'I would have done some things differently'

BBC News

30-04-2025

Former Norwich City boss Johannes Hoff Thorup says he would have done things differently had he known the target was to finish in the Championship play-off places.The Dane was relieved of his duties by the Canaries last week following a run of six defeats from eight Championship games and only one win.He was appointed in May 2024 and as recently as February, with the team 10th and four points outside the top six, sporting director Ben Knapper admitted the Canaries were where he expected them to be.Having signed a number of young players with the aim of developing them, Thorup said that influenced the way he managed the team."Had the communication from the start been that we should reach the top six and be one of the play-off clubs, then we would probably have made some other decisions along the way," Thorup told Danish sports magazine Tipsbladet., external"I will always say we didn't get enough time. We have obviously worked with a long-term perspective, and we also knew that the first season would be with bumps in the road. Therefore, we also made some decisions based on the fact that it was with a more long-term view in mind."The ex-FC Nordsjaelland coach admits had he thought results were the overriding priority he would have made different decisions."We wouldn't necessarily have played with the youngest team in Norwich for generations, as we did in one of the games (against Oxford), where we had an average age of around 23-and-a-half years," he added."We would probably have prioritised what we knew would give us some performances here and now instead of giving some of the young players the chance. There have been some things along the way that we would have done differently if it had only been about the performances."Norwich will have Jack Wilshere in interim charge again for their final game of the season at home to relegated Cardiff on Saturday (12:30 BST).Thorup said he would not be surprised to see the ex-Arsenal midfielder handed the role on a permanent basis."I knew Jack's terms of employment, so I knew that at some point he would step up as head coach, and we had also made a good plan with him," he said."The premise for bringing him in was his next step in his career, where he had to move on from Norwich or Glen (Riddersholm - assistant) and I had to move on from Norwich so that he could become head coach."