Lee Payne: : Norwich City's mid-table finish has left a bad taste

The talk in the days leading up to the game against Blackpool was of protests against Stuart Webber and Delia Smith, with some suggestions of a number of fans staying away altogether.

A sad state of affairs, given that the occasion should really have been all about Teemu Pukki taking his final bow in a Norwich shirt.

Teemu did get his send-off, though he would admit it didn’t go exactly as he would have liked. It was clear he was desperate to score one last goal at Carrow Road. He may have been trying too hard.

Despite several attempts, it just wouldn’t go in for him and he was substituted after 80 minutes to a standing ovation, full of emotion. He leaves as a bona fide Canary legend and hopefully will go on to a successful couple of years in new surroundings.

The club Pukki is departing is in a bit of a state. To have finished the Championship season 13th in the table is, let’s face it, a failure. The fans have been so used to walking this division the last two seasons we’ve been in it that a campaign of mid-table mediocrity has left a bitter taste. The fact is, the players have not shown enough backbone or enough resilience.

They concede far too many avoidable goals, they create chances but don’t score enough, and they haven’t delivered in any of the big moments. When they needed a strong finish to the season to find a way into the play-offs, they won only one of their last 11 matches and lost four of their last five.

City's sporting director Stuart Webber (Image: Daniel Hambury/Focus Images Ltd)

I can understand the fans being angry. That just isn’t good enough. I missed several home games in the first half of the season myself, refusing to be bored by Dean Smith’s miserable brand of football. I returned when he was sacked, but our home form has been consistently dreadful.

We lost 10 of our 23 home games and did not score a goal in our last five. Most inside the ground waited until Pukki had been taken off before expressing their feelings about the board. Several people left, the Finland international the only thing they had been there for.

There was an undercurrent of boos for the remainder, as City’s defending looked more and more hapless and their attacks ever more clueless. The Barclay and the Snakepit loudly called for Webber to lose his job and for Delia to sell the club.

I’m not sure the answer is that simple. Have they thought it through? Given that Webber is the club’s sporting director, the first person to hold that particular role at Norwich City, who are we meant to replace him with?

It’s not as if there’s a great pool of candidates to choose from. I’m not saying I’m against the idea of having someone else in the job, it’s just not a straightforward thing to do.

As for Delia, it’s worth remembering that she has been there for the best of times as well as the worst of times. She is in her 80s now, as is her husband, and they may well be considering passing the club onto someone else after the best part of 30 years.

But again, we don’t want our club to become a sovereign state’s latest sportswashing venture or a front for a money laundering operation. When Delia sells, it will only be to the right person, and even then instant results are unlikely.

What was clear from Monday is that change is badly needed at Carrow Road. The club needs freshening up from top to bottom. In August, I expect the players on the pitch to be very different from the ones that lost so meekly to Blackpool.

Whether there will be any change in the directors’ box is another story.