Norwich City are remembered for their days in the top tier under Chris Hughton. However, the inevitable demotion occurred back in 2014 and although they scripted an immediate return in 2015-16 through playoffs the season before, Alex Neil, the then boss failed to retain a top-flight status for more than a year.
The Canaries required a squad revamp and the owners opted to appoint Daniel Farke from Borussia Dortmund reserves back at the beginning of the previous term – a similar approach that earned Huddersfield Town an incredible Premier League promotion under David Wagner.
But the early days of Farke were not convincing enough as they not only finished in the bottom half of Championship standings but also lost their prized resource James Maddison to Leicester City.
Only one win in first six league fixtures to start the 2018-19 campaign jeopardised his future at Carrow Road, but a turnaround from the low has now guided the Canaries to grab the top of the table spot with two points clear off second-placed Middlesbrough. They have lost only once in the last 11 Championship fixtures, and the manager now has grounds to earn a contract extension as his current deal runs out at the end of the ongoing campaign.
Farke, meanwhile, is calm over his future and concentrating solely on Norwich’s season that now has a great foundation as well as objectives to fulfil.
“No one has to be concerned. Eight months in the life of a coach is unbelievably long. Everything is okay. My contract will end next summer, and that was the case at the start of this season the same as it is now or in the new year.”
His signings were doubted back in summer but he, alongside club’s sporting director Stuart Webber, have done a tremendous job so far in recruiting resources in cut-price deals as well as on Bosman transfers. Finnish forward Teemu Pukki is the most prominent example.
The striker was released by Brondby at the end of the 2017–18 season but he made an immediate impact in Championship football having notched nine goals already in 14 games that include an injury-time winner against Millwall on Saturday afternoon in Norwich’s dramatic comeback win. Also, the likes of Moritz Leitner and Emiliano Buendía (commonly known as Emi) are contributing persistently to grab results, and the entire squad is on song en route to attaining promotion glory.
The race for automatic promotion is wide open, and the gap is pretty close among the top half sides with plenty left to play for at the moment. The boss is not wrong to ignore speculations but the club must tie down the German in the long run who is finally living up to expectations shaking off early jitters.
