Throughout our growing travails this season there has been a certain tendency from those who feel qualified and able to comment publicly upon affairs within our national game to occasionally chime in and put us all in our collective place.
These asides – made as a sabbatical from their normal diet of all things Mourinho, Arsenal and the latest goings on at The Etihad – have unsurprisingly, drawn a mixture of anger and disbelief from the vast majority of Norwich City supporters.
Danny Mills set the bitter cat amongst the Canaries a few weeks ago whilst Adrian Durham – unfeasibly and yet very obviously a hired loudmouth for TalkSport – has vented his spleen at all things yellow and green all season from the safety of his London office. Many of his arguments are so bitter and personal that you have to suspect the only reason for them is the green eyed monster of envy that sits, muttering into his ear, from amongst the various chips that adorn his shoulder.
Fortunately for us, although their cries are shrill and strident they can, as can those of the mosquito, eventually go unheard and disregarded as the mostly inconsequential nuisance value that they undoubtedly are.
Bitter and uninformed comments and nit picking I can take. I don’t like it but, very much like an overripe Soufflé, they are there, inflated and full of air-and then, with a tiny prick, are gone again. And we move on.
Except that we now seem to be the victims of a new kind of comment; a new approach and appraisal from those ‘in the know’ as they honour us with a wry observation or two before getting back to the job in hand – whatever that is.
That of putting us in our place. Slapping us down. Observing the lot of Norwich City supporters from afar and deciding that we not only don’t deserve what we have got but should, in addition, be forelock tappingly grateful for it to have ever visited us in the first place.
You may well have seen some of the comments that have gushed forth over the last few days yourself.
“Norwich have the same number of points as Swansea and no-one is tipping them to go down, what are they making so much fuss about?”
“Norwich fans are getting above themselves, listening to them you’d think they reckon they should be in the top six or something”
“They’re a small club that will always struggle in the Premier League, their expectations are totally unrealistic”
“Those Norwich fans that are always complaining should be grateful for what they’ve got”
And so on and so on and so on.
It brings to mind a sketch from one of Harry Enfield’s shows on the BBC few years ago. It’s set in the 1930s and depicts, in period black and white, a group of dinner jacketed men, accompanied by their wives, sat around the dining table discussing the important affairs of the day. Or at least, the men are. It’s called Look, Listen & Take Heed.
I can see the women in the sketch being replaced by Norwich City supporters with the three men all representing either pundits or tired old ex-pros with a mistress to support. The dialogue would go something like this:
Match of the Day. A TV programme about foot-ball that we all enjoy. The pundits are sat astride the sofa engaging in witty banter. And look at the Norwich City supporters. Aren’t they pretty in their yellow and green? Look at the way they sing On The Ball City. They’re delightful. But now the conversation turns to more serious matters.
“I wonder if Chelsea will win the Premier League this season?”
“I think they will. Jose Mourinho has turned them into a very organised side that don’t lose many games. And their big number nine is a good player. I don’t think Manchester City will catch them whilst Arsenal are just too inconsistent”
“Good. Then we’re all agreed. Chelsea will win the Premier League”
But oh dear. What’s this? One of the Norwich City supporters is about to embarrass us all.
“I’d just like to say that I think Chris Hughton should employ a more positive and adventurous attacking game from Norwich City. One that considerably up’s our chances of scoring goals and making chances, and, in turn, gives us the wins and points that could, feasibly, help push the club towards a not unrealistic place in Premier League mid-table.”
The Norwich City supporter has foolishly attempted to join the conversation with a wild and dangerous opinion about the merits and form of his club and their chances of staying in the Premier League. What utter drivel. See how Danny Mills looks at him with utter contempt.
“Norwich City: you’re going down.”
Norwich City supporters-know your limits.
Now let’s see the proper way.
“Good. Then we’re all agreed. Chelsea will win the Premier League.”
“Oh. We wouldn’t know anything about wanting to do well or prospering in the Premier League I’m afraid. But I do love Delia Smith, Chrissie Hughton and fluffy yellow little Canaries.”
