Norwich City could be set to lose first-team coach Narcis Pélach after the club allowed the Spaniard to speak to a fellow Championship side.
The 36-year-old joined The Canaries in 2023 as a member of David Wagner’s backroom staff and stuck around as Johannes Hoff Thorup took charge. Norwich are currently 15th place in the Championship and most recently lost to Swansea City.
Pélach could be set to take over Stoke City after they sacked Steven Schumacher this morning. Despite an okay start to the season for the former Plymouth Argyle boss, The Potters took action to relieve him of his duties after nine months in charge.
Jon Walters said in a statement that he had “to make tough decisions that serve the long-term interests of Stoke City,” signalling the start of the search for a third permanent manager in the past 12 months. Former Sunderland boss Alex Neil was given the boot in December of last year after a difficult start to the 2023/24 season.
According to The Telegraph’s John Percy, Norwich have enabled the former Girona coach to speak to Stoke over the vacancy in Staffordshire. It is expected that if he is chosen as the successor to Schumacher, Canaries goalkeeping coach Paul Clements would also make the switch.
Carlos Corberan brought Pélach to England to join his backroom staff at Huddersfield Town, with ‘Chicho’ taking over interim duties following the departure of Danny Schofield. He later took charge of two games against Wigan Athletic and Stoke City, using a 4-3-3 system after Mark Fotheringham’s removal in February 2023.
A defender in his playing career, the Spaniard retired at 25 years old to focus on a coaching career. He took over the feeder club for Girona before stepping up to be assistant coach for the first team, being fired following a change in management.
Writer’s View
Stoke City are moving fast to fill the void left behind their sacking of Steven Schumacher and have already targeted Narcís Pèlach. He is someone who does have plenty of experience with the Championship thanks to his time with Norwich City and Huddersfield Town and does have previous, if limited, experience in managing in the division.
Overseas and particularly Spanish managers and their tactics have been in vogue over recent years in the second tier with Marti Cifuentes and Carlos Corberan being prime examples. Stoke seem to finally be jumping on the trend and who better to pick than the former assistant to Corberan as they try to finally push towards getting back into the promotion conversation after years of falling short of their goals.
1st Class Honours in Multimedia Journalism at Salford University. Writing mainly about League Two.
