I fully expected the fallout from Saturday’s very disappointing defeat at the Etihad to rattle through way beyond tonight’s Carabao Cup game with Bournemouth; probably right up to kick-off time on Saturday if I’m honest.
Such was the dearth of positives, the Canary nation was a fractured old place as we all attempted to unravel, in our own way, a 5-0 defeat that was expected and disheartening in equal measure.
And then talkSPORT happened. At least it did on Twitter.
In a matter of minutes, we went from being a fanbase who were being prickly, argumentative and angry with each other to one that was prickly, argumentative and angry with a gobby bloke off the radio who very few people had ever heard of.
Incensed we may have been but we were united; something that just a few minutes earlier seemed, in the circumstances, an impossibility.
For those who don’t frequent social media and are wondering what the hell I’m talking about, a gentleman from said radio station by the name of Alex Crook (no, me neither) had an on-air Norwich City rant – on Sunday evening I think – that they thought so beautifully controversial they decided to post it online as a clip in its own right.
It was clearly designed to provoke a reaction and generate clicks – which it did to perfection – so I’ll not fall into the trap of posting the actual tweet, but a screenshot should give you the gist of Master Crook’s carefully manicured thoughts…
Sure enough, it did precisely what it was intended to do. We bit.
But just to make sure the Norwich fanbase were suitably incensed, and just to add a little fuel to the fire in order to generate a few more thousand clicks, another of their crop of highly astute, razor-sharp presenters – a failed ex-pro by the name of Jamie O’Hara – was tasked with doubling down on it.
If we thought Crook’s take was idiotic, our Jamie took it to another level, suggesting that City’s membership of the Premier League should be revoked.
For the radio station, it was job done.
The bigwigs in talkSPORT Towers – as they describe it – will have been slapping themselves on the back yesterday morning with social media abuzz with talk of “sporting integrity” and how Norwich City’s apparently feeble attempt to stay in the Premier League (two defeats against two of the best sides in the world) goes against the finest of sporting principles.
Of course, it was just total fabricated nonsense. It deliberately ignored the fact that so principled are the big six they would have happily departed the PL for the filthy lucre of a European Super League if the nation hadn’t collectively kicked off.
But that didn’t matter. I suspect (or at least hope) that neither Crook or O’Hara really believed what they were saying, but for the radio equivalent of The S*n or GB News that doesn’t matter. They’re playing a game.
And while I guess we fell for it, the way that a daft couple of sentences from a couple of daft blokes has dragged us all back from the brink and reunited us has been quite something.
Fair play too to fans of other clubs around the country who offered their two-penneth; almost all expressing their support for the way our club operates and attempts to live within its means – the very antithesis of the Manchester City model of which I guess talkSPORT approves.
Daniel Farke too, in his pre-Bournemouth presser, was asked for his thoughts on the notion that City are not worthy of their place in the Premier League. As ever he nailed it…
“97 points in the Championship last season.”
“If someone talks about us and doesn’t do the research it doesn’t really matter.”
“We have earned our place as a self-funding club.”
No one does ‘ignoring the noise’ as well as Daniel.
But on this occasion, I’m glad we made some noise, even if we did precisely what the shock-jocks of radio wanted us to.
As well as bringing us back together in a united cause, it was a reminder that our club is respected across the country for its attempt to do things the right way and without the aid of a safety net in the form of billionaire owners.
For us to be mocked for putting the long-term stability of the club ahead of a short-term, probably unsuccessful, attempt to stay in the Premier League by splashing out £100m+ of money that we don’t have, was just plain stupidity. But, then again, that wasn’t the point.
It also ignored the fact that we have spent circa £50m to date with a couple more signings likely to be made before the end of the month.
So, for once, I’m quite glad we didn’t ignore the noise.
If the lads could just deliver a performance against those plucky Cherries tonight to help us stay united ahead of the Leicester game, that would be handy too.
Never Mind the Danger…
Great piece, Talk Sport has further enhanced its failing reputation of peddling ill informed headlines simply to gain reaction, regardless of accuracy or research, dinosaur presenters failed ex pro’s (Jamie O’Hara failed manager of Billericay Town who he guided to 17th in their league) and Alex Crook ??? Crook by stealing a living as a sports presenter ?
One City Strong, thanks Talk Sport for reuniting our fan base, we are Norwich City, together we believe.
OTBC
Well Gary, I hadn’t listened to that particular rant, but sounds exactly what an infamous ex-Derby player would have said!! 😀
As DF says, we have earned the right to be in the PL and by golly, I hope we can make these so-called pundits eat their words by the end of the season.
#ignorethenoise
Talksport has always been the station of choice for the hard of thinking.
