Norwich City’s terrible start to the season continued with a 3-0 defeat against Millwall, and head coach Philippe Clement’s pre-match outburst prompted calls for his dismissal.

Norwich City were expected to challenge for the play-offs before the season began, but two consecutive defeats have left them one place off the bottom of the Championship table, trailing only Southampton, who began the season with a four-point deduction.

After losing their season opener 2-1 at home to West Bromwich Albion due to a contentious handball goal, the Canaries were ready to get their season started with a trip to Millwall on Saturday lunchtime.

But a 3-0 defeat at The Den has only made matters worse, as Norwich head coach Philippe Clement’s comments about the lack of VAR in the Championship the day before the Millwall game have prompted calls for the club to summon an emergency meeting and fire him.

Adrian Durham pushes for Norwich City to fire Philippe Clement.

In what talkSPORT described as “a seven-minute long monologue” prior to the West Brom match, Philippe Clement went on the offensive in his Friday press conference over the lack of VAR in the Championship, saying: “I think the league creates its own problems by not having VAR” and that, “It’s madness for me that there’s no VAR in the Championship.”

He then read out a list of 81 countries that utilise VAR in their top tier, as well as others that use it in lower divisions. Clement then stated, “That’s why there’s VAR. So, the next morning, you’re still upset about things, and I asked my analyst to look into which leagues across the world use VAR. So that is why I have this list.

However, Clement’s remarks have not been uniformly popular. After the match, talkSPORT pundit Adrian Durham reacted to the head coach, saying, “Philippe Clement, the manager, told his analysts to find out all the countries that have VAR instead of using his analysts to find out about his opponents Millwall.”

And Durham believes Clement should pay a high price for his team’s poor start to the 2026-27 season, saying, “Absolutely pathetic rant about VAR – should have led to an emergency board meeting at Norwich and he should no longer be manager, but that’s just my opinion.”

What are fans saying about Adrian Durham’s Philippe Clement comments?

Adrian Durham’s comments on Philippe Clement have sparked a firestorm on social media, and here’s a sampling of what’s been written regarding his calls for Norwich City to fire their head coach.

This supporter believes that the issue here is Durham rather than Clement.

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Norwich fans may support Philippe Clement over Durham’s comments, but that doesn’t mean they’ll definitely support VAR.

At such an early juncture in the season, it’s predictable that Norwich City fans have lined up to condemn Adrian Durham on social media over his views rather than their own head coach, but whether they would agree with him that VAR should be adopted is a somewhat another issue.

Earlier this year, the Football Supporters Association polled 8,000 Premier League supporters on the matter, and they found that 75.7% of fans are against the use of VAR for matches, while 86% of fans also expressed worries about expanding it beyond its current remit. Fans frequently defend their own against external criticism, but this does not always imply that they welcome the use of VAR in the Championship.

Clement’s press conference statements came as a result of the controversy following his team’s opening Championship match of the season against West Bromwich Albion. The Norwich manager was left fuming after Albion’s first goal was scored via the hand of Aune Heggebo, and the fact that Heggebo was subsequently given a two-match retrospective ban by the FA – the first of its kind – for deceiving match-day officials may leave the Norwich head coach feeling that other clubs will now get the benefit of the sanction rather than his club.

The Sun has recently reported on why the Championship doesn’t have VAR, and their conclusion was that, “The most significant hurdle stopping VAR from entering the Championship is money.” They admit that the adoption of VAR “requires a huge financial and logistical commitment”, involving the installation of specialist cameras, hiring video authorities, and establishing somewhere to keep it all.

But money isn’t the only concern. While the Premier League has state-of-the-art stadiums in which all of this can easily be placed, in the Championship, where the facilities may be somewhat more antiquated, it’s a harder logistical challenge to overcome. According to The Sun, “Upgrading some of the older, tighter stadiums in the division to accommodate the necessary gantries and fibre-optic cabling would require major structural work that many clubs cannot justify or achieve.”

Even if the EFL did listen to Philippe Clement’s objections, it wouldn’t make any difference for this season. Any such modifications would have to be voted through at the League’s AGM, and that is held at the end of the season. As such, any decision to modify their policy and install VAR – which wouldn’t necessarily be popular with fans – certainly can’t take place during the 2025-26 season.

And given the start to the season that Norwich City have made, there are no assurances that Clement would even still be their manager by the time it was voted through, unless his team’s results on the pitch began to improve.