Oh well, that’s done and dusted then. And yes, we will be playing them again next season.
Probably with the same manager, one or two players we would all rather were not here, a massively-reduced budget and an intransigent lady in Stowmarket whose FIFO attitude will remain.
Please Google ‘FIFO’ if you need to, suffice to say that those who don’t FI are forced to be FO – Messrs McNally, Bowkett and even Moxey are prime examples.
Tom Smith is the ultimate FI. It’s logical that he would be, really. Yes, we should give him a chance; perhaps there is more to him than any of us realise. I cannot think of anything just now, but the proof will be in the pudding – maybe that amazing one or whatever it was that saw everybody from Lidl to Fortnum and Mason bereft of cranberries at Christmas in a year I fail to remember.
My favourite moment of yesterday’s match was obviously Jacob’s goal, but while it made me smile, another incident gave me a real belly laugh.
As anyone who was there will know, two rather unpleasant-looking ‘Binners’ decided to jump the barriers. The stewards did their job, the police did the rest.
I sincerely hope the idiot who decided to thrash around like a wounded shark gets done for resisting arrest as well as the usual charge. There is ample evidence on camera and 27,000 witnesses, 2,000-ish of whom might not be willingly forthcoming with statements.
On the subject of law and order, whoever was in charge of policing the ground and its immediate environs had issued a dictat that supporters of both clubs should not be afraid to ask for selfies with officers. Oh, how well that turned out.
As I was passing the Iceni, an obviously inebriated and extremely scrawny Ipswich fan decided he’d put this to the test. He went up to two cops, one the height of Mitchell Dijks and the other, much shorter, who was built like Ricky Hatton in his prime.
He asked for said selfie, and I’d better paraphrase the response. It went something like: “We’ve not been told about it and I don’t really want my picture taken with you”.
His mate chimed in with: “I only have to give you my service number, not a picture”.
A couple of the Ipswich lad’s mates egged him on (they had obviously dared him to do it for a bet) and the boys in blue and dayglo eventually relented. The expressions on their faces had to be seen to be believed.
Seeing I was stood there grinning, the tall one came over to tell me that if I wanted a laugh I should try the cinema. I said the policy announcement was all over the press and if their duty sergeant or whoever hadn’t told them it wasn’t really the Ipswich fan’s fault.
We ended up having a decent chat – they weren’t on overtime whereas some of their colleagues were and that’s why ‘embrace a Binman’ didn’t go down too well with them.
And as for four police officers in Morrisons, well the mind boggles. I wanted to ask them where the pastrami was, but quickly realised it wasn’t worth missing the match for asking an insolent question.
The Ed Sheeran situation was funny too in its way. I’ve stood and sat with friends at Arsenal, Brighton and Boro in their areas, but I would never do that at Ipswich. That is beyond contemplation. Plus I don’t have a death wish.
As for the flare, whoopee-doo. Hope they found who did it and took the appropriate action.
Yes, I also heard the lady on Canary Call who suggested it was in our own best interests that we should remain in the Championship. One wag on a message board elsewhere suggested it was a Ms D. Smith from Stowmarket who had received the benefit of voice training to disguise her usual tones.
Iwan’s comments on that show were rather more interesting.
A hard rock band I used to quite like called UFO had a song called Rock Bottom. Singer Phil Mogg stretched out the line “Where do we go from here” for an eternity, before Michael Schenker cut in with one of the best elongated solos I’ve ever heard.
So, where do we go from here?
To me, and this is only my opinion after all, the stumbling block is Delia.
Next season is surely our last realistic tilt at the Premier League in the foreseable future. But if Alex Neil is still in charge – which with Delia at the helm he doubtless will be – what will be different to this season?
We have few players up for the Championship grind. Wildschut, Naismith and Pritchard have collectively cost us £25 million. Matt Jarvis (remember him?) a conservative £4 million. And what value have we had from any of them?
The money is about to run out. The excellent Mitchell Dijks is highly unlikely to be here next season, and the admirable loyalty of the Murphy brothers (particularly Jacob, who gave a fantastic radio interview yesterday) is bound to be tested in the close season. There will be offers coming in.
Should either brother leave, they would go with my very best wishes. I’d love to see one or both push on in the Premier League, I really would.
To answer my own question, I see us going nowhere upwards fast. Even when Delia does decide to call it a day (a life vice-presidency and a cornucopia of hospitality awaits) we will have Tom.
But, as I said previously, he must be given a chance. The book must not be judged by the cover.
We did not miss out on promotion with a brace of 1-1s with Ipswich.
We missed out because of the stubborn nature of somebody who could have been on a par with Julian of Norwich in the eyes of the supporters. But mucked up big time.
