As tends to be the case when things go awry in the hallowed halls of Colney and Carrow Road, much of the focus turns to how this club is run and, hand-in-hand with that, how it is funded.
MFW pages aplenty (including yesterday’s) have been filled with the rights and wrongs of the current self-funding model, and its robustness and suitability when City make it into the Premier League. As things stand, even its most vehement supporters may have to question whether City’s version of The Good Life is a worthwhile fit for a club aiming to be one of the country’s top 17.
First things first – and before I get launched upon for being disrespectful to Michael and Delia – I love the fact that both are genuine City fans and were there to help when the club neared its darkest hour. Their help, along with heroics from Gordon Bennett and Geoffrey Watling, ensured that our club survived when all appeared lost.
For that, we will all be forever grateful. Their vital role in the club’s history is set in stone; there for posterity.
(If you feel a but coming… you’re right.)
But let’s not pretend that the ‘self-funding’ model was one that, after being mooted and discussed at length in the City boardroom, was run through a series of focus groups, refined by an expensively acquired bunch of hotshot City of London consultants and then implemented by an equally expensive project management team.
Self-funding for this club is a thing because our owners – both hugely successful people in their own right – are, in elite football terms, paupers. That’s no criticism, just a fact. Therefore there is no alternative.
Well. there is an alternative but that would mean Delia and Michael either selling their shares in the club or inviting in someone (or something) else with the means to be able to provide more financial muscle. And we all know that ain’t happening.
The only plan, as far as I’m aware, is one of succession and involves them, when they feel the time is right, passing the reins (and shares) en masse to nephew, Tom – a very nice chap but who appears to be in no position to bring any additional funding to the party.
So, for all the whining and sniping from folk like me, nothing is about to change in terms of the club’s depth of pocket. For all our hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing and consternating, ours is a football club that has simply no option but to live within its own means. Not a choice it has made. One imposed upon it by the owners’ decision to sit tight.
It feels wrong, of course, to feel irked at such a noble ideal – living within your means should be the bedrock of any individual, family or business or even country – but in the top two divisions of English football, Norwich City are the only club following this particular path. One club in a field of 44.
In an ideal world, football clubs would aspire to only spend the money they have earned. But this is not an ideal world. Far from it.
It’s a world where those with wealth beyond anyone’s wildest dreams are lauded merely for having those bottomless pits of cash; where human rights atrocities (and the execution of journalists) can be met with a shrug if the price is right; where the paupers are mocked and derided for being paupers; where it’s normal, encouraged even, for the big guy to punch down on the little one.
It stinks. Is absolutely rotten. But, as we’ve discovered, to swim against that unstoppable, sh!t-infested tide is futile.
It leaves you with a football club that has all the trimmings – good infrastructure, nice training ground etc – but a playing squad that is, in reality, unfit for purpose. So unfit for purpose, you find yourself as a fan suffering almost weekly bouts of embarrassment and humiliation.
It’s not the losing, we can take the losing. It’s the knowing before a ball has been kicked that so hurts.
The current mitigation comes in the form of a threadbare squad due to illness and injury but, aside from a decent November, we’ve not been properly competitive since that first ball was kicked against Liverpool on 14th August.
It takes an optimist of extraordinary belief to not see seven consecutive defeats at the start of the campaign and five consecutive defeats in December as the product of a team and squad that is just not good enough.
And it’s no coincidence that whenever we breathe in the refined air of the Premier League, we’re never good enough.
The club’s most recent successful attempt at staying in the Premier League – when Chris Hughton’s class on 2012/13 ensured safety with a win over West Brom on the penultimate day of the season – was achieved via the seat of our pants when the playing field was slightly more even than it is today.
As the seasons’ pass, the gap between us and the other 19 ever widens.
We convince ourselves that we’re big spenders and that lessons from previous disasters have been learned, yet nothing changes. And nothing changes because the limitations in our model don’t allow it to. I’d argue, given all the disadvantages and hurdles we face, 19th place in any given season would be an over-achievement.
Quite where that leaves us, I’m not sure. Delia, Michael and Tom are not budging – and fair play, it’s their call – but as things stand, the best we can hope for is an overachievement in the Championship that results in promotion, followed by a season of abject misery in the top flight.
