As you were…
News that Aviva are to continue as the club’s shirt sponsors came, to me at least, completely out of the blue.
The grapevine – that Reuters-type source of reliable information – was heavy with talk of Coral or Best Fiends (I still don’t know who or what they are) but despite previously announcing that they were to end their eight-year reign it’s to be Aviva again.
There was however a clue in last August’s ‘deal is ending’ announcement with a reference to their wish to remain involved in being a community partner.
Now, presumably after a fair bit of toing and froing, they have managed to kill two birds etc by agreeing to adorn the club’s shirts with their Aviva Community Fund logo for the 2016/17 season.
The bad news? Said new logo is rectangular in shape and with a yellow background.
Hopefully if, as expected, common sense prevails, the home shirt will return to its traditional all-yellow and the “ugly” and “unsightly” yellow box will become a non-issue. I don’t have the strength for another shirt-related meltdown.
It will be interesting however if it means the away kit (or kits) will still have to contain essence of yellow in order to incorporate the logo in an aesthetically pleasing way.
(Oh blimey).
But the continuation of the deal can only be a good thing and at least saves us from one furore, even if it took the club a while to get there.
Our Wessi…
Following on from the Wes Hoolahan’s virtuoso performance against Sweden it was mildly amusing to watch the nationals latch on to the ‘Wessi’ nickname as if it were their own, but at least it was a recognition of sorts of the type of performance we all take for granted.
It was worthy of note that Robbie Brady and Martin Olsson joined Wes in the 7/10+ category and it was with some Canary pride that the picture of the three together at the end of the game did the rounds on social media.
It was fitting too that the game was played out against a striking yellow and green backdrop.
Alas the other side of Wes – the reason why he’s still a Norwich player – was on show yesterday and he was unable to make anything like the same impact against Belgium; another glimpse for the watching world of what it’s like to be a City supporter.
Brady meanwhile continues to pull up trees and, as if it were needed, offered us another reminder of why his future is at the top table and not in the Championship. Olsson too was eye-catching in Sweden’s second game against the Italians and I do wonder…
All three however have a significant fight on their hands if their involvement in Euro 2016 is to extend into the knock-out stages.
Nothing to Laff about…
Given the outcry in some quarters over Alex Neil’s refusal to offer the Carrow Road floor to Kyle Lafferty it was with a fair dollop of irony that it took for the Ulsterman to be dropped for Northern Ireland to earn their first win in the Euros.
Not strictly true of course, and Michael O’Neill did go at great length to eloquently explain why Lafferty was rested for the game against Ukraine, but it was an interesting twist to the saga that seemed sure to end with Laffs banging one in for his country and, midst celebration, whip off his green shirt to reveal a Why always me, Alex? T-shirt.
There’s still time.
In all seriousness, I think think this is just one of those where have have to trust the manager’s judgement. It’s inconceivable that Alex Neil would have left Lafferty out of the City side last season if he believed he was a better option than any of the others he had at his disposal.
He didn’t not pick him out of spite, or to prove a point, or because he didn’t like him. It was simply because he didn’t think he was a good enough fit. And on Thursday, Michael O’Neill agreed.
And finally…
We at MFW have taken some stick this week. In some quarters we have been perceived as being too soft on the club and failing to hold them to account.
I disagree.
As a site that offers opinion on all things Norwich City, all we ask from our team of writers is that they say it as they see it. There is no editorial control over what is said and all are encouraged to express their NCFC-related thoughts in an erudite and knowledgeable way. I’d like to think that most of the time we succeed.
Sometimes folk agree. Often they disagree. That’s the rub. In fact, that’s the whole point.
But what we don’t do is berate the club at every turn, as some seem to demand, especially when to do so would rely on guesswork and conjecture.
If something needs to be said I trust that among the team someone will say it – even if it’s an unpalatable truth – and as editor my aim is to offer balance to the thorny issues of the day. Sometimes I fail but always with the best intentions.
But if you really think we’re sugar-coating it then please feel free to have your say. We have a guest blog facility and I’m happy to offer the floor to anyone who can coherently string some words together.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
“On the Ball City…”
As a voracious consumer of any information or opinion relating to Norwich City, I read all articles posted on this site and all the comments listed below. I enjoy reading them all, even the ones with which I take issue.
I have a healthy scepticism when it comes to the motives and the skill set of the people that run the club. Ever since the days of ” no Reeves, no fans, no future” in fact. I firmly believe that the current set up is not conducive to the aims of the majority of the clubs support, I.e. To see the best Norwich City it is possible to see.
