From the moment promotion was confirmed, I braced myself for the inevitable. I wasn’t alone. The inevitable churn of finger-wagging from pundits and experts, telling us what we should be looking to do, who we should be looking to buy and why what we’re going to do won’t be enough.
It comes with the territory.
The media glare that comes with a prized place in the Premier League brings with it a detailed dissection of almost every single decision the club makes – a Daniel Farke sneeze will likely cause a ripple or two across the newsdesks of talkSPORT – and the prospect of doing anything ‘under the radar’ in the Prem is as unlikely as something astute passing the lips of Alan Brazil.
But I hate it. Every second of it. It’s like when someone says something less than complimentary about a member of your family – you’re allowed to say it but woe betides anyone from outside the inner-circle who offers up an opinion that doesn’t suit.
So, while I’ll happily listen to (and read) words spoken by who I perceive as acknowledged experts on our club – I’m talking Paddy Davitt, Chris Goreham, Michael Bailey and co – when those same words arrive via the MSM, I’m immediately sceptical. Even if it flows off the keyboard of Henry Winter.
All of which is illogical and plain stupid, but is a mindset borne of some grim recent experiences when trying to mix it with the elite of the English game. From the perspective of a fan, City’s coverage tended to flit between the patronising and condescending tones of “plucky little Norwich” to almost total ignorance of what we are about and how we are trying to achieve it.
It’s a dial that tends to oscillate wildly but rarely rests in the middle – only occasionally will we stumble across a national journo who gets it and gets us, albeit more of a rarity now that our own Mick Dennis is no longer among their ranks and therefore unable to spread the word.
That we will be made to feel like unwelcome guests at a posh do is almost a given, with the arduous 1 hour 52 minutes of Liverpool Street to Norwich almost guaranteed to irk said national media more than any other trek.
But, however irritating, this is standard stuff and we’ve been here before. We expect it and if it didn’t happen we’d think something was wrong and, generally, most of the comments come with a hint of logic, however flawed we believe them to be at the time.
When it all starts to go awry is when folk for whom we have not one iota of respect wade in with their own unhinged theories as to why City are virtually guaranteed to go back whence they came.
I give you Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge CBE.
In her column in that tabloid, Brady spouted some Delia food-punned nonsense that confirmed everything we needed to know about her lack of insight into the beautiful game and how little thought and research goes into her words.
To quote a few nuggets:
‘Don’t try to survive in the Premier League on the cheap’
‘Bournemouth have stayed up on a relatively small budget’
‘West Ham have done well because we have rich Hammers supporters as owners and a 60,000 capacity stadium’
There were loads more, but without wishing to dissect every line of Ms Brady’s rubbish, it’s worth reminding her that our club is acutely aware of its financial limitations and if the way to sustain its long-term stability is to try and survive “on the cheap” that is precisely what we will do.
I’d argue Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke’s more than passable attempt at getting “promoted on the cheap” worked out rather well, and so see no reason not to trust them with the club’s attempt to survive season one back in the Premier League.
And the dear lady’s assertion that plucky little Bournemouth only managed to survive on such meagre attendances due to the brilliance of manager Eddie Howe, ignores the fact the club’s rich owners played fast and loose with the Financial Fair Play rules.
In fact, if she really insisted on playing the ‘staying up on the cheap is impossible’ card, then the Cherries could quite possibly have been the example to use.
Instead, she chose her own club – West Ham – whose owners have acquired their fortunes by means rather less wholesome than Delia’s cookbooks and who pay a nominal rent for said 60,000-seater stadium, for which the conversion from athletics stadium to football stadium was largely funded by the taxpayer.
It was described as the ‘deal of the century‘
So please spare us the lectures on how the West Ham model is the one to follow when to most of us it’s a classic example of how not to run a football club.
This is merely the beginning though and in the weeks and months ahead they’ll be queuing up to tell us why our model won’t be good enough to see us survive one season. For obvious reasons, I’m no longer a devotee of talkSPORT but do make an exception for the excellent Hawksbee & Jacobs but was saddened to hear the way, in conversation with John Motson, they too have already dismissed our chances.
Part of it I believe comes down to a lack of knowledge of how we are now doing things – only those who have looked closely will appreciate quite the scale of the culture change – but also I do wonder if there is an element of nervousness around a newcomer looking to rip up the traditional norms and do it a different way.
Ultimately it comes down to players, recruitment and coaching, and the common logic – certainly in the Brady Chronicles – is that the only way to succeed in those three areas is to spend, spend, spend. Yet there are so many examples of this backfiring – Fulham being the most obvious.
Much was made of the quoted £20 million budget that may or may not have a semblance of truth, but would I prefer £20 million in the hands of Kieran Scott and Webber, or £100 million being spent by Fulham’s 2018 recruitment team? Who’s more likely to deliver value for money?
So, yes, we will be sneered upon; yes, we will be ridiculed; and yes, some will start penning our Premier League obituary before a ball has been kicked, but this promotion is different to so many others in the way it has been conceived.
