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There is no longer any doubt that Stuart Webber’s reign as Norwich City sporting director is all but over.

The club confirmed on Tuesday lunchtime that the 39-year-old handed in his resignation in March and will now leave Norwich, be it in the coming weeks or months.

It has been a wild six-year ride and with his final legacy still to be determined, plenty of questions remain over the future for Norwich and Webber.

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Here, The Athletic answers the key questions about how things now stand.

Why is Stuart Webber leaving?

The first thing to say is that the subject of Stuart Webber leaving has been around almost as long as the Welshman has been at Norwich. Having originally arrived from a Premier League-bound Huddersfield Town on a one-year rolling contract in April 2017, Webber signed a new three-year deal in September 2019, six months after head coach Daniel Farke had done likewise. Webber stated the expiry of his new deal would almost certainly signal his departure and the certainty of that would be helpful to everyone.

Only it wasn’t. Norwich’s second promotion in 2021 came amid concerns both Webber and Farke were within 12 months of walking out. Come the autumn, Norwich revealed Webber had agreed a new one-year rolling contract, signed before Milwaukee Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio joined as a director in September 2022.

That new deal meant Webber had decided — or been persuaded — to hang around a bit longer. Maybe a second, abject Premier League relegation made leaving a harder pill to swallow.

As expressed to The Athletic in May, Webber sees the redevelopment of Norwich’s Colney training ground as his legacy. The latest phase will be completed come the autumn.

Regardless of an imbalanced squad, reappointing his first Huddersfield head coach (David Wagner) to the vacancy at Norwich and a 13th-place Championship finish, Webber believes he will leave the club in a better position than when he arrived.

It is notable that Webber’s news has been confirmed following the signing of three free agents this summer. It appears Norwich wanted those deals sealed before revealing Webber’s future exit.

The club's joint majority shareholders, Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones, have issued a statement following confirmation that Stuart Webber is set to leave the club.

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— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) June 13, 2023

Does he have to stay at the club until March 2024?

The club revealed that Webber resigned in March and with a one-year rolling contract, that means he has a one-year notice period to serve. Of course, the likes of gardening leave and other possibilities mean he won’t necessarily hang around.

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But Webber has been extremely keen on being able to leave Norwich ‘by the front door’ rather than any perception of him being shuffled out of the back. Being able to sign off so visibly will form part of that process.

However, should Norwich find Webber’s replacement as sporting director and they be keen to get on with the job, or if an opportunity for Webber to work elsewhere crops up, then there is an acceptance on both sides that a parting of the ways can happen pretty swiftly.

Do Leeds United want Webber as their director of football?

You can see why the dots between Webber and Leeds appear to join neatly. Webber is a Leeds supporter, one who shows up in away ends from time to time. Leeds need a replacement for Victor Orta, who left six weeks ago.

All in all, it looks like a pretty natural match-up.

But so far, Leeds have been open-minded about how they will fill the vacancy. It might be they go for a like-for-like swap by finding another sporting director with overarching responsibility for the football side of the club, transfers in particular.

But they have also looked at employing both a specific head of recruitment and a head of football operations, spreading authority and widening the tier of management around their next head coach.

It is also possible Leeds will lean towards a shorter-term appointment. Someone who can handle a transfer window with numerous ins and outs, then give Leeds’ owner-to-be — 49ers Enterprises — time to implement a more concerted long-term strategy.

While 49ers Enterprises has major plans for Leeds, the most critical priority is to make sure the club can compete for Championship promotion next season. Leeds would be prepared to wait for the person who suits them best if they can find an immediate solution in the meantime.

Prior to his resignation, Webber had been discussed by Leeds as a viable successor for Orta. But for the past two weeks, more attention has been paid to securing a new head coach; a decision Leeds would like to reach in the coming days.

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As it happens, Farke is in the running. But while Webber to Leeds is not out of the question, it remains to be seen if the time is now.

Who will be taking over from Webber at Norwich?

Norwich are conducting an external process to find them. Webber had maintained from early in his tenure that he would be part of that succession planning to ensure the club was left in the best possible hands following his inevitable departure.

We do at least know who it won’t be. It won’t be Neil Adams, who was appointed assistant sporting director by Webber in September 2021. To some at the time, that was viewed as Adams being groomed for the full role when the time came. Norwich said he is moving into a newly created position of technical director.

It also won’t be Kieran Scott, who has been head of football at Championship rivals Middlesbrough since leaving his head of recruitment role at Norwich in August 2021. It was six months earlier — during an in-depth in-house podcast — that Scott publicly revealed he wished to be considered as Webber’s potential successor, ahead of what at the time looked like being a summer 2022 handover.

Who could it be then? Well, let’s throw a few darts. Former Burnley technical director Mike Rigg has previously had a tight relationship with Webber while at Norwich. Steve Hitchen, Tottenham’s former director of technical performance, is also currently available and was a guest of Webber at a Norwich fixture last season. Or for those who like sentimentality, there’s Mark Bowen, who has been head of football operations at Reading for more than a year.

It could also be that current head coach David Wagner will get a say in who replaces Webber. Wagner’s experience in Europe could open Norwich to potential fresh candidates and Webber may feel he owes Wagner a degree of influence in the decision given he could potentially be leaving the head coach he appointed to fend for himself in the coming months.

Who is Neil Adams and what is the technical director role?

Adams made more than 200 appearances for Norwich as a player and returned as an academy coach, eventually leading the club’s under-18s to lift the FA Youth Cup in 2013.

