This is horrible. I can’t recall feeling this way before.
The lust went a while ago. The love is dissipating quicker than ever before. I’m not angry, just sad inside.
In my 28 years of supporting Norwich City I find myself at my lowest ebb. It’s not always the easiest club to support. But you don’t give up on it. It’s like a drug.
Yet very soon, I will have to make a major decision: to renew or not to renew – that is the question. Am I seriously considering going cold turkey?
I am a true ‘supporter’, in every sense of the word.
I’m vocal at games and sing loud and proud every week. Each year I renew my season ticket without consideration – in hope more than expectation. I buy the new shirt – each summer, for a more extortionate price than which proceeds it. I buy scarves, key rings, mugs… if it’s yellow and green there’s a good chance I’ll snap it up!
But am I the real ‘mug’ here?
Blind loyalty towards the Canary crest, that’s what my problem is. Yet now I’ve reached a point where I feel like I’ve been mugged off once too often.
I’ve seen highs and lows.
I was there when we were fighting for major trophies; our European adventure; when the Chase-out campaign was at its most volatile.
I was there when we lost 6-1 at Port Vale; City Hall when we lifted the Championship trophy; when Burnley finished Worthington off.
I stayed to the bitter end when Colchester trounced us 7-1; when the place went “bananas”; Wembley joy.
So for a fan like myself – someone so overly obsessed with football that it verges on irritating to others – to consider giving up my season ticket after so long should greatly concern the Norwich City board of directors. Because I am not the only disenchanted voice.
Sad as it is, I feel as though I am partly responsible for the malaise surrounding the club. If you, like me, provide undivided loyalty regardless of performance, why should those at the top be concerned?
For years they’ve known we’ll all fork out for a new shirt every season, that we’ll buy the rip-off pies, renew our season tickets… no matter what. And if there’s one thing this club is deeply proud of, it’s the vast swathes of bums on seats every week.
Let’s get one thing straight. This is not about losing a few games on the spin. We’ve had worse sides than this. Far, far worse.
Fielding a team packed with third-rate loans under the stewardship of Glenn Roeder was as soul-destroying as it gets. I’ve often gone to games thinking ‘this is a chore’ but we still go again the following week, and the one after that, in the hope of something better.
So why am I, and many others I speak to, so disillusioned with The Fine City’s football club, that they are reaching the end of their tether?
Reasons vary. For some it is purely financial; for some it is a constant lack of ambition; others will think the football on offer is rubbish.
For most, it is a combination of all these, coupled with the numerous failings by the current owners – most of which have been entirely avoidable. Many say they only go now for the social side, to chat with friends or family.
Personally, I feel total apathy – my enthusiasm has dwindled to such an extent that even if I wanted to get angry about our current situation, I wouldn’t bother going to the shed and fetch my pitchfork – I’d just grab a spoon from the top drawer.
When I hear members of our board feed supporters another line of drivel, I feel nothing – I just shrug. When I look around at our players at the end of a game, I feel nothing – win, lose or draw – for all bar a couple. I don’t even jump around, hugging complete strangers like a lunatic when we score anymore.
That ill-timed, ill-advised Times article was the catalyst for much of the current swell of angst aimed toward the board and was definitely a tipping point for me.
Condescending, obstinate and out-of-touch. It became clear that they don’t really care what the fans think. Since then results, which had already begun to tail-off, have nosedived, and the club has plummeted down the table.
Yet their incessant backing of a blatantly flawed Alex Neil is now bordering on bonkers. Football fans survive on hope. We NEED hope. Hope of better that may come. Without hope, there is no point going.
To be told by our owners that the manager is unequivocally safe in his seat despite numerous reasons why he shouldn’t be, or that the club’s path is already decided and that there is no alternative to ‘nephew Tom’, offers little in the way of hope.
Combine awful decision-making, indecisiveness and poor financial awareness with a dancing Chairman and a silent CEO, then throw in some bad transfer windows, ageing players, an inept manager and a barrel-load of horrid defeats, and I’m afraid you have a potent cocktail.
The whole club needs a completely fresh start. Fans need to feel rejuvenated. The whole club feels amateurish again and is stale from top to bottom. Mistakes will always be made – its human nature – but to keep making the same mistakes over and over again? That’s just plain irresponsible.
I want to see some courage – from the top, right down to the bottom. Some desire. Some authority. Some ambition. Some conviction. I want to see a coherent plan for the future.
I want to know why the ‘chosen’ route forward is deemed the best one. I want to know why, and I quote, “No way will we sell. We don’t even listen to enquiries.” I want to hear from nephew Tom. What does he envisage? How will he make us prosper? Will he do things differently?
“Promotion, promotion, promotion” is NOT a plan. It’s just hot air. “Young and hungry” – that was a plan. And ‘promotion’ clearly isn’t going to be possible this season if the current incumbent of the Carrow Road hot seat remains any longer. We are in desperate need of a major shake up on the pitch too.