Ultimately they don’t want someone pointing out that the PL is not worth bankrupting your club over. The emperor really has no clothes on.
I think you just have to accept that common opinion about Norwich is that Norwich should not be in premier league. KTP Kotka is similar in finnish league, everyone else is complaining than their own fanbase when they get promoted and when they get relegated, people hope they dont get promoted back. People dont really hate the club, they hate their lack of financial muscles to make enough competitive squad. They started season with basically same squad which got them promoted, local players and mainly young ones. Now they have several africans, so it is kind of plan B. They are not able to buy experienced league players and not able to pay enough high salaries to get better players. They looked desperate right from the start of season. Is there something common?
Same way as KTP, Norwich should prove that they are able to compete in premier league. 1 or 2 surprise wins are not enough, winning promotion does not mean that you are able to compete in higher level. System makes it rightful to participate. Other thing, you cant ask your players to play better they can. Its not their fault, all you can and should do is support them. They have not really failed if Norwich gets relegated.
I presume it’s this rant which prompted Henry Winter to write the following in yesterday’s Times:
“Spare Norwich the cheap shots
Norwich City’s sporting director, Stuart Webber, was looking at some specialised equipment that he knew would enhance players’ technique. It was not cheap, just south of £1 million, but the club budgeted for it with the sale of a youth-team player. This is what Norwich do, balancing the books, not relying on a wealthy owner, just being a sensible business and club. So the criticism of Norwich as naive seems strange. They have values that the Premier League could do with more of: sound financial management, community ethos, a commitment to homegrown players, good football and owners in Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones who care about their club and their sport.”
My parents told me that if I had nothing good to say then don’t say anything. Good advice. Not something the drink swilling, freebie seeking illiterate idiots who host talk sport would ever have subscribed to.
Same with me Mr Delf – I’ve lost count of the number of times my old man said that.
I am never first out of the blocks to defend Delia but in this case I’m with you.
I’ve heard of Ian Crook and Garth Crooks but who the feck is Alex Crook?
Oh, hang on, he must be one of those drink swilling, freebie seeking illiterate idiots who frequent the media. And there are plenty of them, of course.
Good piece Gary.
Spot on Gary. Though not a supporter of GB News I do acknowledge that what they are doing is a response to a game already being played.
Talksport is drivel though. For fans of the big 6. None of them having ever resided in the city they support, little wonder community clubs seem strange to them.
I’ve never been prouder of my club.
Well done and thanks to all at MFW for holding logical debates.
Shame you had to spoil a good article by comparing talkshite to #GBNews. Sometimes you lefty remoaners can’t help themselves I guess…
MFW writers come from all sides of life, let alone the political spectrum.
I’m no *lefty remoaner* by any stretch, although I would like to have found a way to keep free trade and freedom of movement for all while dispensing with the ECHR and the ECJ.
I didn’t bother to vote in the referendum: life’s too short.
Come on fella, Gary’s simply comparing a cr#p TV station with a cr#p radio show.
End of, really.
Surely Martin, if you wanted to find a way to keep free trade and freedom of movement for all then you should have voted remain. No one denied that the EU was overdue a heathy dose of reform but you cannot do that from the outside.
You’re quite right there – of course you are and I mean that.
But I have an Achilles heel when it comes to politicians.
Apart from two old skool Labour MPs I met through work yonks ago [Janet Anderson and Frank Cook for what that’s worth] I do not trust a single one of them on any level.
And that’s why I feel disenfranchised 🙂
Anyway let’s all cheer ourselves up with a good win this evening!
That’s what I hate about the line ‘they are all the same’ – so lazy. Are all managers the same? Are all doctors or surgeons? You should be ashamed for parroting that nonsense that allows opens the door for idiots like Bozo to run the country because they are ‘all the same’.
Well they certainly got a good win!
As for Tony’s comments, while I agree with much of his sentiment, the ‘shaming’ part is equally lazy and completely ignores why so many people, such as yourself, feel so disenfranchised.
Parts of our society are fundamentally broken and we need to work together to fix it, not descend into yet another round of blaming and shaming.
For my part this is a perfect analogy, comparing two completely worthless parts of the media. The only real difference is that GBNews is potentially dangerous if people are genuinely either sufficiently naïve, stupid or nasty (or some combination thereof) to believe the lies and filth that they peddle.
That said in a country filled with vile anti-immigration Brixsh1teers we should perhaps not be so surprised.
