“Impatience can cause wise people to do foolish things.”
― Janette Oke
I stumbled across this quote the other day and instantly drew parallels to Norwich City.
The current calls for patience from the more measured amongst us who are prepared to give the current set-up the time it deserves, aimed at those (like myself) who are getting frustrated with watching the slow progress of our ‘work in progress’.
Whilst not naturally blessed with either patience or wisdom, I do understand that to abandon the masterplan at this stage would be extremely foolish.
It’s like trying to mow the lawn, five minutes after laying the grass seed and then saying “stuff it, I’ll have a patio instead”.
Some of City’s performances this season have had all the entertainment value of watching grass grow, but last Saturday’s victory over Villa might just represent a few green shoots emerging.
Next season will be my 40th of going to Carrow Road.
Over the first 29, I saw City get relegated four times and promoted three times.
The following ten (including this one) have seen three promotions and three relegations.
Across the last decade, we’ve become accustomed to battling at one end of the table or the other. It’s exciting. It’s addictive. And there is a generation of City supporters who know nothing else.
It’s little wonder therefore that some feel despondent after two years of mid-table mediocrity and having ‘nothing to play for’.
This isn’t what football’s about, right?
But it was.
When reminiscing about the past, I’m always reminded of Monty Python’s ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch.
Those of a similar vintage may remember it, but it’s true that “when I were a lad”, things were very different.
There was no internet to immerse yourself in the latest comings and goings. I was reliant on MFW’s very own Rick Waghorn and waiting for Dad to nip down to the newsagents for a copy of the ‘original’ Pink ‘Un on a Saturday evening.
No such thing as Sky Sports and their 24-hour coverage spanning umpteen channels. The launch of Channel 4 in 1982 brought the sum total of channels up to… (you guessed it). I still remember our first television that came with a remote control and the wonderment of changing channels without having to haul your backside off the sofa.
No mobile phones with their sports apps. Ceefax page 302 was the place to go to for latest scores and football news and waiting for its pages to scroll around.
No Twitter. The only means of gauging the prevailing mood of the fanbase was at the matches and hearing the blokes behind me shout “thass a load of rubbish, buh”.
Over time, we have become a society which expects things instantly and exactly to our liking.
Where we complain if we ‘can’t get a signal’ or the WiFi is too slow.
Where we watch sport ‘on demand’ and can pause, play and rewind as we see fit and from all manner of camera angles.
A society where we converse, argue and make ‘friends’ with people on social media that we’ve never met face to face. Follow, block and mute to tailor the content on our timelines to mirror our way of thinking.
It’s a mentality which spans all aspects of life, including football.
Despite what Sky would like you to believe, football wasn’t invented with the birth of the ‘Premiership’ in 1992, and it remains the same game of 11 v 11 with a goal at each end.
What has changed is the amount of money that has flooded into the top tier. Huge media deals have upped the ante and attracted further investment from millionaire owners.
Demands and expectations are at an all-time high.
We want success and we want it now.
It’s why so many managers are given their P45s after a string of bad results. And why so many promising youngsters struggle to make the transition from the elite club’s academies into their first-team squads.
Why take a chance and the time developing your own talent when you can throw cash at the finished articles and ready-made alternatives?
City’s slow-burning, self-funding, sustainable approach flies in the face of all that. It takes time and patience; things that are in such short supply in today’s society.
Some supporters applaud the approach and have bought into the long-term aspirations.
Others demand a quick fix. If the current regime can’t deliver instant success, then replace it with one that can.
When it comes to the latter, I’m as guilty as anyone. The sort of person who pays the premium for next day delivery or priority boarding, and overly uses the phrase ‘life’s too short’.
Despite, or maybe because, I’ve watched so many seasons of mediocrity in the second flight, the prospect of ‘watching the grass grow’ and writing off the next couple of seasons is not particularly appealing.
There is no right or wrong, but as I started this piece with a quote about wisdom and patience, it seems apt to finish with one too.
“The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.”
― Dante
Great (and extremely fair) stuff, Steve.
Mention of Ceefax page 302 brings back a load of memories!
On the patience question, I can’t help but think of Ron Saunders who took us – for the first time – to the promised land of the top flight. When he was appointed in 1969, he insisted the Board give him three years. After two years of little apparent progress, the Board swallowed hard to keep its word and give him a third one. That was the promotion year.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. …..Jean-Jacques Rousseau
I hope he knew what he was talking about
Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting….. Joyce Meyer
This one sometimes fits our supporters very aptly .
Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude. Joyce Meyer
A great read Steve.