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That earned him a shot at managing Norwich’s first team, initially for a five-game Hail Mary after sacking Chris Hughton in a bid to secure an unlikely 2013-14 Premier League survival. It didn’t work but Adams was given the role full-time in the Championship, but a promising start unravelled and Adams resigned in January 2015.

On his departure, the club promised Adams there would be a role for him whenever he chose to return. He did that six months later as Norwich’s first loans manager, which he carried out until his 2021 promotion.

Adams’ job title is changing to technical director but in reality, his actual job probably isn’t. He will continue to administer and assist with various operational tasks alongside Norwich’s sporting director.

At least this way, he won’t be perceived in a purely assistant role to someone who may be keen to have their own person assisting them.

Who is Stuart’s wife, Zoe Ward, and is she staying at the club?

One change in the past 12 months is that she dropped her maiden name and is now referred to professionally as Zoe Webber. She joined Norwich in an administrative role while her husband was head of football operations at Huddersfield.

When Norwich opened up to the idea of hiring a sporting director, Zoe ensured Stuart would be considered. The rest is history, pretty much.

From her own initial role and after returning to the club following maternity leave, Zoe became part of a three-person executive committee in October 2018. As well as her husband, it also included chief operating officer Ben Kensell, who is now chief executive at Hibernian.

Kensell resigned in June 2021 and having taken on his responsibilities, Zoe Webber was named executive director in March 2022, when she also became a member of Norwich’s board.

The family plan has long been for Zoe to remain working at Norwich, even if Stuart moved on. While his resignation is now confirmed, Zoe will continue in her role at the club for the foreseeable future.

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What have been the high points of Webber’s tenure?

While recent times have not been easy, that should not dilute the incredible highs that preceded them.

Of Norwich’s five second-tier titles, the 2018-19 Championship success is a favourite for many. The style of football and unity of an unfancied group caught the imagination of an entire county.

On getting to the Premier League and beating Manchester City at Carrow Road, the club felt on the brink of something truly special.

Alas, reality soon kicked in. But the following Championship promotion came with a club-record 97 points and Emi Buendia being named the division’s player of the season.

Norwich’s recruitment of the Argentine and subsequent sale to Aston Villa in a deal worth £38million was held up as an example of the cleverness with which the club was operating. Signing the likes of goalkeeper Tim Krul, who would go on to return to Netherlands duty, and Finland striker Teemu Pukki, who became Norwich’s fourth all-time leading scorer – both for free – were further cases. Sadly, they now look more like evidence of favourable circumstances than of a conceived process.

However, no one can take away from Webber how he has driven the transformation of Colney. A training ground that had lacked significant investment for almost two decades and was home to numerous temporary buildings, it is just months away from being an impressive and hugely valuable facility.

And the low points?

Norwich’s first Premier League relegation under Webber came amid the impact of Covid-19 and Project Restart, so the caveats were impossible to ignore despite earning just five wins and 21 points. For a self-funded club, Norwich rode out potential financial catastrophe better than many others.

But their Premier League relegation in 2021-22, which came with five wins but one point more, proved a defining moment.

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Webber had sacked Farke just a few months into a new four-year deal as their top-flight return faltered. Not only did they rarely look like being able to achieve more under Dean Smith, but they also lost much of the goodwill and identity that had supporters fully invested in the club’s journey under Webber.

This time, the listless performances continued after relegation into the Championship and Norwich fell well short of mounting a promotion challenge last season, in what was a poor-quality division.

With that in mind, it is hard to separate Webber’s reign from the six years of recruitment he has overseen — something The Athletic analysed in April.

It was the summer of 2021 following promotion that provided Webber with a key opportunity to build a squad capable of Premier League survival, as has been managed since by Brentford, Bournemouth and Fulham. Norwich’s ongoing failures on the pitch still point back to that failed summer of recruitment.

Why has Webber been criticised by Norwich fans this season?

Primarily, the criticism regarding events on the pitch has come down to two points.

As stated, Norwich’s recent failures have been pinned on their recruitment decisions and Webber has been held responsible for that. Since Farke’s sacking, there has also been the perceived loss of identity — and with that, almost a loss of pride for some supporters in what they are trying to do.

Increasingly, however, the heat has come onto Webber for an approach to public leadership that you either view as honest or antagonistic. Interviews included criticism of complaining supporters, such as talking about people carrying bedsheets with slogans or “divorcees” sat in a corner of Carrow Road.

None of this was a new phenomenon. It was during Webber’s first full season he suggested those supporters complaining about Norwich’s style of play under Farke being boring should go support another team.

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It is easier to get away with such statements across the wider supporter base when there is general buy-in for the direction of travel and club leadership. As that diminishes, so the negative points are more greatly exposed.

Webber’s most recent 12 months at Norwich have been bookended by misguided timing when talking about his desire to climb Mount Everest, comments that took place on the eve of Norwich’s Premier League relegation, and then his latest round of interviews in May.

As has been his recent trend, they once again included a desire to mention race when talking about the abuse he has faced from supporters. He also offered his personal feelings on women’s football when some had hoped for encouragement without caveats for the future of Norwich’s recently integrated team.

Such public opining has often filtered into a perception that Webber has overseen a period at Norwich during which critical voices have been moved on, with levels of internal scrutiny and accountability not being as high as they could be.

On the flip side, many supporters will have viewed Webber as the key to Norwich bouncing back from a dismal two seasons. As a result, they may be more fearful for the club’s future without him.

(Top photo: Stephen Pond via Getty Images)

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