Norwich City supporters. Know your limits. In attitude be devoid of ambition and hope. And let your simple Norfolk character shine through.
Because that’s about it, isn’t it? We really aren’t expected to want or expect much else other than a place at the foot of the Premier League table, gathering crumbs and being grateful for being there in the first place.
For people with little or no connection with Norwich City, much less any knowledge about the club or its history, these repeated utterances of how we should be ‘grateful for what you’ve got’ and be willing to accept nothing other than a long and morale sapping battle against relegation every season comes across as somewhat patronising to say the least.
Are clubs such as ourselves expected to be completely devoid of ambition and, more to the point, are we, the supporters, meant to accept our grim lot as, at best, just making up the numbers?
I touched on this in a piece I wrote for this over a year ago – so nothing has changed. How little old Norwich were everyone’s favourite, favourite that is, providing that we conformed to type, that we entertained, were colourful, friendly, a little naive and able to live up to our simple country ways. The opposition came, they saw, they got three points at Carrow Road. Good old Norwich, lovely day out, Delia’s lovely, Chris Hughton’s lovely, the Morrisons near the ground is ever so convenient. We’re like a footballing Centre Parcs. If we were a person from history we’d be the late Queen Mother.
And we’re meant to sit in our cages and accept that rather than rattle them a little when we think we could, we should, be doing better than we are at the moment?
And when we doth protest it’s said that we doth protest too much?
I don’t agree.
Football is, of course, purely and utterly subjective. This means that, when someone offers an opinion on something relating to the game – a team, a player, a manager or any given situation or issue – it is, more often than not, something which is neither right or wrong but, rather, their own views on that situation.
So this is mine: I’m not saying it’s the right one, the majority one or the most sensible and realistic one. But it’s what I’ve got and I’ll stand by it, despite those who would cast me and my fellow Norwich supporters down for daring to expect, no, demand more from our club and players.
We are underachieving at the moment.
We have, perhaps, with the exception of the one which Dave Stringer put together that peaked in the 1988/89 season, as good, capable and skilful a squad of players as we have enjoyed in the club’s history.
Remember that season? Fourth place in the First Division plus an appearance in the FA Cup semi-final. Players of the calibre of Mark Bowen, Ian Butterworth, Ian Crook, Ian Culverhouse, Robert Fleck, Dale Gordon, Bryan Gunn, Andy Linighan, Mike Phelan and Andy Townsend, all operating at pretty much the peak of their footballing powers?
(And here’s a question, how many of that ten, were they playing and available at that standard today, do you think would merit a regular starting place in our next game?)
It was a season with many high spots. We were top of the table for three months – indeed, had it not been for a poor late run of league games that saw just two wins in our last ten matches, we might, have come very close to winning the damned thing. We were even being offered good odds on doing a League and Cup double right up to mid-April.
Remember losing at home to non-league Luton Town last season? We had a similar tie back then. Home to Sutton United, conquerors of our top flight peers Coventry City in the last round; they of future Canary David Phillips plus Cyrille Regis, David Speedie and Steve Ogrizovic. Awkward? Hardly. We beat them 8-0 and it could have been double that.
And our away record in the league that season? How about this. In our first eleven league games played away from Carrow Road that season, we won eight of them, drew two and lost just the one. I remember being at the game at QPR, one which we looked set to win, via the craziest of multi-deflected goals from Alan Taylor until, damn the man to hell, Mark Falco equalised near the death meaning we remained in second place in the table with 38 points. Yep, it was 2 January 1989, we were second in the table, had 38 points and away wins to boast at, amongst others, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Manchester United.
And my response that late draw and those terrible consequences was to do what? Throw my programme to the floor in disgust and stalk out and away from West London loudly vowing that I was never going to waste another day on the useless so-and-so’s.
Times change!
But has football changed that much?
I’ve worked in corporate environments where one of the favourite buzz phrases was “no question is a stupid question”. But maybe an exception has to be made for anyone asking if football has changed much in the last quarter of a century or so?
