Where Does This Norwich City Team Rank All Time?

[Dave]

Well... since the formation of The Championship.

Here's a list of previous winners to refresh memory:

2004/05 - Mick McCarthy's Sunderland won the league. The less said about the following season the better.

2005/06 - Reading won it with a million points and did well the following season in the PL.

2006/07 - After a slow start, Roy Keane's Sunderland had a brilliant second half of the season.

2007/08 - After losing the playoff final the year before, Tony Mowbray's West Brom won the league rather comfortably.

2008/09 - Mick McCarthy Wolves beat Birmingham and Reading in what was largely a three horse race to the title.

2009/10 - Newcastle came down, dominated the league, went back up.

2010/11 - Neil Warnock created a QPR team in the summer that clicked magnificently. 

2011/12 - Brian McDermott's Reading stepped up a gear as the likes of Sam Allardyce's West Ham faltered.

2012/13 - Cardiff City won the league as everybody else looked average.

2013/14 - Leicester City won the league following their one summer signing: Dean Hammond.

2014/15 - Bournemouth won the league. A real wtf moment for anybody that woke up from a year long coma.

2015/16 - Sean Dyche's Burnley bounced back up following their relegation the following season.

2016/17 - Newcastle came down, dominated the league, went back up.

2017/18 - Wolves had the league wrapped up from the first minute. 

2018/19 - Norwich City were the late goal kings as they surpassed pre season expectations.

2019/20 - Leeds won the league, but don't tell there players or fans they benefitted from covid.

[Whiskey]

Tinpot, pointless, drivel shite. 

[Dave]

1 minute ago, Whiskey said:

Tinpot, pointless, drivel shite. 

Don't get upset because I pointed out your team have had nothing to cheer about for over 25 years.

[Honey Honey]

The top 4 is probably Hughton's Newcastle, Coppell's Reading, Nuno's Wolves and Pearson's Leicester.

[Dave]

3 hours ago, SkyBruce Championship said:

The top 4 is probably Hughton's Newcastle, Coppell's Reading, Nuno's Wolves and Pearson's Leicester.

I'd rank Reading, Newcastle and Wolves as a category above Leicester but I'd have them in the next tier with Norwich, Sunderland, Rafa's Newcastle (albeit Brighton pushed them to be better) and possibly QPR. Could make a case for all of them to finish fourth.

[Smiley Culture]

The lack of Sunderland 98/99 here is disappointing. They went through 100pts with ease and then finished 7th in the Prem the next season, with largely the same squad. 

[Dave]

1 minute ago, Smiley Culture said:

The lack of Sunderland 98/99 here is disappointing. They went through 100pts with ease and then finished 7th in the Prem the next season, with largely the same squad. 

Just included teams since the formation of The Championship. Crystal Palace 1993/94 would end the discussion 

[Danny]

I think the answer lies in next season, when most of this group players will play together in the Premier League.

One thing I will say though is this has been the toughest Championship season ever and for Norwich to be storming it with about 10 games to go is a massive achievement.

[Stan]

21 minutes ago, Danny said:

I think the answer lies in next season, when most of this group players will play together in the Premier League.

One thing I will say though is this has been the toughest Championship season ever and for Norwich to be storming it with about 10 games to go is a massive achievement.

I might be wrong but did they not do so last season?

[Danny]

Just now, Stan said:

I might be wrong but did they not do so last season?

Yeah and no. Look at this team in the Championship vs the team that came up, this team are more balanced and don't concede nearly as much.

[Dave]

1 minute ago, Danny said:

Yeah and no. Look at this team in the Championship vs the team that came up, this team are more balanced and don't concede nearly as much.

The defence is definitely the major improvement. When you consider that and the ammount of injuries they've had, I think there's a case that this team will be better equipped to compete. 

[Danny]

10 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

The defence is definitely the major improvement. When you consider that and the ammount of injuries they've had, I think there's a case that this team will be better equipped to compete. 

Yeah I mean Pukki and Buendia should have been playing in the Prem this season, same with Aaarons. They done well to hold on to them, with a tightened defence their forward line should excel a bit more

[Stan]

6 minutes ago, Danny said:

Yeah I mean Pukki and Buendia should have been playing in the Prem this season, same with Aaarons. They done well to hold on to them, with a tightened defence their forward line should excel a bit more

@DeadLinesman  

[DeadLinesman]

Just now, Stan said:

@DeadLinesman  

We need to see JQUALLIN in the midfield.

[Stan]

1 minute ago, DeadLinesman said:

We need to see JQUALLIN in the midfield.

If only they signed Nathan Bee-lackay back in the day...

[Dan+]

On 29/03/2021 at 11:59, The Palace Fan said:

I'd rank Reading, Newcastle and Wolves as a category above Leicester but I'd have them in the next tier with Norwich, Sunderland, Rafa's Newcastle (albeit Brighton pushed them to be better) and possibly QPR. Could make a case for all of them to finish fourth.

