BBC NEWS, Chris Goreham: How lengthy is the yellow and green fuse for Norwich City fans?

Oxford’s triumph was aided by the fact that their opponents fell one row short.

It sounds like a headline from The Boat Race, but Johannes Hoff Thorup found himself up the Championship creak without any of his paddles.

The Dane is rapidly finding that Norwich City seldom sails in calm waters.

He’s taken on the football equivalent of a canoe slalom participant in the Olympics. If you want to wrestle the Canaries to victory, you’ll have to navigate a variety of obstacles while fighting against the tide.

If City is a work in progress. Saturday demonstrated how much of the former is necessary to deliver any of the latter. It wasn’t very shocking. Only one new addition was healthy and ready to start the game; one of the team’s key players had been sold to Galatasaray in the final week of pre-season, while another awoke on the morning of the game and decided that playing away at Oxford was not for him. All of this does not bode well for the campaign’s early success.

The transfer window is still open for another two and a half weeks, so there will be more stormy waters to navigate.

Norwich City fans were mostly relieved to see David Wagner leave the club. Many people were asking for a change, a dynamic transition to a more exciting style, and the reactivation of the academy talent pipeline. These are all legitimate aspirations, but they were never going to be met in three months, especially with decreasing parachute payouts and budgetary restrictions.

Thorup and his squad may be able to get some slack because Norwich City is going through a transition period. It’ll be fascinating to see how long the yellow and green fuses last in terms of patience. Supporters must see frequent indicators of development before investing in a project, and the same is true for athletes.

I was taken by what Jack Stacey said during his post-match interview on BBC Radio Norfolk. “As players you don’t have a lot of time in your career, we don’t really have enough time for transition, we don’t want to write-off any time or any matches.”

Thorup will need to rapidly choose who wants to be a part of his revival and who would prefer go somewhere else.

This stage of Norwich City’s spin cycle is familiar territory. Saturday was Norwich City’s first league encounter with Oxford United since 1999. In the last 25 years, the Canaries have undergone many rebrandings. There were Nigel Worthington and Neil Doncaster in the early 2000s, Paul Lambert and David McNally after Colchester 2009, Daniel Farke and Stuart Webber in the summer of 2017, and currently Thorup and Knapper.

All past attempts to turn Norwich City off and back on have resulted in some success, a little of Premier League but then mild relegations and back to square one as the club rebuilds from mid-table in the Championship.

Perhaps there is some pride and encouragement in knowing that, with the exception of one season in League One, Norwich has always found a way to compete in the second tier, regardless of the conditions.

On Saturday, my colleague at BBC Radio Oxford, Jerome Sale, was excited to cover Oxford in the Championship for the first time in two and a half decades. He informed me that the lowest moment in the intervening years was a 3-1 defeat away to Droylsden in The National League back in 2007. A warning that there is a long way to fall if you don’t do things correctly.

Oxford deserved to win against the Canaries on Saturday, and whether Norwich supporters like it or not, this is their present level. Imagine losing to a team that wears yellow and has not won a major trophy since the League Cup in the mid-1980s. Oh, hold on.

Like a father…

Norwich City takes pride in being a family club, so it’s always exciting when a former player’s son or daughter finds their own route to sports success.

George Mills made news at the Olympics when he collided with Hugo Hay of France after collapsing during the 5,000-meter heats in Paris. Mills is the son of Danny Mills, a former City defender.

The Sprowston native came up through the Carrow Road junior systems before enjoying his greatest years with Leeds United and representing England in the 2002 World Cup. A strong competitor, he once got Dion Dublin sent off when playing for Norwich against Charlton.

Let’s just say Mills exposed a side of Dublin that you wouldn’t want to see on daytime TV, even if it was to provide feedback to a smug estate agent.

Angus Gunn is another apple that didn’t fall far from the tree. This season’s Norwich City goalkeeper outfit is especially reminiscent of those worn by his father, Bryan, in the 1990s. There must be something about goalkeepers. Jack, John Ruddy’s son, is also a member of the Norwich youth squad.

The progeny of Norwich City players are making their impact in more than just football. Kate Cross has been a member of the England women’s cricket squad for the past decade. She even co-hosts the podcast ‘No Balls’. Her father, David, played for City in the 1970s and was a member of the first Norwich squad to compete in the top division. He went on to win the FA Cup for West Ham.

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