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Miss what Mrs T is saying and you miss the point completely.

26th September 2007 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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Let's not do what's happening on the pitch. It was God-awful last Saturday; let's wait to see what this Saturday brings to work out just which way that wind is blowing.

Let's do what's happening off the pitch and the two, different lights in which the club's latest set of accounts were viewed.

'Bleak' was the word on many a lip and headline as the club's executive – those charged with the day-to-day business of making sure that there's enough cash in the bank to pay the players' wages every week – foresaw a very challenging future without that ?7 million-worth of Premiership parachute payments.

Cue much hand-wringing and finger-pointing as promotion to the Premiership looked more distant than ever. This club is only going one way, was the general gist.

And that would all be fine if it didn't ignore the biggest, single boardroom event to hit Norwich City Football Club for the last 11 years. And that is, of course, the arrival of Andrew and Sharon Turner as directors.

Mrs T was there at the accounts briefing and was happy to be quoted as saying that no, there would be no forced player sales; yes, her and her husband wouldn't rule out putting more money into the football club; yes, there were plans in place to make sure that predicted ?7 million shortfall would be covered.

I say she was 'happy' to be quoted. I presume that anyone with three radio microphones and a digital voice recorder under their nose is likely to be well aware that their thoughts and words are about to be either tramsitted or read to a wider audience of Norwich City supporters.

I wouldn't claim to know Mrs Turner from Adam. Or Eve, for that matter. A 90-minute interview with her and her husband around the time of their appointment, an interview on the day of their elevation to the board and a brief, 'How are you?' conversation at Peter Grant's Pre-Season Dinner thing, that's it.

If Sharon Turner was a book, I've read the 'Contents' page.

Which basically leaves me with little or no option but to judge her book by the cover.

But if only on that basis, she doesn't come across as an idiot. And her Norwich City support does appear to be very genuine – all the stuff about her first visit to Carrow Road ending up with a coin to the forehead and a trip to the St John's Ambulance station as some eight-year-old girl on the Barclay was pretty convincing.

Nor, given her hands-on role within the whole Central Trust set-up, is she any mug. You don't, I presume, get to preside over a potential ?1 billion turnover business come 2010 by being wholly daft. Or some delusional Taverham housewife.

And having, by all accounts, spent at least one day a week at Carrow Road since their appointment last May, will she be wholly unfamiliar with the set of accounts – and the ?7 million black holes therein – that was presented first to the Press on Monday and then to the shareholders on Tuesday?

She has worked in high and complicated finance all her adult life – and she's no bank cashier.

And, as we all know courtesy of the Sunday Times' infamous Rich List, her and her husband are worth some ?275 million. That, as they were swift to point out, is so much nonsense. They are only nominally worth that if they sell Central Trust – liquify their assets, is the phrase I believe.

Just as Sheffield United chairman Kevin McCabe's Scarborough Property Co valued him at ?240 million in The Sunday Times' eyes – right up to June this year when he 'went liquid' and sold out to some Australian outfit for ?850 million.

None of that's spin, conjecture – well, other than the fact that in my humble opinion she's not an idiot.

So when she says – and in the tones that she did – that there will be no forced player sales, there is a plan for the shortfall to be met, etc, etc… Then you probably need to take her at her word. Or else she's leading us all up a garden path.

But the simple fact is that the Turners can put their money where Sharon's mouth is.

Now, it might not be today; it might not be next week; it might not be next month. And clearly with the current credit crunch hitting the global money markets of late, perhaps this and that assumption behind Central Trust has to be tweaked this way and then that.

Perhaps, that adds a delay; perhaps it brings events forward. Who knows?

And if you're Andrew and Sharon Turner, if you are in for the long haul – not just for the short-term headlines – are you going to splash all your cash straight away? Or, as your business instincts tell you, are you going to keep a close and watching brief for the first six months? The first year?

See how every head of department – from the catering department to, crucially, the football department – performs before starting to make a more substantial investment over and above that initial ?2 million 'loan'? And, as Charlie Wyett pointed out at the time, who ever gets their money back on a 'loan' in football?

That ?2 million was a ticket to the ball; the price of an invite to the boardroom table.

And having got to the ball, are they going to dance? Having talked the talk, will they now walk the walk? Would you give all your cash to a manager you never appointed? Or would you see how he shapes up over the first-half of the season? And all whilst pledging that the money will be available for a substantial loan signing – you only have to ask. Give us a name.

And everything that Sharon Turner said this week points to the fact that they will walk the walk; put the pieces into place; work out who's who and what's what and then they'll move the club forward.

In the meantime – and this is where the difference in language and comment comes – the 'executive', the Doncasters and O'Hara's of this world, plan and predict on the basis of the Turners doing no more than investing that ?2 million.

Just as they never plan around the likely receipts from a fourth round FA Cup tie; your financial predictions only allows for one round of a cup competition. A strangely accurate prediction as events invariably prove.

Doncaster and O'Hara were talking in their down-beat and 'challenging' terms on the world today – and at that point, the outlook may indeed qualify as 'bleak'. They toe that line until the board – their employers – tell them differently. Right, boys, spin it up – we're now doing X, Y and Z…

Because there's the two sides to that debate – and there was Sharon Turner, giving the 'What might happen tomorrow…' line.

In fact, re-read her comments and there wasn't a 'might' to be seen. It was much more this will happen – and that won't happen. If you don't factor events of May, 2007, into your thinking you miss the point completely; miss just how much the landscape's changed.

If the Turners walk away, the future's bleak; they stay and off-the-field, the future is potentially anything but.

On the field, and there's a spot of work to do…


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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