As Cauley Woodrow rifled in a last minute winner for Luton Town against Norwich City, Dean Smith was left seemingly emotionless on the touchline. But he knew his fate was sealed.
His Norwich City branded puffer coat did little to protect him from the onslaught of abuse that came from the away end as he trudged across the pitch at full time, and the festive spirit ran dry at Kenilworth Road. After full-time, he left the stadium separately to the players and now sporting director Stuart Webber must choose a replacement, somebody who will end the negativity and get the promotion push back on track.
The writing had been on the wall for Smith for some time. But the manner of the defeat, in the final moments to ten men, caused outrage amongst the Canaries fans already out to get him. On paper, the isolated result was a frustrating one, but Smith made changes after the defeat to Blackburn, switched up the formation, and made substitutions at the right time.
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But the narrative and feeling against not just the former manager but the current regime meant the inevitable was unavoidable. Smith enraged the Norwich fans by appearing to blame them after the defeat to Blackburn at Carrow Road, and his role as the villain of East Anglia was set in stone.
“I think a lot of them have been waiting for this period to happen, or wanting it to – I don’t know,” he told Sky Sports after the defeat. “A narrative’s been set about it not being good football, despite us having the second or third highest shots in the league.”
As you would expect, the level of expectation is high around a football club that has won the Championship with relative ease the last two seasons they have played at this level. Norwich have become a yo-yo club, but when your yo-yo doesn’t come back up, what are you left with? A dangling piece of plastic on the end of a string. That’s no fun for anybody.
Fun is a keyword when it comes to football. The emotions of the game are why we all travel the length and breadth of the country following our teams, but for the Canaries, football hasn’t been fun for a while. A glance at the Championship table from the outside sees them sat in a play-off position, nothing out of the ordinary there. But this team was so far away from the Premier League under Smith.
His sacking came after a run that has seen them win just three of their last 13 matches. For a team expected to contend for promotion this term with one of the strongest squads in the division, that is a shocking run of form and it led to this poisonous atmosphere.
With the fans not just passive but vociferously against their former boss, it became difficult to know if they actually want Norwich to win or not. Chants of ‘we want Deano out’ and ‘Dean Smith, your football is sh*t’ were loudly heard at Luton even when it was 0-0.
But now, they’ve got their wish. It’s a sacking that shows how much influence fans truly have. Smith repeatedly claimed he would stick with it and that the players were onside, but it is impossible to perform when your own fans are chanting against you.
Sacking Smith is the first mark of progress if Norwich are to get promoted this season, but it isn’t a silver bullet. Webber himself has made several mistakes in recruitment over the past 18 months that have put Norwich into this position, and now, he is once again being trusted to steer the ship with the next appointment.
Scott Parker, Kjetil Knutsen and Ralph Hasenhuttl are the early contenders for the job, but with this sacking, there is reportedly little room in the budget to pay compensation. That means an out of work manager is the most likely option.
Whoever comes in, they will be received with open arms at Carrow Road. Norwich needed to get Smith out, and the fans will be desperate to get behind the new regime. They’ve pulled the trigger before it is too late, and now they Canaries can look forward to a fresh start. Their yo-yo has a chance of bouncing back up once again.
*18+ | BeGambleAware
