I am sure someone long ago made the connection – the fact that the three countries which host the three, most lucrative football leagues in the world – England, Spain and Italy – all failed to make the second stage of this summer’s World Cup.
That, for me and I suspect many, is no coincidence.
Money does that.
Corrupts the brightest of young talents; breeds indolence and indifference – certainly when it comes to putting a big shift in for one’s country.
There are other factors at work, clearly. Most notably the lack of home grown players given the chance to shine on the Champions League stage by the influx of foreign talents at the highest levels of the club game, but essentially money remains the principal enemy of motivation. Amongst a whole generation of young and talented men.
Which is why Lewis Grabban is proving something of a breath of fresh air this summer.
The 26-year-old has a hunger to his game – something notable only by its absence in the final third last season.
Sure, he has the confidence that comes with five in five following this weekend’s confident header against his former employers. But the one-time Palace trainee has something else to his game that bodes well for the Class of 2014-15. He has rejection on his side.
He has yet to ‘make it’. As in really make it Premiership style.
He may be one move away from reaching said goal; or, indeed, no move and 12 months away from hitting the professional jack-pot of a four-year deal with a Premier League big spender. Of whom there are at least 16 who could make Grabban rich beyond his wildest teenage dreams and, finally, reward his recent years of toil in the league’s lower reaches with a deal of a lifetime.
Until then, of course, City boss Neil Adams and the Carrow Road faithful can reap their rewards; the former certainly deserves every credit for picking up a player with a clear point to prove.
A player very much ‘on the up’ after being in amongst so many goals with the Cherries last season.
Which is precisely the character and individual you need to dig yourself out of this division. One whose career trajectory is still curving upwards; someone unused to doubt and failure; someone that has not grown fat on Premier League riches already and for whom a move ‘back’ to a Norwich would have a sapping effect on his interest and hunger for the fray.
Nathan Redmond would be another one of that ilk. It is easy to forget his tender years; what is harder to overlook is the kind of pace and positive thinking that will get him back into the top flight – with or without Norwich as his employers.
But in many ways the joy that comes with having a Grabban in your midst only reinforces the argument re the corrosive effect o Premier League money on attitudes and appetites.
It requires a special type of character – a Ryan Giggs, for example – to perform at a level for year after Premier League year whilst awash with every material delight and indulgence that such a career inevitably brings.
Why do I need to put a shift in, when I have everything I could possibly need in my life?
And this will be the circle that a club of Norwich’s ilk will continually have to square if it is to avoid the yo-yo type existence that may come to be its lot.
How do you replicate Championship-style hunger in the golden feeding trough of the Premier League – without resorting to the kind of pay-days a Loic Remy would demand to travel up the A11 on a full-time basis?
Because as Mr Grabbam is fast reminding us all – it is goals that win games. Or draw them. And for that reason, it is the goal-scorers that command the biggest wages.
Pay ‘peanuts’ by Premier League standards and yet get what you paid for last season. And end up back in the Championship as a result.
I have no easy answers. If there were, the Championship and beyond would not be littered with financial basket cases; decent ‘little’ clubs hollowed out morally by the demands of Premier League ‘survival’.
It must be a wretched time to be a Fulham fan. What is left of Uncle Jack’s riches at Ewood Park? When will Fratton Park ever play host to an Arsenal or a Chelsea again? The list is endless.
For now, suck in great gulps of fresh air that Grabban and Co are bringing to Norfolk this summer; savour the smiles, the delight, the joy that comes with winning.
But it is still a short-term fix to the long-term madness that every second tier club has to contend with if they truly set their heart on a regular gig in the English Premier League.
A few nails hit firmly on the head here.
The spiraling multi-million pound trolley dash currently going on in the PL really is a depressing spectacle. The situation at the Etihad or ‘the graveyard of English ambition’ as it’s otherwise known sums up the toxic state at the ‘top’ of the game.
Grabban has been great but you just know that a QPR or a Leicester will be sniffing round him for big bucks next season. We did well to ship Ricky vW out to make way for him – I see Ricky played last night in a 5-0 defeat!
With the exception of one or two at Anfield, the current English crop display all the hall marks of ‘too much too young’ – Jack Wilshere being a prime example. The apathy towards the upcoming England internationals is almost palpable.
One point not mentioned is the business model used at Norwich. I remember a while ago the club touting for a mega rich investor, but I also recollect (and I may be corrected on this) that Delia wouldn’t sell to someone who didn’t have the well being of the club absolutely first in their mind (she also wanted far too much but that’s another point). I think we were very lucky she did. For a club to be simply a plaything of a super wealthy person with no genuine care for the long term future? That seems worse than anything.
The board at Norwich are not perfect but I genuinely believe they put this club above all else. The riches of the premiership mean so much but relegation has not destroyed us- nor will it.
The premier league is as much business as football, money absolutely does define it, even more than the football I sometimes think.
But I guess my point is that money matters so much in modern day football, and I desperately hope Norwich get promoted, but I absolutely believe this club still has it’s soul (for lack of a better word) intact. I believe we have Delia, McNally and the board to thank. They are far from perfect and goodness knows mistakes have been made but I do believe we are living within our means, the future will remain with little Norwich still in it. I wait to see which of the ‘giants’ falls next if their super owners walk away. It will be, and is, spectacular. How must Portsmouth or Leeds fans feel about the way their clubs have been treated? Is it even possible to happen to Man Utd?
OTBC
Some very interesting points made here. The trade-off between those who have been there and done it and those with a point to prove. The inevitable and boring answer is probably that you need a balanced mixture.
I thought our signings last summer were mainly players who had something to prove, who hadn’t shown they could perform in The Best League in the World©, but shown potential elsewhere, Olsson being one (the only one?) with PL experience to speak of.
Grabban is perhaps something of a mixture himself. We know he can do it in the Championship, but as you say, he would be out to prove he can play at the highest level.
Interesting you mentioned the English, Spanish and Italian leagues, Rick, as leagues that have sold out to money, but perhaps there is another article in the one league that hasn’t – and from which the World Cup winners came, Germany! I think there is much to like about the way they have very consciously decided to run their league these days, including the ban on foreign shareholding, the keeping of ticket costs down, so that all fans can still watch games (and deliberately foregoing some match day revenue to achieve this), and the additional attempts to give fans a voice in the running of clubs. The model seems to achieve many things, I think we all envy, including the grooming of non-spoilt German players.
Our club does attempt to model itself after some of these attributes more than most in the English leagues, but without the Premier League giving up its worshipping of mammon, we are stuck with the present system for the foreseeable future, including the fact that far too few English players are coming through into the top teams, and thus those that do, see themselves as far too privileged. Unfortunately our society does elitism much better than it does egalitarianism.
And yes, Paul (2), you are correct on your points about Delia, one of the main reasons I have enormous respect for her and what she has done for the club.
The last minute clamber of clubs for Hooper and Redmond is shocking and amusing at the same time. Why the blazes does the transfer window not slam shut on the day before the season starts so this farcical spectacle is avoided?
AM(1) – ETIHAD: nglish alent n ere lmost ead.