The game, of course, hasn’t changed much at all. Teams can now name seven substitutes rather than two whilst there have been other shifts in the way it is played – banning a goalkeeper from picking up a backpass for example. However, in reality, the game itself has not changed that much. The basic premise is still eleven vs eleven on the pitch with the aim of getting more goals than your opponent. Was, is, will forever be.
Ah, but people will argue back. The game is so much quicker now and the players so much fitter.
Well I’d have to contest that one. Let’s start with the latter, that today’s players are fitter than their peers from 25 years ago.
Really?
During the 1988/89 season, in a campaign that, for Norwich, lasted for 38 league games plus an extra nine in the two cup competitions, Dave Stringer called on a total of just 18 different players, eight of which started more than 30 league games.
Chris Hughton can use fourteen different players in just one game now for goodness sake! And, up to and including Saturday’s game at Southampton, he had used a total of 27 different players for the 35 league and cup games played, at the time of writing, this season. One of the reasons we’ve used so many of course has been the number of injuries to key players throughout the season – we’ve missed, or are missing, for assorted lengths of time this campaign the likes of Elliott Bennett, Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Michael Turner, Johnny Howson, Leroy Fer, Anthony Pilkington, Jonas Gutierrez and Alex Tettey. Significant losses – you can be sure that, had Stringers 88/89 side missed their equivalents for such a long period of time and matches, there is probably no way they would have had the season they had.
But they didn’t. Is that because the players back then were less fit? Or, critically, less susceptible to injury. And, if, so then why?
Admittedly it’s not core and absolute evidence that the players back then were fitter, stronger, less susceptible to injury. But it’s fairly compelling stuff none the less.
You could go onto to compare lots of other perceived ways in which today’s game compares with that of Stringer’s time as manager.
It’s quicker now for example, more pace. No, don’t accept that either. Look at players like Des Walker, Chris Waddle, Lee Sharpe, Danny Wallace, Tony Cottee and John Barnes – pace in abundance bar none. In Dale Gordon we weren’t particularly short of it either. Plus there was Darren Eadie to come.
OK, so how about pressure and expectation? It is so much greater now, on both clubs and individuals, than it ever was at the end of the 1980s.
Again, an argument that can’t be proved conclusively. The pressure and expectation on Tottenham Hotspur to deliver was so acute that they broke their transfer record twice in a month in bringing in new players at the start of the season. Manchester United broke their own club record, Everton broke the UK transfer record only for Liverpool to break it again shortly afterwards. “Buying” a league title isn’t a recent footballing phenomenon. It didn’t all start with Chelsea and Roman Abramovich.
If all that was to happen in the opening few weeks of next season, as it all did in the opening ones of that 1988/89 campaign, the redtops would be falling over themselves in excitement with pie charts, graphs and sensational headlines celebrating just how much money had been spent and how the managers of those clubs would be expected to deliver silverware – or else.
So not much has changed there either.
Of course, now we have touched on the delicate matter of money, the very obvious and most quoted difference in the game, not that ancient and modern, comes into play. The fact there is so much money in the game now and that it is, rapidly and with no end in sight, causing the gap between the haves and the have-nots to widen so much that it would now be considered impossible for a club like Norwich to even have a hope of qualifying for the Champions League, never mind, as we surely did in 1989, have a chance of winning the league title.
Really?
Because I think that gap has always been there. Right from the beginnings of the game, then, as now, created and perpetuated because of the vast disparity in footballs finances and relative incomes.
People point to the fact that the last ten Premier League titles have been won by one of just four different clubs.
Yet how about the last ten years of the old Football League Championship, played from 1983 to 1992? Yep, just four different winners in that decade as well. And guess what? In the first ten years of that Football League Championship, played between 1893 and 1902, there were also only four different winners of the title.
So there have always been the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, the perceived elite and the rest. The football world was shaken to its core in 1905 when Sunderland paid Middlesbrough £1,000 for Alf Common. Questions were asked in Parliament and people were, genuinely, worried, that football had sold its soul to money.
Much as people did when Tottenham lured £85million out of Real Madrid for Gareth Bale.
But the game survived in 1905 and it will today. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In every aspect of the game that we love. It’s all relative.
