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Football is a business like no other; so put one of football’s own on the board.

6th May 2009 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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Given the heated temper of the times, it would seem a mite unfair to let Messrs Baldwin and Dennis be the only ones to stick their heads above the parapet at what – clearly – is a huge moment in Norwich City's history.

Crossroads time as 201 pigeons come home to roost and duly dump everyone in the proverbial.

For now, the similar fate that has befallen both Charlton and Southampton this season can remain someone else's problem.

Though it is interesting to see the number of Addicks fans finding their way onto Mick's piece; there is something bigger going on; it is more than a coincidence that three such clubs should find themselves plunging headlong over the edge as the Blackpools and the Doncasters (the club, not the hard-pressed chief executive…) cling to their Championship status with relative comfort.

All three clubs have embarked on re-building schemes on a grand scale; all three do many things very right in the community; all three, however, deserve to be in League One next season for their shambolic efforts on the field of play.

They had 46 games to make those extra dining facilities count. And failed.

In Southampton's case the failure is monumental given that they had a benefit all-too long denied Norwich; an Academy system that actually found something to sell – to have got shot of your Walcotts, Bales and Jones' for big bucks and still found yourself in administration is some achievement.

Minus that kind of in-coming transfer cash, much has been made of late of the way that Norwich failed to take advantage of those two years worth of Premiership parachute payments; that's when they blew it.

And yet the 2008-2009 playing budget was still ?8.5 million. More than enough to keep you in this division.

If you know what you're doing…

Which is where the rub sits today as the Canary board prepare for the meeting of their lives.

Because that's where the breakdown has come – faith in the board actually getting it right on the pitch. Where it matters.

Kevin made an excellent point in that few, if anyone, doubts that the board and the executive went into every decision with the best of intentions; diligence done; character analysis completed.

And, yet, when it comes to the two key decisions of the last three years, they got it wrong.

Neither Peter Grant nor Glenn Roeder lived up to their expectations. Both were granted more than enough cash to keep this club in this division; Birmingham City spent ?22 million in players' wages getting out of it – by the skin of their teeth and on the final day of the season.

But an ?8.5 million player budget keeps you in it. Or should.

Likewise, I agree. He suspects that the board just got unlucky. They are not a 'lucky' board. But if you get unlucky more often than not, then it tends to be more than coincidence.

And whilst the majority of supporters still have a kernel faith in the people that run their club, they need – presentationally, if for no reason else – to see that something has changed this summer. That a lesson has been learned.

Which is the tricky part.

Because a fundamental change at the top only follows a change of ownership. As much as all concerned stress that the club belongs to its fans, it doesn't.

It belongs to Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones. And the banks and the lenders of that securitisation loan.

Toying with either will cost big, big bucks that – in theory – only the Cullums of this world can offer. And given the way that his own business is going through the credit crunch mincer, he ain't coming out to play.

So any immediate answer to the questions that surround the board of Norwich City Football Club have to keep Delia and Michael's majority shareholding somewhere in the mix. And that's where Mick made a decent point – that if football's 'Mr Fixit' Keith Harris can find “nobody” out there to take on ownership of a provincial League One football club you're pretty much going to have to stick with what you've got.

Cos there ain't no alternative. Just as Rupert Lowe at Southampton and Richard Murray at Charlton will know all-too well; in this climate, provincial football clubs don't sell well. They barely sell at all when you're in the third tier of English football and still heading south… far better to plump for a MK Dons or a Peterborough and take them north.

So, for now, a change of ownership looks remote.

The trick – if there is one – might be to tinker round the edges of the boardroom and give people a fresh voice to listen to. Beef it up; a five-man board is too small.

But I have one, small sticking point here. Prominent and “successful” businessman all like to think football is like any other business; that if they have a proven track record in one, they will, by default, prove adept at managing the other.

Which, frankly, is bollo*ks.

It is The Great Delusion that stalks football; that has Mike Ashley thinking he can make another killing out of 'brand' Newcastle United – as opposed to seeing the Mike Ashley 'brand' be killed by his involvement at St James' Park.

There is no business logic that applies to Mark Viduka; just as no business logic honed running the family book business will get you insde the head of Elliot Omosuzi. Or Chrissy Martin. Or Ryan Jarvis.

Business people, by and large, don't get 'football' people.

Football people get football people.

Which is why – as we all desperately start to scrabble around in the hope of someone, somewhere, finding some middle ground in amongst all the anger and accusation – I'd be tempted to slap a 'football' person onto the board; more than I would someone with a ?500,000 cheque. One that, before you know it, is getting thrown out of Mercy on a Saturday night.

Who that person is, who knows? For me, appoint a 'grandee' and you negate the possibility that the manager would see him as a threat; if he was of a certain vintage and standing, then it would be obvious that his days in the trenches were gone. Even if he could still go forward and talk at ease with the troops.

He had his medals; that would be enough. And he'd still have enough contacts in the game to add to the due diligence process on future players and managers.

There are a few that I could think of; one, obvious one was living in Ludham. Dave Stringer might be another.

Or else, someone that would be happy enough to oversee from a distance; someone who would take a meal at Delia's Brasserie once a month in return for listening in at the board table. Craig Brown? Alan Hansen? Both have done the Delia dinner party rounds.

As much as anything, Norwich are where they are for footballing reasons; not financial. ?8.5 million is more than enough to keep you up – if you get the footballing questions right.

Get them horribly wrong and you're in League One. Charlton are in League One because someone, somewhere, sanctioned giving Luke Varney – fresh from Crewe – a four-year contract on ?17,000 per week. With hindsight, perhaps that needed to be checked and balanced by a second 'footballing' source; more questions asked of a player with just one, decent season in League One under his belt.

Which is why – to my mind – you need to bolt someone onto the board who can keep said balance and check on the footballing side of the business, not the business side of the business. That's not the rocket science – it's the business of football that is.

And that's where Norwich need a fresh pair of hands. Upstairs. Where the big, footballing decisions are made.


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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