P.J. Davitt's Blog, page 4

‘The interest we have in Sara at the minute is big’ – City chief on key Brazilian

Norwich City face a battle to hold onto player-of-the-year Gabby Sara in the transfer window, according to sporting director Stuart Webber.

The club chief revealed in a wide-ranging 50 minute interview with the Pinkun Sara’s first season in England has attracted interest from ‘big clubs’.

Sara arrived from south America last summer for a reported initial £6m as the first foray into a new market for the Canaries.

Webber is braced for big-money bids for the attacking midfielder.

This is a transcript from his sitdown at Carrow Road.

The interest we’ve got in Sara is big at the minute, from big clubs. Everyone’s worked out this is a top player, this is a proper player. I’m pretty sure we’ll have a good chance to keep it in this summer. But we’ll be under pressure from these clubs.

For our club it’s been a huge step for us (to scout in south America). If I had been sat here in 2017 and said we would sign two players direct from south America I would probably have laughed. That’s where we managed to build our infrastructure. And I think we’ve got the results of that.

I think even with (Marcelino) Nunez he showed enough to feel his second season could be quite exciting. He needs a break up because he has pretty much had 18 months of football. Even during the World Cup he played two friendlies for Chile, which was less than helpful, and he came back injured.

A rest is going to do him the world to good. But I think South America is going to become a big market for this club. And it’s something that I’m so proud of the work done by Mariela (Nisotaki) and Lee (Dunn). We’ve got two full time scouts in South America who work incredibly hard. This has become possible because of them and their work, not because of me. I haven’t got the time to be in South America. That’s why we have a recruitment department.

The work they have done, the bravery they’ve shown, and fair play to Dean Smith as well because last summer when Lee is presenting Marcelino and Gabby to us, it was much easier for Dean to go, ‘I’d rather take a safer option and get an established Championship player’, but he saw the bigger picture for the club in terms of we need to recruit players that would be potential assets for us.

If we can get one right from that market, my God, it can open up that market to us big time. And that’s what it’s done. We have Portuguese twitter feeds and stuff like that. We’re trying to really grow our brand out there.

Not from a point of view of trying to sell a load of shirts in Brazil, because we understand where we are in the pecking order as a football club. But it is about people knowing about us in south America and knowing that Norwich could be our gateway to a big club in Europe. That’s great for us.

‘Emotional’ Pukki has earned fitting send-off

Teemu Pukki is irreplaceable, and David Wagner is urging Norwich City fans to give him the send off he deserves.

Pukki will bow out on Monday at Carrow Road in the Championship finale against Blackpool on what Wagner predicts will be an occasion full of emotion for Pukki and his family.

The prolific striker piled up the goals and the awards, along with two Championship title winner’s medals, to leave a legacy as one of the best modern-day players in the club’s history.

“I know that everyone is keen, especially our supporters, to give him the send off he deserves for the legacy he built here,” said Wagner, who confirmed Pukki will start against the Seasiders. “A lot of people will only realise it the longer he has gone from the football club and time passes.

“His achievements will grow and what he did was outstanding. You can only imagine how big this moment is if you were in a situation like this before. Five years is a very long time in football, and five years like he had, in terms of the success and the footsteps which he made here in Norwich, and in English football as well.

“He’s a stand out character and player as well. He will start on Monday, for sure. Our aim is to give him the appreciation he deserves. From the backroom staff and the players we want to do everything to make this his afternoon.

“I am sure it is going to be quite emotional for him on Monday, and the days after.”

Pukki will also be a huge loss in the changing room.

“He speaks Spanish well, he speaks English. He’s Scandinavian, which helps Lunghi (Jacob Sorensen), so he has quite a personality in terms he can talk to many different groups,” said Wagner. “He’s not a loud speaker in the dressing room, but always a very likeable person. You can have a chat with him not only about football but about other things as well. He will be missed, 100pc.

“We all together know that he deserved to make a decision for the next step in his life. And this is why we really backed his decision a few weeks ago, when he said he likes to move on and likes to search for another challenge.”