I have no qualms with Alex Neil being stubborn and refusing to walk because I’d do precisely the same in his situation, if I knew there was that many readies at the end of it. The board should have the cajones to fire him.
Unfortunately, our manager is tactically inept, never learns from his mistakes and is now displaying the kind of arrogance that Roeder did in our darkest days. For the last 18 months we have played like a bunch of individuals, thrown together with little thought as to how they could gel in his (one and only) system.
But Neil is merely a broken cog in a malfunctioning machine.
There is no camaraderie, no leadership, no fight from the players. There is talent – but it has rarely been harnessed – and when it is, I suspect it is more down to luck than judgement . Or woefully poor opponents.
The record of the ‘recruitment team’ makes me shudder. The personnel involved on that panel, even more so. There is no evidence of a strategy, and if there is, it’s not working very well, and hasn’t since its inception.
The wages the club pays to bit-part (at best) players is scary. No wonder we are unable to offload the likes of Lafferty, Bassong and co – nobody else can afford to pay them. These ridiculous wages paid to average footballers is a noose around the club’s neck.
Hence we now find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of selling off the family silver to make ends meet.
If Neil is, as it seems, staying put, are supporters supposed to forget about this season now? And if so, is youth going to get a chance in the first team? I could live with that.
But it seems unlikely, since Harry Toffolo (potentially our only natural left back) has been sent back to Scunthorpe and James Maddison, an undoubtedly gifted young footballer, looks likely to disappear north of the border again. Ben Godfrey has impressed repeatedly for the U23s – why not give him a chance.
Throw two or three in – they can hardly do any worse than the current motley crew, can they? And it might just get a few fans back onside.
And I’ve not even touched on the astronomical prices fans are expected to pay. We pay Premier League prices for sub-standard Championship fare.
We rip off away fans with our ticketing policy to such an extent I often find myself apologising for my clubs behaviour to opposition fans on Twitter. The board recently got the FA Cup tie marketing completely wrong.
It’s error after error after error and a staggering own-goal given Delia’s words about ‘worshipping’ fans. Fair play for apologising but by then, it was too late.
Delia and Michael have run the club for 20 years now. I think its fair to say that every Norwich City fan is grateful for what they did in order to help the club survive after Robert Chase.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Two decades later and the most successful of those years were spent with Alan Bowkett and David McNally to the fore.
Without those two and their undoubted acumen, its possible we might not even have a football club to support, let alone spend four of the last six seasons competing in the Premier League. And now they are both gone. They were not perfect, but boy did they get more right than they got wrong.
The same cannot be said of others.
And, without Bowkett and McNally, Smith ‘n Jones’s reign would have been one of consistent failure – bar the odd, intermittent highlight.
Of course, it is important to point out that Delia and Michael appointed both men in the first place. It’s equally important to mention Neil Doncaster and Jez Moxey, who seems to have become the Stowmarket duo’s ‘whipping boy’ – rightly or wrongly.
I’m fed up. Fed up with everything to do with the club. Fed up knowing that it’s highly likely, given their track record, that they will make the wrong managerial appointment anyway.
New personnel and fresh gumption is urgently required in the boardroom and then again on the pitch in order to inject some life into proceedings because I fear that, without it, we will not be reaching the top tier of English football again for a long while – and, more importantly, many other fans, just like me, will feel alienated from the club we love.
Without major changes in the coming weeks, my 28-year love story will probably draw to sorry and tortuous halt. I won’t stop caring – but my bum won’t be sat in the lower Barclay stand until the current owners depart.
And boy oh boy, is that a gut-wrenching thing to type.
What an excellent article! I feel exactly the same.I have been a season ticket holder for over 30 years but now I feel I cannot renew and go through all this again.It’s all so depressing.
As i said after the previous article if the fans keep going and they don’t protest every game until they get what they want things will never change…the owners need to be shown in no uncertain terms the fans anger vented at them game after game until they can see as did robert chase ….grow some fans unleash your hearts 😉
Excellent work James. That must have been hard to write as it was emotional to read.
There’s so many things wrong at the moment and to hear it suggested that we can’t offload surplus players because we’ve spent four of the past seasons in the Premier League just reinforces my view that more than director has “taken their eye off the financial ball” in the past few seasons.
Nice one James.
I’m almost exactly twice your age but I understand exactly how you feel.
I have followed Norwich City since 1979 and you sir are a real fan. Like you I only think in Green & Yellow, even my spread sheets are the same. I no longer live in Norfolk so i dont get to as many games as i would like but It breaks my heart to see in words what you have said. I hope we all come out of this still as Canaries but it certainly is getting harder. This is the first time I have wanted change so much for this club. It is the only way we will survive.