The only way this cycle is broken is if, as seems inevitable, we eventually suffer a Championship season of mid-table mediocrity (or worse) with, as a result, no lucrative one-season stopover in the Premier League to follow. Once the advantages of PL prize money and parachute payments have evaporated, only then will the true meaning of ‘self-funding’ become clear again – as it did in the Webber/Farke first season.
And then, to achieve promotion – as they did in 2018-19 – it requires a punching-above-your-weight of extraordinary proportions.
But, to conclude (and before I get shouted at by people I like), I’m fully aware that even if Delia and Michael did decide to open up to the idea of external investment, there are still no billionaire donors wrapped in Norwich City regalia waiting in the wings. In fact, I suspect there are no investors of any kind who have Norwich City FC at the top of their list of potential investments.
We, it seems, are not an attractive proposition.
As I said four paragraphs ago, quite where that leaves us, I’m really not sure. I have no answer other than to clap… happily.
Oh… and a Happy New Year to you all 🙂
We are locked in a vicious cycle and no mistake.
Maybe I’m glass half full, but I think it is possible for us to survive in the PL (not this season obviously, but conceptually). To do so the recruitment has to be spot on however, and focussed on providing the tools needed to achieve that for one season. Buying players who may earn you more in sales long-term is an absolute waste of a warchest. This is Webber’s biggest failure. Buying potential in the Championship is commendable. Adding a future star when you’re already established in the top flight is good planning, but buying for the future when you don’t have enough for the present is foolhardy.
Perfectly said. This is absolutely how I feel. IMO the recruitment in the summer was poor..the problem I think is probably a reluctance to pay premier league wages for Premier league players out of fear (probably realistic) that we’d end up with a squad of highly payed players relegated to the championship like what happened in 2016. Thing is I don’t think we’d win many games in the champ with this current group of players
I think this underestimates the impact of injuries and Covid. Look at why we are so good in the Championship yet so poor in the PL. It shouldn’t add up that we can be so very accomplished in gaining promotion and then suddenly so uncompetitive in the PL. However, in the Championship you can weather a few injuries because the squad’s depth in quality doesn’t matter so much. Yet in the PL, lose two or three key players and it’s hugely damaging. Just look at Dean Smith’s first few games: pretty much a fully fit squad, and we played well, competed, looked up for it, got points. A few injuries/Covid later and we really struggle. It was the same in Farke’s first PL season. We need a squad of at least 15 Premier League quality players, not 11 or 12.
Can you name the 11 or 12 epl quality players please,im stuck on 4.
I’d go with Krul and Aarons followed by Pukki, Hanley and Normann at a push – you must have left one of my five out. Bet it was Hanley 🙂
My problem is when it’s all passed to Tom,where will any money come from then,as I don’t believe he has the finances as per D and M.
An honest and fair assessment Gary. It’s going to need another attempt, successful this time, by the foreign billionaires and countries who don’t give a stuff about the history and fans of the clubs they bought as either an investment or, worse, a plaything to breakaway, completely this time, for teams like ours to have a realistic chance of a sustained spell in the top league.
“It’s not the losing, we can take the losing. It’s the knowing before a ball has been kicked that so hurts”.
Nailed it in just 21 words Gary.
It’s all too easy to hark back to the Lambert days. But there wasn’t a game in his PL season that you didn’t, genuinely, think we might have got something from. . And if we did get a bit of a turning over then, more often than not, there’d be be a response rather than it being the start of a run of 5,6, 7 consecutive defeats.
“Don’t get fuckin’ beat” he said. A 4-1-2-1-2 formation that was fluid and relied on pace and Holty’s ability to not only score lots of goals (and he wasn’t a battering ram as some critics might say, remember the goal at Everton for example?) alongside Wes in that solo role behind him. It wasn’t Farkeball but it was still very easy on the eye, another example coming, Surman’s goal at Wolves.
It wasn’t quite the void it is now between the top teams and ‘the rest’, it was one that was manageable on the pitch. Plus, certainly for transfer fees, we could reasonably compete with our peers. We signed Pilkington for £2 million from Huddersfield-he’d probably have an asking price of £25 million now!
