Don’t boo, get behind the side and Norwich City will succeed

It would be fair to say there has been a minor meltdown on “Norwich Twitter” lately, with fans driven to despair by the lack of signings and on the pitch goings on.

The defeat at Birmingham City seemed to bring everything to a head, which was understandable after an abject performance and a summer waiting for a new striker.

Whilst in certain instances the club has not exactly eased supporters’ fears, it is important to look at the bigger picture and not just jump to predictions of doom and gloom.

For starters, I have seen some fans write off our chances of promotion after five games due to a perceived poor level of performance. My response – don’t write us off.

The best campaign in my lifetime was the 2003/04 promotion season under Nigel Worthington, where we had just seven points after the first five matches – one less than we have now.

It was strong Christmas and Easter periods that saw us ultimately power home to the title that year and those periods will be crucial this time around.

Our squad is very strong on paper, but to go unbeaten in the Championship would be nothing short of miraculous. In the aforementioned season, we lost eight times and ended up with 94 points.

The desired message here is, do not write this team off after such a small amount of the season. Neil Adams’ Canaries started off so well, but the wheels came off. You cannot tell what will happen.

That is not saying that we will need to see an improvement from the players because quite frankly we do, but it is no secret that injuries have scuppered manager Alex Neil’s plans.

It has been a collection of niggling injuries that have set a lot of Norwich’s players back in the early weeks of the season and the international break will be a blessing in that respect.

John Ruddy, Ivo Pinto, Martin Olsson, Alex Pritchard, Graham Dorrans and Cameron Jerome all missed the defeat at Birmingham and they would all be in the squad at the very least.

That is not excusing the fact that the club only had two senior strikers on their books before Tuesday, although Kyle Lafferty still appears to be up against the odds to forge a career at Carrow Road.

Nelson Oliveira’s arrival on Tuesday has at least quashed the anxiety surrounding our lack of arrivals and looks to be good value at the price of £5m.

Norwich were unable to add another striker before the summer transfer window closed on Wednesday night. The return of Dieumerci Mbokani had been touted, but he eventually sealed a loan move to Premier League outfit Hull City on deadline day.

The Canaries reportedly missed out on a deadline day deal for Dynamo Kyiv striker Mbokani – Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

Realistically, we would have then been left to look at those who cannot get in a Premier League side or signing someone who is already in the Championship – the latter being very costly as proven with Ross McCormack.

We are also talking about the most valuable position on the pitch. Having someone who can score regularly is simply priceless at any level. It is not going to be easy, unless you pay top dollar.

The scrapping of the emergency loan window has not helped either, meaning there is no safety net for a club to get temporary cover, which only adds more onto pricetags.

What I am saying is that it is not as simple as fans make out. That is not defending the last few windows, because we have got it wrong.

All that I would ask of fans is to give the lads and Neil a chance. Avoid booing, get behind the side and they will succeed.