We will be doing things differently, in part because we have no choice, and in part because the new values and ethos dictate that every pound in the City coffers will be made to work that little bit harder than those sloshing around the coffers of our competitors.
But if anyone thinks that means we’re preparing to fail, think again.
Love It Gary…bloody love it!
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Great article Gary and as for Karren’s article and their amazing stadium (which was the ‘con of the century’ in my book), the less said the better.
Of course we will be ‘doing it on the cheap’ – we have NO other option and I’m pretty certain that ‘little old Norwich’ will ‘bloody a few noses’ of some of the teams that finished below 10th in last season’s PL!!
Bring it on!!
Only just under 4 weeks until the fixture list is published!
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Yeah that Karren Brady article got to me too – in just the same way. We are not funded through the taxpayer and to the best of my knowledge Delia and Michael have never built their *modest* fortune on publishing soft-ish pornography. Cook books and Sainsbury Magazine maybe, but not Playbirds or whatever it is/was called.
Throw in a dose of Moose and you’re sure to get the picture just as Gary frames it.
I met Brazil (and John Wark of all people) when he ran the Blackadder in Ipswich. Pure banter and they came across as good guys. It doesn’t help when your mate goes straight up to them and says: “Hiya this is Martin, he’s a Budgie”. but I have to admit I enjoyed their company and my pint or two.
But Alan Brazil on the radio? I agree with Gary. He sure has the face for radio.
Let them sneer. They’ll be doing the same to Sheffield United as well, but maybe not to Villa or FLDC.
It is not what you know…….
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Agree. Totally. Especially the bit about the establishment being nervous if we successfully buck their trend and, as I fully expect, do rather more than survive. The commonly assumed model for EPL success will then look like a licence to chuck money down the drains of managers, agents and players!
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Brilliant write Sir, I am longing to hear the MOTD pundits laughing through their hands predicting our demise, until the day we cement our place for next season. Then it will be given with a grudgingly false tone, that we have stayed up at he expense of mmm well anyone.!
Villa or Frank’s County can have all eyes or even the English Manager of Managers
Who the hell cares…..I darn well don’t because We are Norwich City ..Championship Champions, we do the talking on the green stuff.
All together now, lift Arm, raise middle Finger to MSM
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Well said Sir
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Hi Gary
A very thoughtful article.
City will be there to be shot at all season with a possible few pundits giving good reviews when we have a win but the condemnation when we get a kicking will be way over the top.
Unless it has slipped me by I haven’t heard to much crap on Sheff U so far but now the info is coming out that the part owner borrowed money from that stand up Saudi family once of Yemen call Bin Laden I will be expect the brown stuff to hit the fan.
I read somewhere yesterday that the voting for Managet of the season may have lost a lot of the ballet papers as usually the league winners get the awards or maybe it was plainly he is better than Pep, Farke and some one in Liverpool.
Pundits are paid to talk rubbish and talk sport has more than its fair share of know it all’s Brazil and co like to keep in with blue nose supporters and another is Cundy really likes to rubbish Spurs and praise Chelsea he forgets they dumped him for a small amount when nearly broke and there supporters don’t even rste him.
KB switches clubs with her bosses like at the drop of a hat, What has she actually achieved in football, she keeps the club in headlines, doesn’t put any money in, gets rolled out for photo shoots are the public owned football ground and has a go at other clubs that try something she doesn’t understand, how she got a title I will never know must have been short on names to fill the list.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
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Once again Gary, the sound of a hammer hitting the nail squarely on the head.
We’ve been suffering this kind of attention since the days of the odious Frank McGhee. The similarity you draw between family and outsider and the difference in the way in which their comments are viewed is totally correct. Everyone inside the family is entitled to their,point of view because they care. The same cannot be said in regard to Brady or Winter.
He excellent writing and comment from all parts of the spectrum of City’s support on this site offer far more insight and knowledge than the gamut of lazy, unresearched drivel spouted by national pundits.
One of the worst aspects of promotion is that we will again have to listen to the nine, disinterested ramblings of that ignoramus Ian Wright, who can’t even be bothered to learn the names of the players he is supposedly giving an “expert” opinion on. Just recently whilst on radio with Chris Sutton amongst others discussing an interview with Stuart Webber, Wright was chided by his co presenters for “dozing off” and kick ing back with his feet on the desk as the conversation clearly bored him. How such cretinous behaviour can be allowed to flourish on the BBC shows how far the corporation has let its standards drop. Ask Wright about “wilf” and he will pontificate for hours,
Whether the figure of 20 million pounds is accurate, supposedly including wages as well, is a moot point. I would suggest that it would be virtually impossible to enter a premier league season with such an underspend, particularly in light of the competition rules surrounding minimum expenditure requirements for each club.
That City achieved the title “on the cheap” last season cannot be denied. As a body of work over a two season period, Webber and Farke have laid before us a compelling argument for trust in their decision making this summer.
