I’ve barely watched us this season.
It’s not that I don’t care. I just don’t care about where we are plying our trade. I’m currently embroiled in a wonderful debate with the South West Canaries supporters group, whereby I am one of only two, who want to maintain the status quo within our club. And the reasons they have are all entirely legitimate… but only if the playing field was level.
It’s not though.
Some believe the dressing room is lost, some believe Farke is tactically out of his depth, some believe we should have spent more. Perhaps all are true, perhaps none. None of us will ever know as we don’t occupy the inner workings of Colney. But what they are seeing on the pitch, in their eyes, warrants change. And bless them for making those away days. Not something I could stomach at the moment.
Would we realistically achieve more with a different manager in charge? Or sustainable change? It’s the game that’s f***ed not us. To be able to have any realistic chance of competing, regardless of who is our manager, we’d need to spend £100mil. Every season. Money we don’t have and even if we did, we could end up with the club facing financial ruin.
And for what? To celebrate another season of aiming to finish 17th and lauding 0-0s with Burnley?
Not for me, thank you very much.
The recent takeover at Newcastle has summed up what is lamentably wrong with our game. That the Premier League has allowed a takeover from people with a horrific human rights record, is utterly appalling. And that the Newcastle fans are ecstatic, even worse. I saw the banner that was unfurled at the Crystal Palace game.
It appears the police need re-directing, as to who should be being investigated. As Gordon Gekko put it; greed is good.
But it didn’t end too well for him.
I don’t follow much American sport, but a few points were discussed on the golf course yesterday, following our dissection of Norwich’s recent capitulation. Each NFL team is only allowed two chartered flights a year. The rest are commercial. There are very very strict rules on franchise ownership. And we all know about the draft, which means that each season, in theory, any team could win the Superbowl.
How exciting. There is, undeniably, a lot of money in American sport, but the models exist to prevent the glutinous ruin many of our clubs are facing.
Instead, we are faced with fat cat owners, a greedy government gorging themselves on tax income and a paying public that no longer bat an eyelid when clubs pay over £80million for a player and then pay them millions a week, yet seem totally unphased, uncaring or unaware, that we have still have child poverty in this country. And that as we speak, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of children who won’t eat properly over half-term.
But that’s ok, as long as Pogba picks up his wage packet this week. Which is more than my house is worth.
I applaud our club for doing things properly and am genuinely excited about getting relegated and the chance to win a lot more than we lose.
I’ll leave you with this…
If every club was run by a billionaire, three of them still have to get relegated.
It’s not us who are broken.
Thank you Martin. I think this accurately sums up my position on all of this. Despite the fact we have spent more than ever, we still have a squad which isn’t good enough. We could have spent double, and it still might not have been enough. And if it was enough for one season, then we’d need to spend a similar sum again. And we’d still be ploughing the bottom third of the division. People point to Brentford to pretend that there’s some kind of competition. Like they pointed at Leeds last season and Sheffield United the season before. Or Huddersfield and any number of clubs who survive a season following promotion.
I find the circus around Newcastle quite sickening actually. Fans believing that they’re rich and the football industry stoking it. Let’s see how they compete, within the confines of FFP, while the other ‘big’ clubs are also spending vast sums.
It’s not for me either. Not until the game goes bang and those clubs who have been sensibly run see the benefits any way!
Cracking response and your sentiments are spot on.
Let’s hope the Big Bang happened sooner rather than later
You mention our biggest ever spend….true BUT . It’s a net spend over and above Emi’s fee, around £17m. Nothing in PL terms, sadly most of it seems to have been wasted.
I love football, but hate what it’s become.
Well said both. Two further points: when a sport ceases to be competitive, which the PL clearly isn’t, it’s no longer a sport but a spectacle, and increasingly empty as the money and power rises to the top..
The sooner the oligarchs and dictators and ‘legacy clubs’ get their European Super League the better, then Real Football can get back to being a proper sport. It will happen, once they’ve softened up their so-called ‘fan bases’, and done a rather better launch than last time. Then well-run clubs like Norwich can stand a chance of sporting success as well as sound business management.
The game is cleaner now than it was, safer, no hooliganism and for that I applaud the premier league.
But the rest of it is utterly broken.
Get that super league up and running and get rid of them.
We all know the world is not perfect.it never has and it never will be.
Neither is it fair.
Conflating the current plight of Norwich City fc with child poverty is a new one on me. Interesting too that when faced with picking a multi millionaire footballer from Manchester United you choose paul pogba and ignore the obvious and only link, that being Marcus rashford.
Other people’s pay packets are a matter for them and their employer and nobody has a right to condemn anyone for selling their labour for as much as they can.
Footballers salaries are indeed ridiculous. But we live in a world where somebody can amass a multi million pound fortune for boiling an egg on a television programme so these things can sometimes happen. Rich people are a good target. Just not all of them.