The City chief stayed tight-lipped on Pukki’s potential next move at Colney on Friday. Wagner insisted the well-travelled Finn was never on his transfer radar but did recall Pukki scoring in a pre-season friendly against his Schalke side back in 2019.

“Obviously, I had a few conversations with him about it, and I will say nothing about our conversations,” he said. “But whoever he will join, and whoever the manager is, I only can say congratulations to the football club and to the manager who he works with in the next season. It will be quite interesting as well where he will end up.

“He’s super clever, has a very good touch and has all range of finishes to be fair. He’s a handful, a top striker.

“We played against each other in pre-season friendly and this was the only moment where we have seen each other before, or I’ve seen him, I don’t know if had ever seen me but he was never one of our my targets.”

VIDEO: ‘No one cares more about this club than him’ – Wagner’s staunch defence of Webber

David Wagner defended Stuart Webber after a number of Norwich City fans turned on the sporting director during a 3-0 Championship defeat to Swansea.

‘Webber out’ chants were heard at Carrow Road following a fourth straight home defeat for the Canaries.

The German gave his reaction to the barbs when he spoke to the media on Saturday afternoon at Carrow Road.

Here is what he had to say.

‘We lost our heads’ – Wagner on ‘horrendous’ errors in City’s Boro rout

David Wagner will focus on addressing the issues with his under-performing Norwich City side for the upcoming midweek trip to QPR, rather than hide behind excuses for Friday’s 5-1 Championship capitulation at Middlesbrough.

Wagner, his coaches and players were incensed at the manner of Boro’s second goal, with Sam McCallum lying injured in the home half.

Referee Josh Smith restarted the game after a crunching challenge left the full back on the floor, and the home side cashed in with a sweeping move down McCallum’s vacant flank finished by Hayden Hackney.

Injury-hit City had earlier put the ball out of play for former Aston Villa loanee Aaron Ramsey to get treatment on the ankle injury that saw him depart before the half-hour mark.

Max Aarons was later felled inside the Boro penalty box in the second half, in another incident that went against the Canaries, but Wagner dismissed any hard luck stories.

“I don’t like to speak about it, we lost 5-1,” he said. “And I think if I now explain the (McCallum) situation, everybody has seen it. About 10 minutes earlier the referee stops the game and we put the ball out of play so that he can get assessed.

“And in that situation this wasn’t the case. But if I explain it looks like an excuse. And I don’t like to search for excuses.

“The penalty incident (on Aarons) was a clear and obvious penalty. I think everybody knows this. But this is not how I like to behave.

“We were defensively, individually, in too many situations not focused and not concentrated enough. You have to defend your goal with everything, and we let the opponent play past us too easily.

“We didn’t make the challenges or win the battles you have to do in dangerous areas.

Wagner surveys City casualty list for Millers duel

Kenny McLean needs a Norwich City play-off tilt to stand any chance of a return this season from a knee ligament injury.

The Scottish midfielder is out for ‘six to eight’ weeks, according to his head coach David Wagner, after picking up the injury in the closing stages of the recent Championship home defeat to Sheffield United.

McLean was absent for the Good Friday win at Blackburn that was marred by a fresh pair of injuries to centre backs Grant Hanley (Achilles) and Ben Gibson (hamstring).

Hanley must now await the results of a scan this weekend to assess how long he is sidelined with his Scottish international team mate.

“Kenny has a serious knee ligament injury that will put him out for the next six to eight weeks,” said Wagner, who confirmed at Ewood Park the midfielder does not require surgery.

“It would be great to see him in this season again in City shirt, because this would mean we will make the play-offs. But the regular season for him, no.

The Pink Un:
“With Grant, what I can say? it’s an Achilles injury. But how bad we can’t say at the minute because he has to have investigations and a scan, but if he was not able to carry on, and with the pain he had, it looked quite serious.

“Gibbo pulled his hamstring and couldn’t continue. This takes normally longer than only a week. We had Jaden (Warner) from the academy with us as a spare man in our squad because we were not sure about Onel (Hernandez) after the warm up.

