Days like those don’t come along very often.
Only nine times in the club’s history have we lifted a trophy – ten if you count the 2015 Play-Off Final – and two of those occurred before I was even a glint in my dad’s eye.
Talking of whom… our post-match phone chat last night was not the usual nonsensical ramble where we dissect, in our own daft way, what had been good and bad about the day’s performance. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the ol’ boy was a tad emotional. The quiver in the voice gave it away.
And I wasn’t wiping away a silent tear either. It was the early onset of hayfever. Honest.
Dad is 86. This season would have been his first of not being a season ticket holder. But while old age may have brought to a premature end his ability to get to Carrow Road, that fire still burns.
Boy does it burn.
He was on Radio Norfolk just before Christmas (not Canary Call I hasten to add), talking to Rob Butler about his time as a City supporter and how Carrow Road and the game itself has changed – the usual stuff – but bemoaned his own ‘performance’ afterwards, citing stuff he’d planned to say but didn’t.
But I was so proud.
Among the things he did say was that this current side, since the arrival of Daniel Farke and allowing for that first season of ‘learning’, plays the “best football” he has ever seen a Norwich City side play.
And he meant it.
He is, as they say, a rum ol’ boy.
He talks of the Ron Saunders era in which the club reached the pinnacle of English football for the first time with almost a vague sense of contempt. He loved it of course, but the joy, for him, was tempered by the method in which it was achieved. He talks in (very) mildly disparaging terms of a club great who wasn’t especially comfortable with a football at his feet.
But the arrival of John Bond did bring him joy. At last, Norwich City in the top flight with a swash and a buckle, the ball staying on the deck and being passed with a pleasing fluidity. The arrival of Martin Peters was only ever going to enhance that passing style. And it did.
Ken Brown, Dave Stringer and Mike Walker continued that same theme of silky football and were met with the approval of Gowers Senior but, remember, this all happened before the advent of semi-synthetic pitches that closely resemble bowling greens. The football flowed but only as much as the divots and bare patches allowed.
What occurred between Walker and Farke was mixed in terms of styles and while my dad never ever stopped bleeding green and yellow, his enjoyment of a win was only ever undiluted if the football was easy on the eye. While he understands the need for an ugly win, he doesn’t pretend to love them in the same way as one achieved with skill and precision.
But Farkeball is made for those bowling greens, and I knew from my first glimpse of it, at Lowestoft’s Crown Meadow, that he would be all over it. I phoned him on my way home.
“Dad, you’re going to absolutely love this… it all starts off with the keeper and centre-backs. Total football. The River End is going to hate it”.
He laughed. I’m not sure if it was at the thought of some of our fellow RiverEnders going apoplectic with rage or because he thought I was (as ever) going OTT, but he saw for himself on August 13, 2017, when we watched City lose 3-1 at home to Sunderland.
A disappointing, inauspicious result perhaps, but at least the ball was being passed on the deck and there was a plan – even if it didn’t work. 2017-18, in general, was meh, but with Wes and James Maddison in the midst of that early iteration of Farkeball, it was still easy on the eye a lot of the time.
And then it started to click. The Webberlution was underway.
It was during the swashbuckling of 2018-19 that Dad first uttered the ‘best ever’ phrase and he’s stood by it ever since.
I recall sitting alongside him back in the Paul Lambert years when City were hosting Brendan Rogers’ Swansea. Those were the Swansea-ola years and they were undeniably good to watch.
From a pure footballing perspective, Swansea would play us off the pitch although, in that very Lambert way, we were still winning. But Dad approved of the way Rogers had them playing; the style initiated by Roberto Martinez. He wanted that to be us.
That it is now us and in doing so we have won two Championship trophies in the space of three seasons has made an old man unimaginably happy and proud, even if he has had to watch most of it through a TV screen with failing eyesight.
86 he may be, but in terms of pride and passion, he’s right up there with the TNC ‘watchalong’ crowd and the boys and girls of Barclay Lower, Block E.
So, yesterday my own joy unconfined was not just because my team, and my brilliant club, achieved something that’s only been achieved nine times before in its history. It was because this really lovely bloke in Bungay, with a dodgy ticker and poor eyesight, was around to witness it.
I’ll never forget that chat him and I had at five o’clock last night. Not ever.
Thank you Daniel. Thank you Stuart. Together, you’ve made an old man very very happy.
Good read Gary. Wish your dad all the best, It reminds me of my father who first took me to Carrow Road in 1965 and was hooked. He stopped going for a while after the trouble at that Man Utd people on the roof game, but managed to get him back into it. He’s now 84, goes to odd game now and then. We think also think Farke ball is probably the best we’ve seen. All the best mate 😊
Morning Gary. I’m a little bit younger than your old man (by 10 years), but I’m with him all the way. However, as a River Ender for many years, I resent your comment about us hating the Farkeball style of play. There are a lot of discerning conniseures amongst us. The “get it up the pitch” lot are more likely to be in the Main Stand.
We gave away a poor goal yesterday, but I loved the way we just knuckled down and played our way back into it. Reading are a good side, but we showed our real class over the ninety minutes.
We’re getting a lot of praise for our Webberlution philosophy in the Mail On Line this morning. Well worth reading (though I’m sure the mention of the vegetable patch will generate some sneering comments about “country yokels” – personally, I see it more as a “grow your own Ipswich” type of thing). The article also takes the opportunity to pan the Big Six. Something I hadn’t heard before was that we briefly had one of our due payments suspended because of the ESL plans.