Which is why I don’t think it is unreasonable for us, as Norwich City supporters, to expect a little more from our team, this and every season. Because, whilst what we are up against is as near to insurmountable a challenge as it could ever be, it’s no different to the one faced by The Wednesday back in 1903. They only turned professional in 1887 after most of their players threatened to leave for other clubs. In 1890 they finished bottom of the Alliance League, then the equivalent to the Conference today. Less than ten years later, they were kicked out of their ground because the local railway wanted to construct a new track right through it. As a consequence, they nearly went out of business. Homeless, player less and as good as hopeless.
Yet in 1903 they won the Football League title. And then, to prove it wasn’t a fluke, they did it all over again the following season, breaking the monopoly that Sunderland and Aston Villa, winners of eight of the first ten league titles between them had on the game.
So, for Sunderland and Aston Villa then, read Manchester United and Chelsea now?
And for The Wednesday then, read Norwich City now?
Or any one of around fifteen or so Premier League clubs, most of which start each and every season with the prime and exclusive goal of securing enough points via a tense, torrid and difficult season that will see runs of defeats, the occasional thrashing, and, more often than not supporter discontent and talk of lost dressing rooms. All painfully witnessed and experienced, briefly celebrated, just so they can start the following season with the prime and exclusive goal of securing enough points via a tense, torrid and difficult season that will see runs of defeats, the occasional thrashing, and, more often than supporter discontent and talk of lost dressing rooms all over again – and again and again and again.
Surely, as in life, you have to set your sets higher and hope, yearn, feel the urge and drive to achieve more?
One of my favourite quotes comes from the famous twentieth century artist Maurits Escher in which he states that, “Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.”
It resonates well with me when I consider the challenges that Norwich City will inevitably face in each and every season that we are a Premier League club. Because, by attempting to survive and prosper in what seem to be impossible odds we are, by that very act, achieving the near impossible ourselves in surviving to give it another go the following season.
And, despite all of that, despite the fact that this season has been, for me, as uncomfortable and un-enjoyable a one as I can ever remember (one that, sadly now seems to be marked by conflict between supporters of the same club), I fervently still hope that we will be there to do it all again from next August.
But when we ask, as we have been this season, for more than scratching a living, are we, as the fans of other clubs and pundits alike seem to suggest, being unreasonable? Should we be content, should we accept that is the very limit of our ambitions and that to yearn for more is not only unreasonable and unrealistic but is also farming out responsibilities and pressures to our manager and coaching staff that, with the best will in the world, is likely beyond the clubs capabilities?
Perceived wisdom suggests that yes, this season and seasons like it are our lot and we should sit back, shut up and enjoy the ride.
Yet evidence from the past further suggests that this need not be the perceived wisdom and there is no reason at all to think that we cannot achieve more. Maybe that won’t be winning the Premier League title anytime soon. But there is no reason to suggest that we can’t establish ourselves as one of the top ten-twelve clubs in the Premier League on a constant basis. Because I don’t think that is beyond us. And, what’s more, if we or anyone at the club feels that it is, then what would be the point of continuing? You might as well turn all the lights out and go home.
Never mind the detractors. We can prevail and we can advance. And we should never be ashamed to wish for that or feel bullied into thinking such thoughts are unreasonable and unrealistic.
Fantastic article, very well written and certainly puts things in perspective. Excellent work sir!! OTBC
Ed: fascinating piece, cogently and passionately argued. Like me, you witnessed the periods you’re comparing and you have every right to your view. Your call goes straight to the heart of any fan. I’d love to cry ‘Yes!’ and support you.
But I can’t. Sadly, the Premiership has fundamentally changed since 1992. Looking at film of that time, it’s clear that the pace, technique and intensity has risen dramatically. I agree that a Darren Eadie would still make an impact – but he’d have to be fitter, sharper and more resilient, and he’d almost certainly need more rest.
As well as big advances in training and conditioning, the major change has been the level of quality. When we watch Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal these days, we’re not just seeing internationals but the cream. Key players of the top countries – Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain – are plying their trade here, plus the very best players from other countries (Yaya Toure, Luis Suarez etc etc).