We were hanging on but making a go of it. We’ve been left behind now. All within a little over a decade. How will domestic football look in the 2031/32 season? Well, the ESL will be in existence, you can be sure of that. So what place in the pyramid will we then have in an elite league that will be a closed shop?
Whatever we do, even if we do move on from being self funded, I think the game will still leave us, and many, many others, behind regardless of a sugar daddy or two.
That, for me, is the real concern.
I think when it becomes a yo it’s found it’s true position Gary . I suppose the self funding model only works if you buy jem’s more often than not and will sell these gems when the price is right . Robert Chase done it a lot better than we are now ,the players we sold then were better I believe apart from Madison and Buendia . But it seems it was flawed then and is now if you can’t get enough gems to fund and keep the fans happy that’s when it unravels . And this is what has happened good luck and good luck to the board with getting through it because history got a habit of repeating itself .
Which clubs fans have had more fun, excitement, memories over recent seasons?Burnley, Newcastle, Everton, West Ham, Watford, Leeds, Fulham, WBA, Villa, Bournemouth, the list goes on. Okay it’s a hard, demoralising watch at present but what fantastic times we have as a yo-yo club.
City are never going to become established as a PL club even if we have billionaire owners, top players will not come to Norfolk.
I’ll support City whatever level they play at. I’m proud of our achievements and proud to support the club. For all the finger pointing at the major shareholders just take a moment to reflect on all the fantastic times we’ve enjoyed, fans of many other clubs would be queuing up for some of that.
I agree we are Sh*t at present but life is forever changing, may be Deano has a 20 goal loan striker up his sleave!
As someone old enough to remember long runs on the top flight and I can’t remember looking at yoyo clubs like Leicester and Birmingham with envy. Why do you think top players will go to Dorset, South Wales, Sussex and Suffolk but never Norfolk?
They don’t in PL 2021 version. Brighton (Sussex) just 45ish miles from London and the height of fashion, so maybe they’re an option but not the others in today’s world.
As an OAP I too remember when football had greater equality and when City also made marquee signings. Those days are over I fear.
Gary a HNY to you, sometimes the blindingly obvious needs to be stated and you‘ve done it. I suppose as City fans we must doff our caps as we back out the Prem door clutching our bag of silver, it‘s just part of the Self Financing Package. And maybe we should acknowledge that many thousands if not millions of soccer fans derive pleasure from the Prem thanks to the generosity of the mega rich owners. And we can turn a deaf ear to the snide remarks of the so called celebrity soccer experts, two fingers to ´em all we are the Championship Champions.
I am afraid I take a much harder line on the owners. any monies she loaned to the club The Duo took back in shares, while that might be commendable in not taking money out. There is another side it put them in a position of more strength. I remember Geoffrey Watling’s words “no one person should ever own the club.” The loophole is we have a married couple.
When we go down, players will leave, sold or return to parent clubs. where will that leave the City squad, parachute payments will not last forever, (there is even talk of doing away with them. Not sure if that has been settled) estimated parachute monies: 1st Season £40mill, -2nd season £30-35 mill – 3rd season £15mill
Limited TV revenue, sales from Merchandise, and the good old supporter paying his season ticket money.
It is fine to have a good go at 1st-time promotion back to the Prem, that’s when the squad is good enough to get near that. But as we have seen this season , this squad looks nothing like it can handle the rigors of the championship, where fighting for the points is just as important as talent and skill.
The lower leagues are littered with clubs who could not get back up to the promised land, the financial gap they faced a few seasons ago is smaller than what City will face. If Newcastle goes down, the buying power they have will see them have little problem at getting back.
We will be back to the Ambition with Prudence days, when Worthy won promotion he was given next to nothing to add to his squad, no small wonder really we came straight down. How many times have we seen that ?
Continuing with the self-funding model in the championship, will have a little more success, but I reckon that will be if we stay there. As seen it cannot work in the premiership, the way the club has been handled over just the last two promotions have been a total embarrassment drawing ridicule and scorn. From being known as a good footballing club to that is a very hard pill to swallow for the supporters. We can support, defend and stand up for our club but at the end of the day it makes little difference. The only changes can be made around the table.
