I Love Norwich

After getting his team within two points of an automatic promotion spot following a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest, manager Alex Neil is confident that he can get Norwich City into the Premier League.

Not many would have expected the club to have bounced back strongly after a disappointing season last time around. However, the fact that they still remain in touching distance of an automatic promotion spot is commendable. The Championship this season has been highly intense with just a few points separating teams until the fifth spot. Bournemouth continued to hold the advantage with yet another victory.

Watford and Middlesbrough, though, slipped with defeats in their respective matches during the weekend and it has helped Norwich close the gap on the second spot. There has been no attempt to reduce the expectation at the club, as Neil has confirmed that Norwich are targeting promotion this season. If it comes through the automatic way, it would be even more beneficial. This is because it would allow the clubs several weeks of valuable preparation time in the transfer market, which the clubs that are promoted by the play-offs simply do not get. The win against Nottingham, though, was only the second in the last five matches.

“I know what my task is. We want to be in the Premier League, and I said to the board when I first came down I want to be in the Premier League as well so I will try my very best. Everybody is fighting for the same goal and I can assure you my determination only grows, it doesn’t diminish.There is an expectancy level that I have for myself and my group and from the fans towards me and the group. The board will have their own expectations that I have to deliver a certain quality of football and a certain competitiveness in this league,” said Neil.

Norwich City suffered their second defeat in the last five league matches and this saw them slip to eighth place in the Championship. Manager Alex Neil sent out a warning saying that the players are showing signs of living in the past. He says that they should be reminded that they are playing in the Championship and that they need to win matches in order to get back to the Premier League.

After starting the season in the bright fashion, Norwich are finding it difficult to get the right results as the business end of the season approaches.

The prospect of automatic promotion may already be slipping away from the club, as they have fallen seven points behind Middlesbrough in the second place.

They remain only four points away from the play-offs, but there is a danger of the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers behind them catching up. Further, teams like Wolves and Brentford are going through a great run of form and they could extend their gap further. Neil was speaking after a 2-1 defeat against Brentford. An away match against Birmingham City, who have suffered just one defeat in the last five matches, appears to provide yet another tough test for the Canaries.

“It doesn’t matter where you’ve played. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done then, it’s what you do now.The squad, for instance. A lot of people talking seem to live off that they played in the Premier League.

But the bottom line is they’re not in the Premier League. They’re in the Championship.So the quicker we get used to that, the quicker we realise where we are, then hopefully the quicker we can turn it around and start pulling further up the table,” said Neil. Followed by this match, Norwich are up against Blackpool at home.

Former Newcastle United striker Craig Bellamy has slammed his former supporters by claiming that they are expecting too much from the team, who he says it will never be equal to the likes of Manchester United or Liverpool.

Newcastle are one of the biggest supported teams up in the north-east of England. They have a stadium with more than 50,000 seater capacity, but find no struggle in filling the seats. Such is the level of support in the north-east that Newcastle have been recognised as one of the big clubs in England.

The incredibly passionate supporters were recently heavily critical of manager Alan Pardew after the team’s poor start to the season. Pardew was on the verge of being sacked from his role during the intense pressure from the supporters, but the former West Ham manager has turned things around in the last few weeks. Newcastle recently won their fourth consecutive match after beating West Brom.

Prior to this match, they have beaten the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, and Tottenham. These good results will force Newcastle fans to expect much more according to their former striker Bellamy. The former Wales international recently retired from football. During a stellar career, he played at Newcastle from 2001 to 2005.

“I remember finished fifth up there (in Newcastle) and that wasn’t good enough. It’s a great place to be if you’re winning but they (Newcastle supporters) always expect more.After beating Liverpool and after beating Spurs, fans will come here expecting to win. I have a lot of respect for Newcastle.It’s a great club to play for but they have this idea that they should be bigger than Liverpool or just as big as Liverpool or Manchester United – they aren’t,” said the onetime Newcastle striker in statements that sure are to fire up the Newcastle faithful.

