• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Football Writer

My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis

Norwich City – news, comment and analysis

Find the best betting sites
  • Home
  • About us
  • The Team
  • Archives Index
  • Patreon
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contact us

We’ve little option but to all stick together on this. Otherwise we are doomed…

17th November 2008 By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment

Please share

OK, Stan's going to come clean here – he hasn't managed England.

In fact all he's managed, football-wise, is a scratch seven-a-side team (unbeaten in ten!), so, in light of recent events he's not sure he is justified in procuring an opinion, but he's going to anyway.

Even by our own dire standards it's been a 'weekus horribilus'. An eight days in which we have picked up one pathetic point, conceded five goals, had our captain sent off, seen two senior pro's air discontent, oh yes, and stumble through the AGM?. It's been a joy hasn't it?

So first to the AGM. Stan attended and for what it's worth he didn't witness the 'shambles' that seems to have become message-board legend. He saw a tired, and exhausted-looking board trying once more to rally the not unreasonably downbeat shareholders present.

As the business was conducted around him Wynn Jones had the look of John McCain in his final week of his election campaign. He looked sallow and withdrawn and in need of some time away from the rigours of his calling.

It's clear that he and Delia need help from above, or failing that from Keith Harris, to extricate themselves from the hole they and the club are now in.

You sensed Wynn Jones was just relieved to make it through the evening without Foulger, to his left, standing up and declaring 'this sucker could go down'. What the poor fellow most certainly didn't need was for Roeder to start antagonising the locals.

Unfortunately this is precisely what he did and was rightly taken to task by both shareholders and Munby for his unnecessarily sarcastic manner.

After this the meeting trundled along with a more humble, if still rather waffley Roeder answering questions as honestly as he could, whilst the board steered the proceedings praying that Roeder wasn't about to become the Sarah Palin of the proceedings once more.

As Stan made his way out into the dank November evening two primary thoughts were running through his mind.

Firstly, a foreboding at where football and subsequently our own club is heading, and secondly a belief that Roeder is going to have show a great deal more respect and humility at times – because he will need all the friends that he can get in the weeks, months maybe even years ahead.

If, immediately after the AGM, anyone was in doubt about just how long and painful this season was going to be they only needed to wait a few days until just gone 4pm on Saturday afternoon. A shocked, baffled and angry Carrow Road watched in disbelief as we fell to pieces in a way that is hard to express in the written word.

Despite never giving up running, or attempting to pick the right pass, we were totally humiliated. The team was over-run and Roeder was out-manoeuvred. It was an embarrassment.

As we chased shadows for those ten minutes either side of half-time, a crushing foreboding of what lays ahead in the months to come swept over Stan like the first wave of a dose of the flu. He genuinely felt sick to the core of his stomach.

We are unable to beat big, physical, well-organised sides; we are unable to out-play sides that try to 'play football'; we are woeful on the road and a soft touch at home. We are physically and mentally weak. Where were the big voices and strong hearts out there when, as has happened so often before, things started to unravel?

 
Captain Fotheringham disappeared without trace. Marshall's decision making went to pieces. Both full-backs were over-run and Cureton looked like a shadow of the Golden Boot winner of two years ago.

Pattison's endeavour and Doc's burst down the wing like a startled moose, showed that some had fight in them, but by then the damage was done.

At the AGM, Roeder didn't duck difficult questions and readily accepted that he carries the can for what happens on the pitch, and for this reason Stan is not ready to turn on the man when he is down.

Stan just hopes that he is sometimes willing to listen to those he deems beneath him in in the footballing hierarchy without scorn. Because, surprising as it may be, even Stan has picked up the odd little gem to impart about what does and what doesn't succeed in the Championship.

Stan, like Wynn Jones, is weary and looking for a way out of the hole we are in. In the long and the short term it's not easy to see how it will be achieved, but the one inescapable is that we are all in this mess together and once more, as it was this time last year, the only way out of this situation is as one.

Let's face it, we have no other choice…


Please share

Filed Under: Column, Stanley

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

FIND MY FOOTBALL WRITER ON

As featured on NewsNow: Norwich City news” style=

Norwich City News 24/7

#NCFC LATEST

ryanpearce5 Ryan Pearce @ryanpearce5 ·
3 Apr

If usual tricks = being kicked in the penalty area and not getting a penalty then yeah 😂 #ncfc

Reply on Twitter 1642899144267243522 Retweet on Twitter 1642899144267243522 Like on Twitter 1642899144267243522 1 Twitter 1642899144267243522
norwichcityes Norwich City FC en español @norwichcityes ·
3 Apr

Partidazo el que nos espera este viernes 🔥🔥🔥.

Vamos con todo por esos tres puntos #NCFC 💛💚

Reply on Twitter 1642897241835798529 Retweet on Twitter 1642897241835798529 Like on Twitter 1642897241835798529 2 Twitter 1642897241835798529
fan_banter Fan Banter @fan_banter ·
3 Apr

Boreham Wood mocked over bizarre announcement parting with stadium caterers - https://fanbanter.co.uk/boreham-wood-mocked-over-bizarre-announcement-parting-with-stadium-caterers/

#watfordfc #ncfc #twitterclarets #safc #rufc #wafc #bcfc #rovers #utmp #bristolcity #ccfc #pusb #htafc #hcafc #coyh #boro #millwall #qpr #readingfc #twitterblades #scfc #sufc

Reply on Twitter 1642893716791894019 Retweet on Twitter 1642893716791894019 Like on Twitter 1642893716791894019 Twitter 1642893716791894019
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
3 Apr

🤝 Connection with the club
📈 Growth of women's team
🏟 Carrow Road fixture

@NorwichCityWFC general manager Flo Allen answers your questions in the latest episode of 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 ⬇️

#NCFC

Reply on Twitter 1642889121868783616 Retweet on Twitter 1642889121868783616 2 Like on Twitter 1642889121868783616 18 Twitter 1642889121868783616
norwichcityacad Norwich City Academy @norwichcityacad ·
3 Apr

🏟️ The Under-21s make their return to Carrow Road later this month in a #PL2 clash against Southampton 👊

Secure your FREE ticket for our final game of the 2022/23 campaign ⬇️

#NCFC

Reply on Twitter 1642886378743537666 Retweet on Twitter 1642886378743537666 Like on Twitter 1642886378743537666 1 Twitter 1642886378743537666
Load More...

Copyright © 2023 21VC Ltd | All rights reserved | Not to be reproduced without prior permission.

Disclaimer: The information on this website consists of personal opinions. Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained on these Web pages is accurate and correct at the time of writing we do not accept any liability whatsover for any loss or damage caused by reliance on this information.

We do not accept any responsibility for information contained in other websites to which this site links. We strongly advise users to check any information before acting or relying on it.

Developed and Hosted by