Football News: Delia Needs To Invest If Norwich Are To Stay Up

Sometimes when you look at teams that have been promoted, you wonder to yourself have they got a squad good enough to avoid relegation during the season. With this season's Norwich City side, we have no need to wonder, as this is basically the team that was found wanting once and went down in the 2013-14 season.

Some teams you look at and think, if they get it right, they can stay up with a bit to spare, but this Norwich side does not have the look of a team that will do any more than struggle. The first choice striker, Cameron Jerome, has never been quite good enough for the Premier League, and the defence, to be perfectly frank, is barely good enough in the Championship.

Alex Neil worked wonders, in my opinion, to bring this team back up, but even then it was as much to do with the poor state of last season's Championship as it was to do with the quality of the Canaries. Norwich are a team in desperate need of better quality players to add to the squad.

What they have is hard work, a system that fits the players and they are happy with, but they have no real quality in the team. Youssuf Mulumbu will add to the graft element, and he does improve the quality slightly, but it is the quality of the attack and defence that is the main issue with this team.

Putting it simply, Steven Whittaker is one of the worst right backs I have ever seen play professional football, despite his gallant effort and willingness to give his all. His pace is non-existent, he has no acceleration, his touch is awful, his passing terrible and his crossing is aimless.

The keepers, both Declan Rudd and John Ruddy, are error prone, Michael Turner has been shown to be simply not good enough at this level, it is looking like a failed relegation battle is on the cards unless the club invest in quality. Alex Neil can get them organised and playing the best football in the world, but if you have a defence that weak, you are always going to concede goals.

Without a clinical striker, or a midfield that weighs in with more than its fair share of goals, it is going to be a painful season for the fans, with little real hope of staying up, other than Neil performing a miracle. When you look at the other teams, it is difficult to see how they can finish above 3 of the others.

As things stand, this team will be heavily reliant on Nathan Redmond to create and score for them. Is he ready for the responsibility? Only time will tell, but he did step up a couple of levels last season in the Championship, so maybe this could be his time.

With hard work and effort, Norwich will always have a chance, but without investment the chance will always be a slim one.

Written by Tris Burke July 05 2015 09:46:13