“We have injury problems for Monday, this is not a secret, and we will work to find the right solutions. This is what we always have done and I have every trust and belief in this group of players. We will invest everything on Monday again.”

Hernandez returned after an ankle injury but had heavy strapping on his right foot when he joined the rest of the squad on the Ewood Park pitch at the final whistle.

Wagner does have experienced duo Sam Byram and Isaac Hayden back in training after long term injury absences.

“Sam Byram is back, roughly 10 days in training, Isaac Hayden hads now had a week with us, and hopefully they can train over the weekend,” said the City chief. “Maybe they can help on Monday, or at least against Middlesbrough, we will see. Two experience pros, they know the game, they know the Championship as well.

“Sometimes in these situations you can find an interesting story, with players for whatever reason who we’re not able to help a lot in this season. But to turn a season, which looks very disappointing, to an exciting end, football can throw up strange stories.”

‘Come on, there’s a chance, a real chance’ – Wagner’s rallying cry

David Wagner is warning his Norwich City squad they have entered the last chance saloon in the Championship promotion race.

City sit three points and one place outside the top six during the international break, after league draws on the road at Huddersfield and Stoke.

Wagner knows the club’s stated aim of automatic promotion has gone, but wants to plot another route to the Premier League.

“The one positive thing is you don’t have to wait another year. Here in the Championship, you have to only set your target one below, which is the play-offs, and you can get the same reward,” he said. “Maybe even emotionally it is a little bit higher if you win promotion via the play-offs.

“This takes a bit of time to change your mindset. But it’s now on everybody. We ask whoever supports us, everyone around the club, to not speak any longer about how disappointing this season has been, or where they feel we should be. Who cares?

“Now everybody has to really feel, ‘Come on, there’s a chance, a real chance and we don’t have to wait another year for it. We can make it happen now’. And this is exactly what it’s all about.

“This is what this group of players, I’m pretty sure, will have to create the hunger to get this done. Even if a lot of people thought at the beginning of the season automatic promotion is a target.

“It’s so important that everybody changes the mindset. It’s all about a fight for the play-offs.”

Wagner has spelt out the need for a reset to his players.

“We had a few honest conversations about this,” he said. “So that we are clear in our head and focused on the last eight games, and everybody has to understand that is an achievement and a success if we end up in the play-offs, and obviously when you end up in the play-offs everybody knows where it needs to go from that point.

“If you maybe have the disappointment you haven’t reached the target, which at the beginning of the season was automatic promotion, it’s totally human that you had this in your head, ‘We have done this twice before and it will be exactly the same a third time,’ and then you can feel it doesn’t happen.

“Then it is easy to feel sorry for yourself.

“You can easily speak about it but you have to react and show that you have a special hunger and a special togetherness to get this done. Stoke was the first step in the right direction.

“It’s important to create and to find the hunger for the play-offs.”

Paddy’s Pointers: Five observations from Norwich City’s superb 3-2 win at Millwall

Paddy Davitt delivers his Millwall verdict after a top notch 3-2 Championship comeback win.

1. Statement of intent

What a goal from Gabby Sara. What a goalline block from Grant Hanley. What a comeback against a play-off rival who had not lost on home soil in the Championship since September 14.

David Wagner had the air of a child waiting for Christmas when he spoke excitedly about the challenge ahead for his squad in the pre-match media call.

To win, and win in this fashion, might now present a different problem – namely keeping a lid on soaring expectation after Norwich edged Millwall out of the top six.

Plenty of games, plenty of points, plenty of twists and turns. But try telling the 3,000 or so travelling support to keep their feet planted. Wagner himself made the salient point after this win if the league table had no bearing in the previous eight league games under him, then easing into the top six now should not set hearts aflutter.

Wagner’s side had answered those questions about the residual issues hindering any real sustained progress at Carrow Road under the former management. But there were other nagging threads tugging at the belief and new found optimism. That dire record against teams at the top end, for a start, coupled with that long unbeaten run for the Lions. But Norwich delivered when it mattered.