Others disagree, it brings about debate about one of my favourite subjects and can be quite stimulating.
In short, keep it up, criticise, praise, commiserate, celebrate, theorise and debate, we have a fantastic subject for all that.
I much prefer this domain than some aggressive clique where people obsess over politics and their luncheon habits and resort to personal abuse when somebody questions Delia Smith, Ed Balls, or any manager, coach or player employees by Norwich city football club.
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I always find your articles extremely readable and I am delighted that your writers do seek to give a balanced view of the adventures of our beloved club. It’s exasperating that a vocal minority of our ‘loyal’ supporters seem poised on the very edge of their seats fingers quivering in desperation to pull the trigger on any old half-baked media utterance of which there are too many.
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Living in the wilds of Dorset this is the first site I turn to for independent mature debate on all things Norwich City. Long may it continue.
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I completely agree with your thoughts Gary and those of the 3 responders. Also living in excile I always look to MFW for informed debate and discussion and enjoy the fact that whilst we all have differing views they are debated and presented in an honest but respectful way. I must say that I stopped looking at other message boards several years ago including the Pinkun. The level of ridicule and abuse that is frequently posted on their message boards is thoroughly unpleasant.
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I’m currently residing in China. This and the Little Yellow Birdie project are my two personal favourites. Simply because they are opinion pieces with great personality in the writing. The other sources are just rehashes of the same old news stories doing the rounds. Some of the EDP opinion pieces are good too. It’s just a shame that the regular commenters always look for the negatives with regards to the club, no matter what.
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Wes played well yesterday and can’t be blamed for the team’s failure
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You should get gafaiti to do a piece…now that I’d love. Daniel – as for the negatives, there is nothing else to discuss right now. The shoots of youth are the one thing that can save the club from total hatred of the board. They simply must get tough with managers not using them considering we spend millions upon millions each year on its upkeep alone at the moment. It will give us something to smile about once more. Imagine singing “he’s one of our own” prior to getting £30m for his services and watching him pull on an England shirt. Marvellous on all fronts and its what you MUST expect from such an incredible setup.
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@7. the managers can only make use of them if they are good enough…. half the FA youth cup side has already been released, and not many of them have found another league club which suggests they didn’t have what it takes.
As much as I like McGeehan, he is still a league two player as we speak and Norwich is a top half Championship/Premier League side.
I find it hypcritical when fans blast the board for the team not being full of youth players, yet in the same breath whinge about a lack of ambition. Lack of ambition would be promoting youth for the sake of promoting youth, and signing no players from outside the club – would it not?
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@7 Jeff – Gafaiti was injured for the majority of the season before last, eventually going out to Oldham on loan and playing a handful of games. Last season he made just one appearance for the Under 21’s. I have no idea why he played so few games but, were he to write a piece I think we can all take an educated guess at the tone.
@8 PMC – I hold similar views on the playing of youth, which would almost certainly be accompanied with comments about “doing things on the cheap” from certain quarters should it happen.
However, where I struggle with the present set up is deciding whether they’re not getting opportunities simply because they’re not good enough for the 1st XI or whether it’s a case that the step up from U21’s is too great and the academy system isn’t simply fit for purpose?
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Re: youth ‘progression’ or lack of: I wouldn’t say that our club is any better/worse at bringing the youth through than most others – if these young guns are so good and so ambitious, then they will end up playing for top teams. I look forward to seeing them achieve their dreams but don’t hold my breath. Until that happens, any ‘bad-mouthing’ of NCFC should be kept on hold for fear of making yourself look a right tit. That applies to the lanky Irish fella currently on the bench in France.
richbill(6) – surely Wes has to take an equal share of the blame for their turgid defeat to Belgium? As Gary said in his piece, Wes’s tournament has been a microcosm of his recent years at Norwich – superb for the odd game but then average or poor for a number of others?
Splendid website – keep up the good work.
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Our youth team won the Youth FA Cup that year. Based on that performance they were the best, or among the best youth players in the country at that time.
I don’t know the stats, but if – Josh Murphy aside – between them they were given more than 5 sub appearances in the first team, I’d be quite surprised.
If you don’t give them a chance they won’t progress, yet at the same time we have Redmond who bangs it consistently into row Z and we hear all about his talent and how he has potential. I
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone suggesting using our Youth Team would be doing it on the cheap and I read a lot of posts. In fact, I’ve heard nothing but encouragement for using them.
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