Time waits for no man…
By my reckoning, since Christmas we have won 8 drawn 8 and lost 4 in the league. That is promotion form, even though it doesn’t feel like it. I wish everyone would just have a bit more patience and give Farke a realistic time period to make his mark.. A continuation of recent form into next season would see us in a much stronger position. A lot depends on the next two transfer windows.
Yes, though a lot also depends on keeping people fit. Klose, Lewis, Tettey, Trybull – 4 key players – have all had issues at different times this season. So too did Pritchard, and more recently Leitner – who looked like becoming a key player too.
Hopefully the returning/incoming midfielders like McLean and Godfrey will prove a little less brittle, and we don’t agree to play Cambridge U in a pre-season not-very-friendly.
Don’t forget Hernandez
Your numbers are wrong. You added a win.
If we had performed as we have done post Christmas all season long, we would be in 11th (on goal difference)..
I’m all for giving time, I’ve always said three years for any manager is fair, but what concerns me is that Farke’s football, even when executed well, is boring. Possession football is boring. The truth is, most teams in the EPL are simply not good enough to execute a philosophy pioneered at Bayern, Barca, Ajax, et al…… To fantasize that it can be made to work in the Championship is at best naive, more likely, absolute lunacy.
Players from the lower leagues can take us up for sure (though personally I detest the EPL and dread the thought of us back in it), but that methodology that worked under Lambert, is doomed to failure playing an idealistic style of football.
I’m not sure possession football *has* to be boring Tony – I may be in the minority, but give me possession football any day over the “get it forward” approach demanded by large swathes of the River End. To me, all it achieves is to give the ball straight back to the opposition.
What I will say is we’re still very much the proverbial work-in-progress in playing this particular style; all too often it doesn’t flow and is a little too stilted and ponderous.
I also agree that not too many teams have won their way out of the Championship by playing this way, although there have been a few – Swansea and Bournemouth spring to mind.
I’m a River-Ender, and I’m not a “get it forwarder”, so please don’t tar us all with the same brush, Gary.
Fulham play possession football, and they are one of the best two teams I’ve seen at Carrow Road this season (along with the somewhat more direct Wolves). Fulham do, however, move the ball a bit quicker than we do, albeit that recently we seem to have learnt to do that as well. I’m happy to give Herr Farke more time if the improvement continues.
Very fair point Jim … it certainly isn’t *all* the River Rnd that demands the ball be pumped forward and long, but (at least around where I sit) the majority appear frustrated with the “tippy-tappy cr@p” 🙂
Really Tony? You weren’t watching when we played Fulham?
“Possession football is boring” – that’s some statement!
While I have some sympathy with the view that possession for possession sake can sometimes be tedious, what’s really important is not how much possession you have, it’s what you actually do with it that’s critical.
Thanks for the comments!
As folk have said, it’s not only the restructuring that requires patience but also the playing style.
If Webber / Farke can recruit the ‘right’ personnel and embed a greater sense of pace and urgency in the final third, then it would make the steady build-up through the defence and midfield far more palatable to watch – a means to an end.
Like all of us, I’m desperate for the ‘project’ to succeed and one point I didn’t include in the article is that the ‘short-termism’ (if that’s even a thing) of wanting things ‘here and now’, also extends to quickly disregarding the past. A decent season challenging the top 6 next year and this year’s struggles will hopefully be quickly forgotten.
Amen to that.
There’s also the supporter who, having seen three years of dross, has decided enough is enough. However it isn’t just that; we’ve heard what Delia thinks of The Premier and all things money. We’ve heard what she intends to do with her shares. Whatever she may say, it is hard to believe that she will ever sell out. We know that relegated clubs from the Premier come down with £100 million. We know that over 60% of Championship clubs have rich benefactors (even though not all of them loosen the purse strings….Ips…). We know that it takes plenty of money, or an incredible amount of luck, to get promoted from the Championship. But we believe our self-funding model will bring success!! Let’s look at the end of this season. Now we’re either Work in Progress, or in Transition (two appalling descriptions). At the end of this season we’re likely to lose Gunn, Klose, Tettey, Maddison, Murphy, Reed and Oliveira. How can that ever be described as Transition? The replacements will come from the 2nd or 3rd tier of German football, so our style is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. To replace over half of our 1st team regulars will mean yet another season of Transition, by which time most other Championship teams will have got even richer. Having said all that, by all means give Farke more time; the REAL problem is that, as long as we will not fund our club in the way it must be, we will not be able to compete. I’ve supported City since 1959 and this is my last year as a season ticket holder. I just cannot bear to watch our inexorable decline into mid table mediocracy, or worse. Now if all that makes me an impatient supporter, then I plead guilty (but sane!!!).
Patience! The current owners have had twenty years and we’re back where we started.
The only difference is we are paying premier league prices for championship football.