Nothing lazy about what I said – Politics is the one field they anyone can enter. If you are not happy give it a go. What is moronic is to say all politicians are the same. Are all players the same or all coaches? Nobody would ever say that – yet when it comes to politics the right-wing press have demonised all of them – which some people parrot completely unthinkingly – so that we literally end up with their placemen in power – Bozo for the Telegraph and Gove for the Mail – dancing to their tune. You would not be so fatalistic about football so why not Politics? That is merely falling headlong straight into the trap they want you to fall into. If you don’t take part and you don’t vote you have no right to complain about anything. Now what is lazy about that?
Tony I didn’t use the phrase *they’re all the same*. I said I didn’t trust any of them, which is something really quite different.
For what it’s worth I am old skool centre Left, which really doesn’t give me a viable party to vote for, now does it?
If the only realistic choice is Bozo or the aftermath of Corbyn I’m outta here.
Please consider that I have every right to abstain, just as you have to cast your vote wherever you see fit.
Let’s stick to the football. hey 🙂
Hi Gary
An excellent read and as you say ex pro and unknown pundits having a scripted show to get a reaction from their perceived targets.
There was also an ex Sky presenter giving his 2 penny’s worth on Bein Sport sitting in Qatar stating DF will get city relegated it’s a wonder his sidekicking women’s ladies officials did jump on the bandwagon.
There are too many ex pro that have no qualifications and are failed coaches that take the easy route to keep a celeb life style by knocking clubs and players they know nothing about and few show no respect for ex clubs.
It looks to me as if they are promoting the type of thinking behind the ESL. “What is the point in the ‘big’ clubs playing anyone else as the competition isn’t good enough ? They should just play each other (and by the way, that will never change – no relegation allowed so they can continue to rake in the billions and leave the rest to rot)”.
I HATE the ESL idea. Instead, to promote competition, there needs to be better regulation of spending and redistribution of TV income to clubs throughout the British leagues.
I said it months ago, and reiterate now. The sooner a European Super League happens the better.
Oh dear Gary that well known radio station have done it again, came out with absolute rubbish.
My mate Trev calls then Talkshi&e and with good reason.
Norwich were competitive against the top 6 clubs in 2019/20, we had some excellent results against them and other than 3 heavy defeats against Liverpool Manchester City & United away ALL the other games were really close.
I think we got more points against the top 6 than the 6 directly above us.
Nothing about playing without recognised centre backs all season ( Liverpool’s lack of CB’ last season gets mentioned on every Sky show even now)
Nothing about how covid affected the team with Project Restart, after some very decent results before the first lockdown. It is a fact certain teams, and we are one missed the fans enormously.
Bolton, Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth, Sunderland the list goes on have all been EPL clubs and have chased the dream, where are they now ?
Ourselves, Leeds, Coventry etc have all had time in what I call the Third Division all because of financial mismanagement.
We own our own ground, training centre and are financially stable after some terrible times.
Nottingham Forest are a good example of spending beyond your means, they sit bottom of the championship.
Here’s another thing Talkshi&e fail to mention, Norwich City won the Championship in 2018/19 and did not break the bank to do it. Why no criticism of all the other clubs in the Championship that year who spent way over their income on wages. Some I think were 140% of income paid in wages. Also selling their grounds to get round FFP ?
Jaime O’Hara should now better look at one of his old clubs Portsmouth, do you really want to risk your clubs actual future ?
I watched an old Big Mach Revisited the other day and Bury beat Brighton 3-0. Poor Bury are now in real terms history. Lets get real spending money you haven’t got could see your team gone forever.
Look how good we were last season, as said by Thomas Frank the Manchester City of the Championship. Does that give us thee right to play in the EPL ? of course it does.
Alex Crook …. has never signed a player, picked a team or played in the red hot atmosphere of the EPL. Of course not, he is another Katie Hopkins who just says things to be cruel or for the story to be all about him.
We took criticism on the chin the last time we went up and SW held his hand up and admitted our squad was not good enough for Premier League survival. But this time we have spent and hopefully we can give it a proper go.
How much do O’Hara and Crook want us to spend ? £150 million…. great bankrupt the club, it won’t affect them in any way whatsoever.
It is so easy to spend other people’s money.
Though I am not sure that self funding can work forever but in saying that I have loved our adventures over the last 20 odd years supporting Norwich City, the promotions, the Championships, even the relegations have made the seasons exciting.
A lot of clubs supporters would have loved all this since the time Nigel Worthington came to the club, especially a team just 40 miles down the road.
Tim, in your list of former EPL clubs languishing in the lower divisions, you for got our near neighbours (easy to do, I know!), and Man City also found their way into the third tier, before they were taken over by an oil-rich country.
Before we stole the title, the Baggies were the yo-yo club. Sometimes it’s necessary to rattle around a bit before you get settled.