Absolutely spot on. I already have a season ticket for next season under the 3 year plan, but I’m actively looking to sell it. I’ve just had enough.
Great article say everything most supporters feel at the moment. Delia, MWJ, Moxey read absorb and ignore at your absolute peril.
Excellent article echoes my feelings exactly. Change at the very top is needed asap
Brilliant article. This summed me up to a tee also. My first game was in 69, with my dad who I still go with. My brother attends with us now but if they decide to stop so will I. Previously, under Reorder and Hughton I felt able to see out their time. But now I find I need to persuade myself to go the game. When I don’t go I don’t follow the game by either the radio or twitter anymore. What caused this? For me it has been the slow predictable football but culminated in The Times article.
Spot on James. We all feed on hope. For reasons best known to themselves the current Board do not see fit to offer us any. Lack of a plan or any visible response to downward trajectories (financial and on field) are just insulting to a fan base that is captive from birth and loyal beyond reason. Hope more than results is what keeps our bums on seats. A smart Board would know that and would not invite the reaction if now faces
Absolutely summed up my feelings so well. I want my passion back along with the excitement of going on a Saturday to support my team. Went to my first match in 1960, so now in my 57 the year. Sit in the snakepit and love it….More than I can say about the rest of my club at the moment. I’ve seen it all in the last 56 years but I must say I’ve never felt this way before and I’ve had reasons to and haven’t most of us! My club is stagnating and the stench is now reaching most people’s noses. We need a leader on and off the pitch, to bring back to those feelings which we as fans deserve. Make me smile again!!!
Excellent article.
Sums up how exactly how i now feel. I have been home & away each season & many preseason tours, home & abroad.
After 21 straights years as a ST holder, I walked out the Leeds game with 5 minutes to go and, even when I heard Lafferty equalise from outside the ground, there was no feeling of excitement or joy that we had done so. I havent been back since then, and will into be renewing. i no longer feel any excitement about going. Like you said, I have seen far worse NCFC sides down the years but its seems, for me anyway, that our current situation is now the final straw. The footballing landscape has changed so much recent years but the owners still seem to think the PL is the same as when they took over.
We are all being taken for loyal sheep by those in charge, the recent cup game prices showed that. Im sure the attitude is exatly the same regarding renewed, paying more than many PL teams for Championship football. Im pleased that im not the only one who feels like this & are bailing out before my contempt turns to outright hate. The years of constant missed oppertunites to push on, buying Ashton and Klose in January instead of the summer. Not giving Lambert the money to strengthen, when we were right on the cusp of something even more special than what we had already achieved.
I feel we are heading back down the same road we did in 1995,and for that reason, this time I will not blindly hand over £1000 for my 2 season tickets.
I’m sure you’ve said what a great many other supporters are saying and I’d be AMAZED if there’s a rush of fans renewing their season tickets before the first deadline – there’s just no enjoyment in going any more, other than the odd glimmer of hope – ie the win over Derby.
A couple of months ago, AN had the audacity to accuse some of his players of being ‘arrogant’ – ‘people in glass houses’ immediately comes to mind. He plays the same formation almost without fail – I remember watching us play Swansea away during PL’s time in charge and he changed formation/tactics without making any substitutions. I wouldn’t want him back however.
Surely what’s needed now is for AN (I don’t see him ‘falling on his sword/being sacked worse luck) to drop the likes of RM, Bassong, Whittaker (get rid of them for free to anyone who wants them even) and start playing the likes of Godfrey, Ramsay, Middleton and Maddison – though I expect he’s most likely been told to book his seat on the flight to Aberdeen later this week.
I’m afraid as long as Delia, Michael et al remain in charge at CR, then the 22,000 season ticket holders will be a thing of the past and for me the most annoying thing is that the board have instigated it.
I don’t know what the answer is, as there doesn’t appear to be anyone in any rush to offer to buy out our current owners, but something has to change before we drift back down to League 1 and there will be no McNally/Lambert to rescue the club that flirted with the PL, but could never quite stay there.
What a great article, it sums up so brilliantly what most of us are feeling. I went to my first game in 1975, I still have the Canary program, and I can see our club heading the same way as that lot in Suffolk, mediocre, stale, uninspiring rubbish. I’m sad to say the days of Premier League football for us are going to take a break for quite a while whilst Moxey and Tom (What have you done since your Auntie Delia put you in the board?) are still in charge.
Sad times, and without change throughout it’ll stay this way for years.
Reads like a customer and not a supporter
What a great article I feel exactly the same and will not be renewing as I feel that is the only thing our board will take notice of. The only thing I maybe disagree on is the point of sacking Alex Neil as I feel until we sweep clean the board we will keep making the same mistakes appointing promising young managers who if successful we will not back and they go on to pastures new or are not successful and cost us 2 mill to sack.
Excellent piece James, and sums up my feelings exactly!