Round of applause that man. Amusing, painful and factual. I know you tried to soften it with, ‘Tom must be given a chance’ but it’s not going to get any better. If he has any sense of what’s happening, he will take the reins and sell…quick sharp. The longer he leaves it the more Ipswich we become. D has ruined every opportunity we have had and it’s some he rescued the family name.
Where do we go from here? – we carry on with Delia at the helm, with A. Neil in his supporting role, and look forward to another season (or two) in the Championship. Because even without those two in their prominent positions, I feel sure we would´ve shown ourselves totally incapable of reaching the sort of levels one has to, even in this division, to match the best.
We came down with far too high opinions of ourselves, which are now biting us in the bum, whatever happens from here on in, I´m afraid will be too little too late. Let Neil carry on with building a young, hungry squad for the future, get rid of all the old wood, and see where it takes us, it certainly can´t be any more disappointing and frustrating than this season has been.
Aside from the anecdotes, an understandably down-beat column.
I’ll have a few things to say in my column tomorrow, but just two observations here:
. It was said in politics that if everyone in the country could meet John Major, they’d never vote for anyone else. I’ve met Tom (he turned up, without fanfare, to the recent Canaries Trust meeting) and wish all Norwich fans could. Ultimately I don’t know the best way forward for the club, but Tom has the kind of quiet authority (to go with his obvious dedication to City) that characterised the best managers I came across in business.
. I guess it’s natural, after two first-attempt promotions to the Premier League, that we should be downhearted at the prospect of failing to make it three. If that’s the case – which it still might not be – then there’ll be plenty to discuss. Openly and sensibly, I hope, both from fans and the Board.
Does seem a total void at the top now. Ed Balls pocketed a cool £90K for a bit of work in the summer when he was at a loose end before becoming a full-time Showbiz Celebrity.
The long-term replacement of Moxey (who for all we know may have been the only one who dare disagree with Delia) does not appear to be high on the agenda.
Where do we go from here? Bumbling along in Championship mid-table, selling off our best players to make ends meet.
Martin – I guess that the time for post mortums is when the season is “over”. Whether that’s next week or some time in May, time will tell.
The argument that promotion isn’t possible without cash is, of course, one that is frequently raised. However, recent history suggests that for every Newcastle, there’s a Norwich and a Villa making a complete fist of it. Additionally, there’s the likes of Leeds, Huddersfield and Reading, all capable of being promoted without parachute payments.
“Next season is surely our last realistic tilt at the Premier League in the foreseable future”
What absolute nonsense. If that’s the case then all the other clubs who have come down and failed to go straight back up in recent years may as well give up too.
Have a look at who is in the top 6; only one of them is clutching a parachute, and they were relegated with a wage budget and squad that should have been mid-table in the Premier League at least.
You want to blame it all on the perceived stubbornness of the owners? Fine. Presumably by that you mean their unwillingness to sell.
That debate has been running for months and I still haven’t seen a rational or plausible suggestion from anyone who writes articles on here as to how they should go about selling the club, to whom they should sell it, and what the new owners would be likely to be capable of achieving.
That’s quite a glib column, if you don’t mind me saying so, Martin (anecdotes aside). Apart from picking a few transfers that haven’t borne too much fruit (yet, certainly in the case of Pritchard, and in the case of Jarvis by way of injury) you don’t really say much about how Delia (let’s not forget that her husband is also a majority shareholder) ‘mucked up’ (implication that AN should’ve been sacked notwithstanding).
Would you care to explain a bit more? You’ve strongly implied in other articles that the preference amongst the ownership would be to stay in the Championship, in which case it’s a job well done. We’re about as far from the drop-zone as we could be without threatening promotion.
P.S. I like the fact that it’s not all relentless positivity on this site, and I’d quite like to see you and Stewart exchanging views in full flow 😉
P.P.S. I’d love to have seen the ‘exchange’ between the copper and the exuberant fan.
Thanks, Ben K #7.
It’s a joy of this site that we have robust discussion, including good arguments from many sides, without getting abusive or unfriendly.
I suspect it’ll continue with my piece tomorrow…
Yes Stewart (8), we do have robust discussion, which generally remains friendly amongst ourselves. We do though also have a fair amount of opinion presented as fact.
It is certainly a fact that Delia made clear in her Times interview that she is not always enamoured with the way things are run in the Premier League – a view I believe a lot of fans can empathise with, including many of those whose clubs are there pretty well permanently.
However from that observation the conclusion seems to have been drawn that she wants us to remain in the Championship. I don’t believe that’s how she thinks – if that really were the situation then we wouldn’t be continually splashing the cash on a range of players such as Naismith, Pritchard and Wildschut. She could have instructed Steve Stone to cash in on Brady, Olsson and Klose in the summer, as well as Redmond, and put the money into something else.
Pab (4) comments “The long-term replacement of Moxey (who for all we know may have been the only one who dare disagree with Delia) does not appear to be high on the agenda.” Unless you have inside information that’s pure conjecture. I would be astonished if that’s true, and I certainly hope it’s completely wrong.
