The stage was set, Friday night under the lights at Carrow Road, the perfect setting to spark a Norwich revival, but it was less fireworks and more light work – for Watford anyway – with City falling to another routine 2-0 defeat.
Prior to kick-off, the Hornets were rock bottom, having scored just six goals – a tally Teemu Pukki had mustered on his own.
Writing this column has become a weekly source of déjà vu, and to tell the truth, I could copy and paste previous articles from the West Ham, Burnley, Crystal Palace or Brighton games and just change the name of the scorers. Regardless of how the goals came about, the aforementioned teams were comfortably two goals better than City.
But with it being the international break, we have some respite and so this week I would like to do something different for two reasons: 1) I don’t wish to further contribute to the rhetoric surrounding Friday night, the game has been dissected thoroughly, and 2) there is something else bothering me.
As much as I’d like to, I can’t affect results on the pitch, but I can weigh in on subjects that concern the fan base. We all have that in common, we are all Norwich fans.
In recent weeks, the Championship vs Premier League debate has re-surfaced, with certain fans wishing the Canaries were back in the Championship.
I can understand the argument, with City propping up the Premier League table after a string of poor results, the outlook is bleak for the Canary faithful at this time. It’s certainly a stark contrast to the success of last season and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve seen this argument develop – because this season has so far been such a contrast to last season. This has exacerbated the emotions felt within the fan base.
The Pink’Un ran a poll – basically, ‘would you rather the Championship or the Premier League?’ At the time of writing, 66% of voters opted for the Championship and while it would be foolish to draw a concrete conclusion from such a poll, I was shocked to see that two-thirds of voters would prefer to watch City in the second tier.
It left me thinking, what is the point?
Why did we all push so hard for promotion if two-thirds of us would rather stay in the Championship?
Why did the club go to the trouble of opting for a new direction in terms of operating model all whilst under such tight financial considerations?
Why did Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke bother to rip up the rule book, ignore the noise and achieve promotion in such style?
What was the point if the fanbase is so unambitious?
My honest opinion is that it’s a ludicrous opinion. You don’t miss the Championship; you miss winning every week.
While I enjoy both winning and the ultra-competitive nature of the Championship as much as anybody, it is in no way better than the Premier League – not in terms of the football on display, not in terms of coverage and, of course, the financial disparity between the two leagues is enormous.
With the questionable decisions the club have made in the past in terms of recruitment and deciding where funds are invested, the wealth of the Premier League has been a blessing. That much has been revealed with last week’s release of the 2018/19 accounts.
The sale of James Maddison is a case in point. The fee upwards of £20 million was not reinvested, instead, the proceeds of the sale were used to plug a financial gap created by mismanagement in the past. That is the reality of year-on-year Championship football – a player has a good season and he is sold in order for the club to continue operating at that level.
Is that what we as a fanbase want? Years of mediocrity in the Championship? You only need to look as far as the other end of the A140 to see where that leads you. We’ve been there ourselves, it’s tough.
Personally, I think wishing Norwich City were still in the Championship belittles the work of the players, staff, directors and fans, who have worked tirelessly to get the club to the ‘Promised Land’.
We are all a small part of a professional sports club, one which solely represents its county. We all wanted this and while it hasn’t been a pretty watch for much of this season, we cannot give up at the first hurdle.
As someone who dedicates time to writing a weekly column on the topic of Norwich City, as well as devoting time for research and filming a weekly podcast, discussing the details of yet another 2-0 loss is a hard slog.
It would be far more enjoyable to write and record after a Norwich win, even if that win came in the Championship, but that isn’t how professional sport works.
Surely, we all want our team to be competing at the top end of domestic football; we want Norwich players playing well for their country; we want to see them do well in international tournaments, and above all else, we want to see the city and county represented in the top flight.
There is nothing wrong with lower league football, the romance associated with that level of football is special, but if you want that head to King’s Lynn to get your dose instead to bemoaning the ruthlessness of the best league in the world.
Make no mistake, City are up against it and as hard as it is at times, we must get behind the players with full force. The alternative is eventually slumping to relegation and losing some of our better players, either due to finances or the player wanting to play in the Premier League.
What Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke are trying to achieve is brave. It’s not going so well at this moment in time, but it is nonetheless brave. So, it is about time we fans showed the same level of bravery.
Yes, it’s difficult to find silver linings at the moment; yes, it’s getting difficult to see where the next point is coming from, but that’s part and parcel of supporting Norwich City. That’s why we still had a full house every week in League One and that’s why we were able to pull off so many late winners last season.
The fans are what makes this club special and if we are to stay up this season the players will need the backing of every single one of us.
Don’t forget that just because it’s not going our way on the pitch.
The championship everytime for me – numerous reasons- unpredictable- any one can beat anyone ,no var , regular kick off times , no big club bias . More genuine fans . Premier league is overhyped and to be honest i hate it
The championship is quite stale with the same teams promoted into it from one end and relegated into it at the other. Too many matches in the Championship and too many midweek matches, Barnsley on a wet Tuesday in November? The number of matches make it too unpredictable if anything. League 1 was were the balance seemed right
I think the problem is that pretty much every season we’ve had in the PL in recent past with the exception of Lamberts has been a dull slog where only our opponents have had much fun each game.