Been going to CR since 1975 and for most of the last 25 years as a season ticket holder.
I was so close to not re-newing this season and by god I wish I had gone with my head and not my heart.
But unlike Delia,the cronies and Alex Neil,I do learn from my mistakes and after the last payment goes out next month for this sorry excuse for a season – the direct debit will be cancelled and I’m walking away….
#9
“For me it has been the slow predictable football but culminated in The Times article.”
There’s the crux of the matter. Had they said something for the disillusioned fans to cling to, such as “we’re still waiting for an acceptable offer / the right investment” etc, many would have gritted their teeth and hung on in there.
But to blatantly admit “we don’t even answer the phone to listen to offers – our shares will be handed down to our nephew” is a flying drop kick into the teeth of the ‘best supporters in the world’??
So, the club’s future is already mapped out, then – a slippery slope into oblivion 🙁
What a brilliant article sums up exactly where NCFC are at present already been said “a professional club run by amateurs” I have had a season ticket for over 45 years along with my brother we have tickets also with my son and grandson. We will not be renewing next season which is devastating for all of us as we love the club but unfortunately the present owners along with the board have already ruined any hope of being an established Premier football club we have been promoted to the premiership three times in the last decade and the same mistakes have been repeated time and time again.
NCFC have been my second team since I was 7 and moved to Norfolk.
I went to a lot of games and grounds – and even had some infamy with a 5 foot inflatable crocodile in a norwich away shirt when others had canaries….
But – trust me, once a fan always a fan…. I said Norwich were my second team – for 49 years I have been Leeds through and through…. so I know how it feels!
Forget the corporate stuff – sing with pride and support your team…. make one request of the players – that they believe in and want to play for the shirt… any that don’t, challenge them
Wow you really summed up my mood exactly. I live in Warrington near Liverpool now but still have a season ticket and since 85 have followed Norwich through thick and thin home and away . The fact that I still go to home matches despite living 240 miles away and costs me over £120 a game getting there and back. I have always felt part of a family proud to be from Norwich and of my team. But recently I too for the first time am questioning why am I bothering. My ambitions my comittment leaving at 6/7 in morning getting back 9pm at night spending a fortune just aren’t being matched by the club. They seem a club with no direction, no plan, no leaders off or on the pitch , always selling cheap, no real ambition when it was needed no club communication that doesn’t seem an afterthought. I feel the club are taking the fans for granted. We don’t expect to win every week but I want to be able to trust those in charge and expect a exhaustive plan a b and c expect we punching as hard as we can getting the maximum effort, passion and use of Money. I want to feel we all in it together pushing for same dreams and goals . I want to be proud of my team and club again Something is rotten in Norwich City and it needs to change…
This is the best article I’ve read about the current situation. As I see it, three blokes were here who thought that the club could be better than Delia thought it, and one of them is coming back on Saturday. Right now there is no-one inside Carrow Road who has any ambitions like those Lambert, McNally and Holt had in 2009. We have a group of players who, Howson and Wes aside, think that they are doing us a favour just by being here, a defeated manager who is holding out for his cheque, and a board who think they are doing a great job on account of the fact that they are not Venkys or the Oystons. It is rotten to the core and it is clearout time in every area.
An excellent, well written piece, like so many others it sums up my feelings so well. The desperation of the situation for me is that AN going will make no difference. He will be replaced, but I have no confidence in the Board’s ability to appoint well- they have fallen over so many times in the past. All of the football business-expertise at the Club has gone (Moxey’s record at WW was less than impressive) and DS/MWJ have made it plainly clear that bumping along in the Championship (… at best) is where they see NCFC’s future. The Times interview has done massive, massive damage to the Club- why would anyone with ambition stay at, or want to come to Norwich? All we have to look forward to is frustrating years whilst the Smiths slowly come to the realisation their time is up, with the associated fan unrest in the meantime.
I feel exactly the same, I had lost patience with this Board many years ago, Bowkett & McNally took us in a new direction, a competitive direction, one where we became competitive on and off the football pitch, since their departure we have returned to Delia’s model of a football club, nice, cosy and unambitious. I go for one reason the Pub my brother and friends, the football is incidental. We had an opportunity to become an established Premier Club and I am sure would have had interest from potential buyers, but no, our shareholders who care nothing about us fans continue to live in a time warp. Such a waste for all of us & I am bored of the line ”we are just custodians of this Club for our wonderful fans”.
I just can not understand why Delia/Michael don’t say something. Are they content to sit back and watch City’s support haemorrhaging away? Why don’t they call a news conference to try to explain the Times interview. I know, as a retired journalist, that newspaper stories don’t always accurately reflect what someone means. Do they really stand by their quotes? Or don’t they have the courage to face their critics?
It was a 700-mile round trip from my home in Cornwall to Barnsley. I couldn’t bring myself to make the trek to Rotherham. Not sure what to do with my ‘away’ season ticket now…..
