In the latest edition of the long-running Pink Un Norwich City Podcast, Paddy Davitt, Samuel Seaman and Connor Southwell sat down to discuss David Wagner, Ben Knapper and the bigger picture at Carrow Road.
SS: I don’t feel especially jubilant about the long-term picture, but there were definitely good things in the Cardiff win. If it came in the middle of a good run then we wouldn’t have been picking up on those negatives.
A significant win in the short term, and it probably gives David Wagner and Ben Knapper a bit of time during this international break to assess things and try to turn things around. As things are right now I don’t think there’s a great deal of good grace towards Wagner, but we all know it’s hard to dismiss a head coach after a win.
CS: New sporting director Ben Knapper came in on Monday and he’s got a hell of a remit, hasn’t he?
SS: There’s quite a lot for him to do, and he’s in quite a difficult position to do it for a little while. I know the way that things have been going this season fans won’t want to wait any longer and they won’t want to be patient, but you just look at the sort of changes that a sporting director can actually make, and I don’t really see what he can do majorly for a little while. It’s a difficult one really.
People will be looking at January, but we haven’t seen Norwich do a lot of business in January previously. The finances have dictated and probably will dictate again this season that they struggle to spend any real significant sums of many.
So it may be a while before Knapper is actually able to really leave his stamp on things, make a mark and make the changes required.
CS: Norwich did win, but this idea that Knapper will be reactionary, or that any decision he makes or has made on David Wagner will be based on Cardiff or recent weeks, you would like to think that that isn’t the case. You’d like to think that there is a real clear thought process and reasoning.
Where it’s difficult for him is that if they come back after the international break and don’t beat QPR, much of the conversation will be about why the decision wasn’t taken in the international break. But he needs to look at the bigger picture, and there are a lot of strands to this.
PD: Nobody knows what Knapper is as a sporting director, because he’s never been in that position before. Is he a David McNally character who’ll come in and be ruthless in terms of really dragging that iteration of the football club up by the collar, or is he more of a facilitator who wants to bring people with him and move at a less confrontational pace? We just don’t know, and until we’re really sure of that it’s hard to say where things will go with Wagner.
The other thing is that even though he’s been plugged in remotely, he hasn’t physically been in the building until early this week. He’s been doing a lot of due diligence, speaking to a lot of agents and other figures in the game to build up a picture of the club, and the characters within the mix.
All of that is fine, and it’s all good base knowledge, but it’s different when you’re actually in there physically, sat down with Wagner, and then he’ll know if that alignment is there. For me that requires a bit of time. You can get a sense from others, but that’s different to being involved in it and immersed in it behind the scenes at Colney.
