Ramifications of missing out on play-offs are clear for Norwich City 

He left in March 2017 when City were eighth in the Championship. On Saturday David Wagner’s Norwich City ground out a forgettable 0-0 draw against Alex Neil’s Stoke. They are seventh in The Championship. The more things change, the more they stay the same.  

It's like one of those Daytime TV quiz shows with a reassuring format that is the same every single time. It would be cruel to liken it to ‘Pointless’ because we shouldn’t forget that, despite a couple of tough watches at Huddersfield and Stoke, those 800 miles travelled have been worth a couple of points.  

David from Germany is our next contestant taking on the challenge of trying to inspire a Norwich City team that finds itself peering enviously in the direction of the Championship’s top six. The very best of luck to him as he takes on a task that has ultimately sent others home empty-handed.  

He finds himself in a similar position to those inflicted on Nigel Worthington, Neil Adams, Alex Neil, Daniel Farke and Dean Smith over the past two decades. Trying to take the Canaries back up to the Premier League immediately after a relegation. It’s not easy, none of those managers mentioned above left Carrow Road on their own terms. They were all eventually shown the door after varying degrees of success.  

Alex Neil has been part of the churning fortunes of Norwich City (Image: Focus Images)

Others like Bryan Gunn (or Angus Gunn’s dad as we must call him these days), Peter Grant and Glenn Roeder left without getting anywhere near the top flight.  

That’s why the final eight games of this season are so big for Norwich City. Anyone who has watched previous episodes of this show will know what can happen when Norwich don’t get promoted at the first attempt.  

A complete reinvention of the yellow and green Wheel of Fortune becomes necessary. Remember the aftermath of Alex Neil’s departure. His squad of Wembley heroes was unceremoniously dismantled after the arrival of Stuart Webber. Partly through financial necessity but also because it was all getting a bit stale. John Ruddy, Russell Martin, Jonny Howson, Cameron Jerome – even the great Wes Hoolahan. They all had to go eventually.  

There were badly missed to begin with. Hoolahan stayed on for Farke’s first season but even the presence of the sorcerer and his apprentice in the shape of James Maddison couldn’t take City any higher than 14th in the Championship.  

If Wagner doesn’t somehow scramble Norwich City into the top six this season it could mean a Tipping Point for another much-loved set of Canary stars. Teemu Pukki and Onel Hernandez are among several out-of-contract at the end of the season.  

All good things must come to an end. Evolution is all part of football. If it wasn’t we would still have been relying on Bryan rather than Angus Gunn to keep Stoke at bay when they were on top during the first half on Saturday.  

It’s never an easy process though. Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Expectations had sunk so low before Farke’s first Premier League promotion and that achieved by Paul Lambert in 2011. In both campaigns seventh in the Championship would have been seen as a big improvement.  

The same can’t be said about this season. Most of us thought a top six finish ought to be within the grasp of this squad. The ramifications of not achieving it are clear but there are still eight games left and so, as a child of the 1980s, I’m getting myself in full Bullseye mode for the run-in.  

“Well Jim, we’ve travelled all the way up from Stoke, we’ve had a lovely day, we came with nothing and so we’re going to gamble.”  

Hungry Hippos...  

The recent death of John Motson has sparked many conversations about the craft of football commentary.  

Motty was famous for his meticulous research. I have always considered myself lucky that my commentary career has dovetailed neatly with the internet age. How my predecessors ever sorted out their facts and figures without that as a research tool I will never know.  

The disadvantage for my generation of people who shout out loud for a living is that the internet isn’t always a cast iron reliability. Anyone can write anything on there which wasn’t the case for the good old Rothman’s Football Yearbook.  

So when I was looking up the Stoke squad ahead of Saturday’s game, a certain online encyclopaedia made quite a claim about defender Axel Tuanzebe holding a Guinness World Record. I dismissed it on the spot as a bit of online fakery.  

However, something made me double check. When the same claim appeared on an article written for Newsround in 2018 I knew it must actually be true. John Craven wouldn’t make this stuff up.  

Sure enough there was a picture of Tuanzebe being presented with a certificate for the quickest time to clear a game of Hungry Hippos (17.36 seconds in case you were wondering, or wanted to try yourself). It’s no wonder Josh Sargent and Teemu Pukki couldn’t get any change out of him on Saturday.  

There are all sorts of statistics available about footballers nowadays but these bits of trivia are the ones I most enjoy unearthing in order to add a bit of colour to a goalless draw. It’s just a case of making sure they are actually true.  

Norwich City’s next game is on April 1 so an extra layer of care is probably in order before that one.