What a fantastic article, and perfectly sums up how most of us are feeling. Both my son and I have had season tickets for 20 years and gave both said that we are no longer angry, just very sad and disallusioned about what has happened to our great club. For me AN should have been sacked at the end of last season, as the football was awful which saw us relegated with hardly a wimper.
Unfortunately, this piece of over-emotional claptrap is so typical of the so many fans these days. It reeks of entitlement and rights, as if we are anything more than fans…but that is all we are fans, not jilted lovers 🙂 That said, maybe a separation is what you need mate. (blocked)
I was in Amsterdam for the Rotherham defeat, which was of course was all too predictable. Whilst there I suffered the unfortunate event of having my luggage stolen – contained within we’re my city replica shirt, a city jumper that was bought as a Christmas present, and my city scarf and hat which I’ve had for 20 years. My reaction “oh well the travel insurance will cover it”. I found myself thinking about this reaction to losing two articles that have represented the last 20 years of supporting city and your article sums up everything and more that went through my mind. We are indeed entering into a dark period but f&@k me we shouldn’t be!!!!!
What a fantastic article and perfectly sums up how most of us are feeling at the moment. Both my son and I have had our season tickets for 20 years, and we no longer feel angry about the situation, just sad and disalusioned. In my opinion AN should have been sacked at the end of las season as the football was awful which led to us being relegated with hardly a whimper.
7 hour round trip for me to games, spend hundreds a year on petrol, go to about a third of away games and for the first time I have no idea why.
For me AN should have been sacked in the summer. McNally was a fool for guaranteeing him his job irrespective of results. Nothing about this season has been a surprise to me.
Desperate times.
Sometimes the comments say it all.
This article struck a chord, with others and with me. An awful situation, brilliantly described.
There are just too many of us feel like this for it to recover any time soon, which is very sad indeed.
Footballing success is cyclical at any level and we are headed back to the starting point of our circle (with no better way to confirm it than via the man who took us all the way to the top of it this weekend).
It’s just galling we had the opportunity to ‘do a Stoke’ and Delia and Co. totally fluffed it – they’re still fluffing it now and the season isn’t even over! It’s beyond insanity. It’s unforgivable.
The line about not selling in the interview you mention, or not even being open to offers, is what I find most distasteful and totally out of line (and I find it more disgraceful that fans and journos were saying, “Well, it’s their club and we have to accept they won’t sell” – it’s unreal how weak some people are as we don’t have to accept anything).
It proves Delia treats this club as her play thing, her way of hanging on to fame (which I know from personal experience means A LOT to her) and she’s damaged everything. The club, her legacy and her fame.
What a spot on, well written article. Been a fan since 1973 and I agree with everything you have said, have never felt this disenchanted with our club. Like you I will never stop caring but doubt I will ever the feel the same old passion for the club as I once did. Unless something changes at board level I can’t see it getting better before it gets worse.
I feel for you in writing this and for all trhe fans who have commented. I set foot in Carrow Road a wide over excited 10 year old in 1961/62 and been going ever since. Stood arm in arm with other against Chase helped organise the Worthy Out campaign and wanted to carry on until The Cook had gone. So I know how you all feel. It is ruddy horrible, Norwich City is a kind of religion and one I was once happy to partake it.
But after the 2nd season of Hughton reign< I took a gamble and wrote to the club expressing my concerns and fears. And giving back my season ticket with still games to go.
I said it back then and will say it again, This football club will never amount to anything under this ownership. O for another Geoffrey Watling
I remember several years ago, Delia wanted to model the club on another, that she regarded as the perfect family club. That club was Charlton Athletic, and we’re now heading for the same obscurity that they find themselves in. Time to wake up, Delia – in your own words, “let’s be having you”.
I’ve resisted calls for her to sell in the past, because of the Venkeys and Marcus Evans, and the way their clubs have gone, but now I can’t see we’d be any worse off.
Delia, do you hate nephew Tom so much that you’re lumbering him with this millstone? Do him, yourself, and “the best supporters in the land” (your definition) a favour, and make the big decisions to keep this club alive – in the short term, change the manager, and in the (slightly) longer term, pick up the phone and listen to those offers. I’m sure Tom would be just as happy if you just left him your money, and not this poisoned chalice.
Although I understand why this article was written, I agree with martin, it was from a customers viewpoint and not a supporter. Things are frustrating but you should know by now, a love affair with NCFC is like any long term relationship….you have to take the rough with the smooth. I too am deeply disturbed about certain goings on at the carra, but I will turn up and cheer them on when it comes to 3pm
Great article- I did it last week after 23yearsa season ticket holder I walked away with my head held high.I wrote to the club explaining how exploited I felt.The two interviews I heard from Bassong and the chairman was the icing on the cake.I decided they had a captive audience ,26,000 or so loyal season ticket holders .The threat was that of you will never get another one! I will but when the club learns you cant exploit the working man .The only way this club will change is the supporters walking on mass.A new board would surly follow that would be hungry to win and expand our fantastic club.Until that day I will watch on my new 42′ TV i bought with the season ticket saving at least I can turn over when they play Crap.