Spending power – plus quality of management – has created a gulf between the top and the rest that’s now virtually impossible to bridge. And while the rest can’t match the spend of the top, that doesn’t stop them splashing out considerable sums. So often we’ve heard from our own fans this season: “With what we spent last summer, we should be doing much better”. But the point is that others spent the same and more. If you want a sign of the Premiership times, look at Swansea paying £12.5m for the Ivorian striker Wilfried Bony, or Southampton spending £15m on the Argentine-Italian Dani Osvaldo. Hull spent over £12m on strikers this January. And they’re our direct rivals!
I’m really sorry to disagree with so much of the article – I wish it were true. But I DO thoroughly agree with the headline. Should we aim for the stars? Absolutely. But should we see no earthly reason to be outside the top 10? Sorry – there are many reasons. For three years (in the Champ and Prem under Lambert, plus Hughton’s first Prem season) we significantly over-achieved. I suspect that’s skewed our expectations from here on. Nothing wrong with aspiring for more; we all do. But perhaps we should aspire rather than expect. The national journalists you quote actually see a lot of football and know what they’re talking about – we’d love to dimiss their views, but perhaps we shouldn’t so easily.
Great article Ed, thought provoking as always. Referring to the 1988/89 squad that you listed, in my humble opinion with the exception of Gunny who might struggle to oust Ruddy then they would all walk straight in for me. To use modern footballer speak, they really were different class to what we’ve got now. As a season ticket holder I just don’t buy into this myth that we have this collection of extremely talented players who are under performing. Quite a few of them are average at best and a major overhaul this summer is required.
Feeling the passion but like Stewart (2), the reality is full of holes…black ones. The ‘shoot/aim for the stars’ theory is more than likely to end up with us being sucked into a black hole of debt and lower league misery. Portsmouth, Blackburn, Coventry and Leeds (amongst others) all clearly ‘went for it’ in an astronomical way which has left them as dim and fading pinpricks in the footballing firmament. QPR imploded despite the lofty ambitions of ‘high profile’ chairmen and passionate fans all too willing to take a ride on their gravy trains. Mr. Tan’s millions at Cardiff have not taken them to the fabled next level.
Of course we need to aspire to playing better and more entertaining football but that shouldn’t be confused with some mythical notion of us ever getting into the top 6-7. We are dwarfs in a league of PL supergiants at the top.
The Lambert-Holt years were great but exceptional – a once in a decade or two event maybe.
..the choice of Andy Townsend to reflect past glories and massive ambition seems curious. A Toure or a Hazard would have run rings round poor AT.
Staring at the stars was what Oscar Wilde aspired to but he ended up broke and dead in a foreign slum. We need to get much better on the pitch but keep our feet firmly planted on Terra Firma.
Russ – Ed can’t be ‘blamed’ for the pic of Townsend or the the ‘reach for the stars…’ headline. Both my call.
Was little more than an excuse to show a pic I’m sure the dear boy would hate and to crack the lame ‘book of cliches’ gag.
Don’t think Ed’s suggesting we operate a financial model along the lines of Leeds and Portsmouth – just that why should accept being slapped down just because we aspire to improve…
Excellent stuff. The only depressing part being that the ‘Norwich City supporters – know your limits’ caricature has a modern day example in a regular columnist for this site…
Gary (5) – points taken and apologies to Ed for ascribing the words wrongly..but for all the passion, I see no constructive points of how the club is to change it’s outlook in the PL..sack the coach? change the formation? spend more money?
Southampton have been great but spent 70 million in 2 PL seasons. Swansea are an admirably run club (local people on the board) but have been found out on the pitch this season. What’s the answer to making us a fantastic footy side (again)?
This resonates very strongly with me.
The notion that our club just isn’t big or affluent enough to compete makes sense until you actually think about it.
“We have the 19/20th lowest wage bill”
This argument falls flat on its face at the first hurdle. We aren’t in 19th and haven’t been for three years (with the exception of the first game or two of a season). We don’t look like dropping that low this season. So clearly wage bill does not dictate position. This is an argument without evidence. Would we consider 18th and relegation still overachieving?
