I had three ideas for this week’s piece.
Dave Stringer, Martin O’Neill or tenuous Canary links with Euro Championships and World Cups. And believe me, some of them are so beyond tenuous, you’d need to stick them into CERN for evidence that they ever occurred at all.
But all of those can wait. For now.
Because I am drawn to my piece last week and the response it has drawn from the great and good of MyFootballWriter.
So I’m going to pick up on that, toss it around a bit with a little vinaigrette and send it right back out there for further comment from you all.
The gist of the piece was that we are all, rightly or wrongly, conditioned to demand and expect what we want for ourselves, and in all forms of life, almost as soon as we’ve decided we want it. In other words, we are living in a ‘right here, right now’ society.
In terms of material goods of course, the availability of easy credit has made that easy for everyone. I’d been in paid employment for precisely one week when I decided I wanted a decent hi-fi system. The one I wanted cost a fortune. The one the salesman decided I should have cost even more.
Sign here, here and here, Sir.
Thank you.
And there it was – mine to take home.
Whereas my dad would lament about how if he or Mum had wanted anything ‘nice’ at my age they’d have to save up, week after week, month after month, year after year even until, finally, they had enough money to pay for whatever it was. In cash.
And, with apologies for yet more metaphors to try to illustrate a point, that is where I felt the game was going.
Immediate demand, quick delivery and instant satisfaction.
But, despite how much we want it and expect it, we can’t expect it to go on like that indefinitely.
Can we?
In many ways and with that in mind, Paul Lambert was exceptionally lucky when he was appointed as the manager of our club. Lucky that is, in the time when he was appointed.
Because our expectations were fairly low at that time.
We’d just been relegated to League One and, in our first game back in that division for 50 years had been turned over 7-1. At home.
Everyone had a good chuckle about it, even Mark Lawrenson.
It was all a bit bleak.
Gunny had spent the previous summer trying to recruit players. Amongst those who he managed to sign were Michael Theoklitos, Matt Gill, Owain Tudur-Jones and Goran Maric.
Amongst those who he almost signed were Michael Bridges and Steve Guppy.
We weren’t fussy. No-one was particularly complaining about the quality of these players. Far from it. We looked for the positives in each one. Gill came on a free from Exeter City.
He’d played in a play-off final. OK, it was the play-off final for the Blue Square Premier play-off. But it was at Wembley.
Straws, clutching…
And, without wishing to disrespect either the player or the club he had joined us from, that was asnlow as we had sunk.
Getting players in on a free from Exeter City.
Put all of that together with a team that loses its first game of the season 7-1 and expectation is going to be at a very low level indeed.
Who looked back at the carnage of the Colchester game and thought he or she would be happy just to see us survive that season and not go down again?
Knee-jerk maybe, but I know I did. Just get a team of fighters and battle for every ball, every point. Top ten finish? I’ll take that right now.
Lambert didn’t, in terms of the club’s infrastructure and finances, have very much to work with when he joined. Indeed, we all travelled down to witness the FA Cup tie at Paulton Rovers blissfully unaware that, even as that day dawned, the club was as close to going out of existence as it has been at any time in its history.
Thank you Alan Bowkett.
No-one was expecting very much at all really. Not even then when, through Lambert’s sheer force of will and personality, we’d dragged ourselves up to 5th place in the league by the time of that game.
Promotion was a hope right up to the last day of the season. No-one demanded anything, no-one threw their toys out of the pram and everyone was happy that we had a team and club that seemed to be going forward again.
The pressure and expectation was minimal and in direct contrast to the enjoyment we all felt at that time with our football. Time and time again fellow Norwich supporters have told me that the 2009/10 season was one of the most enjoyable they’d ever gone through as a Canary fan.
Despite the fact we were skint, despite the fact we were in League One, despite the fact that amongst our trips on the road we had visits to Stockport, Yeovil and Tranmere to look forward to and despite the fact that our roll call for the season included such names as Jens Berthel Askou, Oli Johnson, Anthony McNamee and Simon Whaley.
Because no-one was really expecting anything at all.
Less expectation = more enjoyment?
Now compare that season to last time out. Premier League.
Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United. Stephen Naismith, Robbie Brady and Timm Klose.
Nail biting, bitching, sweating and swearing from the off. 40 points, the magical 40 points.
The manager being questioned. Likewise the board and owners. Questions asked, complaints raised. The sudden resignation of a popular chairman and the even more sudden and bizarre resignation of David McNally. Somewhere, in amongst all of the politics and boardroom chicanery, games of football were breaking out.
More expectation = less enjoyment?
I’ll leave the final word to you. Did you enjoy that season in League One more than any other recent season played at a higher level?
And if so, why was that? Was it because we weren’t expecting too much?
Does expecting too much, demanding it even, take the fun out of football?
Would you have enjoyed our recent day out at Wembley even if we had lost to Middlesbrough?
And, finally, is there any way you can see yourself enjoying next season if it doesn’t end with us being promoted? Is that the be all and end all for Norwich City for the 2016/17 campaign?
Over to you…
Morning Ed. A few seasons ago I would have saíd that promotion to the Premier League was the be all and end all, and that even having only one season up there before an inevitable return to the Championship, would have been well worth it. Pitting our wits and skill against the best every week, how could that possibly not be enjoyable and entertaining? Ha! – wishful thinking I´m afraid. Since that time, with each returning trip to the PL, enjoyment levels have plummeted at the same rate as frustration has increased. Playing in a League where one is competitive will always be more satisfying and enjoyable than playing in one where one is hopelessly out of ones depth, and that unfortunate realisation, is being exaggerated for every year that passes.
