Memo to self: Don't write anything about QPR in the Daily Express for a while.
In a column for that newspaper, I deplored the arrival of all that new money at Loftus Road and said the London outfit did not deserve their good fortune.
The article provoked a bigger response than anything I have had published in the last few years. Perhaps it was something to do with my calling them a shoddy, shabby little club.
Was my piece coloured at all by that miserable October night which proved to be Peter Grant's last match in charge of City? Of course.
Was it also provoked in part by a watching City play at QPR on Boxing Day 2000? Yep, it certainly was. Anyone who was there, at the away end, and can remember the failed attempts to provide any hot drinks will know what I am talking about.
But it was also a response to my years of close dealings with the club when I held various executive positions at the (London) Evening Standard and observed how badly run they were.
Anyway, somebody found my private email address and posted it on a QPR chat page. In the next couple of days, when they were not editing my Wikipedia entry and posting nasty reviews of my book on Amazon, QPR fans were emailing me and calling me the names of various body parts.
So I wasn't brave enough to point out that, the following week, I hit upon more evidence that QPR have been run atrociously. The proof came in the submissions for the FourFourTwo Football League Awards. I was on the judging panel for the best community initiative.
The League One and Two submissions were pretty good this year, and ranged from Wycombe's determined attempt to engage local Muslims to Brentford's use of a guy pretending to be a time-travelling detective to teach local history.
The 17 entries from the Championship were just as wide-ranging. QPR were not among them. They either had nothing worth submitting, or couldn't get their act together in time to enter. I suspect the former, because I picked up a copy of the Football League's club-by-club report on “improving the supporter experience”.
The QPR page was remarkable only because it reported so little and made two, horrible grammatical mistakes.
Some of the other Championship clubs set their bar depressingly low, and yet still failed to clear it. Crystal Palace, for example, reported that their aim for the 2006-07 season had been to respond to every email, letter or fax within 14 days. Big deal. Yet they admitted that 10 per cent of communications were not dealt with after 30 days.
Some of the Championship entries for the Awards were not very impressive either. Coventry allowed charities to sell tickets for two matches and keep a cut of the proceeds. And? No, that was it.
I hope I do not need to tell anyone that City's submissions for the Awards, and their page in the report, were radiant examples of what a club can and should do.
The Norwich entry for the Awards was “Street Life Soccer”, a scheme which provides recreation and education for people in hostels for the homeless. The judges were knocked out by the project, and noted that it helped refugees and asylum seekers, who are largely ignored by other clubs throughout the land.
Whenever I write about how good Norwich are at this sort of thing, some resolute miseries comment that they'd prefer the club to be better at football. Whenever I praise our board, I get a kicking on the Wrath of the Barclay for being a toadie.
So be it. But, because of my job and other aspects of my life, I have a detailed knowledge of how football clubs interact with their communities and time and time again I encounter proof that Norwich are among the very, very best.
Our club are simply outstanding at looking outward and playing an active and productive part in the lives of the city and the county.
It is something of which I, as a Norwich fan, am immensely proud.
It is something about which every Norwich fan should be proud.
It is something none of us should take for granted.
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I am worried about Glenn Roeder's assessment of players, because he thinks I might have been a reasonable footballer.
Glenn and his wife, Faith, were on the Express table at the Football Writers' Association tribute to David Beckham. While Mrs Dennis ogled DB, I picked GR's brain.
I mentioned that I'd played against him once ? in a Press XI against an FA staff team when he was part of Glenn Hoddle's England set-up ? and told him that he had beaten me with the famous Roeder shuffle. For younger readers who never saw Roeder play, the shuffle was a step-over, the sort of thing Cristiano Ronaldo now does less well.
Roeder said that I must have been a decent player, because bad players were too thick to buy his dummy.
Blimey. He must be a terrible judge. Unless he was just being nice, which, on reflection, is far more likely.
Much more importantly, I can report that Roeder is very decisive and has definite views about football and footballers. He has a clear vision of what is needed at Norwich and how it can be achieved.
Whatever impression you may have gathered from his pitch-side demeanour, or from what has been written about him during his managerial career, he is very impressive ? more so, I'd have to say, than many other City managers I have known or spoken to.
I was cheered and inspired by listening to him.
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The disappointment about the sale of Joe Lewis was because we all want local lads to flourish and thrive at City.
But, having seen him play a couple of times, I think it was good business to flog him for ?400,000.
According to Peterborough, the fee could rise to ?700,000 eventually, but that might be if he wins representative honours. In that case we should not bank on receiving the bonus payments.
As a lad, Lewis was so outlandishly tall that he seemed effective in goal, but as the years went by, to me at least, it became sadly apparent that he did not have much more to offer other than height.
As City fans, we were biased in his favour because he was born in Broome.
Similarly, there is a danger that we look especially kindly on Ryan Jarvis and Chris Martin.
It is a good thing that Glenn Roeder is not hampered by looking through the prism of that local bias as he does the stock taking.
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