Norwich City supporter Edward Seaman says: Stuart Webber's comments were ill timed given he should shoulder responsibility for poor recruitment
After a difficult week it would be wrong to ignore the substantial level of discontent currently felt among Norwich City fans.
On the pitch, Saturday’s 3-0 defeat against Newcastle leaves us on the brink of yet another early relegation.
In fact, our fate could be sealed this weekend should we lose at Aston Villa and Burnley beat Watford.
However, it’s matters behind the scenes which have been making the headlines.
At best, Stuart Webber’s interview with a national newspaper was ill-judged. For those who haven’t read it, our sporting director suggests he is currently working at 90 per cent, owing to his training to climb Mount Everest.
While I’m sure no-one would begrudge such efforts to raise money for charity, given our desperately dismal season, for Webber to come out and say he isn’t giving his all to the club is baffling.
Webber has never been one to mince his words – and as a result has rubbed many City fans up the wrong way at times (myself included).
When things are going well – and he has played such a major role in our recent successes – it’s something that is easy to overlook. But when times are hard, perhaps a more tactful, less arrogant approach is required.
Because make no mistake about it, a significant portion of the blame for this season’s failure lies firmly at Webber’s door – with recruitment a particular disappointment.
You could even argue that Webber continues to live off the success of the 2018 summer window when Teemu Pukki, Tim Krul and Emi Buendia arrived.
Of course Buendia has now left, but if we’re honest our promotion last season owed a lot to his magic. Likewise, you only have to look at the appearance statistics to see how heavily we still rely on Pukki and Krul – as well as other long-serving players such as Grant Hanley, Max Aarons and Kenny McLean.
Along with Ben Gibson, those five have made the most Premier League starts for the club this season.