The quicker that happens the better.
I was alarmed a few years back when Delia stated in an interview she didn’t know where the money went but she certainly wasn’t getting rich from her ownership of Norwich City FC.
The position we are in now is a consequence of the inability of the owners to provide the necessary investment to take the next step up. It appears to me to be a bit like a UK company trying to break into the US.
Our system has always relied on a gamble in buying youngsters in the hope they become valuable assets to subsidise the future of the business.
Unfortunately, after a few years of hope we’ve hit the buffers.
Next year I’m certain we’ll struggle in the championship with our present squad. What assets we have left will be sold to keep the business running and we’ll probably end up with the old farm derby the year after.
Looking for new owners in our current state is a waste of time as the club will be a lot cheaper two years from now, if anybody is interested.
Truly depressing and it could have been so different.
Don’t read todays Times as there’s an article that makes difficult reading.
I’ve read the article and all of a sudden the Saudi way of executing journalists has gained some appeal.
I remember in the noughties when City tried to get investment into the Club and no one came forward who could demonstrate both finance and commitment. We are lucky that we have avoided owners like Marcus Evans and Mel Morris.
What City need now is full commitment from the players . Teams like Brentford, Watford, Newcastle and Burnley do not have much more talented players but they do show physical commitment lacking from some of our team. Even Jacob Murphy gets stuck in! It is no wonder that Farke and Smith pick Maclean despite his limitations because he does give his all.
Some of our recruits in the summer are just not good enough. Sargent’s failure to score at an open goal is emblematic of his lack of goal scoring instinct. We have been unlucky with injuries etc- Hanley in particular is missed not least for his willingness to put his body on the line for the team. Why we needed Rashica and Tzolis I don’t know.
Quite a few signings would do well in a successful team but being on the back foot in games is difficult.
When we go down I want City to avoid the hangover that some teams suffer after relegation. Dean Smith is a decent manager and a steady hand. Let us hope he and Webber can achieve in the transfer window a modest strengthening to launch us into the next campaign.
Good article Gary.
Buying for future not present was indeed a big mistake on the face of it, However, I think there was a plan to cover both. The permanent signings were for future and the loans for present and it seems this is the only way we can do it to avoid the disaster going into deep debt if any strategy didn’t work.. Normann the best, Kabak with potential and Gilmour a populist choice, all of them having some element of premier level experience, just not enough, and not consistently enough for a relegation fight. A shortcoming of this strategy of loans for the present is that it narrows down the pool of players to aim for as most want a permanent deal.
The strategy was more of an educated gamble than wreckless. We’re all saying we should’ve signed 2-3 premier experienced players but we know beyond the fee, it’s the wages. This hit home to me when I spotted one of Newcastle’s transfer targets can allegedly be bought for £17m but his current wages are £220k per week! We all have a reasonable idea of the wage structure at Norwich and I guess we’re nowhere near half that. Where does that leave us trying to compete?
It would be great if all clubs could move to a core salary of more modest proportions and a performance-related bonus system. It could be based on club income but then you come back to the ground’s capacity as a limit to our capability to compete.
In summary, if Normann had not got injured, if Kabak was amazing and was consistently showing quality, if Gilmour was played higher up, if Sargent could score some goals to his work rate, if Rashica was fit, running down the wing and into the box and scoring freely, if Cantwell had taken up the challenge of half replicating Buendia’s creativity, we would be higher up the table no problem. And all of that without the regular players progressing too, Tzolis as an impact sub. Most feel Rupp has stepped up a bit, PLM not really wowed but potential, Pukki can do the business if served well, Gibson OK, Hanley done OK but both have questions about their premier credentials. Farke got another chance but his lack of ideas for premier team tactics were found out. Dean Smith is a decent manager but now has to try and gel together a team which can perform against stronger squads while there’s a mess of injuries, covid, spoilt brats, underperforming players, confidence loss. The plan could’ve worked but it hasn’t.
