‘What would I want from a head coach?’ – Thorup on fans, Norwich and Nedergaard.

In many ways, a fan signing session exemplifies Johannes Hoff Thorup’s vision for Norwich City.

Despite the two-degree chill, more than 100 supporters queued outside Jarrold’s back entrance, anxiously awaiting a meeting with the Canaries’ head coach in the club’s designated sector of the historic department store. They’re in a city that the 36-year-old appears to have fallen in love with only nine months after joining from Danish club Nordsjaelland. Steen Nedergaard, a former Norwich midfielder, promised as much when contacted, and he has not disappointed. “To be honest it was not an area of England that we knew much about before we arrived here,” Thorup shares. “We of course tried to ask some people, especially Steen. I worked with him for many years at my former club, and I rang him to ask a little bit about the city and the club.

“He said it was a great place to live.” He has many memories here with his family, including his children. He claimed it was a terrific environment to raise children, thus he fully backed it. That was a major deal for us, and I believe we’ve seen since day one that he was correct in many respects. “My wife enjoys it, as does my young daughter, and we all enjoy football outside. There isn’t much time, but we enjoy it. We can stroll around peacefully with a lot of support on the streets and such. “That’s amazing; it makes a difference. It requires you to work even harder achieve what the goal is for us. Steen was a great footballer but he’s also a great scout, so there is probably a job for him over here!”

Steen Nedergaard (right) recommended his former colleague to seek the head coaching job at Carrow Road (Image: PA).As much as the positives have stuck out to him, the City manager has still had a lot to adjust to. His new realm’s position as a single-club one has brought him a lot of attention, both at Carrow Road and beyond. “It’s much more here,” he says. “I am from Copenhagen, and the club I came from is in the northern portion, around 20 minutes from the city centre. Copenhagen has more clubs, with four or five in the top level and a couple in the league below it. “So this is really, really strange, because it’s a single-club city, and you can feel that everywhere you go, even when you just walk around the city centre. There’s one club in this city, and that’s the club you support.

“It’s not something you think about when you first start coaching football, and it certainly wasn’t the reason I started. There is a lot of media and fan attention. But when you’re in it, especially in a place like this, it’s what makes a club unique: the sense of connection between club and city. “Even if we lose a game over the weekend or lose a few games, we still have a lot of tremendous support. People approach me or Glen (Riddersholm, assistant head coach) in a friendly manner. They occasionally ask critical questions, but they do it in a positive manner. I really cannot complain about it.”

Thorup has already established a great bond with the Norwich fans (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd).Although everybody who has met Thorup knows he enjoys a good conversation, he avoids discussing himself or his team on social media or in the press. With time being at a premium as a Championship manager, he understands that any time spent on it means less time for tactical adjustments, training sessions, and player development. “I try to stay away, and it’s not because I think that everything’s bad out there,” he admits. “But I think that you can easily be dragged into spending too much time reading different stuff. I appreciate opinions, and I appreciate that you can more or less win every game and there will still be criticism. You can lose every game and there will still be some who are positive.

“That’s the way it is and that’s the way it works in football, and you have to get used to that. But I try to stay off it, because it’s just consuming time, and I try to spend as much time as possible on the football team, the guys who are really important.”

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