I believe that this is the most interesting and fascinating time for supporters as there are clearly laid plans afoot. The fascinating part is just what Webber will do next and whT form recruitment will take. Instead of the mundane summer of 2019 we expected last August, once again faced with the prospect of losing the best players with seemingly nothing to look forward to, we are secure against the vultures with a squad full of appreciating assets and a silver pot in the cabinet. This summer will be as exciting a time for us as the real season.
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The national media has never “got” Norwich. It must be something to do with the perception that geographically it is miles away – it isn’t, of course, but living in London I drive the A11 a lot and it does feel endless! But the number of times over the years people have told me that they went to Norwich and were surprised how lovely it was/how nice the people were like it’s some kind of frontier outpost, it’s really no surprise that nationally no-one understands, or tries to.
They struggled enough when Leicester won the title, so I can’t wait for the reaction when we finish in the top 6 next season……
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End of the day we are not in the hand of billionaires ready to bank roll us whenever we want a new acquisition, so we cut our cloth accordingly. I have been constantly annoyed by the armchair pundits on Facebook posting about us – ‘yes you’ve come up but you’ll be straight back down again’ being the theme. Taking that sentiment, what is the point of promotion then? Why not just stay as a separate division so we don’t have fear of going straight back down again?
Simply put, the financial benefits out weight the concern. If we go back down then player wise we will be no worse off than we would have been if we had not gone up – some players want to move on, others we need to move on. Difference is around £120m in the bank meaning we don’t have to sell to survive for another year or two. Frankly I think that we should be prepared to yoyo for a few years – one year of money against another of promotion and the fun that comes from winning. Then we will be able to stabalise in the PL as we will have enough financial clout from the seasons we have spent up there. That is what West Brom did and while they were relegated they survived quite nicely for a number of years.
As for the professional pundits, I would say a) what do they know as accordingly to them every club promoted each year is expected to struggle/go down yet enough ‘big teams’ have fallen with underdogs replacing them, and b) why do we care? I know we don’t like to be dismissed and hear the same old stories but we prefer to be the underdog so let them underestimate us then at least the pressure is off.
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Karen Brady is of course entitled to her opinion, but equally so are we. I think I trust Stuart Webber’s view and judgement more than hers. His football knowledge and experience far outweigh hers. Next season and how well we fare may well depend on who we are able to keep, as well as who comes in from wherever and at what price. So far, despite all the rumours of big clubs being after some of our youngsters, I don’t see too many signs of any departures. I think Ben Godfrey has also gone on record as warning any incoming players that “it’s not all about you”, so whoever it is will have to buy in to the group ethos.
I’m looking forward to next season. COYY!!!
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Great stuff Gary.
Until the EFL apply suitable punishments to those who have no regard for FFP (see the Bournemouth example above) then the situation will not change.
A “fine” of only £4.75m is small change given the length of time they have now been in the Premier League.
Given the wealth of their owners, and similar owners/clubs in the Prem, it just makes what NCFC have done/are doing given the monies available even more remarkable.
O T B C
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Norwich fans appear to be sniffy about Bournemouth but that seems unreasonable. Yes they broke FFP rules to gain promotion but in the years since promotion they have made an overall profit (last season’s accounts have yet to be published but then again nor have ours!). Over 3 years Bournemouth have spent 65% of their turnover on wages whereas we have spent 75% of our turnover on wages. Yes it helps having the massive turnover but that is the fact of life regarding modern day football and it shows that having got to the PL they have lived within their means. FFP rules seem to be in place to keep the riff raff out. An equivalent would be to prevent anyone going to university unless they can pay their fees in cash. Very good at preventing social mobility. Bournemouth have a massive student loan but they are living within their 6 figure salary that the Evertons of the World have as their god given right and I applaud Bournemouth for doing that
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I’m very happy for City to be seen as prime relegation candidates and DF will be too.
I understand the rational, we all do.
Karen Brady may eat her words come next May we will have to wait and see.
We will be a breath of fresh air for sure and the club will represent our fine city across the premiership globe admirably.
Whatever happens won’t change anything, as fans we will follow our team whatever.
I predict a strong start to shut em all up.
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It is interesting to read the comment about experts on Norwich City. I chose to follow Gary Gowers and Richard Balls because as fans (of my age, who can write) THEY are the experts on Norwich City who are worth reading. Yes I do read Archant as well but with the exception of David Hannant they do tend to be people who follow Norwich for a job so I see them as informed outsiders, as an example Chris Lakey is a good read but his heart is clearly elsewhere. We do have links in the outside world with James Nursey at the Mirror and a few others who have passed through Archant during their careers. Keep up the good work
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The same experts on talk ipshit sorry I mean talk sport keep on about spurs not buying anybody for 3 transfer windows so will struggle unlike manure who have bought Pogba Sanchez and a host of others I can’t be bothered to think about, need I say more
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