Premier league is way too predictable, very much because of premier league parachute money system also Championship has become too predictable. Norwich has become because of that Jekyll and Hyde, every second season is too much fun and every second is full of miserable feelings. Other possibility would be celebrating 10th place or been disappointed to 14th place. I think I would choose like it is now, of course if seasons are completely black or white, no chance in premier league and no competition in championship its surely very boring too.
I used to believe the ‘no one’s interested in buying City’ line but am starting to have doubts. (Prospective MFW article on this already submitted to Gary). I hope we don’t get too isolated as a club. But in the big picture things aren’t too bad – we’re (currently) in the best division in the world!
Very good article Gary,
Delia and Michael are good people as you say, they put a lot of themselves into the club usually with little thanks. They could stop doing so next season and see who shifts uneasily first, the fans who regularly denigrate them, or the club itself. Doubt if they will though.
Self-funding might work in the leagues below Premiership level, but I think its pretty obvious following two attempts, we need a richer mix if we are to stay up – the club need to find someone who puts in at least £25m – £35m minimum just for players every season, grinning enthusiastically at the positive pattern of success we produce – or not.
There is not a long queue of super-rich people looking for a football club to buy, and given the sad economic state of the UK there very probably won’t be one for a very long time. Poor, crumbly old British politics has seen to that.
We did not have to let Hernandez, Vrancic, Tettey et als go last summer, but we did so. It might well have been a better idea to run with them this season while adding to that squad, replacing them when the runes were right … easy to be wise after the fact though, isn’t it?
Whatever, what the club really need to do from the next match to the last match, is have a bloody go!
If we’re going to lose, we may as well do it with the words ‘Attack, attack, attack!’ ringing in our ears, who knows, we may prove that the new manager bounce is not finished yet. I cannot imagine the likes of Krul and Pukki giving in without a fight!
Happy New Year Gary!
COYYs !!
Full agree with your comments. The principle of staying up is there but we are over cautious about who we buy and this is down to a lack of working capital, we probably need an input of around £50m prior to the PL income in order to build up the squad.
Hi Gary
A great read
Transfer news today is that WBA and Portsmouth wants to send back the under preforming strikers from us with WBA signing a striker that scored 9 in 14 last season for Barnsley but they do have rich Chinese owners willing to back the team.
Ignorance I was told as a child was bliss but later in life I was told ignorance was folly for not educating yourself in the way of life.
Losing becomes a habit so they say so does winning and that is a fine dividing line like love and hate.
Many years ago DS said something like you need to know when the time has come and not over stay your welcome, followed by she would gladly sell to someone that could take the club forward.
Sadly on the first she has ignored her own advice and as for the second she has ring fenced their ownership by stating that it’s a self funding club and turning down all enquiries from potential investors.
At the AGM Webber indicated that the management looked at all offers and passed on the more solid ones to the owners and they made the final decision that’s like Turkeys voting for Xmas.
Other members of the board should be consulted in these matters but has it become a dictatorship run by 2 people or are the others involved we will never know as none will break rank.
As supporters we can look on jealously at Billionaire clubs and ridicule their lack of moral judgement.
Ashley at Newcastle spent millions on players took so much abuse it was beyond belief but mostly kept them in the EPL was he a bad owner as he didn’t spent what the supporters wanted ???
Ashley sold the club with no debts owning there own ground and training facilities for £310+m a profit on his original outlay.
Geoffrey Watling sold his shares reportedly to the present owners for a bargain price wrote of monies owed to him and his family to people he trusted to do right by the club I think he is turning over in his grave that trust has been slowly wilted away and sadly abused by a board with no ambition
This. Absolutely spot on.