The club and radio have it monopolised to a fine art .Any comment made against the establishment is treated with contempt.it is a circus I no longer wish to take part in after 21years.Get it up ya Board you ruined football for me!
This is horrible but…..I’m a Norwich supporter of 50+ years and I’ve been here loads of times before! The awfulness of the past fades while the current frustrations are immediate. The end of Worthy, the end of Roeder, humiliation at the hands of Colchester, the end of Hughton….they all felt like this! Have some pity for the poor blighters down the road who’ve had 10+ years of worse than this! I’m depressed, unhappy, frustrated just like I always am when things get like this. Just wish they would put poor Alex Neil out of his misery and get someone else in who can stick a bomb under our squad of lethargic, underperforming players.
I have to say I feel very sorry for Delia. Whatever she has done for this club, and she has done far more good than harm, she has always done it with the best of intentions. You’re hurting, we all are, but I’m sure she’s hurting too, and it will hurt even more when she has to walk away.
I don’t know what’s going through her mind right now, she may be tempted to quit but doesn’t want to leave on a sour note. Who knows? But she should be mindful that these dark times are tainting her legacy. I think that’s sad.
But it’s widely accepted that we stuck with Chris Hughton for too long. He achieved just 3 wins in his last 20 games. Alex Neil’s record is now very similar, but in a lower league, and without a season of Premier League survival on his CV. There are no excuses for keeping him.
Great article. All I’d say is that some of us have been seeing and talking about this decline for years and have been roundly chastised / mocked for it. The situation is grim, but it didn’t happen overnight and won’t correct itself quickly either.
James-that article encapsulates my feelings exactly.The sad thing is that our Owners seem blissfully unaware that a large part of the fanbase feel as you and I do.
Football fans thrive on hope and expectation.We have neither at present.
Until this Club appoints someone in Authority who understands this I’m on my way.
Thanks for summarising my feelings so well.
#36 – that’s because we have been moulded into customers by the board.
You do not get to define what a supporter is. This man is far more of a supporter than you will ever be, turning up and clapping your way to footballing oblivion.
#40 – Unreal. Delia is making everyone suffer, not the other way around.
Wow,this is the most on point article i have read.
So, so spot on.
The club feels dead to me. Sadly……
Never have I felt this despondent , there is no passion amongst the players or management .My wife and I have followed the Canaries up and down the leagues for years ,have been to the far north and south to see them play . But enough is enough it has become clear that the board take us for mugs , we aren’t stupid as fans we understand football and it is plain to see players are just a money making commodity .We have sold good players that are still scoring for their new clubs , yet we have only a couple who seem to know where the net is .A silent departure at halftime at the next sub standard performance would make the board sit up and notice .
The best article to grace these pages to date. Brilliant.
Spot on and worthy of publishing in the EDP / EEN. What about it Gary? This strength of feeling needs to be heard at higher level.
Excellent James… well said. I would very much agree if I had invested as much as you had.
Being Norwich born, who left Norwich at age 4 and the UK at age 10… all I know give is my time, mostly in the middle of the night here in Victoria, Australia.
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..So I understand because this is how I feel now and it, finacially costs me nothing.
Shame the powers to be cant see their incompetance, as for the players, earn your money or fornicate away
Spot on in every respect & many loyal supporters feeling the same way, I hear it all the time & this board has to listen or we risk going back to the eighties with gates of 14,000.
I have been going since the 59 cup run, but no more until I see some real loyalty to the fans.
There is a big problem at the club at present & unless the board come up with the solution then they are part of the problem
The brains trust running down the club have just hawked the clubs only left back. Without a replacement ready to start the next game. Moronic beyond belief and completely unfit to be in charge of a football club.
The season ticket prices are pegged at premier league levels for next season, probably a hasty decision based on the realisation that the garbage they serve up is overpriced beyond all reason.
Total shower.
Cracking article and like many have said, it reflects my views perfectly. Unfortunately by appointing Ed Balls (and Stephen Fry before him) to our board it clearly demonstrates that they are obsessed with celebrity and if anyone can tell me exactly what the aforementioned have brought to the club then please do. I’ve been going since 1962 and also take in some away games as well, I was at Rotherham and boy am I jarred off with the whole thing. The club appears rotten to the core at the moment which is so so sad to watch.
I’m not one for booing or protesting normally but when the chants of ‘There’s only one Paul Lambert’ start ringing out on Saturday as they surely will, I’m going to join in because I can’t just sit there and watch my club being destroyed in this way.