I see no basis for Wolves or Newcastle being better than our side. I can accept Reading, but neither of the other two. Reading the best, us and Newcastle about on a par, both a bit better than Wolves.

[Dave]

22 hours ago, Dan said:

I see no basis for Wolves or Newcastle being better than our side. I can accept Reading, but neither of the other two. Reading the best, us and Newcastle about on a par, both a bit better than Wolves.

I think it's open for debate. If somebody placed Leicester City second I think they'll have a valid case. 

I'll divulge in to facts and figures another time to happily be proven wrong but In 2010 Newcastle had a group of individuals who were top half Premier League players. They didn't need to get out of second tier to be a goal up after ten minutes. Nolan, Collocini, Enrique spring to mind. They very rarely moved in to second gear. People like Alan Smith and Joey Barton didn't have to try a lot of the time. Andy Carroll progressed tenfold in that environment. They had players like Harper, Peach, Harewood, Best who would have looked out of place elsewhere but because they were surrounded by such class they were fine. 

What Leicester City achieved as a squad will never be fathomed again in our lifetime but we are talking about seasons in isolation. When I think of Wolves more recently I think of some fantastic moments of individual genius and fast pace football that I don't think we will see again at that level for some time. They were an 8th placed team in the wrong league. With Leicester I saw a well oiled machine, beginning a story that Walt Disney couldn't achieve, but you couldn't say with confidence they would cope at a higher level. That was evidenced by how long they took to adapt to the Premier League in their first year. 

[Lucas]

I'll be interested to see how they cope.

They should have learned quite a bit from last time, I think they'll have to adapt their game though because they didn't quite have the quality to pull off being so attacking last time, and I wouldn't say they have significantly improved in the department. It's still Cantwell, Buendia and Pukki and even then Pukki soon dried up.

If I'm honest, I think whilst they have coasted the league, they have lacked competition this season. They have had no pressure applied to them.

Bournemouth have been so poor, Swansea have been very hit and miss, probably rode their luck with so many tight wins, Brentford are Brentford and an average Watford are going to coast 2nd without any real pressure themselves. I've watched them 6 or 7 times and honestly, I wouldn't be bothered about them coming up at all.

Normally the quality is higher but ultimately, I think its been a tough ask for teams to get through this season the way its been. It's been almost Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday to try and fit the schedule in and Norwich have dealt with that best.

You even have a team like Barnsley pushing for the playoffs. Very abnormal season.

Everyone looks at this from different angles but I'd probably maintain Brendan Rodgers' Swansea were one of the best sides I saw come up purely on a footballing basis, and they only went up via playoffs. Stood the test of time though to be fair to them where as Warnock's QPR were relentless one year and really struggled in the PL.

[Storts]

They're going to struggle without Skipp next year, made such a difference to their team

[Dan+]

On 03/04/2021 at 17:51, The Palace Fan said:

I think it's open for debate. If somebody placed Leicester City second I think they'll have a valid case. 

I'll divulge in to facts and figures another time to happily be proven wrong but In 2010 Newcastle had a group of individuals who were top half Premier League players. They didn't need to get out of second tier to be a goal up after ten minutes. Nolan, Collocini, Enrique spring to mind. They very rarely moved in to second gear. People like Alan Smith and Joey Barton didn't have to try a lot of the time. Andy Carroll progressed tenfold in that environment. They had players like Harper, Peach, Harewood, Best who would have looked out of place elsewhere but because they were surrounded by such class they were fine. 

What Leicester City achieved as a squad will never be fathomed again in our lifetime but we are talking about seasons in isolation. When I think of Wolves more recently I think of some fantastic moments of individual genius and fast pace football that I don't think we will see again at that level for some time. They were an 8th placed team in the wrong league. With Leicester I saw a well oiled machine, beginning a story that Walt Disney couldn't achieve, but you couldn't say with confidence they would cope at a higher level. That was evidenced by how long they took to adapt to the Premier League in their first year. 

I maintain we were quite unlucky for large parts of 2014/15, never hammered, sometimes rubbish, but just proper nearly men - almost a bit like what Brighton have been like now. I found it bizarre personally, we were miles better than anyone else in the league yet failed to show it for so long in the Premier League, I couldn't fathom QPR being above us at any point, I rated Derby that season far higher and thought the play-off final was a bit of a freak.

Wolves had some players who had simply no business playing in that league, but we had players in our side who've gone on to do more, as things stand. If Neves wins as much as Mahrez has done in his career, I think he'd be happy with that, though I suppose you have to consider we only had Mahrez half a season.

Vardy showed the signs he was special that season. He was easily our player of the season for me even despite not being the top scorer. I suppose you have to take into consideration competition too, and I think the West Brom side that came 2nd behind Newcastle were probably the best 2nd placed finishing side to go up out of the four, so I suppose you could argue Newcastle maybe had some tougher competition.

Who knows really. What our group in 2013/14 went on to achieve however trumps anything that level has seen in my lifetime, I'm sure.