There has only been one extended period in Delia’s ownership when we have continuing success on the field, and that is the same period in which McNally was CEO. It’s no coincidence, and finding someone as capable as him has to be the top priority.
@1 Jeff, sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but Delia and Michael have already indicated that Tom won’t be able to sell – the shares would be within a Trust
I’m just so impressed with all the detailed insider information that the contributors have: who decides who spends how much on anything; who hires and fires CEO’s; the personalities of all involved.
I guess I’m just jealous.
Hope I’m wrong, but I feel that we missed our opportunity to establish ourselves in the PL while we were there. On the face of it the Board thought too small. Understandable in some ways after near bankruptcy not that long ago. If we get promoted again (and it would be a major surprise if it happened this year) then we need to look for outside investment. I’m not saying Delia should sell, but she should be prepared to to invite 45-50% investment to the right person/organisation. The club has huge potential – a large catchment and could, if we were to establish ourselves in the PL, get crowds of 40,000, but it needs more investment to get into that position. It’s clear that Delia and Michael don’t like the people/organisations running the majority of PL clubs (and who can blame her – Middle East human rights abusers, Russian oligarchs, Hedge fund bosses who don’t pay tax here etc), but I don’t believe that she wants to languish in the lower leagues and the Championship. We need outside help and investment to get back up and stay there.
It is easy to speculate on what Delia has in mind as we move forward and perhaps that is the nub of the problem. Her communication with the fans is non existent and in the absence of any facts speculation will be rife. I am surprised that someone in her position does not take some public relations advice. However what is not at issue here is that the failure to replace this failing manager has cost us our premiership place and now our chance to return at the first attempt. If she really cares about the club she should act now and give any replacement the opportunity to build for the next season.
Thanks all for your comments.
#1 Jeff: Yours and to a milder extent mine might not be generally popular opinions, but I rarely disagree with you.
#2 George: You’re pretty much on the money, I’d say.
#4 pab: You’re on the money too.
#5 Gary: Yes, you make a fair point but the parachute money surely helps. All I would say is that the post mortem should indeed begin now – we ain’t going nowhere this season.
#6 Keith B: Any writer is severely limited in what they can or cannot say about the current owners. And so should we be. We don’t know what the lady really thinks, of course we don’t.
#7 Ben K: Fantastic comment and I’ll respond as best as I feel I am able to. I’m not here as a pre-planned negative input btw – all the MFW writers are allowed the freedom to say what they think, which is one of the reasons it’s such a great site.
Firstly, whatever I may or may not have heard about the Smith regime and the succession planning has to remain with me.
I may have heard, or been told, x y or z, but I cannot put any of that into the public arena. It could all be totally wrong, and I wouldn’t wish to embarrass myself or (more importantly) MFW because that’s not what we’re about.
Lastly, I have never met Stewart Lewis, but he is a fantastic writer whose opinions happen to be rather different to mine when it comes to NCFC.
Stewart knows his politics; I know my heavy metal.
He made a great comment about John Major: I would only add that I am utterly apolitical in real life but I have met Norman Lamb, Clive Lewis and Chloe Smith. One of the three impressed me greatly – the other two otherwise. That’s how Stewart gets our readers to think:-)
I’d only go head-to-head with Stewart if we were discussing heavy metal guitarists – he’d wipe the proverbial floor with me otherwise:-)
Martin #16: I very much hope we’ll meet at some point. I trust we share a taste for beer & good conversation, as well as writing for this site.
My forthcoming article will underline the current differences between us on NCFC – but I don’t think either of us has a problem with that. Not sure I could wipe the floor with you on much, though possibly Wagner (the opera man rather than Huddersfield’s manager).
My appreciation of guitarists pretty much ends with Dave Gilmour, so I’ll give you that one!
Re Keith B (#9)
Interesting you mention the appointment of David McNally as the pinnacle (so far?) of Delia’s stewardship of the club. He devised, implemented and in many ways over-achieved with his ‘seven year plan’ for the growth and development of the club.
Offered the same blank canvas on which to go to work, his successor, Jez Moxey also devised a plan – it involved repeating the word ‘promotion’ three times. Banal and even childish, and chalk and cheese compared to his excellent predecessor.
#12 Paul Harley – Just to pick up on a point. Personally I do think Delia would rather we languish in the second tier. They, the shareholders, have tasted life in the PL twice in recent years, and squandered both opportunities through under investment and indecision. Whether Delia and co. like it or not, success in the PL requires money, lots of it, as well as a hard-nosed ruthless approach to running the club. The current shareholders have neither the former nor appetite for the latter – and both go against Delia’s evident socialistic values in any case.
#19 Jonny: that’s a fantastic post, particularly your final sentence.
I have personal values too, but I would never bring them to the table at NCFC.
Good on you.