Jonathan Blathwayt on Norwich and the hope of something good

When you consider Norwich have sold Gabriel Sara, Adam Idah and Jonathan Rowe (in a horribly acrimonious fashion), the replacements are players few will have heard of before.

Not won in their first three games, humiliated by a newly-promoted team and the most promising academy talent still at the club wants out - you could be forgiven for thinking that everyone around Norwich would be in a foul mood. But, this really doesn’t feel the case at the moment.

Much of this lack of hand wringing and grumbling from fans is down to the open, clear and honest communication from both Ben Knapper and Johannes Hoff Thorup.

Any fans under the impression that things were going to be easy, or the club would repeat last summer’s transfer policy of bringing in mostly domestic players who knew the Championship, hadn’t been paying attention. For once, it seems the fans’ expectations may be even lower than the club’s. Knapper and Thorup have both stated the play-offs are the aim and where the club should be finishing come the end of the season, but ask most fans and they will talk about being happy in mid-table as long as there are signs the club is building towards something.

This patience from fans is built on the hope that something good is coming; the experience of the previous rebuild under Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke is still relatively fresh. Fans know these things can take a little while to settle in and no one wants to get caught out proclaiming gloom and doom too early, especially as many will have demanded Farke’s head early into his Norwich career, only to look foolish as he led Norwich to some of their best Championship seasons.

On the evidence so far, this rebuild/refresh/restart is going smoother than the previous one. There has been noticeable improvements over the first three games of the season, and Thorup was lucky to start with a far better squad than the one Farke had to work with initially.

Here is hoping there are no more twists in the last few days of the transfer window. The rumbles around clubs being interested in Josh Sargent might make it a slightly nervy time for fans, although with promises of more players to come there will hopefully be some more positive surprises.

Amankwah Forson - one of City's impressive newcomers (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

The players coming in so far this summer have returned to the best type of transfers - players you haven’t heard of before and come with no pre-existing baggage. Fans won’t be able to recall the time they have seen most of these players have a bad game they saw on TV once; they will be able to imprint on these players whatever they want. Ante Crnac? He’s the new Modric! Jose Cordoba? The best footballer to ever come from Panama! These may not be true, but until they have proven otherwise, these could be the best players to ever sign for Norwich.

There will be bumps to come, but for now, Thorup’s Norwich and these new players could be anything - let’s hope they are something really special.