Chris Goreham: Interviewing Norwich City managers after a bad result

Well, that’s not strictly true but I was fortunate enough to win 1/8 of a trophy last week.  

The Broadcasting Press Guild saw fit to recognise the eight BBC Local Radio Breakfast Show interviews that Liz Truss did during her brief time as Prime Minister.  

I didn’t have to write or deliver an acceptance speech or even go to the ceremony which makes it the least hard that anyone has ever had to work to win something.  

It must be what it’s like to be one of those players who gets a medal on FA Cup Final day but doesn’t play in the match or even have to change out of their suit. Still, they all count and it’s very much appreciated.  

An opportunity to chat live on air to a beleaguered PM doesn’t come around that often.  

Chris Goreham won a Broadcasting Guild Award for his interview with Liz Truss alongside other BBC colleagues (Image: Denise Bradley)

Usually if I’m interviewing a person with a high-profile job in Norfolk who is considered to be ‘under pressure’ it tends to take place on the touchline after a Norwich City match. 

David Wagner is the 13th full-time Canaries manager (or head coach) since I started working at BBC Radio Norfolk. There have also been numerous caretakers like Alan Irvine, Jim Duffy and, most recently, Allan Russell. And they haven’t all been Scottish.  

It doesn’t really matter who is on the other side of the microphone, the post-match interview is always an interesting dynamic. It’s fairly straight forward after a Norwich win, or at least it should be. It becomes more of a challenge when the team has just lost or is on a run of disappointing results.

In those instances, with the sound of the final whistle and quite often a chorus of boos still echoing around the ground, there are at least 26,000 others who would like an opportunity to ask the manager a few questions. That’s when the sense of responsibility really kicks in.  

Whereas homework can be done ahead of a football commentary, the post-match interview is more seat of the pants. Often there can be about 10 or 15 minutes between the match finishing and the interview starting. It’s not long to compose a list of suitable questions. 

Canary conspiracists often assume that there are limits to what can be asked. The truth is that there isn’t time to discuss or submit a list of questions to be pre-approved by any football club. What you hear is what you get.  

There’s also no official time constraints on those interviews. Common sense and politeness, given the number of other media organisations demanding (and entitled to) some of the manager’s time, dictate that five minutes, at the absolute most, is plenty.  

There are many ways to approach an interview and the best route depends on what you want to get out of it.  

To my mind the point of the whole thing is to get the subject talking, rather than prove how clever the interviewer is. It’s their opportunity to explain their decision-making process.  

Going in two-footed after a crushing defeat when emotions are running high is unlikely to bring the best out of anyone. It’s usually genuinely interesting to hear a manager explain themselves.  

Most managers realise this and will find a way of saying whatever it is they want to say regardless of what’s asked. Questions can still and should be searching and robust but there’s a difference between that and being disrespectful.  

If listeners or supporters aren’t convinced or don’t agree with what they hear, at least they are doing so from a more informed point of view.  

City’s England trio... 

What do Norwich City’s League One title win, Chris Hughton’s final season in charge and the start of the Daniel Farke regime all have in common? The answer is that they were all represented in the England squad over the weekend.  

Fraser Forster, Harry Kane and James Maddison is a trio that covers life at Carrow Road from 2009 right up to 2018. To Norwich City fans they feel like footballers who each played in a different era and yet there they were, all in Gareth Southgate’s line-up. 

Kane contributed the least of all three to the Canary cause. His unlikely rise from yellow and green flop to England’s all-time leading goal scorer has been well documented. None of us saw that coming.  

Which is why the call-ups for Forster and Maddison have been particularly reassuring.  

If ever there were two Norwich City stars who we all thought would play for England one day it was those two. Perhaps the Canary crowd does know what it’s talking about after all.  

So much water has passed under Carrow Bridge since 2009, with all of the accompanying promotions and relegations, that Forster’s contribution is easily forgotten. 

He was 21-years old when he arrived on loan from Newcastle in the early days of the Lambert era. That title-winning triumph is often put down to the formidable front three that was Grant Holt, Wes Hoolahan and Chris Martin but it was Forster who lifted the Player’s Player of the Year Award.  

Maddison’s single season in the City first team was special. The only surprise is that it’s taken this long for him to become a regular in England squads. Patience was a virtue that he probably learnt at Carrow Road. It took a change of management, from Alex Neil to eventually Daniel Farke, for him to start a league game for Norwich.