2. Short cuts

Not one but two short corner routines paid off in fine style. Jacob Sorensen was left unattended to sweep home a Sara spot. Then the Brazilian later picked out Onel Hernandez, who capped a superb second half with the burst along the byline and then a stabbed cross Tom Bradshaw bundled past George Long.

That was the cue for the Cuban not to celebrate in front of the delirious massed ranks at that end of the stadium, but turn and hare back towards the away technical area where first team coach Andrew Hughes emerged before he was mobbed by joyous players.

Wagner declined to comment on why set piece coach Allan Russell was not part of his backroom team, when asked afterwards, but the tone of his reply suggested the Scot might not be part of his longer term plans.

In Russell’s absence the match-sealing strike, which involved the same two players, was a thing of pure beauty.

Hernandez squared up his man and turned on the after burners before the perfect cut back for Sara who controlled and swivelled in one motion before crashing a left footed strike against the underside of the bar. A goal fit to win any game.

3. Special J

Sorensen does not deal in tap ins when he does get on the scoresheet for Norwich. That thumping right footer drilled into the top corner from outside the area was a particular highlight of an early season League Cup tussle against Birmingham.

His first in the league this season was less spectacular, but no less important. Given how vibrant Millwall were looking, buoyed by that early breakthrough.

The Dane escaped detection to arrive unmarked from the edge of the penalty area to sidefoot Sara’s corner past Long, who appeared to be partially unsighted by a home defender inside the six yard box.

Lions’ chief Gary Rowett indicated that Zian Flemming may have sliced the shot past his own keeper.

Sorensen’s season, on a personal level, between those two goals has been a tale of injury and recovery.

A fractured foot at Hull in August set back his cause, until he returned for his first start since in last week’s 2-0 Championship home win over Cardiff. Although at Millwall Wagner opted to restore Sorensen to the midfield berth he has craved since he arrived at Carrow Road.

There is no doubting his versatility but the equaliser at the Den was an added bonus for a player who has made a bigger impact in a yellow shirt operating at left back. Wagner clearly sees his value further forward.

It was only a matter of when, not if, he got a first start under the German. Now the question is how big a role he has to come over the run in.

4. Hail the GOAT

At one point in the second half this game looked perfectly set up for Teemu Pukki to mark his 200th appearance in green and yellow with another Millwall match winner, and at the same end of the ground to boot.

Almost to the day back in 2019 Pukki slotted the third in a hard-fought 3-1 Championship win during a season that ended memorably for the prolific Finn and his team mates.

There was one real sighter in this victory that arrived in the 53rd minute to repeat the feat, when his quick feet took him into the Millwall penalty area but he rolled a shot wide of the far post.

Pukki left the fireworks to others in another selfless shift which, when people do look back in the fullness of time at his seismic impact, may chose to overlook if they opt to focus purely on the goals and assists.

The 32-year-old is not just a scorer of goals, he is a team player who has buried himself season after season. Even in those two failed Premier League tilts he scored goals in multiples to suggest he is a genuine top flight performer.

Whether he gets the chance for a third go at Norwich may hold the key to whether he remains beyond his Carrow Road contract, which is set to expire this summer.

That would be a picture book ending for both parties, but should reality crash in and Pukki is now entering the end game, what an indelible impression he will leave in a modern day era he is synonymous in helping to shape.

5. Captain’s knock

The goal line block from Grant Hanley to keep out Bradshaw’s late effort was celebrated by his team mates in the vicinity almost as much as Sara’s sublime finish.

It was worth a goal. It was certainly an intervention that preserved all three points. Who knows how pivotal that one act could be?

Hanley sensed the danger and had the presence of mind to shuffle back and add an extra layer of insurance behind Angus Gunn, who gratefully grasped the ball as it rebounded inside his six yard box.

The skipper, and fellow centre back Ben Gibson, will know they should have dealt with the booming punt that allowed Bradshaw to escape and open the scoring. But as Wagner highlighted in the build up to this game the experienced core of his group have stood up and led the way.

Hanley, Gibson and Kenny McLean know what it takes, and have the experience to handle the turbulent swings you must navigate to come out successfully the other side. In a tight, tense affair they underlined their value.