I gave up my season ticket in 2000 because I moved away. I hated it. I would love to be able to go to games again but life, children, distance and well money have meant I get 2 3 games a season if i am lucky. To contemplate giving up a ticket to the club is a horrible feeling, but the board have generated apathy and that’s worse. Neil is a symptom not the cause of the problem. Every attempt to engage of late seems to fail (Telegrapgh, Moxey’s no press interviews, FA Cup Gate) even the supporters groups meeting had Robin Sainty telling us the board felt there was no disconnect. I would never advise someone to keep or return their ticket, I’d not welcome the advice either. But how we get change is going to be generation defining for the club…. and I’m afraid that we’ll be back to 2000 and 18k attendances, poor football and Bruce Rioch…..
I was in the process of drafting a response to the club after the season ticket renewal e mail dropped into my inbox along the same lines. This piece reflects most of the feelings I have had over the past couple of months. I am a supporter since 1975 and a season ticket holder since the late 80’s. I have enjoyed some great games and also wallowed in some of the lower moments. I consider myself a supporter and a customer (as im struggling to see how it is possible to be one without being the other) Im a football nut and love the game and my local team but sadly have come to the same decision as James and others who have commented. Its a combination of all the things mentioned but with the added ingredient of no hope of change and owners who I have defended for years who don’t seem to want to listen. The saddest feeling that I have is that I don’t really care any more. I accepted Saturdays defeat with almost a sense on inevitability about it. an Excellent article James and think it deserves a place in the local paper.
Wow, of 52 and counting comments only 3 or 4 that either disagree or aren’t quite to this level of disallusionment yet. (I’m there too). For those thinking of chanting “one Paul Lambert”, OK fair enough he did very well for us but left under a cloud I think that Delia will maybe be able to ignore that or tell her Mum its nothing, maybe we could be more direct.
It feels like a tipping point of discord right now. Our board have Ballsed up our chances at establishing ourselves in the PL with repeated incompetence. Until now they have escaped a lot of criticism or ill will, inspite of their incompetence. With the managers getting the flak and eventually and too late being sacked.
Time for them to realise that they are the problem. We need professionals like Bowcett and McNally not a circus and nepotism.
I just hope that someone in the club is monitoring the press, because the club should surely be in full on crisis meetings following all recent press and social media around the club. But this article and the chord its struck should have a profound effect at boardroom level, but I suspect the arrogant, aloof boardroom bunch are stuck so far up their own posteriors that they won’t even notice as the club crumbles.
But lets not forget their detailed plan – Promotion, promotion, promotion!
Bah!
As already stated, quite possibly the best article ever published on MFW.
I fear that the loudest chants of the season will be on Saturday – and only to laud Mr Lambert.
If only our current manager/squad had half of his drive and determination!
This should be front, back, middle pages plus the weekend supplement for every Archant publication and read out in full on Radio Norfolk on the hour for at least a week. It deserves the widest possible circulation as it is the best overall summary of the current malaise at our club I have read.
I make no bones about saying that I want Delia out. The public need to realise that her approach to the modern game is at such odds with the fans that the club, which I previously thought was yo-yo is now only heading in one direction, the direction a yo-yo takes when the string breaks.
I started going to the Carra in 71, and after not having anyone to take me between ages 10-15 since then I have been a pretty much permanent fixture despite living and working in London area for the last 30+ years. I worked out that I think I have laid down over 100k miles just getting to home games.
So when James and others such as myself are considering sacrificing one of the most important things in our lives the club really does have it wrong.
AN, Moxey, Balls, Trainee Tom are all but a sideshow. Delia and MWJ hold the key to that future. Until they are gone, and hope is restored, even if it means a further dip, I will have to resign myself to away fixtures and following from afar.
It’s going to hurt like hell, but I have to be true to myself – for once. My only solice is good health providing, that it won’t be forever. Whoever, if anyone, gets my seat, take good care of her, she’s been pretty good to me.
I’m no psychologist and I hope I won’t regret the next sentence, but aren’t we all just a little bit tired with it all? By my calculation this is the first season in 10 years that (seemingly and without wanting to tempt fate) we’ve not had anything to play for by mid-season. That’s the feeling that the supporters of most clubs have. Maybe that’s why there are so many empty seats at other grounds across the country.
Personally, while I still love my football club, I fell out of love with football as a sport when the Premier League really kicked in (circa late 1990s/early 2000s). And now it’s blindingly obvious that unless you’ve got a wealthy benefactor, you cannot get to the Premier League and stay there for any length of time, on sheer team spirit alone. It’s no fun. Mike Walker’s Norwich, Graham Taylor’s Watford and Dave Bassett’s Wimbledon can’t be done anymore.