It’s pretty rubbish going to games assuming you’re going to lose. Ok each season we may have the odd glimmer of fun and rolling over Citeh will live long n the memory. But they are the exception.
The Championship of course offers us something the PL never can, certainly not with the current owners, winning not just regularly, but a title or promotion. Why would we not like those prospects better? Of course the trouble with that is whilst it is thoroughly enjoyable winning the championship or even competing at the top end with the top 6 a very real possibility for City as demonstarted by our yoyoing over this last decade is that if you do win promotion then you do have to go up!
Broadly speaking I think we as a fan base were all happy to be going up, we all see the brave new direction and generally buy into it, but did any of us think it would be quite so bleak come the middle of November? After the incredibly hard first 5 fixtures in which optimism was still abound could we have forseen this spirit crushing run? But this is the PL, we spent next to nothing surely we should have done? But knowing it’s going to be tough and seeing your side trying but coming up well short is not easy. So to answer your questions:
Why did we all push so hard for promotion if two-thirds of us would rather stay in the Championship?
That really isn’t the point, whether we want to be in the PL or enjoy the PL is mute next to the reason we all go, to hopefully be entertained and see us win. Do that and promotion comes with it. In the PL we have only bleak survival.
Why did the club go to the trouble of opting for a new direction in terms of operating model all whilst under such tight financial considerations?
Because to not do so would have ultimately ended in bankrupcy,
Why did Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke bother to rip up the rule book, ignore the noise and achieve promotion in such style?
Because it’s their job and they did it well. and irrespective of the vote, every city fan loved last season. So far this season we kind of blemished said rule books cover when beating city, but those who sneered at our lack of spending and called our attacking philosopy naive are looking at the rule book and it remains unripped.
What was the point if the fanbase is so unambitious?
The point is entertainment and seeing City successful. Consistent and predictable 2-0 loses are neither. If we snuck a win vs Watford or were even playing with the flair and gusto of the early season whilst falling narrowly short you at least have the entertainment, but ambition can die with the absense of hope, when realism takes over and you realise that we aren’t ready for the PL and relegation seems very very likely, human nature sends us back to the thoughts of when things were good, great even.
If as seems probable we find ourselves back in the championship next season, Then poll those respondents again and I’ll wager they would mostly(There are a few who are oddly attached to mediocrity) love to see promotion again. We want the best but this season we may not be in a place to compete. Yes we’re trying, but if we can yoyo again, maybe the 21/22 season could finally be when we have the foundation and finances in place to compete, stay up and consolidate?
One other big point in favour of the championship would be the fixtures, not only more of them, but the real prospect of having regular Saturday 3pm kickoffs and not being utterly beholdent to the whims of the Sky paymasters.
I missed the poll and inspite of all I have said, I would vote PL, this season will be bleak at times, but if we can stay up we can get better and keep improving our team. So we can’t win things and that always leaves us with romantic memories of the championship but at the end of the season I want to give all my suddenly voiciferous binner friends two fingers and I told you so!
Bah!
I’m quite selfish on this issue in that I’d far rather see us entertaining, say, Arsenal and Liverpool than, say, Barnsley and Millwall. I like quality football, even if it sometimes sees us coming up short against the opposition. Man City anyone? Chelsea even?
Plus we are always told by the powers that be that our aim should be to be the best we can be.
A woolly catch-all say nothing phrase I understand but I firmly believe the “best we can be” means PL..
While I kind of understand the opposite stance I can’t really agree with it.
Yes I also get the point about wanting to see us win but it is not that long ago where we were a very mediocre Championship and I prefer what we have to what we endured in 2005 to 2010 where we celebrated a goalless draw with Scunthorpe at home as it gave us a rare point in the Peter Grant days
Hi Joe
A good read and I agree with Martin P.
If you have a staple Diet of Championship football and you start to struggle at that level would the nect poll say 66% are happy to be in League 1 as we would win more games and then the process continues to League2.
No supporter likes to see their team struggle in whatever league they are on but you ask Ipshite supporters they would prefer the league position reversed with us bring in their place.
After last weeks interview it showed to me that the owners have a toy and will not let anyone else play are they affraid that someone can do a better job, all this rubbish from local papers saying they will entertain investers that come forward but why would you offer to invest if you know it will be turned down before they know what you are offering also what the conditions are.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Hi Joe
Just read the quote from Webber stating he wants city to be a top 25 club and established in the Premiership and if it means being relegated and bouncing back so be it, there is no guarantee that city would get straight back there are 23 other clubs trying to get promoted.
Seems a strange comment we could still stay up with a fair wind behind us and a couple of good signings in January
Championship all day long for me, with our own Academy players as the bedrock of our team in the medium term.
