least a couple of them but with Gunn injured there can’t be any controversy about the decision to pick Long. If he was being picked ahead of City’s recognised number 1 there would be a heated debate to be had (probably on a radio phone-in) but he isn’t.  

After the penalty he couldn’t help but aim a little fist pump in the direction of fans behind his goal. It was reminiscent of Andy Murray saving a match point during a thrilling five-setter at Wimbledon.