The Canaries’ sporting director opened the personal account following a second relegation from the Premier League and 13th place in the Championship.
Webber was targeted by sections of the support at Carrow Road in the final two home games of a terrible league season.
Here’s the transcript of what he said on the subject in a wide-ranging interview Friday afternoon.
We must distinguish between criticism and abuse. So criticism all day long, we deserve criticism even when we are doing well. We’ve had moments where we’ve done really well, but still some really bad decisions. Why waste money on Felix Paslak in the season we were promoted when we had Max Ahrens? That would be a super fair criticism.
Where I have a problem is around abuse. And I think unfortunately, as a society, we get caught up in what abuse is okay. Darren Moore was badly abused after Sheffield Wednesday were beaten in the first leg. I bet the same people are sending him kiss emojis now. this is wrong
People like me are massively abused, just a white guy who’s 39, and it’s not a headline. It almost comes with the territory. If you can’t handle it, get out. I have a problem with this. If this is what we teach is fine and the media feeds it, that’s fine, that’s a huge problem.
It cannot be, “You abuse a woman, but you cannot abuse that man. Or you can’t abuse a black man but you can abuse a white boy. This is wrong, abuse is wrong. And no one should be subjected to this.
I have done nothing at this football club for six years to warrant being abused. I’ve done a lot to earn criticism, absolutely a lot. If you can’t handle criticism in this job, then you should definitely do something else. Because they will criticize you more than pat you on the back.
If we win the league, it depends on the players and the coach. If we get relegated, it’s up to the sporting director. These are the rules you’re signing up to, and I’m totally cool with that. But abuse is something I am strong at. I have friends who tell me, “Be careful saying that in public.” No, no, I’m going to say it publicly, because someone has to, because, unfortunately, in society, we’ve decided what violence is okay. I don’t have that.
I said this to the police when I had grief at the end of the Premier League season. And they had everything on body cam, what happened to me that day and I got an apology from them. And I said it’s interesting because if I was standing outside the supermarket over the road abusing the manager of that supermarket, would you come and arrest me? But since I work in football, that’s fine. I said I can’t have that.
I said it would be a big problem if I had that level of abuse in my face again because I would have to take it back. Because I just don’t think that’s good. Criticism. Absolutely. Singing to get fired is not abuse. This is an opinion. Honestly, I don’t blame them. From what we’ve served up over the last 11 games, I feel like singing it myself, but a little personal violence isn’t good.
You know the cowards who scream when they are 30 yards away when you are with your son. I don’t accept this, but in terms of leaving, I definitely wouldn’t leave because of cowards.
I will either be fired at some point or I will leave when the time is right to leave. It definitely won’t be because of a few cowards who think they can try to bully you because I was bullied at school. And from that day I was taught how to resist them. And that’s why I’m going to speak publicly about it, because these people are not going to win. Absolutely no chance, not that it concerns me as a person.
But to go back, do I understand the frustration? Absolutely. Absolutely. They have a right to be disappointed. People spend a lot of money to come here. Society is a tough place right now and football should be their release. This is an entertainment industry, it should be the best place to visit. It’s up to us to deliver it.
And if we don’t, we deserve the criticism, but not the abuse. Some of the things our players had. That shouldn’t be okay because he is privileged and gets paid well to play football. He’s still human. He still has a mother at home or a sick child at home. it’s wrong
To be responsible
I’m never afraid to stand up and take responsibility. People in my role don’t talk, you know, and you’ll probably have that one day. I’m leaving here. And you’ll ask for an interview and it’ll be like, “No, he doesn’t give interviews.” At least the old man was up and standing.
We have not delivered to the field. And we’re trying to find a way to do that. But I’m also not going to sit here for the benefit of all our staff and players who work incredibly hard to make this football club the best it can be and act as if everything we’ve done has also gone wrong. because that is not a fact.
The fact is that this football club continues to grow even in the last two years. Have we achieved our ultimate goal, which was to return to the Premier League? No, we’re not, but I hope everyone can see that staying in the Premier League is incredibly difficult. Unless you have huge financial aid.
Look at Southampton, they had three points more than us last season and spent £143m net. Our record signing is still Tim Klose.
Talk about Brighton and Brentford and rightly so, but Brighton’s owner has invested more than £700m. Brentford are over £150m and that was the last set of accounts so it will be more now.
We’re also trying to achieve what we’re trying to achieve against the background of ‘they should have done this, they should have done that’. The view back is wonderful. We were close this year. We finished six points off the play-offs. Was it good enough? Absolutely not. Bam, there’s your title? Absolutely not.
But the fact is, I’m not going to beat all the staff here internally. Have we built stronger to become better next year as an organization? yes We have a thriving academy and a lot of good work is being done.