Stan has to admit it: he's feeling optimistic.
Try as he might not to get his expectations up, to keep Norwich's immediate future in the context of the debacle that has been our recent past, Stan's looking forward to Saturday with both hope and belief.
Not surprisingly, such feelings were bolstered by City's victory over Wigan. But they were encroaching before then.
Stan gets a sense that things are beginning to change at Carrow Road, from the boardroom level all the way down.
Let's start with the win against Wigan.
The significance of this should not be overstated; it was a friendly after all.
However, if compared to the past two seasons' equivalent fixtures then it must surely provide us with some positives.
Two years ago, Peter Grant's team played West Ham. We were made to look very poor in the first-half, wherein the gulf between the two sides was plain for all to see.
In the second-half we gave them a bit of a game; scored a goal (Chris Brown) – but Stan left the match thinking that the season would be more one of consolidating our place in the Championship than challenging for promotion.
The parachute money had gone; Grant's new acquisitions looked average at best; we still needed a new defence.
True, Stan did not think things would unravel as fast as they did, but the game revealed our limitations.
A year later, and Glenn Roeder promised us new heroes.
To this end, a new breed duly stepped out against a Spurs team that was to find itself bottom of the Premiership within a few weeks.
There was no Hucks, no Dion and no holding centre-forward. But there were some young up-and-coming Premier star-lets; a couple of crocks returning back from injury; tricky Wes and classy Clinghan. The result?
We were well and truly hammered.
It could have been double-figures. The gulf had widened; we were defensively inept and lacked any kind of edge going forward. For long periods of the game we barely touched the ball.
As we now know, Roeder was on his way to blowing over ?8 million quid's worth of playing budget on a squad so lightweight that it weighed less than the half-time snack consumed by our fat, new fitness coach. Stan left that game embarrassed and very worried.
Still, he hoped that key signings would be unveiled in due course, that the loanees would gel, and that some of them would even want to come here full-time. Stan waited in vain.
And so the game against Wigan was a relief in more ways than one.
For a start, City are going to begin a season with a full squad for the first time since … 2002?
Even the promotion winning team of 2004 started the season in a heap.
As such, well done Gunny and the boys for getting the pieces in place. And dare Stan wonder if Doncaster's departure has been a further help to this process?
That maybe unfair, but Stan salutes McNally for facilitating the transfer merry-go-round so deftly; and if he raises over ?500,000 for Rusty then the man's got a Midas touch.
Secondly, the type of player targeted (and got) by Gunn makes perfect sense in the context of Division Three.
They also look the part.
He has bought men rather than boys; he has bought players who look physically up to the challenge; he has bought players with promotions and captaincies behind them.
Gunn has also kept the balance of his squad – there really is competition for all positions. More to the point, players like Holt, Hughes and Tudor-Jones have quality; the likes of Nelson and Gill are hardened campaigners with leadership qualities; Maric and Askou are big men with points to prove and careers to salvage.
Now, of course, the question is whether the squad gels.
At long last, we have a team with the physical capacity and maturity to win more than they lose. The real test will be when backs are up against wall and the players have to fight for eachother.
As it is, Stan thinks Gunn should receive full plaudits for how he has prepared City for their venture into the unknown.
In contrast to the pessimism that oozed from the EDP's fan page, Stan is going to hold his head high and keep the faith.
Up the Gunner, good on you Delia, and On The Ball, City …
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