Give me life in the Championship any time, over these continuous Premier League death knells, and no, that´s not a lack of ambition, it´s just a grasp of realism.
In answer to your last paragraph – I will certainly enjoy this coming season, (almost) irrespective of where we finish, relegation would sour things somewhat, naturally, but otherwise, I´m looking forward to it, and my enjoyment is certainly not dependent on us gaining promotion.
Excellent post Ed and in some ways, I’m looking forward to next season, as we can go into every game knowing that if our team performs well each week, then we can win more games than we lose.
I’m hopeful that we can entice a reasonable quality CB to join us and likewise a striker with the money we get for Redmond and possibly Brady. I’m also hoping that Klose will stay to make our defence more solid and less error prone.
I’d like to see us rebuilding the team next season as well and would like to think that Maddison and some of our youngsters can make the grade to at least be part of the first team squad.
From my point of view I prefer things (usually) when we’re in the Championship. I remember the home game against M’boro 2 years ago when they made us look very 2nd rate. I said at the time that this sort of game is what makes me prefer not to be promoted as this type of performance happens too often to us in PL.
Realism is always a bitter pill but we are a decent championship side and we can hold out heads up high at that level.
Regarding financial matters, everyone should read chapter 2 by MAJ in Tales from the City. I can’t believe anyone would want to get into the situation that he rescued us from
Bart was right, Pay as ýou go
it does seem like there are moves afoot to lessen “expectation” amongst the support for the impending season. This article could be hand written by a balls or a smith, to prepare the ground for a disappointing summer of inactivity and a season of “consolidation”.
It never entered my head following the shameful home defeat to Colchester that the club could be dragged any further down the toilet than it already had been. I just knew that something HAD to be done regarding the ridiculous managerial situation.
Thanks to McNally, something was done.
I’m still hoping for some positive news emanating from the club that it intends to be competitive next season but musings like this article make me feel that will be unlikely.
i fear that with the demise of David McNally, Little Old Norwich has raised its damned ugly head again.
What a cracking, observant read. Nail hit firmly on head. We HAVE to be in the Premiere League, and hate it when we’re there. We’ll be totally dissatisfied playing in the Championship, but as long as there’s a hope of promotion, we’ll love very minute.
It depends on what you believe the supporters expected.
Many comments I heard/read at the start of last season said that they would have been delighted with 17th place. I don’t think that that is necessarily over demanding – especially for a ‘yo-yo club’ like ours.
The Lambert season in the Premiership was the best for me. Earning a hard fought draw over someone like Liverpool was much more satisfying, tense and exciting than anything in
league 1.
I believe that people moan when they aren’t satisfied that people at the club aren’t doing their jobs properly. Very few people whinged when we lost under Lambert because they could see that he was doing his job and the players were giving 100%.
At the other end of the scale, even when Hughton kept us up, people weren’t satisfied because the tactics were negative. They complained this time because we didn’t deliver The calibre of players AN needed to compete.
As a club, we should be ambitious and expect the club to strive to reach its potential. If we don’t, we’ll risk losing the parachute payments and end up as Championship ‘fodder’. If you want to know what that feels like, then ask our friends down the road.
My memory of the League One season, mainly involve Leeds Utd…losing 2 1 away totally unjustly and being something like 10 points behind them. By the time we beat them in the return match we had caught up and overtaken.
Wonderful awaydays at Stockport, the Withdean and best of all The Valley and the Memorial Ground. Yes, as a one off , it was hard to beat.
2009/10 does indeed rank as one of my favourite seasons and a great read Ed.
To further point to low expectations, the bookies kept giving us really good odds to win games despite our climb up the table. I took home a fair wedge that year and haven’t bet on Norwich since!
I’ll always prefer the prem, less competitive certainly, but there’s always that hope that one day Leicester’s fairytale could be ours…..shades of 92/93 anyone?!
Didn’t we draw 1-1 away at Leeds in the 3rd Div??
A surprisingly disappointing article that fails to point out the clubs very obviously shortcomings both currently and in the longer term. Whether we enjoyed a particular era or league or manager is irrelevant. The fact is that things are wrong at Carrow Road. Are the club going to be challenged or are we going to write articles full of fluff?
What next? A Martin Chivers retrospective?
Darren (10), there are plenty of articles and similar out there addressing the clubs perceived shortcomings if that is what you want, similarly, I’m sure Gary would welcome a contribution from you on here regarding that if you want to address your concerns.
In the meantime I’ll keep on writing fluff as most people welcome an alternative to the daily doom and gloom and, as things stand, I don’t have that much of an axe to grind with the club anyway.
I’m sure we’d all welcome your thoughts and the opportunity to comment on them so please, lets hear them.
Darren (10) – I echo Ed’s comments. Feel free to have a crack at being the week’s guest blogger
Answers to the questions:
Did you enjoy that season in League One more than any other recent season played at a higher level? No, but it was fun.
And if so, why was that? Was it because we weren’t expecting too much? N/A
Does expecting too much, demanding it even, take the fun out of football? Yes
Would you have enjoyed our recent day out at Wembley even if we had lost to Middlesbrough? Yes (just about)
And, finally, is there any way you can see yourself enjoying next season if it doesn’t end with us being promoted? Yes, if we compete strongly in/for the top six or better
Is that the be all and end all for Norwich City for the 2016/17 campaign? No, but it’s something most fans would wish for and see as an achievable aim