It’s not Delia or Michael’s fault that they’re not wealthy enough. I for one appreciate everything that they’ve done for the club and am grateful for every penny of their own money that they’ve put in. And therefore, I think that the level of the current criticism of them is unfair. I for one do not want the club being sold off to the highest bidder or to those promising the earth.
I know I have a contrary opinion on these things to the majority – I got that message when I was criticised for clapping at the end of the game on Saturday. As a fan, I thought the effort and application displayed was worthy of applause, in trying circumstances. Others didn’t. But I certainly didn’t see a team that wasn’t playing for the manager.
And yes, I’ve been a fan and shareholder for a very long time too. Favourite manager? Ken Brown. Twice relegated. Twice promoted. A Wembley win. And laid the foundations for the late 80s/early 90s success. Can you imagine another manager being given 7 years and two relegations?
Toodle-pip.
So there you have it. A clear, passionate expression of frustration from a caring, thinking supporter prompts a flood of confirmation from similar sufferers. I say again, lack of apparent response to our downward spiral is the issue. Ed, Delia, Moxey,somebody.feed us some hope!!!!!
Sincere article, but disproportionate in my view. Being middle of the 2nd Tier is not a disaster. Its part of the ebb and flow of sport, and those who have experienced harder times than us (i.e the majority of clubs) will be puzzled by this over reaction. At times I think people just tire of going to football, and rationalise it by adding on principles which in reality are not as important as their practical reasons for staying away.
It certainly isn’t the owners fault that they are not wealthy enough to adequately,run a football club of the size of Norwich city. What is very much their fault is the obstinate refusal to look for somebody who is wealthy enough in order to keep their toy to themselves and assorted family and pals.
I love this notion that there are hundreds of oligarchs just waiting to ‘invest’ their money in a midsized English football club. And that they’re all lovely and only concerned to see whats best for the club.
Yes there are lots of models to this investment, but what I find fascinating is that fans are actually calling for ‘investment’ to allow the club to almost certainly live beyond its means.
62; Is this purely about finances though? How about the fact they repeatedly make errors in the boardroom? Regardless of the fact they are ‘poor’ millionaires, shouldn’t that be of huge concern? They’ve had 20 years – that’s a hell of a long time to own a club these days. They are very fortunate that AB and DM turned up when they did, else we’d be in League 1, 2, or even worse – not here at all. The club is stale and needs a change at the top. They don’t need to be an oligarch – they just need to show some ambition to be better than Delia and Michael want us to be.
James (63): I won’t push back on much of your great article and the outstanding discussion.
But Delia and Michael were not “very fortunate that AB and DM turned up when they did”. They were specifically appointed by D & M to fill gaps where they acknowledged their own skills and judgement were lacking.
A little credit’s due there.
Stewart, they also gleefully accepted his resignation and replaced him with Jez Moxey.
Yes James, but that’s the job of the professional team that they appoint. Owners don’t always know how to run a football club, that’s for the specialists. They do need better advice though.
I’m no fan of Neil Doncaster but he wasn’t the disaster that everyone thinks. He kept the wolf from the door, facilitated a play off final and promotion to the Premier League. And attendances grew.
Moxey has been in post for 6 months. In any organisation I’ve worked in, it takes a CEO about 12 months to have an impact. And he has an inexperienced chairman to work with.
McNally and Bowkett were critically important in the turn around of the club, but they also kept a tight grip on the purse strings. For absolutely the right reasons. But we’re in danger of relying on rose tinted specs here.
Yes, they’ve owned the club for 20 years and we’ve had high drama in about 12 of those years. Both good and bad. I think we need to be very careful what we wish for when it comes to future ownership.
What a very well written and oh so true. I have also been a fanatical supporter of Norwich for over 50 years and unfortunately I cannot bring myself to renewing my season ticket in the lower Barclay for next season. It has become painful travelling from St.Neots week in week out to watch more often than not, inept performances. So, so sad!
64) Stewart – having appointed McNally & Bowkett (remember that the latter only came about after a protest letter from him and another Associate Director – you have to wonder if the subsequent incarnations – Balls & Moxey – will be anywhere near as successful? Time will tell but both have tough acts to follow IMHO.
64; As I alluded to in the article, I meant they were incredibly fortunate that it worked out the way it did! They just got lucky by finally make the right appointments. Unfortunately they get most appointments wrong.
Gary (69): Agree with all that
60) Michael Corbs – in the grand scheme of things, I agree, City have been in bad situations before.
This time there’s a BIG but, because the numbers involved are so much greater. Even though we have the comfort of parachute payments this season and next, the cash burn off the back of last season’s Premier League spend is probably still too high. I genuinely don’t think this has been fully grasped yet – some even seem in denial.
Debt free is likely to disappear very quickly, if it hasn’t already, and then there’s the question of whether we can recover the position, as the Club will have to operate on a lower cost base.
Let’s hope this doesn’t happen – for all concerned.