Paddy’s Pointers: Five observations after Norwich City’s insipid 0-0 draw at Wigan

Paddy Davitt delivers his Wigan verdict after a Championship stalemate.

1. Joyless

At the end of this instantly forgettable affair – between two teams who seemingly still have it all to play for in the Championship – one of Wigan’s backroom staff came towards the near touchline and lifted, what you presumed to be his toddler son, onto the pitch.

The boy ran around with a tangible sense of enjoyment, while presumably his watching mother proudly captured every move on her phone before he was hooked for bed time.

It was a visible reminder, after the 90 minutes of dross that had preceded it, why those travelling fans give their time and money.

They want to be entertained, they want to see their team perform.

True. There was no lack of effort from David Wagner or his players. Wagner dipped deep into his substitutes for inspiration, but it proved an elusive quest to test Ben Amos.

One recorded shot on target was more a repeat of Bristol City than the uplifting episode at Carrow Road in midweek that swept Hull aside. But for Angus Gunn’s agility, it would have been a mirror image of the defeat at Ashton Gate.

Wigan were unbeaten in three, and scrapping for survival, but this was a side City had to deal with if they harbour realistic ambitions to gatecrash the play-off mix.

2. Last line of defence

Gunn junior hardly had anything to prove to regular watchers of Norwich City’s trials and tribulations this season, but after getting the nod from Wagner his role in Bristol City’s winner the previous weekend would surely have irked the keeper.

A big Valentine’s performance from the Canaries against Hull meant he had largely a watching brief. But against the Latics he clocked up plenty of overtime prior to the interval.

There were two smothering stops to foil Callum Lang and Will Keane inside the opening 12 minutes. Then he pushed away another longer range effort from Lang, before foiling the same Wigan attacker with an athletic tip over deep in first half stoppage time.

The second half brought one comfortable stop from a Lang free kick, as the sides bored each other into submission. But, all in all, this display showcased the shot-stopping instincts that had seen him emerge as arguably City’s most reliable performer in a patchy campaign.

Wagner hailed Gunn’s outing as one of the few positives he would take from this frustrating trip.

No need to reopen the keeper selection debate with Tim Krul. But this was a good day at the office for his rival.

3. Forward motion

Wagner indicated Josh Sargent’s half-time exit, with an ankle issue, already made him a ‘major doubt’ for Birmingham City’s upcoming midweek visit.

Stick Teemu Pukki in the same category, with the calf injury that saw him miss out in the north-west, and from plentiful stock when the German first arrived it could well be Adam Idah is the last man standing.

That itself is a concern given the Irishman’s own injury-hit campaign to this point, and the sense he is still some way from the match sharpness that only comes from regular game time.

City mustered one shot on target again for the second consecutive weekend. Sargent was on the scoreheet in that Tigers’ romp, but there is still something of a disconnect in performance at the top end of the pitch.

Under Wagner’s watch we have sat back and admired the goal fests at Preston and Coventry, and the home masterclass against Hull, but endured blanks against Burnley, Bristol City and now Wigan.

Should Idah be the only available recognised striker available for the Blues’ Carrow Road visit then there is an even greater onus on those in other areas of the team to step forward and shoulder the burden.

4. Mr Nunez

The Chilean found himself deployed in that advanced ‘number 10’ role after replacing Sargent at the interval.

Only a matter of weeks ago he looked a natural, in front of the watching Wagner at Colney, albeit against development opposition in Leeds United. Wagner subsequently indicated Nunez has the ability to operate across his midfield.

But that central, attacking pivot should have been a more natural invitation to showcase his wares than his start at Bristol down the left, in an outing that lasted only 45 minutes.

There was some fragments of positive link up play with Idah and Gabby Sara, and a few occasions when he offered some penalty box threat, but it was not the statement Nunez would have hoped to deliver.

There was even a juicy free kick opportunity in the same range as the magnificent goal he scored at Hull earlier in the campaign which he wastefully lifted into the Wigan wall.