No need for pre match team talks from DF any more this season. Just play Crook and O’Hara’s nonsense on a loop in the dressing room
Unless we do our talking on the pitch (starting with Bournemouth) then all of our words are hollow. It is not the fact that we have a limited budget that is the issue, it is the way we spend that budget. We needed a central defender, and a holding midfielder, and I think, a target man to prosper in the Premier League. Those have been lacking iin our preparations to date. So what TalkSport are saying may be wrong, but it does not make what we are doing completely right either.
Well said Tony. As this article says “ignore the noise” but be realistic we cannot survive in the top division playing our pretty football with no steel.
A lot of people have commented on what was on said Talksport without hearing it. Alex Crook wasn’t getting irate or going ‘off on one’, just questioning what Norwich’s policy is and clearly, he found it head scratching.
The seeds were sown two seasons ago. Up until that point, Norwich City were a pretty inoffensive club that few had a reason to dislike (Ipswich fans excepted) and a bit of a neutrals favourite. When we famously sent Farke into battle ‘without a gun’ (though he has a ‘Gunn’ now) those commenting on football from further afield thought the club were not treating the league with respect and simply taking the money and run.
Now that may seem a little harsh. We did earn the right to be there and we didn’t really have any money, though some – me included – felt more could be done. But we earned the right again as we had a brilliant season and surely things would be much better this time around and we could give the league a real go, right?
Due to cruel fate, we were not blessed with an idea start. However, our performances have been so poor that eyes have been cast upon us again – despite actually spending some money this time – that we are just here for the cash again and going through the motions. if you like, bringing itself into disrepute.
I haven’t read or heard anywhere that Norwich City should go out in a kamikaze fashion and put the club financially at risk. Far from it.
The problem, if you can call it that, is what Norwich are trying to do is our of kilter with how other EPL clubs operate that in effect what they are trying to do cannot be done. In other words, stay in the EPL with a self funding model. While it is technically possible, the reality is far from it.
Reading in-between the lines, Talksport is questioning why you would support a club that wants to go up, but then wants to go down, or at least not do the necessary to stay there? It’s a fair question and I do know Norwich fans who don’t want to be in the EPL and look forward to our return to The Championship. That’s really defeatist, but thankfully do not seem to represent a majority.
While we all have opinions and theories on this, the ultimate proof in the pudding to shut the likes of Talksport up is to do the business on the pitch. Wouldn’t it be great if we finished for example, mid table, so we could really give the two fingers for those that have been critical? But, they have to be proved wrong, so can the club actually do it or do we give them more ammunition?
Sooner or later, we will know the answer.
Talksport like everybody has a right to an opinion Inside Right as long as it isn’t offensive etc but this is just lazy journalism.
They say Norwich didn’t compete, this is nonsense as I have already said our matches against the top 6 were decent for the best part.
Before covid lockdown no1 we had lost narrowly away to Sheffield United, dumped Spurs out of the FA Cup away and beaten Champions League hopefuls Leicester City.
Now had they questioned our readiness for Project Restart I would have said that was a valid discussion. Playing a centre half in pain after 20 minutes in a game is also worthy of debate.
Also lazy journalism was Mr Crook and Mr O’Hara not doing their research. We didn’t have bundles of money to risk as the club were a Maddison injury away from serious financial difficulties a year before we won the Championship.
To do a “Fulham” without the back up of wealthy owners would have been totally irresponsible.
Talking of Fulham they and WBA also are also yo-yo clubs why just pick on us. Because we are unfashionable thats why.
I have little to add, only I do not listen, read or hold Talksh!t, in any way shape or form worth going out of my way to see what they spread about like a farmer in the field. Or what Boris spaffs up the wall.
I stick too Local media and this site no others.
I’m not sure how splashing the cash equals “sporting integrity”. There’s nothing sporting about having loads of money, sport implies at least some possibility of competing on reasonably equal terms. This season we’ve splashed what cash we can (possibly) afford, and I believe so far it’s in excess of £60M, though how that breaks down in terms of actual transfers, wages, and loan fees, I don’t know. We’re never going to be able to compete with those clubs owned by countries or oligarchs, so we’ll just have to keep doing what we can, and if that equates to being a yo-yo, so be it.
It’s been said before, WBA are the boing boing, yo-yo club. But it’s not boring boring, quite the opposite. Radio pundits are trying to be controversial for the sake of it, and like folks on here I avoid the show, mainly because of Alan Brazil and Danny Kelly.
If intelligence was fuse wire Mr O’Hara would t have enough to go round a canaries c**ck. Have “there membership of the Premier League revoked” moron can’t even spell. Their you twit not there. If you are intellectually sub standard best not to advertise it little man would be my advice – shhhh!