• 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

Togetherness is an under-rated virtue. And it has to extend beyond the dressing room. Colin and Bernie need to get on…

26th July 2011 By Rick Waghorn 1 Comment

Please share

There gets a point in any summer when punters and ‘experts’ a-like start to run the rule over the runners and riders for the forthcoming Premiership Survival Derby.

Having spent much of my summer ensconced with someone of fair repute in this neck of the woods for reasons that might become apparent around the ‘What to get Dad for Christmas…’ time, we talked about it the other week.

It was also a common topic for conversation at Colney yesterday as one of City’s early Press conferences attracted the usual raft of curious Premiership Press types who had managed to spoof a decent day out on the Xs in a one-off visit to this place called Norfolk.

Anyway, the general consensus was that since the Canaries last tasted top flight football the landscape has changed significantly.

Back then, the argument – and, indeed, the reality – was that it was three from four to go down. It was a final day toss up as to which of the three promoted clubs made the cut. Or would yo-yo again in the manner of a West Bromwich Albion.

Now – as ‘Survival Sunday’ merely re-iterated – you could realistically point to eight or nine clubs for whom a trip to the second tier of English football could be a very real possibility. Getting promoted to the Premiership a la Norwich this summer doesn’t always come with a return ticket attached.

The interesting bit, however, is why this should be the case. And, to my mind, nine times out of ten it is as much about the basket cases that certain clubs become off the field as much as what happens on it.

On paper, managers and squads look decent enough to give it a go; in reality, it’s the poison and discord that seeps out of the boardroom that can fatally undermine a club’s hopes of avoiding the drop – despite the most fervent of hopes from both die-hard supporters and decent managers.

Both end up getting right royally shafted by persons beyond their influence or control.

I’ve spent an equal amount of my summer up on Tyneside where the love for the works of Mike Ashley continues to be in short supply.

Chrissie Hughton was widely deemed to be a decent man who had done a decent job pulling Newcastle back out of the fire of relegation at the first time of asking.

As Manchester City, Leeds, Charlton – and, indeed, Norwich – supporters know, get aboard certain runaway trains and the next stop is Yeovil (a); the fact that Hughton delivered the immediate return to the Premiership in the manner that he did was widely respected and appreciated in the Gallowgate.

Just not in the boardroom. Where Ashley, it appears, long-held other plans.

With United’s transfer policy leaning heavily towards relative unknowns of a French origin, it might need the surprise capture of a Peter Crouch to convince the Toon faithful that Ashley has a plan to avoid a repeat trip to what lies beneath.

The other club where the hopes of both supporters and managers alike appear to counting for diddly squat in the boardroom is at QPR.

How representative this blog piece in The Guardian is of the Rs faithful is up for debate; those that comment invariably have an axe to grind.

The fact that Kyle Naughton was whipped out of Neil Warnock’s hands and delivered unto those of Paul Lambert probably said something; as does the signature of Kieron Dyer.

Unless the one-time Ipswich boy-wonder has had a total medical transformation over the summer and is a player re-born, he wouldn’t be one to pin your survival hopes on. Jay Bothroyd, likewise, can blow very hot and cold.

That there is a player there is not in doubt; it’s just getting him to show on a consistent basis that has always been the challenge.

More alarming, however, is the clear divide and disconnect that exists between the long-suffering Rs supporters and the club’s owners, the F1 pairing of Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore.

Even from a distance you sense there is little love lost between the two parties; with Warnock – in every likelihood – likely to feel more empathy with the supporters than his employers.

Warnock knows what he is doing. He’s a decent manager. Whether he will be given a chance to prove that point or will suffer a similar fate to the luckless Hughton on Tyneside is, right now, a moot point.

The contrast between both clubs and the situation at Norwich could not be more stark. The club’s owners – Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones – have been to near-hell and back as events plummeted the club into League One.

But they have hung in there, struck gold in terms of boardroom and dressing room appointments and can now look forward to a summer of love in Norfolk as top flight football returns to Carrow Road.

And all at a price that those 22,000 season ticket holders appear more than willing to stomach.

It’s why – even before a ball is kicked in anger this season – I’d fancy Norwich to more than last the course.

Togetherness is a wholly under-rated virtue and it is all too easy to forget that such unity has to extend to the relationship between owners and supporters for clubs to really work.

The other club that was thrown into conversation as more than ripe for the drop this summer was Blackburn Rovers. They, it appears, are also worthy of further investigation…


Please share

Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Pete Chambers says

    26th July 2011 at 9:18 pm

    great article Rick. agree that togetherness will count for far, far more than X millions. the key, as it’s always been, is to keep lambert happy in this neck of the woods.

    Reply

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

footiespr5687 S.P.R sports stats (Simon) @footiespr5687 ·
29m

Norwich City Vs Burnley FC

Norwich City have won 1 of last 10 at Carrow Road and host a Clarets side 17 points ahead of 3rd place Middlesbrough and on the verge of a swift return to top flight

Prediction = 1-2
@NorwichCityFC @BurnleyOfficial #NCFC #burnleyfc

Reply on Twitter 1621655855027425283 Retweet on Twitter 1621655855027425283 Like on Twitter 1621655855027425283 Twitter 1621655855027425283
jgraver7 James @jgraver7 ·
46m

Nice to see Núñez on here. Still has something different to offer for us from our other options and should get a lot of minutes in the run in. #ncfc

Reply on Twitter 1621651717077991427 Retweet on Twitter 1621651717077991427 Like on Twitter 1621651717077991427 1 Twitter 1621651717077991427
stonesey88 Chris Stones @stonesey88 ·
50m

Even though all we do is take the piss out of each other on a daily basis I just wanna take the chance to wish @JStewart_15 the best tommorow on the tampa bay challenge! If your there support him! The lad deserves the holiday! #ncfc

Reply on Twitter 1621650585387687940 Retweet on Twitter 1621650585387687940 Like on Twitter 1621650585387687940 Twitter 1621650585387687940
huckerbysbarber Huckerbysbarber @huckerbysbarber ·
1h

Love this!! -28 with the windchill this end so you ain’t missing anything. #ncfc enjoy the game @TorontoCanaries

Reply on Twitter 1621647602956615681 Retweet on Twitter 1621647602956615681 Like on Twitter 1621647602956615681 Twitter 1621647602956615681
gldavey73 gary davey @gldavey73 ·
1h

Best night in our history? #NCFC @NorwichCityFC

Reply on Twitter 1621645767545966592 Retweet on Twitter 1621645767545966592 Like on Twitter 1621645767545966592 Twitter 1621645767545966592
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