Norwich City faced off with Leeds United in their latest English Championship League match which concluded in a 1-1 draw and despite both clubs having to collect 1 point out of the game, the boss of Norwich City, Neil Adams is not entirely happy about the result as Norwich City enjoyed having the upper hand in possession and everything else throughout the entire game but could only manage on getting one point.
This is not the first time that Norwich City has managed to control the match for the vast majority of the game as it also occurred a few weeks ago when Norwich City played against Birmingham City and despite having 65% of possession, the match ended in a 2-2 draw and Norwich City once more having to settle with one point despite having the upper hand in the actual game with more shots on target and more possession but lacked the finishing touch that was needed in order to fully capitalize on all of those goal-scoring chances.
‘’Once again, the stats are impressive for City as we had 62% of the possession, 20 shots to Leeds’ four and 9 corners to Leeds’ three. That’s all very well and good and it shows that we’ve been playing okay but it’s a problem if you can’t score. I have to say that I don’t think this is a terminal problem. We are only four points off first place in late October’’
“We’re not picking up victories and that’s the concern for me. We had 63% possession which is massive away from home but in terms of creating genuine goal scoring opportunities, that didn’t materialize .In terms of the performance and the way we’re dominating the ball, it’s fine.” Norwich City’s Neil Adams told toldBBC Sport.
The manager of Norwich City, Neil Adams is not too concerned about the situation in his squad as the English manager stated that as long as his players continue performing as they are doing in such a positive way, that’s the most important thing and the team will just continue growing from their mistakes.

Norwich have managed to live up to expectations of promotion challenge at the start of the Championship season by dropping only five points so far. As a result, they sit within touching distance of the top of the table after five matches in the season. Norwich’s latest dropped points may have come in the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth just before the international break, but manager Neil Adams says that he is confident of achieving promotion with the club. The 48-year-old was appointed as the permanent manager after impressing in his role as the caretaker boss towards the end of last season.

Despite the lack of managerial experience, the former Norwich midfielder says that the squad has been looking very promising and strong in all areas of the pitch. At this stage of the season, it looks like Norwich will have to fight against the likes of Wolverhampton, Watford, and Nottingham Forest for the title. The likes of Millwall, Charlton, and Derby may also be involved in the title race. Norwich have a significant advantage amongst this competition due to the parachute payments that they will receive from the Premier League for the next four years. This would allow them to substantially strengthen during the January if they have the need to do so.

“We’d have settled for that return at this stage. Of course I would have liked 15 points, and we tried to do everything we could to get the win against Bournemouth, but I just said to the players we are a touch disappointed because we have only drawn a game. That is a good sign because you don’t want to come in high fiving each other when you have taken a point at Carrow Road,” said the Norwich manager after the Bournemouth match. Norwich’s next match is against Cardiff.

Premier League side Hull City has had a bid reportedly in excess of £ 6 million accepted by Norwich City for Scotland international midfielder Robert Snodgrass.

Although personal terms are yet to be agreed between the Tigers and the player, Hull City boss Steve Bruce is confident of landing his man in the coming days as he looks to strengthen his squad ahead of their first foray into European football with the UEFA Europa League.

Snodgrass joined the Canaries after a brilliant spell at Leeds United in the summer of 2012 and he was one of the star players for the club as they suffered relegation from the Premier League this season, scoring 7 goals in his 34 appearances for Norwich City.

If the deal for the player go does through as expected, Snodgrass will become the Tigers’ second signing of the summer after Steve Bruce secured the permanent transfer of midfielder Jake Livermore from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee believed to be around £ 8 million.

Hull are also in the market for a defender and have earmarked Tottenham defender Michael Dawson as the man they need and are also looking at the prospect of signing former England Under-21 international Tom Ince, who is currently a free agent after his short term deal with Crystal Palace expired.

Meanwhile, Norwich City are looking to add reinforcements to their squad following relegation as they look to bounce back immediately and have agreed terms with Italian club Palermo for the signing of Northern Ireland international Kyle Lafferty.

Having let Swedish striker Johan Elmander leave following the end of his loan spell and with Gary Hooper also expected to leave, the Canaries are in dire need of attacking options and are working on several deals that could be announced in the coming days.

Norwich City have slipped closer to the relegation zone after a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Swansea during the weekend. After the match, manager Chris Hughton admitted that his team were in danger of being sucked into the relegation dogfight in the final few matches of the campaign. They are now six points ahead of Cardiff City, who occupy the final relegation spot. However, a run of just one win in the last five matches coupled with defeats against relegation threatened opponents has put Norwich in a precarious position according to its manager.

Hughton has been under pressure for most of the campaign, but two wins in the month of January and February have helped him get some breathing space. They are yet to achieve the magic 40 point mark, which usually guarantees safety. They are eight points behind this tally with only six matches left. Hughton is aware that Norwich have a difficult end to the campaign with matches against title chasing teams like Manchester City and Chelsea yet to come. He says that he is trying out every aspect like new formations and tactics in the hope of improving the team’s form.

The match against West Brom next weekend could prove to be the vital encounter, is yet another defeat will slip them further closer.