One thing that always has to be considered is the massive gap in income between being 20th in the PL, being a recently relegated team in the Championship and being a club in the Championship without parachute money. Last season we made an operating loss (the reported profit was down to the sales of Lewis, Godfrey and Buendia in that financial year and the fact that the purchases of Gibson and Giannoulis came after the end of that year). This operating loss can be explained away by the impact of Covid and a higher than expected wage bill (keeping Buendia and promotion related payments). This means that with parachute money and a full house we can just about break even and operate a very strong squad in EFL terms. The issue comes in year 2, do we take another shot at promotion? The impact of failure is severe, our income in year 3 would fall to £35m, by looking at the accounts of Championship teams this would barely fund a bottom 6 Championship team so we are facing a massive problem at this point, do we borrow? Do we sell players? Do we cut the academy programme? Do we cut the playing budget? Each of these would make it more likely that we continue to be in the same position the following year. This shows the importance of winning promotion in 2019. We can not self fund a Championship team without a high degree of luck. Could we self fund a mid-table League 1 team? We probably could but that would rely on us continuing to sell out Carrow Road. We need to attract new capital to survive. I don’t think our owners are looking to sell but it is not too far fetched to see that being forced on them and I would prefer to see that happen from a position of strength. Other clubs are being bought at present, I have just heard about Hull City. One thing that is a potential problem for us is that to buy the club you need to buy the substantial property assets that we own. Would somebody who is looking to buy the club for the sheer fun and status of being a club owner want to pay an 8 figure sum for the land and stadium? Most sales these days are just for the footballing side, the brand. The only people who would want to buy the land possibly might have other uses for this land and fancy a bit of asset stripping. Is there a way to separate the land from the football club? This could attract more beneficial bidders for the club and keep the property assets safe. We visit Charlton next week, they play in a nice stadium that is rarely full, they used to be in the PL and we even tried to copy their model. There is a danger that we could be about to copy their recent years
Very good article Gary, as someone else has already “stating the obvious “ but a realistic set of statements of where we are. Reading of Chelsea’s millions of pounds of debt and they are not alone begs the question do we as a Club want to tread the same path. It seems immoral that if you owe that kind of finance to creditors not only can you carry on trading but you can purchase new players for copious amounts to add to the debit column. Nationally our beautiful game is financially sick.
I know it hurts but as fans we do need to have a sense of responsibility, how many of us could manage our family’s income and expenditure in the same negligent manner as many of the Clubs?
All we can do is hope that messrs Weber and Smith and their successors can find rough diamonds which we can develop into top class players. Currently it is inevitable that a percentage of them will be sold on to keep us solvent. Some of the present crop were bought as medium/long term prospects at the time but due to circumstances have been thrust into action before their time, so in tune with your words, stay positive and patient and look forward to a brighter 2022.
Two things strike me.
First, it’s been proved twice now that winning the Championship easily with Farkeball gives you totally the wrong sort of team for scrapping in the PL. Much as we detested Wilder and Sheff Utd, their style did at least give them a chance of not only laying a glove on some big names, but give them bloody nose. Of course, once he was rumbled he failed to adapt and it all fell apart.
Secondly, the wealth gap between Championship and PL is working both ways. It’s becoming harder than ever for a newly promoted club to last, say, 3 years in the PL. But on the other hand relegated clubs are better protected by parachute payments than ever before.
The perceived wisdom 4 or 5 years ago was that of the clubs relegated from the PL on average only one would return immediately, and quite often one would sink further quite quickly. It’s beginning to look as though that is changing. Last season it was 2 out of 3, the one that missed out is now leading the way in the current season, with two of last year’s fallers also in the top 4. The other (Sheff U again) also appears to be getting its act together with 13 points from the last 15.
Happy new year Gary.
I have struggled with this debate for years now.
Do you risk so much by Delia and Michael selling up to much richer investors.
Or do we risk so much by plodding along as a self-funding club.
I hate to say that too many city supporters are fundamentalists on this, many of them renowned, they believe get rid of The Stowmarket Two and the return to great Premier League days including jaunts back into Europe will be back with amazing certainty.
Likewise we have what is probably unfairly called “The Happy Clappers” content with whatever the club does.
So what’s the answer.
Michael Eisner has owned Portsmouth for some years yet they still languish in division Three ( none of the league one c..p)
Marcus Evans love him or hate him he put over £100 million into Ipswich Town.
Still in Division Three and their two Archant numpties say the reason they have had such a dire time over the years is lack of investment !!!
So there is no guarantee of success with a new financial backer.
But we will only get two years of parachute payments if we get relegated this season as we have only lasted a year in the EPL.
But what swings me in favour of taking the risk of new investors is the way that I read our finances.is that if as you say Gary we have just a Yo next season and the club keep spending money as they have done over the last few years especially on wages it looks to me we would need a player or players sale every season of £20-30 million while we remain in the championship.
