No horsing around! How Norwich started flying high again under manager Daniel Farke
* Norwich are on the brink of sealing their return to the Premier League
* The Canaries finished 14th last season and did not harbour grand ambitions
* Teemu Pukki has scored 27 goals and registered nine assists so far this term
* Manager Daniel Farke signed an improved contract taking him to June 2022
By LAURIE WHITWELL FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 22:30, 20 April 2019 | UPDATED: 23:13, 20 April 2019
When Norwich began this campaign the mood around Carrow Road was one of quiet confidence. A good pre-season's training under Daniel Farke had spread optimism.
Though what that meant back then shows just how far expectations have been exceeded.
After finishing 14th last season, club figures hoped the team might push for the top ten and just maybe challenge for the play-offs. 'Automatic [promotion] wasn't on the table,' says a source.
So the way Farke's side have strode clear as Championship leaders while producing a distinctive, attractive style has been hugely impressive.
Complete the job and it represents an achievement to rank alongside any at the level in recent history. And that is before you even scroll the balance sheet.
During the summer market, Norwich sold their two best players in James Maddison and Josh Murphy for a combined £33million, spending just £3.8m on a collection of relative unknowns. A scattering of young prospects supplemented the squad.
The results have enlivened supporters dramatically. 'We've looked fantastic, possibly the best football I've seen and I've been following the club for 50 years,' says Nick Buck, a member of the Canaries Trust board.
If that sounds like hyperbole, Buck's reasoning takes into consideration the advancements that have been made in the game through the generations.
Buck adds: 'We've had those glory years, under Paul Lambert and when we beat Bayern Munich. But here the skill of the players, the ability to control the ball in tight areas, the passing, the movement, the consistency — it has been on a different level.'
The strategy implemented by sporting director Stuart Webber, who joined the club in April 2017 and appointed Farke a month later, has paid off spectacularly. In two years a squad with an average age of 29 and the second-highest wage bill in Championship history (£55m) has been revamped to one where academy graduates account for 25 per cent of minutes played and annual salaries total just north of £20m.
Farke's coaching and the sense of togetherness fostered from the top down has extracted the best from a group whose quality was either just emerging or had been untapped.
Teemu Pukki falls into the latter category. The Championship's player of the season has scored 27 goals and registered nine assists in a campaign that not even the scouts who suggested his signing could envisage.
The 29-year-old Finnish international, who endured an underwhelming 2013-14 season at Celtic, came to Norwich on a free transfer after leaving Brondby. His transfer value now could reach eight figures.
Not that the club would countenance a sale, or Pukki seek a move. He is grateful for the opportunity in England, with only Panathinaikos rivalling Norwich when his contract expired last summer.
Getting goals into Farke's team was the objective behind recruiting Pukki, even if initial plans were for Jordan Rhodes to provide the bulk. Rhodes, on loan from Sheffield Wednesday, has instead made a significant contribution off the bench.
Norwich had scored just 49 times in 46 Championship games in Farke's first campaign, the consequence of a new possession-based approach that was at times too slow to move up the pitch. This season the tempo has quickened and Norwich have already scored 87 goals, five more than Wolves did in the entirety of their march to the title 12 months ago.
Emiliano Buendia has been a central figure. The 22-year-old winger has eight goals and 11 assists and possesses a technique to open up games. Buendia was flagged up by statistical scouts, prompting Norwich's head of recruitment Kieran Scott, then Webber, to watch him play for Cultural Leonesa, where he was playing in Spain's Segunda Division last season on loan from Getafe. His £1.5m price was seen as a 'no-brainer'.
A source of extra satisfaction comes from Leeds United being well aware of Buendia given they have an official partnership with Leonesa's owners, but the Elland Road club declined to enter the bidding.
It is the home-grown talent giving real encouragement to fans though, bringing a sense of identity. 'Without doubt it has given us an immense amount of pleasure to see these players flourish,' Buck says.
Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis are regarded as the Championship's premier full-backs, with Todd Cantwell impressing in midfield and Ben Godfrey a revelation at centre-back.
Norwich have adopted the approach Daniel Levy takes at Tottenham, rewarding players little and often. Aarons, for example, has signed two new deals in the last 12 months but the performances of the 19-year-old have deserved another upgrade.
All players would get automatic wage increases in the Premier League, some more than doubling their money, but the frontfoot approach Webber takes to pay rises when justified engenders trust and good spirit.
It was the same with Farke, who in March signed an improved contract taking him to June 2022. There had been whispers about the German's job when Norwich began the season with one win, one draw, and three defeats, but those close to the situation never lost faith. The board had seen the work he was doing at their Colney training base, the selections he was making, and were confident Farke was the right man.
They follow the dictum that correct processes lead to good performances and good performances lead to positive results. It was just the last element that needed to turn — and it did. Norwich have only lost three Championship games since, rescuing a point from Friday night's game against Sheffield Wednesday through Mario Vrancic's 97th minute free-kick.
Nigel Worthington, the last manager to take Norwich up as champions in 2004, visited the club recently to mark Alex Tettey's 200th appearance and he stressed to the group the importance of having silverware to look back on when retired.
The players listened intently and will take that mentality into tomorrow's match at Stoke. Victory coupled with either Sheffield United or Leeds drawing would see a most unpredicted promotion confirmed.
VRANCIC: WE'LL KEEP GOING TO THE END
There was a sense of inevitability when Mario Vrancic stood over a Norwich free-kick 20 yards from goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time on Friday.
Norwich have become such masters at snatching something at the death that their entire promotion challenge this season is founded on it.
Vrancic's immaculately placed shot into the top corner, which earned a 2-2 draw against Sheffield Wednesday, was the 30th goal they have scored after the 75th minute of games, amounting to more than one-third of Norwich's league goal tally.
Certainly nobody will be leaving the ground early on Monday when Daniel Farke's team attempt to wrap up their Premier League return with a victory at Stoke City.
'We never give up until the referee blows the whistle,' said Vrancic. 'It shows our character.
'We are in an amazing position now but we are aware that it's not done yet. It's up to us.'
ADAM SHERGOLD
Posted By: Bravo win or die, Apr 21, 11:37:44
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