And the government are choosing to ignore Marcus Rashford at present which is a shame.
I’m yet to see many millionaires (billionaires) that are genuinely trying to ‘level – up’.
But perhaps I’m not looking hard enough.
Anyone who wants American style sports doesn’t know anything about American sports.
I too hate the way football has gone Martin, I often come on here and sound like one of the “Last of the Summer Wine” old boys lamenting the old days.
Years ago teams like us, Coventry, Oxford and Luton could win cups, now its the big five ( including Manchester City Reserves)
So much was better then, the competition, every game meant something, no p….ing about with resting players for cup ties, epic cup ties over 3-4 games, no international breaks and a fantastic atmosphere.
But there was also the bad, hooliganism, pitches that resembled ploughed fields, stands that were dangerous and the really skillful players kicked around from the kick off.
I respect your decision for not watching the team due to your beliefs, I cannot go regularly for financial and disability reasons, but I watch us on TV at every opportunity.
But take that to its inevitable conclusion if the vast supporters did that then there would be no Norwich City FC, not as as we know it.
I agree with all you say about the greed of the EPL, and the fit and proper test to own a EPL club is a joke. And getting promoted no longer excites me as it did.
But we are stuck with what we have as things stand. And there have been some great achievements, Leicester winning the EPL for instance. I know they are as rare as Rocking Horse S**** but it can happen.
And in whatever sport you aspire to play in the best league that you can. The turnaround of clubs in the EPL over 10 years of being in there is 8-9 clubs every decade so it is possible to have a relatively good stay in there.
I think it highly unlikely with our present self-funding model that we will ever be able to stay in the EPL for more than a year or two. At the moment I would definitely take two.
But I absolutely pay tribute to all those wonderful Norwich City supporters who go week in week out, especially the away fans, who really deserve more.
In truth Martin I do not think I could not watch us, or listen to Radio Norfolk. I wish the season to hurry up and come in the summer so no, I couldn’t do that !! 🤣
The League isn’t the problem, It is Norwich City and its attitude towards it. No excuses.
So the Saudi government buying a club is. OK with you? Other dodgy money inflating other rival clubs is fine with you? Relentless prizes for the top 6 clubs exclusively and for ever is OK with you? The finances of 72 other clubs in complete disarray is fine with you?
So the Saudi government buying 1 of the clubs is OK with you? Dodgy funds funding many other clubs is OK with you? The top 6 winning all the prizes for ever is fine with you? The rest of the football league in perpetual financial meltdown is OK with you?
I want Norwich City to compete at the top level. I don’t want the club to be owned by an individual, corporation or country that is rich because of its own awfulness.
This means that I’ll probably have to settle for seasons to be alternatively great and horrible. At least in the horrible seasons I can enjoy the fact that pretty much every talkShite presenter and Robbie Savage are miffed with our very presence.
Hi Don
I can only agree with you on the concept of ownership purchased by a country with an appalling human rights record such as has happened at Newcastle. And it is a country, rather than a couple of individual investors within it.
My question here is how on earth did this get through the *fit and proper* criteria?
As much as I have had more than enough of the Smiths, I find the situation in the North East to be quite bizarre.
Money buys power and privilege in all areas of life. sadly that’s the way it is. Neither Marxism or Capitalism works of course, in theory maybe but not in practise.
The PL is changing again with perhaps a top 3 easing themselves away from the ‘old’ top 6. Arsenal, Spurs, Utd are now left chasing 4th spot, that’s their new pinnacle.
For Everton, West Ham, Leicester it’s Europa League leaving the remaining 11 looking to finish 17th or better.
Our capitulation at Chelsea was gut wrenching but there will be others who suffer a similar fate at the hands of the top 3, just wait and see.
Your statement that “its the game that’s f****d” is spot on.
Big game Sunday, get behind the boys!
The system the western world lives under is far from perfect but seems better than any other system we’ve tried so far. That being the case I think it wholly unacceptable for the system to be changed to facilitate the plight of Norwich City FC.
We need to accept if we wish to compete in the premiership it’s our model and probably owners who need to change.
Surely the system needs stricter regulation for the protection of the game at the higher levels, it’s not about NCFC or just about the PL. Billionaire owners are no guarantee of success as we know, ask Stoke City, WBA , Newcastle (Ashley is a Billionaire), Leeds, Bristol City, even Ipswich, etc, etc.
Isn’t it a case that NCFC have massively over performed in recent seasons?
Fabulous article. Excellent to see MFW put this up. Whatever the immediate season holds for us all of the above applies. I just feel fortunate to have witnessed a few years of superb, entertaining, engaging football and such a refreshing manager too. Sure. Get (the worn out – see Athletic article this month ) Bruce or Allerdyce or maybe Pardew in. Perhaps we will stay up. And hold out for another season. Great.