In that scenario another Gunny type appointment, another recruitment worse than this summer and another third division season could beckon.
We really are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Alex pointed out to me yesterday that it won’t be as easy for “Young Tom” to sell the club as I thought. That is a worry.
We must not forget all the good Stuart Webber has done for this club.
This summer’s recruitment has been poor but he isn’t the sole person responsible for that.
He will admit the buck stops with him.
But he has masterminded two fantastic championship wins along with Daniel, the first one a massive shock not just too us but the whole football world.
And I do feel both he and Daniel have had no luck in these EPL seasons with the pandemic and injuries.
This is all irrelevant as D & M show no signs of selling up. Hopefully they will have a good long look at this and admit continuing with the status quo is not in the long term interest of Norwich City FC.
We can’t keep on being the EPL laughing stock. Unless you are happy with this.
There is another opinion which some supporters have and that is that this way of life is fine. Up and down, even an occasional visit to Division Three.
I respect that, but don’t we strive for all these championship/ promotions to be the best we can ? In the EPL ?
So it’s time to move on for now, get behind S & S who I believe could form a competitive team next season in the championship.
After that the picture will be a lot clearer.
Colin M has got it right, it’s actually been one hell of an enjoyable rollacoaster overall being a City fan. I’m interested in the social and ‘political’ undertones and divisions that appear when the team has a bad spell. At times it mirrors the Brexit fissure. Maybe we give too much import to social media noise. As a fan of 50 years, first living in Norwich, now in London, I’ve seen change aplenty. From crowds of 14,000, terraces, we now comfortably see more at Carra than attend at Selhurst Park. A vocal minority appear unimpressed by this, implying the club has too many of the wrong type of fans. Has the demographic changed? It must have. Frankly has the fan base become more middle class? Again, yes. Certainly more women go. Recent comments on the Pink un appear to show a disaffected minority, unhappy with so called ‘happy clappers ‘ and ‘day trippers’’ who are assumed to be supporting Delia and Michael I.e the establishment in Brexit language.
Their unhappiness appears at root to be not really about football but wider changes in their locality and their world. They feel bypassed, over looked and they hanker for tribal certainties and loyalties of old. Maybe I’m focusing in on a peripheral issue, but with mass organised religion long dead, football remains unique. It’s the only phenomenon that regularly brings people from all sections of a community together, and the sense of belonging is deep. I like to think the shared experience of supporting us to some extent binds us together.
Alex Neil’s most grievous error was not signing Naismith, it was his inability to secure an immediate return to the PL.
Had Norwich sat top, Naismith would have been an unfortunate signing on an otherwise profitable club.
But he didn’t attain promotion and neither did Farke in his first season. We all saw what happened when the parachute payments ran out.
Accusations, offloading of assets, a deficit on 38M quid in one season. We’ll face the same events again if we don’t bounce back.
At some point we need to stay up, otherwise we’ll descend a long way down.
Anyone who believes that the unhappy supporters constitute a “minority ” is deluded.
Oh bugger .
Happy new year everyone.
Soddin football spoils life , but ,oh never mind .
Live with it , bloody hell this time next year we will be top of the championship
Great piece Gary,
One thing I’d add is how often – even now – fans comment of how Delia & Michael are great owners and put the club first. Come again?
Delia is – or at least was – an opportunist. She saw an opportunity to keep her then fading profile in the public eye by investing into Norwich City and circumnavigating the rules to become majority shareholders with her husband, ‘She who must be obeyed’
What she has earned in publicity terms far outweighs any initial investments, which have subsequently been repaid anyway.
How had the club benefited by her being in situ, expect for those xenophobes how doesn’t want Jonny Foreigner wanting a piece of the pie, or indeed the whole cake?
Norwich City are like a big old gas guzzling car that Delia & Michael cannot afford to run, bar putting the odd tank in every couple of years.
That begs the question, what the hell are they doing here?
club aiming to be one of the country’s top 17.
Actually the STATED ambition is to be in the top 26 so we are achieving our ambition. Not that it helps the enjoyment of getting thrashed by the top 20