Norwich City's impending relegation the cost of failure to invest in the summer

Last weekend saw Norwich City’s hopes of Premier League survival take yet another hit as they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the Emirates, whilst relegation rivals Sunderland and Newcastle both picked up points. The defeat leaves City in 19th place, 2 points from safety, with an inferior goal difference and arguably the toughest run-in - whilst breaching the gap is not beyond the realms of possibility, the club’s impending relegation now has a sense of sad inevitably about it.

Saturday was one of those performances where, as a supporter, you would almost rather have watched a gutless display capped by a thrashing. At least in such circumstances you can vent your anger and frustration, and feel let down. Saturday’s display was not gutless, however, and nor did it end in a thrashing. We actually played quite well. Considering we have gone whole games this season without registering a shot on target, 12 attempts with 3 of them on target (the same number as Arsenal), shows that we put up a reasonable fight. The solitary one-goal margin reflects the fact that it was a close game and, at stages, Arsenal were under prolonged periods of City pressure. At the end of the day, however, we just weren’t good enough. We aren’t good enough.

This is what makes City’s potential relegation all the more upsetting. It is not due to under-performing players, an incompetent manager or a complete lack of effort, passion or fight. It is simply because these players, and in part the manager, are simply not good enough for the top-level. We have gone through all of this before. Our Premier League relegation in 2004/05 was a similar story, as was our demise in 2013/14. Tales of below-average squads, compounded by poor investment, and, ultimately, failure.

Following our promotion last season, it was clear to everyone that significant investment would be required both in attack and defence. Clear to everyone except Alex Neil and the Norwich City board, it seems. Our top-scorers in Gary Hooper and Cameron Jerome both had history of failing to make the grade in the top-flight, whilst our remaining option in Lewis Grabban has gone on to prove even less ineffective than the aforementioned pair. Large investment in a proven top-level striker was a necessity. At the back we were consistently susceptible despite our apparent success and, even back then, it was plain to see that Sebastien Bassong and Russell Martin would not be a centre-back pairing to lead us to survival. Why was it then, that we went into our opening game of the season against Crystal Palace with Bassong and Martin at centre-back, and Lewis Grabban leading the line?

Alex Neil and the board completely over-estimated the ability of our squad. Trying to survive in the Premier League with what was, and still is, nothing more than a good Championship squad was only going to end one way. We are currently paying for our failure to invest in the summer. Attempts to rectify this failure were made in January, when we reportedly spent almost £20million, but this is now looking like it was a case of too little, too late. If we had signed Timm Klose last summer then it is hard to believe that we wouldn’t be safe by now. Instead, we signed no centre-backs and went through half the campaign with defenders who were unreliable even in the league below. Our only significant strike force re-inforcement, Steven Naismith, has scored once in three months.

Our failures this season have been completely avoidable and that is what it makes it all the more difficult to accept. We failed to learn from the mistakes of two seasons ago and, for that, we look set to pay the ultimate price.