“We have chopped and changed things and we have tried different formations. But we are finding it very difficult. There is a nervousness about us and a lack of confidence. It also means we are heaping more pressure on our home games. Thankfully we have been able to get results at home when we have needed them. Nobody wants to be in a position where we have to win all of our home games, just to stick in there,” said Hughton after the Swansea match.

Norwich city put a hollow in Tottenham Hotspur’s top four disputes by gaining three precious points with a triumph over the Spurs in the Premiere League at Barrow Road.
Since Jan 18 at home to hull it was Norwich City’s first win in the league. The canaries’ had not defeated Spurs at home since April 1991. Robert Snodgrass scored the only goal in the 47th minute after few chances in the first half. Norwich had possibly the best occasion for a second goal when Bradley hit the crossbar in the final minutes.

This result relieves stress on Norwich manager Chris Hughton because in the last week the club chairman commented in the Eastern Daily press that Norwich might replace Hughton if the team’s performance doesn’t improve.

Norwich progressed up to the 14th with 28 points but the Canaries stay just four points over the demotion places. According to Sherwood, Spurs have some quality players who can help win both the titles.

Sherwood said that the main concern of the alliance is to win a place in the Champions league and then a trophy at the end of Europe league. Inspite of Sunday’s victory Norwich remain directly in the downgrading clash. And the Canaries’ future games list is full of teams in the bottom half of the table. A trip to Aston villa next Sunday followed by a home match against stokes city after six days is approaching for Norwich city.

Hughton replace Gary Hooper for striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel, after losing the match at West Ham last time out. In the third minute Norwich shaped the first moment of danger when Snodgrass’s corner from the left jumped invitingly in Tottenham’s box when Ricky van was not capable to relate the finishing touch as spurs goalkeeper Hugo Luris collected the ball.

The first half went scoreless for the team, but with the start of second half Norwich was in front. In the 47th minute, Ricky Van started quick the attack. Johnson took control in the middle and freed Snodgrass with a fine slanting pass back at the right. Then Snodgrass rounded a finish at far post and took Norwich to 1-0 lead.

Norwich City have been one of the relegation candidates this campaign after slowly slipping down the table in recent weeks.

This has increased pressure on their manager Chris Hughton, who remained adamant prior to the weekend’s encounter against Hull City that he was doing his best in order to get the team out of trouble. Results have not been going their way, while scoring has also been a major problem for the club. However, they managed to get three points from the home match against Hull.

The signs were especially not good prior to the match since Norwich were coming on the back of a 3-0 defeat against Fulham, who are themselves struggling with a relegation battle, in the FA Cup. Hull, meanwhile, were being praised for the defensive solidarity that they have shown throughout the campaign. In addition to this, Steve Bruce had just strengthened his team with the additions of players like Shane Long. Against all the odds, Norwich managed a 1-0 win over Hull courtesy of a goal from Ryan Bennett in the 87th minute.

To further add to the misery for Hull, they had their influential midfielder Tom Huddlestone sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Hull were coming into the match in decent run of form after taking two wins in the last four matches.

“It is a big win. I won’t deny that but I wasn’t looking at in that way. I want to do the best job I can and with every manager there is a trust placed in that person to develop a group of players and do as well as you can. Any result we get is for the players, the club and the supporters. How tough has it been for me? It is never nice when a lot of criticism comes your way,” said Hughton.

Norwich City will go into their upcoming Premier League game against Crystal Palace without two of its main players i.e. Anthony Pilkington and Robert Snodgrass. Both of them have been ruled out for a few weeks because of their respective injuries.

Pilkington had injured himself while playing for the Canaries in the game against Newcastle United last weekend. That looked a major injury straightaway as the 25 years old winger was not even able to move. A stretcher was used to take him off the ground.

As far as Snodgrass is concerned, he discovered an injury while training yesterday and he will also not be available for selection for a few weeks.

The Norwich City manager, Chris Hughton, is under tremendous pressure at the moment as the Canaries have suffered 3 defeats in their last 5 league games.

Overall in the league, Norwich City has played 12 games out of which they have managed to win just 3. They have lost 7, while, the rest couple of games have been draws. They have currently got 11 points and have been placed at the 16th position in the league points table.

Meanwhile, according to some reports, the Norwich board is unhappy with the recent performances of the team and they have started thinking about a new manager. Mike Phelan is the guy who is reported to be in contention for replacing Hughton at Carrow Road.

The Norwich City fans would be quite familiar with Mike Phelan. He has served the club both as a player and as an assistant manager in the past. Phelan was also in Sir Alex Ferguson’s support staff at Manchester United until the last season.

Hughton had spent an amount close to 25 million Pounds during the pre-season transfer window, but, the signings that he made haven’t performed that well so far.