Sporting director Stuart Webber 'understands' Norwich City fan frustration but 'won't accept abuse'
Watch the highlights from Andy Ward's interview with Stuart Webber
Norwich City sporting director Stuart Webber has admitted that he understands the frustration of supporters, but will not accept personal abuse aimed at him.
Chants of "We want Webber out" could be heard during the final few games of last season at Carrow Road as the club stumbled to a disappointing 13th place finish in the Championship.
The Canaries had set themselves the goal of gaining promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, but ended up not scoring a single goal in their final five home games and only winning one of their last 11 fixtures.
As the dust continues to settle on their underwhelming campaign, Webber sat down with ITV News Anglia's Andy Ward on Friday to discuss what went wrong, and where the club goes from here...
Watch an extended interview with Stuart Webber
Q.) Promotion was the aim for the club this season, but you ended up finishing 13th. What went wrong?
A.) That's a big question that we probably haven't got time to answer but I think ultimately we didn't achieve our goal, and I think that's important that we as a football club publicly get that out there that we're not hiding away or pretending that it was great, and it wasn't. But, also as well, we're not going to sit here and say: 'Oh my god, we were so far off.' Up until the last but one game we were right in the race for the top six.
We'd have liked to have gone up automatically of course, but there's only two teams that do that. I think what was alarming for us was the drop-off at the end of the season for sure. What's most important is what we do next. It's about giving our supporters hope that we're going to go for it again next year and we've got to, at some point, draw a line under this and look forward.
Q.) There were a lot of chants aimed at you at the end of the season. Did that hurt?
A.) It's not nice, but I also understand it and respect people's views. The abuse element I don't respect and won't accept. I'd rather the chants were aimed at me than the players. I think as we go forward into next season, I think it's important that we as a football club do good work this summer and that we start the season well and we give the fans something to be cheerful about. Let's turn this place into a positive place again because for too long now it's been hard for us playing at Carrow Road.
Q.) Are you still determined to carry this club forward?
A.) I've been here for six years now which is a long stint for anyone in any job I suppose. I'm really proud of what we've built here. I think the club has won seven trophies in its history in the top two divisions, and two of them have come in my time here. This football club is ready to be in the Premier League and I'll continue to work as hard as I can until, either I'm told not to by the club, or I decide not to.
Q.) A lot of fans would say the recruitment hasn't been good enough the last couple of seasons. Is that something you'd agree with?
A.) No, because I think people need to remember the pond that we recruit in. Our record signing is still Timm Klose (£10 million from Wolfsburg in 2016) and that was way before I turned up here. So, we have to speculate a lot within our recruitment and signing players is very hard.
Brentford signed a player for £20 million last year (Keane Lewis-Potter from Hull City) who most of our fans probably haven't heard of because he doesn't play and that shows you how hard it is. I would argue that players we have signed like Gabriel Sara, to say he's not a success, I don't know really what you want then.
Q.) You've already managed to bring in Ashley Barnes this summer, a player with proven leadership skills. Is that an admission that you need more know-how in the squad?
A.) Yeah, definitely. It goes back to the last few games. We lost Kieran Dowell, Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson, Kenny McLean - four super experienced players who dropped out of the team. All of the sudden, we looked very young. We're always going to be looking to bring in some experience. There'll be more than just Ashley, I think that's really important for the group that we have that balance.
We need some guys who bring some new energy who haven't been caught up in the last couple of years where it's been tough. I would expect five, six, seven new players in. That depends obviously on outs, there could be a surprise sale, but I think it will be a considerable change. We're probably in the cycle of building the third team since I've been here so some players have come to a natural end. I think last season has proven that the group does need some help from the outside.
Q.) Are you under pressure to sell?
A.) No, definitely not under pressure which is nice but we turned down an offer for Andrew Omobamidele in January which was more than we got for Ben Godfrey (£20 million to Everton) so that could come back around, it wouldn't surprise me. He's seen as the best young centre-half in Europe. We've had lots of interest in Gabriel Sara and hopefully we can keep that away because he's a big player for us.
Q.) Looking back on last season, you made the decision to sack Dean Smith in December. Should you have done it sooner?
A.) No, because if you look up to that point, we were fifth in the league. It didn't feel like we were far away and we could see that Gabby Sara was improving, Marcelino Núñez was improving. It was never a consideration and not a regret either because I felt that Dean deserved that opportunity to keep going. Dean is a good manager, that's why he's back in the Premier League.
Q.) Is David Wagner really the man to lead this club forward?
A.) You take the four best players out of Man City's team before they play the Champions League final, that's a different-looking game, so I think he deserves the time. I think this team needs a pre-season together.
I know what David's capable of. He was part of creating a miracle at Huddersfield. We've got to give him the tools in terms of playing personnel. What I don't think this club needs at the moment is more change.
Q.) What is Norwich's identity now?
A.) I think we're creating a new one. The one under Daniel (Farke) was great to get out of this league but failed miserably in the Premier League. For us it's about still playing that football that people want to watch but also having more nastiness about us and being harder to score against.
Ultimately we want to achieve our objective which is to stay in the Premier League. The way we did it, we're never going to have the resource to buy the players to play the football that way. That's a fact. Brentford are the most direct them in the Premier League, they score most of their goals from set-pieces.
Q.) What's the latest in terms of the ownership? Is this the season that we see a potential power shift from Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones to the Attanasio's?
A.) I don't know, that's above me.
Q.) Visiting Carrow Road recently, it's just felt like such an unhappy place. How do you get that connection back with the fans?
A.) We have to win, we have to perform. The media has a part to play in that as well. If the media continue to listen to the 200 people on Twitter, we've got a problem. It's up to us to perform but then we need people to meet us halfway because it's going to be a much more enjoyable place for media to work, supporters to visit, and definitely for the team to perform, if everyone is together.
It's felt like when we've had a bad day this year, it's almost been the end of the world. We need to build that trust back up. These guys care. This end of the season has hurt our players and the staff so much. They feel like they've let down a lot of people down, but as I've said to them, we've created, over the last few years, massive expectation now because of the success. Now losing at home is a disaster - that means we've turned it into a bigger club. Now we've got to learn to deal with that. But it only works if people end up meeting us halfway and then hopefully it becomes a place where people leave the stadium, win, lose, or draw, and say: 'I had a good day today.'
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