I’ve been expecting David Wagner to be confirmed as the new Norwich City head coach for several days now and it comes as something of a relief that he will be in charge of the club’s FA Cup clash against Blackburn on Sunday.
However, I’ve sensed a lot of disappointment at Wagner’s appointment. I’ve heard how ‘he’s obviously the cheap option’ or ‘he’s only got the job because him and Stuart Webber are old friends from their Huddersfield Town days’ and so on.
It’s a massive call for Webber, one he’s got to get right having got so many things wrong in the last 18 months or so. If this decision doesn’t work out it could cost him his job.
It’s a risky one, but whatever head coach Stuart decided to give the job to, there was going to be an element of risk.
Having spent nearly four years with The Terriers, I’m still in contact with a lot of old friends that follow them and they won't have a bad word said about Wagner.
His first season with the club was nothing to shout about. Having taken over from Chris Powell in the late autumn of 2016, Huddersfield finished 19th. In all fairness they were never in any danger of being relegated. It wasn’t too dissimilar a record to another German head coach after his first season in charge at Norwich. We all know what happened in Daniel Farke’s second season at the club.
In Wagner’s second season in West Yorkshire he breathed new life and rejuvenated Town. His and Stuart Webber’s recruitment was excellent.
They brought in the likes of Christopher Schindler, Michael Hefele and Chris Love from the lower leagues in Germany. Elias Kachunga, their top scorer was brought in on loan, as was young Chelsea youth product Kasey Palmer who had also had an excellent seasons. Probably the pick of the bunch was Australian international Aaron Mooy, who they took from Man City on a season-long loan.
Huddersfield played some fantastic football that season. Quick, energetic football with plenty of pace and intensity which saw them promoted via the play offs when they beat Reading on penalties.
In Huddersfield’s first season in the Premier League, despite being everyone’s favourites to finish 20th, Wagner guided them to a very respectable 16th.
I get the fact that since he parted company with Huddersfield things haven’t worked out for him. But give the man a chance, if he can get Norwich playing the type of football the Terriers did in their promotion winning season we’ll all be happy.
A new head coach comes in and it gives some players a massive boost. Those players who were out of favour with Dean Smith will feel as if this is a fresh start for them,
On the other hand those players that Smith maybe showed a bit too much faith and started most games will now have to impress the new man and show all over again they deserve to be in the starting XI.
A 12-month rolling contract is a risk to both the club and the new head coach. If it was me being offered the job, I’d want a longer contract for a bit more security. I look at what happened up at Sunderland with Alex Neil; he was on the same length of deal as Wagner and had no problem walking away from Sunderland to join Stoke a few months after winning promotion. I guess that’s the risk the club takes.
I saw Isaac Hayden went to Twitter this week to inform Norwich supporters that he had an operation on a knee injury that he’s been suffering with since he arrived in the summer.
That’s the good thing about social media, you can interact with supporters. The negative about it is you can receive all sorts of abuse, even from your supporters.
That’s the reason I would have stayed well away had it been around when I was playing!
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