If he harbours ambitions of nailing down a regular spot in a more advanced role than Dean Smith utilised him this was another chance spurned.

Should Wagner still be assessing who he feels are the options he can rely on in the future these are big moments in Nunez’s Norwich City career.

5. Opportunity knocks

Another second half cameo from Liam Gibbs. His fifth in six Championship games since Wagner’s arrival. That statistic alone should tell the young man he is knocking on the door to a regular starting spot.

But there were some extra words of encouragement from the German prior to this game.

Wagner labelled the former Ipswich Town youth prospect a ‘top talent’ and made it clear he is part of his longer term Carrow Road blueprint.

Gibbs is among a clutch of raw but precociously talented youngsters who, if this season does meander to a rather tame conclusion in terms of a Championship play-off bid, will find his stock soar even higher.

There were glimpses of his technique and his temperament in some robust midfield skirmishes, plus a good understanding down the Norwich right with Max Aarons in the brighter periods of second half threat from the Canaries.

But once City’s direction of travel this season is clear, beyond any doubt, then it would be reasonable to expect a player like Gibbs can emerge as part of the solution.

As Daniel Farke liked to say, it is not about giving young players ‘gifts’. Gibbs will have to earn it if he is to convince Wagner he can move from the shadows.

Paddy Davitt: Have City reached the same crossroads?

As honeymoon periods go David Wagner can surely not have had time to unwrap all his presents.

Burnley was dispiriting because it underlined the gulf between a team Premier League-bound and one treading water.

But, to be fair, the Clarets are not the Championship currency Wagner needs to deal in right now. It still remains a battle for Norwich City to scramble into the top six and take their chance in the play-off lottery.

Which is why the manner of a second consecutive defeat at Bristol City felt an even lower blow. It exposed again the persistent questions around whether this group of players are as good as they have been hyped far and wide across the second tier.

The inevitable by-product of a defeat when the Robins’ winner arrived from more individual errors, compounded by mustering one shot on target at the other end, was to confront some of the deeper issues that did not follow Dean Smith out of the exit door.

Whether Wagner can engineer a concerted assault on the top six, or he falls short, does not alter the belief this summer requires more than minor squad surgery.

Impinging on the room for manoeuvre in the upcoming transfer window is the club’s finances. A general meeting on Monday, to ‘allot a number of shares, as the club seeks to strengthen its financial sustainability by reducing the need for borrowings’, to quote the official statement, starts to sketch out the road Stuart Webber and co must navigate.

If, as is reasonable to expect given the direction of travel already this season, the outcome of the latest meeting increases the influence of Mark Attanasio’s group, then it is another clear signal incremental change at the top does not equal the status quo.

An Emi Buendia scale departure to generate funds would appear off the table – given the current status of this squad – but outgoings look inevitable to ease the pressure on the balance sheet, and provide Wagner with the backing to remould a group that feels increasingly stale.

When Webber arrived shortly before the end of a 2017 season that nosedived from an expected Championship promotion push to a top eight finish, and the departure of Alex Neil, he inherited a squad that by his own view was no longer fit for purpose.

Too big, too bloated, too expensive. Players sat in the stands picking up wages who had no reasonable prospect of featuring in the matchday squad.

There are similarities with the current situation but Webber, or Norwich, have not arrived at the same crossroads. The evidence is clear. Wagner has a core of young players, many of whom like Andrew Omobamidele, Liam Gibbs and Bali Mumba, or Jonathan Tomkinson, Jon Rowe and Tony Springett to a lesser extent, have already earned sustained first team exposure.

That was not the case when he first appeared on the horizon. It was an aging squad and he ruthlessly called time on the City careers of players such as John Ruddy and Ryan Bennett. Albeit the sporting director made it clear in both cases there was also a financial necessity driving such decision making.

This summer will see a number of out of contract players, headlined by Teemu Pukki, that potentially allow him to make a similar statement. Pukki is the master of his own destiny when it comes to what next for the Finn and his family, and should he depart deserves the fanfare that would accompany his body of work and indelible imprint during an intense period.