I liked winning the league, but didn’t want to get promoted. All I could see was a season of misery in the Premier League, and then another entertaining go at the Championship.
I was right.
Well done me.
Next season in the Championship will be harder too though and being 13th in November isn’t an out of this world prediction. It will still be better than being regularly smashed about the chops with a bunch of £50 notes wrapped round a gold brick.
You’re right the game is broken. Let the rich breakaway to play each other endlessly. A more tedious outcome I can’t imagine. Like the boat race! Oxford and Cambridge make the final every year.
I’ve said on here before that the Euro Super League would have been great for English football overall. Top 6 can burger off, and leave the next best 20 Clubs to compete more equally. It wouldn’t have been perfect, nothing is, but if it took the moneyed elite away, so much the better. Its still possible, bring it on I say as soon as poss!
Agree whole heartedly -football is broken. One of the few ways, possibly the only way, is to look to US sports (which is ironic as it’s capitalism practiced the American way that is ruining football) is adoption of a salary cap. Instead of having an International both starting and on the bench, the idea of adding a few players who are on far less than 3-4 star players would quickly level the playing field and place more importance on developing from within. I had a feeling that the Chelsea match would end the way it did and now there is borderline hysteria amongst the supporters and a smug satisfaction within national media -Norwich have a model and given the size of the supporter base in Norfolk, they will never have the ability to punch above their weight and maintain longevity in the Prem. In my mind, I’m not sure if the actual gap between top and bottom is really understood. and unfortunately, the fox is already in the hen house in that actions that can/should be taken are now deemed far too radical and every stakeholder -players and owners specifically, aren’t going to buy in. I hate to think where things will be in 5 years.
Martin
Thank you, I was starting to get worried it was just me.
Love this article. Felt this way for so long. Being promoted and relegated so many times surely has shown this. The Premier league is a Turkey shoot and they throw us a bit of corn hoping we keep voting for xmas Like watching Big Daddy floored by Giant Haystacks in the first round of a wrestling match as a kid and believing the outcome was in doubt (one for the kids there !) I’m no longer angry at our capitulation the way I was at Fulham 15 years ago. We tried something different this time as we do every time. Last time we gave the players and the football that was successful in the championship a go. This time we replaced the squad and system and it looks like its even worse. A new manager would only be rearranging deck chairs on the titanic, Daniel Farke has allowed me to see a team play in a style I would have never imagined possible for NCFC and I’ve been watching for 40 yrs. Blame the game not the player they say.. Take the money and run….
I started playing football in 1960 in Glasgow moved to Norwich in 1965, continued to play until I was in my forties whilst watching NCFC .
To me playing football and supporting NCFC was an escape from every day life, and a dream that I might play at the top level, that didn’t happen as a player but on a good number of occasions it did watching my beloved NCFC.
I have never whilst watching City play treated it as a moral crusade, professional football in the UK has always been about the rich and poor.
The biggest clubs with the biggest gates always seem to rise to the top, they can pay the biggest wages attract the best players , the only way to compete with them is to find young managerial talent and young talented players whilst realising that if you are successful you will lose both to the bigger clubs.
But please don’t harp on about human rights etc when Newcastle get new owners, nobody complained about Man City’s owners, Chelsea’s owners , and all the rest, I just don’t want football to become the gauge of the moral high ground, I want it to be the field of dreams whether you support a big club or a minnow ,
We have so called poor millionaires who own our club, they stepped in when the club was in dire straits , under their stewardship we’ve seen some of the best times in the clubs history.
Let’s hope that when the time comes the people that take over as owners of our club have treat us to at least half the success Delia and Michael have given us.
Also just remember that the people riding their moral high horse that got the sponsorship deal cancelled may have caused us to miss out on signing better players than we did, and as a result may have caused all this toxic feelings due to our poor performances recently.
If Newcastle come calling for any of our players, will the club turn their dirty money down? I have my doubts. If they do take the money what does that say about Norwich? Surely clubs should collectively refuse to do business with Newcastle but that is never going to happen. Will players individually say to themselves, what does it say about me as a person if I go to this club? I doubt it. Will the fans at Palace who flew the banner, protest against their owners if they sell to and take the money from Newcastle? I doubt it. Alan Shearer was on NBC coverage of the PL at the weekend. He was asked about the take over and he obviously had been given a script from a PR firm. It went something like “I will need to educate myself about the human rights in” wait for it “South Africa” He could not even get the name of the country right the Muppet Here is a link to that interview – hopefully it is not GEO blocked in the UK – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVgAK4VVj0o. . The best bit for me was the guy behind him waiving a Teemu Pukki scarf. I’m not really sure where football goes from here.
Enjoy the drop 🤣.