Roger Munby, former Norwich City chairman, once uttered the immortal phrase: “This club can go as far as its fans want to take it”.
From that viewpoint, the season to date has certainly been something of a dichotomy – top of the Championship with victory over Burton, yet with fan concern bordering on discontentment to a level that but a few short weeks ago threatened to scupper both Alex Neil’s obvious ambition and the players’ confidence at Carrow Road.
Now, four successive league wins have silenced the doubters, but there’s no question the undercurrent remains; certainly so far as some of the reaction against Burton showed as the defence creaked at one end and presentable chances were spurned at the other.
Sensible analysis and considered thought has, perhaps, never been the occupants of the Main Stand’s strong point, but loud cries for several players to be substituted (I’m sure “Get him orf” is a Norfolk catchphrase given how often it emanated from behind me) were hardly likely to engender confidence either in individuals or collectively.
In the era of Munby, Andy Cullen and Gordon Bennett City fans were realistic, supportive, loud and proud. The phrase “togetherness”, corny though it was, fitted the mood perfectly. The vibrant atmosphere and near certain sell-outs drove the team forward, drove the club forward, and made Carrow Road an enjoyable place to come to.
Even as the key players behind the scenes moved on, it should have created a legacy for subsequent guardians to nurture and develop, and for a while it did.
Yet it wasn’t sustained. Carrow Road today is but a pale shadow of those glorious days, even compared to our relegation season to League One. Nervousness pervades.
Establishing a two goal lead was once a trigger for more noise, more celebration, more backing and more confidence. Now it just brings anxiety as soon as the opposition threaten, which palpably transmits itself to the players. Just look at what happened against both Wigan and Cardiff.
So how did we get to this stage? How did a group of positive, happy fans morph into a lynch mob with pitchforks, ready to put Delia and Michael’s heads on display outside the castle? (A slight exaggeration maybe).
I’d suggest it was a mix of expectation and a (quite probably unhealthy) degree of entitlement.
So what caused that?
There’s no question in my mind that back when Munby was chairman, the club felt more inclusive. We all belonged and all felt a part of it. Prices were sensible, people felt looked after and were prepared to reciprocate.
It felt like our club, more so than at any time over the previous 20 years, evidenced by the response to the first share issue following the collapse of ITV Digital… and then we got relegated to our lowest level for 50 years.
Of course strong action was required to protect the club and secure its future and of course David McNally and Alan Bowkett were initially the right people to deliver it but somewhere along the line the relationship between club and fans became strained to breaking point as tranches of the support suddenly had benefits cut as the club turned from co-operative to business.
Success came, but at a price, quite literally in the case of attending games, which became astronomical for casual admission. The community ethos led and encouraged by Delia and Michael was set aside as they themselves became ever more marginalised in the boardroom.
What was bred in the fan base as a result was a not unreasonable expectation that increased financial contribution should lead to increased success. Successive promotions to the Premier League held things together, but the underlying dissatisfaction was still there.
It occasionally reared its head – a boycott of a League Cup game over pricing, then the reaction to Chris Hughton’s stewardship. The longer the period of struggle – which culminated in relegation and a quiet transfer window – the greater the level of dissatisfaction.
The Carrow Road of Munby, Cullen and Bennett seems a lifetime away right now. Even when we’re winning the atmosphere is muted expectation; when we struggle it’s hostile; when we win it’s relief rather than joy. It’s an experience to be endured rather than enjoyed, and that’s terribly sad.
Never has the first verse of OTBC seemed more appropriate:
In the days to call, which we’ve left behind,
Our boyhood’s glorious game,
And our youthful vigour has declined
With its mirth and its lonesome end;
You will think of the time, the happy time,
Its memories fond recall
When in the bloom of your youthful prime
We’ve kept upon the ball.
In my supporting life, I’ve been lucky enough to live through some fantastic occasions. Those memories will abide with me forever and will always send a shiver down my spine and put a smile on my face.
Today’s supporters, those coming to Carrow Road for the first time, haven’t yet been so lucky. They’ve seen mostly misery, negativity and backbiting.
