Johannes Hoff Thorup believed he could turn Norwich City into Championship title winners. Ben Knapper did not.
That essentially was the fissure that culminated in a decision to dissolve the partnership before even a one year milestone had been reached. The only paper anniversary gift being Thorup’s P45.
Go back to a sun-kissed June 2024 day at Carrow Road and it was all smiles as Knapper paraded a young, progressive upwardly mobile coach.
The belief that day was Norwich had enticed a highly-rated operator to Norfolk before his trajectory took him well beyond City’s reach as his reputation grew.
In the end it is Thorup who was unable to keep up with the required pace of change, and the new direction shaped by Knapper, the club’s executive team and the American ownership powerbase.
The manner of that Easter Monday 3-1 defeat at Millwall proved a watershed moment. Frustration and anger raining down from the terraces at the final whistle. A fan encroaching onto the playing surface in the first half, seemingly intent on continuing his direct protests towards the City substitutes, before he was intercepted by security.
Thorup himself claimed he had not seen the pitch invader and felt afterwards he was not representative of the majority view towards him, his coaches, players or the broader strategy.
But within hours Knapper and Zoe Webber had convened a transatlantic touchpoint with Mark Attanasio and Richard Ressler; City directors and captains of this particular ship in a post-Delia and Michael world.
A further dialogue early on Tuesday morning reaffirmed the final decision, which was communicated, in order, to Thorup and Glen Riddersholm, then Jack Wilshire and his remaining coaches, before the players were briefed.
Now the Canary Nation knows. The speed of this chain reaction feels both bold and brutal. Knapper will know his call to replace the coach he had identified, after an exhaustive and extensive recruitment search that commenced many months prior to David Wagner’s eventual removal, reflects poorly on him and his judgement.
He will have to wear that. But the sporting director clearly believes such scrutiny and criticism is more palatable than the alternative. To retain trust in a fantastic communicator but a coach who was presiding over a regressive, painful end to his first Championship tour.
Declining results and performances may have proven the catalyst, but the perceived failure to improve players was also deemed a slight on his coaching ability from those inside the corridors of power.
Ask yourself who of those Thorup inherited, or was purchased in two windows at the football club, have improved under his command? I offer Kellen Fisher and not much else. Maybe Lucien Mahovo and Jacob Wright on early evidence. After 11 months and 44 Championship games it was reasonable to expect many more names in the credit column, given his development work previously at FC Nordsjaelland.
Beyond the players, that invigorating brand of ‘Hoffball’ was seen in an ever decreasingly small sample as the season ebbed to a toxic conclusion. Where was the panache and the full-throttle feel to the stirring home wins of Watford or Hull or Luton or Plymouth? Goals, chances and a speed of thought and ball progression capable of lifting City fans off their feet.
That is a bigger indictment on the Thorup era than the residual inability to develop a robust template out of possession, or improve a woeful set piece concession rate. Both traits were visible at the Den on Easter Monday.
Thorup’s answer in his post-match media as to why he had failed to address such negative, momentum-killing trends this far into the process was to reiterate the solution lay as much in retaining possession as populating his side with ’10 outfield players who are six foot five’ in stature.
There was pragmatism. Portsmouth away. West Brom home. But it appeared to come at the expense of the fundamentals of ‘Hoffball’. You could forgive a fan base for feeling a sense of confusion and disorientation.
At every turn Thorup the coach felt increasingly out of synch with the demands of melding a squad for Championship combat. Thorup the person was warm, engaging and excellent at conveying his message to the public. But that clarity was not always felt in the confines of the dressing room.
That much was self-evident in how the season had started to unravel in such accelerated fashion, post beating Watford on February 1 to move onto the fringes of the top six. To now sit seven points from the relegation places tells you the epic nature of the decline.
There have been factors beyond the Dane’s control. Injury after injury, disciplinary matters where the FA, and not himself, were the arbiters of justice. The on-going farce around the fitness of Matej Jurasek. Even before a ball was kicked in anger he had to deal with those transfer-flavoured distractions last summer involving Adam Idah, Jon Rowe and Abu Kamara.
Perhaps that set the tone for his brief Carrow Road stint. He was fire-fighting from the start. He was fire-fighting at the end. Always on the back foot, always in retreat. A direct contrast from the front-footed ambition that typified his original appointment.
Worth re-visiting those comments from Thorup a few short weeks ago.
“If I could say to you that we will win the Championship in two to three seasons time, but up until that it could be a little bit up and down would you take it? Because sometimes when you change a lot, and we have made a lot of changes, and there’s been a lot of change to both the culture and the environment and the players, it takes time.
“I fully believe, and when I spent a week in the US with the owners to hear their thoughts about how we move forward and what we do, and the same when I sit down with Ben and with Neil (Adams) and discuss how do we move forward with it, with this club and this team, and what are the decisions we have to do this summer? What are the decisions we have to do next winter, and stuff like that, then I fully believe that we will be there.”
Time ran out for Thorup. But there will be no screeching handbrake from Knapper. The strategy is locked in. Only the head coach and players are interchangeable and dispensable.
