Norwich City v Gillingham: Daniel Farke on the Premier League

Norwich City returns to what Daniel Farke affectionately calls the Canaries’ ‘living room’ on Tuesday against Gillingham, as the Premier League countdown begins in earnest at Carrow Road (KO 8pm).

The biggest home crowd since before the global pandemic is expected tonight for a tune-up against the League One Gills.

City’s pre-season planning was hit by two friendly appeals last week due to a small number of positive Covid results in the camp.

Angus Gunn and Jacob Sorensen have now returned to the training squad after self-isolating ahead of Colney’s friendly victory over Huddersfield.

Norwich’s championship title triumph was won largely against the backdrop of empty stadiums due to restrictions on social gatherings except for a sample of test events.

City fans were only able to attend four home league games last season, with a maximum of 2,000 allowed per game, the last of which was a 2-0 league win over Cardiff just before Christmas.

The club’s latest tilt to top-level survival under Farke also ended in empty stands, during a ‘project restart’ period when they failed to win a Premier League game.

But Farke, who recently signed a new four-year deal, is planning a much longer stint in the big leagues this time around.

“The next step now is to become a truly established Premier League club and, again, this is an important goal for the only self-funded club at this level,” he said. “We could have spent all the money last time around on the best players, but we were thinking about the next five to 10 years, not five months. We want to become a permanent member.

“We’ve had several seasons at the highest level as a club in the modern age but, let’s be honest, quite often it was just a year, maybe two years. Spending five, six years in a row at the highest level is a goal. ”

Farke knows many will have canceled the Canaries’ chances again.

“We won the right. We didn’t win the lottery, ”he said. “This next step is huge, it is massive. We have to stick to our values, to our principles. But this is definitely the way we want to go. I just want to say after this season that we made the most of all our opportunities.

“I can’t tell you where the league is. I just want to have this feeling as a group of players and staff, we have done our best and delivered our best level of performance. That’s my job. to have more good decisions than bad decisions. ”

Fans are advised to purchase tickets online ahead of Tuesday’s game, which will allow them to acquire a QR code for mobile devices to use for entry to the turnstiles.

The Carrow Road ticket office will be open from 9 a.m. for tickets to be purchased in person, however, this may cause queues if fans leave purchasing their ticket until the last hours before the match.

Tickets were priced at £ 10 for adults, £ 5 for over 65s and under 21 and £ 1 for under 18, but free for all season ticket holders and U18 members. Head toward canaries.co.uk for all the details.

City have not issued any Covid-19 rules regarding testing before access is allowed, on this occasion, as the club await Premier League decisions on access for those who are vaccinated or may present with a negative test result.