More matches, more enjoyable matches, a higher percentage of wins and removed from the constant belittling of the mainstream pundits. If the occasional season in the Prem happens all well and good.
We have never recaptured that superb spirit of 2011-12 when we stayed up with matches to spare, because the Prem has evolved beyond the capacity of the self funding model.
That is a good point. The self funding model does not appear to work in the Premier League, maybe it can with a bit of up front funding which then generates income to work with but we have had two attempts to stay up within the self funding model, the first failed and the second looks tough to turn around given the fact that other teams are picking up points. This then brings us to the elephant in the room and that is the glaring issue that the self funding model does not work in the Championship, we found that out in 2005 to 2010 and lessons were learnt. It will be interesting to see what kind of squad we can fund from Championship income without parachute money, it would be interesting but I don’t think I want to see the answer. Can we really produce and sell enough players to fill the gaps and be competitive?
Depending on when you want to consider ‘self funding’ as having started, it could be our 4th attempt at it. It’s certainly our 4th time round under Delia.
IF (and it’s still a decent sized IF) this doesn’t work, I do wonder why people believe a 5th time would be successful.
The only reason this argument exists is because of the inability of our owners to fund establishing this club in the premier league. Ask Leicester if they’d prefer championship football.
The problem is our owners have remained so long they have unfortunately gone from saviours to mill stones around the neck of the club.
The biggest challenge will be a sustained period in the championship. It is clear from the recently published accounts that we would after a while make annual losses well beyond the means of our owners to support as Maddisons don’t come along very often.
Will fans then start saying how happy they would be back in division 1?
Hi John
I totally agree with you.
Stuart Webber must have walked in with his eyes wide open and he [with the not inconsiderable input of Farke & coaching team] has already pulled off a minor miracle. Certainly one that will look good on his cv and fair play to him when he moves on.
The thing I can never quite get is why anybody would think it better to yo-yo than to at least give it a fair shot at staying where we are – the lower reaches [at best] of the PL..
What divine right do we have to expect a further promotion from the Championship? Absolutely none, of course.
We might yet get away with it this season but our beloved Club always seems to “mislay” PL revenue and parachute payments. These seem to disappear into a black hole and a prolonged spell in the Championship would leave us with just the black hole.
Mark my words, if we’re relegated we will still not spend in order to return to the PL.
I would still love the self-financing concept to succeed but to me it’s reminiscent of taking out a £100k mortgage, not buying a property and spending it all on rented accommodation instead.
Then when the £100k has gone, you can’t afford the rent any more.
This season could yet be our best chance of establishing some kind of a future.
I think you’ve nailed it here, Martin. I get the yo-yo argument to a degree, but that only works *if* you bounce back to the PL fairly swift-ish. But, as you say, it’s arrogant to assume we’ll simply get re-promoted and smacks of the attitude of the Class of 2016 that we so derided.
Spot on Gary you can’t set a plan based on the yo-yo effect because it is too difficult to get promoted again. We have given ourselves a chance and we must take it or bear the consequences. We have the manager give him the tools.
What worries me is wealthy owners are entering the championship with a view to getting into the premier league.
To me this means a tough league is getting even tougher.
Any prolonged stay in the championship will quickly increase our debt to a point where Delia can no longer hold on.
This summer was a wonderful chance for her to secure the clubs future and give it a fighting chance in the premier league but instead she has clung on to a hobby she soon will not be able to afford.
Although I think our owners are a step up from Chase, I think a lot of their effectiveness was in the early days when they converted land assets into cash and set up some of the commercial advances. It was not saving the club but it helped avoid a major freefall at the time. The warnings were there in 2009 but they pulled it round by appointing McNally and Lambert and we started performing in all areas. However, as someone else mentioned we now need to gain promotion to survive even though we can not afford to stay up. Farke and Webber did a job as well as McNally and Lambert so again the Board got recruitment right but every we seem to be fighting a losing battle. The question of ownership is a very emotive subject and I think there are two reasons, firstly anyone under 40 would not really know any other owners and to an extent they are part of the club identity for them and secondly a small but vocal element of support are very close to the owners and would personally lose if we had new owners. I could love and care for a Ferrari but at the end of the day I could not afford to maintain it and one day that would mean it would not work any more or I would have to sell to whoever was prepared to take it off my hands and possibly sell it for parts
I can think of 30 million reasons we shouldn’t desire life in The Championship.
I should also add- very good article!
What a fantastically insightful and thoughtful piece.
If I’m one hundred per cent honest, I prefer the cut and thrust of the championship, but, if we are honest we would ALL choose to be where we are.
Naivety and injuries aren’t helping, terrible decisions at crucial moments have to be addressed, then maybe …….who knows
I believe in the Webber/Farke project, one, what other choice do we have? and secondly, it’s rather refreshing to have a new approach instead of spending millions and see what happens! The Premier League is four leagues in one, top six we are not, but if we keep the faith and fully SUPPORT our fledgeling team, the sky is the limit.
COYY OTBC