“We can’t compete with the big clubs”
Again, nonsensical. During the current period in the prem we have drawn or beaten the following…
– Chelsea
– Liverpool
– Arsenal
– Manchester City
– Tottenham Hotspur
– Everton
– Manchester United
– Southampton
– Newcastle
– Aston Villa
– Stoke
– West Ham
– Hull
– Swansea
– West Brom
– Crystal Palace
– Sunderland
– Cardiff
– Fulham
If that looks familiar to you, it’s every single team in the table as it stands. Top to bottom. Not one have we not equalled and most we have triumphed over. The richest of the rich, to us lonely paupers.
I think most of us know we’re not going to reach Europe. But honestly, is asking to turn 3 or 4 of our draws into wins and being safe really asking too much? We achieved it a couple of seasons ago.
And if you cast your mind back, at the time were you saying ‘we achieved 11th’ or ‘we overachieved 11th’.
Russ, answers!
I can’t say or state how we can rival Dave Stringer’s great side, one which was a foundation for the Mike Walker era that swiftly followed…
I’m talking about self belief and confidence that our football club can be greater than the sum of its collective parts.
And that there is nothing wrong with anyone, Norwich City supporter or at any of the other ‘lesser’ clubs yearning and striving for more.
I’m throwing logic and common sense out of the window. I’m saying its perfectly OK to want more, to strive for success, to have ambition, to never be content with your lot but to want to forever raise the bar just a little higher.
We all try for it in life, so what’s wrong with wanting it for our football club?
And, more to the point, believing it can happen.
Ed-Fantastic article thank you. The team are under performing, there can be no doubt about that.
I hate to mention it but look at the Ipswich side that did so well under Robson.A combination of things all came together:
A good manager who got his players motivated.
An indulgent Board that interfered minimally in footballing matters
A vibrant youth system that delivered players of international standard
A scouting system that located talent from the lower leagues of British football
And finally the master stroke-two Dutchmen of supreme talent that were complimentary in style and controlled the midfield in most matches.
All done on a relative shoestring I suspect.
None of that is beyond us and I genuinely thought we were on our way in emulating this two years ago.The rest is history I’m afraid..
Durham is just that – a souffle, and with a tiny prick…he’s gone. Splendid.
I have a game called “Dan’s Biggest 20 Clubs”. Its based on what I regard as the ‘biggest’ 20 teams in England.
Purely subjective of course, that’s what makes it fun – usually played on a Beer Day Out with mates. Factors to consider are, trophies won, finances, size of crowds, size of City/Town the Club based in, European history, overall ‘tradition’ in the English game, and so on. First 2 are easy, next 3-4 too, down to about no.12 most people agree on. The lower reaches of the 20 become harder.
And no, Canaries aren’t in there, and I’ve been a fan since ’72. So, sorry for rambling, I do think we’re over-achieving. I’ll be philosophical if/when we go down but sad all the same. I think the Lambert years were tremendous, I suspect when he’s all done, he’ll look back and think, with Holty too, that they may well have been the highspot of his career.
Hi Ed,
Excellent words as ever, and it’s a view that I fully agree with. Also agree that we are underachieving and we can certainly do better than what we currently are. As others have pointed out, money does play a big part and we are never going to compete on that score.
However, that doesn’t mean we can’t find a way to compete. It’s all about finding another way that is probably a combination of picking up bargain, less known players and giving youth a chance.
I think it’s also worth pointing out that the mental side of the game plays such a massive part. The biggest problem with Hughton is he almost believes what the media says and isn’t prepared to give it a go.
In my view, this summer, we must find a manager that believes we can be top half – rather than survival is the extent of the ambition. Furthermore, clubs that forever hang on will almost always eventually get relegated.
Ed(9) – I hear you brother! We are worshiping at the same temple after all. Could be worse – could be Man Utd fans this season..now there is a case of disappointed expectations.
All the evidence shows that hundreds of millions are required to eat at the top table but of course that doesn’t mean we have to settle for drab and stodgy fare which we are currently existing on.
Would Lambert have signed Holty? If not, would any of it happened and raised our expectations to current levels?