And I hope for their sakes that Munby’s words all those years ago are turned into a positive rather than a negative. The club, and its fans, sit on the brink of going one of two ways. We are still the glue that holds the club together.
Let’s hope for all our sakes there are enough people with glass half-full views to keep the ship steady.
Interesting days indeed.
Excellent article and a great read on a truly miserable Thursday morning.
It’s pretty much ok in the UB – certainly nothing approaching toxic, but there is none of the joyous teasing between Barclay and Snakepit, or indeed much singing from downstairs at all.
And if the LB and the Pit don’t sing you can bet your bottom $ no-one else will!
Whether this directly relates to the chain of events Rob Emery describes I cannot say for sure but there is no doubt he has hit the nail on the head: nerves and anxiety prevail.
As I’m posting this post the NUFC disaster, you can imagine how my glass looks this morning…
Good debut Rob!
Perhaps it’s largely explained by the club originating from an era of a dictatorial chairman, morphing into an ownership of genuine fans, but still in need of proper business acumen at the helm?
That coincided with a period of largely indifferent football – the Premier season under Worthy felt like we were there to make up the numbers – and it was only with the arrival of Paul Lambert that the sense of belief became commonplace.
Of course, three consecutive seasons in the Premier League also meant that gate receipts actually dropped as a proportion of total income. Add in the ongoing loyalty of season ticket holders in ever increasing numbers, the limited supply of casual tickets and it became an easy sell to those in charge of the purse strings!
Four seasons out of the last six in the Premier League and you’ve got a lethal cocktail of indifference!
I am usually one of those half full people- I love the club and will support them to the bitter end. Last night’s catastrophic capitulation against Newcastle illustrates the frustration I think permeates. Norwich are better than this, too often passion on the pitch seems lacking, repeatedly players go missing at crucial times, last night was such an example. As a fan it was outright humiliating. Alex Neil is normally very good at echoing the fans view- last night he seemed to be consoling the players for bad luck. Nothing will wind up the fans more when what is being demanded is a full Glaswegian hairdryer.
The reason the Paul Lambert period is so fondly remembered is not just that they did so well, in fact there was some horrible reverses, but that it was done with such pride and passion. The win against Derby so fondly remembered. Last night we played the Derby role and it really hurts the fans.
Norwich fans can be bought quite easily onside- players don’t have to be brilliant every match, but they do have to show the same commitment we do- it’s why we f@#*ing loved Grant Holt. Last nights shambles will take some putting right. I don’t know if this group of players have the mentality for it. That’s what hurts the fans.
OTBC another season of championship football after this I fear.
Sorry to agree with ncfc Paul after last night. Pivotal moment I fear, much like the 4-5 Scousers match. Still it is only the end of September.
1. McNally turned us primarily into customers rather than fans
2. Lack of a leader to rally players and fans since Holt’s departure
3. A manager who makes the same mistakes, slow starts, poor subs, weak finishes routinely
A number of years ago I helped with the judging for the EDP Business Awards. I helped to judge NCFC in the Customer Service category. It was very impressive; something that I was well aware of as a City supporter. If I did the same judging today I suspect I would come up with a very different picture.
I don’t get these sentiments about being customers not fans. That has always been the case and I don’t think it really has an influence.
I think it is the ongoing struggle to entertain. Hughtons horrible football had so much to answer for. The fact we have kept a poor and porous defence for so many seasons doesn’t help as we are always anticipating the next slip up.
But With AN we all inspite of the dire second half to the PL season I think thought he might still do well for us. The trouble is I think he is still broken mentally from the last time Newcastle pulled our pants down. I still can’t see any evidence of the footballing philosophy that brought him his early managerial success. We seem caught betwix and between how he might have liked us to play and some bastardised more defensive variant. This football is not great to watch and as such even when we are winning, it often feels like we are playing well within what we could.
Inspite of all of this, I still don’t quite get why we are all so muted. For my part I will join in with every song that gains even the slightest traction, but I’m afraid I’m not an initiator. We need to get back to the days where when the oposition scored we’d sing loudly to try to lift the players, but as I said who will do it? Not I!