But, more broadly, that is another strand to a fascinating summer. The balance for Webber, Neil Adams and Wagner is to refresh, while remaining a competitive Championship entity.

At Wagner’s unveiling in January, the club’s football figurehead reiterated he still had unfinished business as he approached his six-year anniversary. Getting Norwich City back to the Premier League, and keeping them there, is a seismic challenge, but he overcame a bigger one to dismantle a failing and fading squad. In that regard he is at the same crossroads.

But that can wait. For now. While there are league points and places to play for Wagner has to settle on the personnel who can generate that ‘energy, that intensity’ he felt was lacking in a defining first half spell at Bristol City.

The frayed nature of a game which, bar perhaps a 20 minute period of control from the visitors immediately after the interval, lurched from penalty box to penalty box may have crystalised in his own mind who can be part of this journey, now and in the future.

Defeats to Burnley and the Robins offered a reminder the German’s task is not simply to transform the mood. He must reconstruct a squad in his image, backed by Webber. Both know what it takes. But that does not make the challenge any easier.

Paddy Davitt: Clarity is Wagner’s biggest asset

Clarity was the most impressive facet of those first two Championship wins engineered by David Wagner.

Both at Preston and Coventry it was not only the result, or the number of goals scored that smacked of precision and uniformity, it was the manner they achieved two uplifting victories.

The same group of players who by the end looked rudderless under the previous management responded to the ‘front foot, full throttle’ football Wagner loves.

There was a freedom of expression and an intensity sadly lacking too often for the first half of this turbulent campaign.

That it abruptly came to a jarring stop against Burnley should not mask the early structural framework Wagner had put in place.

As the head coach himself said in the aftermath of another dispiriting day at Carrow Road, if you make those type of individual errors against a team setting the standard in the second tier the outcome was inevitable.

Wagner had no interest in opening up a philosophical debate, or a tactical deep dive, into why the Clarets had the upper end in that initial 25 minute burst.

Set aside the bigger picture of a Championship play-off quest and what is really fascinating now is how he responds this weekend at Bristol City.

We will learn a lot more about how Wagner operates when the team news drops around 2pm on Saturday, both in terms of the degree of turnover in personnel and whether the Canaries’ deviate from the approach that previously served them so well in his short tenure.

One would expect a high degree of consistency in both.

Wagner clearly is wedding to a particular style of play. Reference his defence of Tim Krul after the first concession, when he reiterated it was not the gameplan that needed to change, it was the decision-making.

It was the bravery in possession when Burnley pressed high, it was the responsibility to sense danger and take ownership of those killer pair of second half corners that rendered his half-time debrief almost redundant.

In stark contrast to how he deconstructed the growing threat from Coventry at the interval during the previous Championship game, quelling the Sky Blues’ fightback through a composed, controlled response that reflected favourably on the head coach and his players.

Albeit Wagner also conceded he had shown his ’angry’ side to get the desired shift in mindset. Do not be fooled by the warmth of character or the all-inclusive thrust of his leadership and public persona. His players will already know where the line is.

There are more subtle differences that mark a departure between Wagner and Smith in how they apply their craft.

Smith spoke intermittently about a ‘Learning Zone’ at Colney and empowering his players to almost shape the strategy for each opponent. The patchiness in results and performances  would suggest there was blockages in the flow of communication, and a lack of understanding regarding what it was Norwich were striving to achieve in and out of possession.

Those core principles Smith spoke about before a ball was kicked this season remain a mystery to those on the outside.

There will be no such ambiguity under Wagner, once he has the time to embed a check list that as you could see watching Vincent Kompany’s Burnley is second nature. The way the Clarets’ manage games is almost intuitive, but Wagner does not have the luxury of time.

When Wagner was asked about whether he favours a similar collaborative approach to his predecessor the inference was, like he demonstrated at Coventry, he detects the problems and with his coaches will provide the solutions.

There is an uncluttered clarity that in the absence of time, and the urgency to accumulate wins, should provide an uplift in the short term.

As he also said upon assuming the wheel he is taking these players on a journey that will induce some uncomfortable days. Burnley was one of those.