Oops … sorry, Jim. Have changed it to “some of” the River End, which as a Rivereder myself I can confirm to be true. A mere 6/7 seats away from me is a gent who I guarantee will be screaming at Tim Krul to “BOOT IT” upon our return 🙂
Cheers for your comment.
My dad first took me and my brother to CR in 1970. We arrived late, 10 minutes before an evening kick off under lights. The place was packed. Dad stayed at the back while we were literally passed head over head to the front and stood on milk crates behind the goal. Keelan joked with us before the game began. I was hooked. At the end of the game we stayed in place with a steward keeping an eye until dad picked us up.
Wonderful. Still a little heady this morning. All is as well with the World as can be considering. Congratulations to all involved.
Gary, I’ve been a Canary fan for nigh on 70 years and yes today’s squad, the manager and all those that make City what they are, certainly deserve the accolades we heap upon them. As for yesteryear, we’ll it’s like trying to compare apples with oranges, everything was different, the ball, the boots, the pitch, the training, the tactics you name it. But our heroes of then took what they had and made it work, in their day they were as brilliant, as our current heroes are now. Bless ‘em all.
Great stuff Gary. Nicely summed-up by Gowers Snr & Jnr!
What an insightful and thoughtful article. Much of what you write resonates with me, a fellow River Ender. I wasn’t so quick to appreciate the Farkeball style. I was happy to write off the first season as the transition but when we were battered by West Brom in 2018, I thought we looked bereft of creativity and so lacking in defensive discipline that we were going backwards. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’ve only followed Norwich since the early 90s, but it’s definitely the best football I’ve seen from City. And I couldn’t be more proud of the way the club is run from top to bottom. OTBC!
Hi Gary
An excellent read.
Thinking back how would the following have preformed with today’s Pitches, Training Fac, Diets, Medical Care
Kevin Reeves
Jimmy Neighbour
Martin Peters
Graham Paddon
Phil Bowyer
Colin Suggett and there are many more names that got us old guy out of our seats since my first game in 1959.
I agree with your dad’s sentiments but different eras are hard to compare its like Muhammad Ali V JJ, Ali was all about speed and wearing the other man down before he finished him JJ is all about power and maybe Ali wouldn’t fall into the heavyweight class these days more a lightheavy at most.
We all look back and see different things Walker took on a team built by Stringer and slightly added his own touches my question would be could have DS that that team further if he had stayed but like all things we will never know.
Our bug question is can Farke be enticed to stay with the supposed interest from Germany to continue this journey and hopefully SW can extend for a couple more seasons.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay Safe and Stay Healthy 🙏
We are the champions now let’s get 99 points
Alex, I’ll add one of my favourites from the fifties to your list – Jimmy Hill. Oh and maybe Bobby Brennan, too.
Nice read for any Canaries fans, Gary!
CHAMP-ions, CHAMP-ions, CHAMP-ions! I might just keep saying that throughout this summer.
Reading bossed us for a while in the first half, but then we dismantled them, great to watch on EFL.
I don’t think I will ever see a better goal than Quintilla’s free kick – I’d love to know what the conversation between Xavi and Emi was all about as the former placed the ball for the kick – certainly the free kick and the goal ranked alongside Super-Mario’s classic a while back!
So sad if this squad breaks up, they have shone like the Polestar in the very firmament this season and it has been a privilege to see them do this – albeit on the box.
.So many WOWS!!
OTBC – COYY
A great read. It brought a tear to my eye. Football is about an emotional connection, a bond with the club and thus the team. I would hate to be a supporter of the so-called top 6 as many of their owners are not emotionally connected to their team. It is just another financial investment.
The Sunday Mail article was spot on both in praising Norwich but also indirectly having a dig at the top 6. The author was right that it is the small margins that help teams like Norwich. Clive Woodward did the same in Rugby and Dave Brailsford with cycling. We can’t afford to do the conventional, pundit backed, way of operating a football club that goes up to the Premier League. We have to find those small margins whether that is SoccerBot or the vegetable patch at Conley.
I am so grateful to have had the privilege of being a part of Norwich City fan base. This is a club we can all be extremely proud of. It is a decent club, which is trying to set a good example. It is not a greedy club.
I thought Tim Krul’s contribution to the article was spot on. I think the players appreciate the special club they are at and the special team they have become. If Skipp is loaned out next season I am sure he will come to Norwich.
Who ever was the author if the Mail article definitely wasn’t Martin Samuels he hates city
Hi Gary..not ashamed to say this brought a tear to my eye.
Such a lovely article and I’m sure we all wish we could turn back the clock, just once – and appreciate our dads in their youth, just once more.
I’m quite a tough old ba$tard in many ways but I couldn’t agree with you more.
Memories of Dad are my Achilles’ heel – he’d probably hate me for feeling that way!
Not just winning the Championship but winning the Championship, finishing bottom, then winning it again – that is a once-in-a-generation achievement and a massive coup for Farke and the players. 2018/9 was not a fluke. City had assembled an amazing team and there are plenty of Sunderlands, Portsmouths and Ipswiches who can testify to what an amazing achievement Norwich have managed this season.
Glorious stuff Gaz. I had my little chat with Dad too. Because that’s what we always do; And today was a good day, like all the others we’ve shared. OTBC
Funny you should say that, Dave. Had you and your dad in my head as I was writing it.
Lovely, lovely piece, Gary.
And cock on, mate!