I’ve read some of your juicy hardback tales of the exploits of players in the 70s-90s. Tales of beer quaffing and pie chomping which surely mean that they weren’t a fitness match to today’s (ahem) super-athletes? Smaller squads then but fewer injuries than now – maybe today’s players are over-trained physically?
Dave B (8): I wasn’t intending to re-enter the fray, but I’m really struggling to understand what you’re saying.
Your thesis seems to be (i) we’ve drawn with or beaten every Prem team, so we should be doing it regularly; (ii) wage bill doesn’t dictate league position; (iii) we’re underachieving.
The first is Alice in Wonderland logic. Since returning to the Prem, our record so far against the big 5 (Man U, Man C, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool) is Won 3, Drawn 4, Lost 19. Most would say that’s respectable, given the gulf in resources, with the wins a bonus (tribute to the powers of Hughton, by the way, who was behind all three).
The second and third points are – in the case of Norwich – mutually incompatible. I’ve argued several times that we are doing better than our position in the wage bill/resources league, ie over-achieving. You seem to acknowledge that, then promptly say the opposite.
Yours, Confused of Hertfordshire
Russell S. (15): To be fair to Lambert – yes, he probably would have signed Holty. He tried as manager of Colchester, but was outbid by Norwich (on the insistence of Bryan Gunn). The twists and turns of history…
@16 Stewart
I’m not saying we should beat the big teams regularly, I’m saying that despite our resources there is not a team in this league we can’t equal. That is simple and backed up with concrete evidence.
The question then remains, what is it going to take for us to orchestrate a team that can do it regularly. And I’m not talking about regularly beating Chelsea, but regularly beating those in the relegation zone.
You can throw up your hands and say ‘we don’t have the money we can’t’, or you can look at the past two seasons and say ‘what did we do then that we’re not doing now’.
Rather than ask the latter, people are focusing on the former and making excuses. Doing that will only lead you to one, very sad conclusion.
Dave B (18): thanks for the explanation.
You (and others) seem to see a lot of people throwing their hands up and saying ‘We don’t have the money, we can’t’. I haven’t seen one. But I see some – including me – pointing out that our resources are relatively meagre and that should colour our expectations.
I neither accept nor expect relegation; if we go down, it’s a failure. But there’s a separate debate here about whether we’re over- or under-achieving. My view is that we’re going for a remarkable triple. The past two seasons we’ve been in the bottom three of wages/resources, but avoided the bottom three league places. It’s a fair assumption we’re still in the bottom three for wages/resources, but we have a good chance of staying up again. If we do, maybe we can start moving out of the bottom three for resources and mount a stronger campaign next year.
Inner or outer, let’s get behind City on Saturday. A large part of the emotional rollercoaster has been our inconsistency – playing below our potential in some individual games, above it (often unexpectedly) in others. Saturday is a time for the players, and ourselves, to show true colours.
Thank you Ed for such a thought provoking article. Of course you are right, we should aim to reach as high as we can, even beyond the extent of our capabilities. The chances of ever matching our previous highest placing, third, is quite remote, but to dream….. We will never be able to match the spending power of the clubs who are Champions League regulars, or those whose current resources and facilities provide an attraction to potential players and managers alike, but we can compete at our level, which I believe is at least mid to lower half. Let’s face it, had our strikers hit a dozen more goals between them – that’s only four more each for Hooper, RVW and Elmander – we might already be planning confidently for next season.
Excellent article as always (Harry Enfield part is genius!) Stewart (2) has already made many of the points that occurred to me. In terms of being belittled by columnists/pundits etc, I don’t think we help ourselves. The ‘outcry’ following Danny Mills’ comments only served to reinforce people’s beliefs and led to us being a bit of a standing joke on MOTD2. To be honest, I barely found his views worthy of comment.
I should add, especially with reference to Stewart that I do not and would never judge or criticise fellow NCFC fans thoughts, even if they contradict my own-as I wrote above, its my opinion, I don’t pretend to think it has wider relevance or gravity.
Fantastic debate, thoughts and opinions. Thanks everyone-good to read it from those who are rather more informed about our club and who share my investment in it.