Bah!
There’s some great comments on here today.
#2 Gary Field: I get your point about the Dictatorial Chairman. How ironic that we were most consistently successful under his stewardship but he still set the Police horses against some of us in the end. I was younger then and more prepared to stand up to what I saw as the Dictator you mention. The fire sale of Newsome and Ward I will never forget.
#7 General Melchett: I’m with you. You echo what the author of the article says and I don’t quite get why the LB and Snakepit are so quiet either. Younger guys I know in the LB say there’s no-one around any more who is prepared to get it going regardless but the passion has largely evaporated since the Hughton tenure. If it’s any consolation, my Arsenal mate says just the same things about his Club.
Anyway an excellent article – one of the very few I’ve read twice.
great article. Very thought provoking.
For me, the problem is too little stability. The last season I really enjoyed was the first back in the Prem under Lambert. We were safe by March, played with freedom and bravery and had a true leader on and off the pitch.
Since then 2 horrible years under Hughton, a nerve shredding promotion chase redeemed by 90 minutes at Wembley and, worst of all, a huge missed opportunity to stay up.
Actually finding it difficult to get excited or bothered by yet another quest for ‘the promised land’…knowing that we are less and less likely to stay there more than fleetingly.
@8 El Dingo. Successful, yes, definitely, but the difference between the haves and the have nots back then was miniscule in comparison to today, making comparisons between eras difficult.
@9 Patrick Higgins. I get where you’re coming from, but the “slog” of Championship football is equally tiring. I still believe there’s a role for medium sized teams – that’s what we are – in the Premier League but I still believe we need to up our game in terms of how we spend our cash and recruitment.
@9 Patrick Higgins. Surely you should start each season with a hint of optomism and look forward to it where ever we are playing or whats the point? That goes for each match too. I know it ain’t easy to be up for it if the team is consistently poor and losing. Or you really want change in manager or feel let down in the transfer market. But again what is the point if you can’t get excited by it all. I know some don’t but, why any one doesn’t enjoy the championship is beyond me? Ii love the games coming thick and fast, I love going to each game knowing we have a realy good chance of taking some points. With that and the fact we could be looking at promotion again it’s exciting! isn’t it?
So the football we are playing under AN is not so good at the moment and it is tough playing negative sides most of the time at CR, but this is why I don’t understand why we can’t as fans make some of our own entertainment with more singing, LB vs Snakepit and the like.
We have had so many recent highs and lows I think people can’t enjoy the somewhere inbetween. But surely a potential championship promotion push should excite us all, even if we all wish we were still in the PL.
Bah!
Passion on the terraces is a 2 way street. It has to be earned on the pitch. That hasn’t happened since the heady days of Paul Lambert. Indifférence , appréhension , & confusion on the pitch will filter it way through to the supporters in the stands. This has become worse as Alex Neal ‘s time in charge has progressed. I have watched & followed NCFC since the 59 cup run. There were always players out there to excite & inspire me Players like Keelan , Forbes ,Peters , Channon ,Fleck , Huckerby, Holt & the like. Where are such characters now. The PL & its pursuit of success ( & money ) at all costs has resulted in a sterile blandness on the pitch which has effected supporters at not just clubs like Norwich, but even at Old Trafford , The Émérites & Stamford Bridge. How would entertainers ,players like Stan Bowles & Rodney Marsh , players who get you out of your seat , fare today !
I occasionally sit in the city stand in my parents’ seats when they can’t attend. It is so miserable in there it is unbelievable. Remember the Boxing Day win over Millwall? 5-0 up and a chap behind me moaning that we were only winning because Millwall were so bad. Another one was when we needed a win against Wolves, we dominated the first half and went in to HT 1-0 up. I heard a fella say “Well I’m finding it hard to find the negatives, perhaps Martin Olsson”.
How about we look for the positives! I managed a positive for the NUFC match, I had to leave on 92 mins to catch a train, we won as far as I’m concerned!!