Going over the Haven Bridge in Great Yarmouth one sunny lunchtime in the 1996/97 season, on the way to Carrow Road for the first time, I asked my grandad who Norwich were playing that day.
He said, “Bolton Wanderers.”
I replied, “Belton!?”, pretty surprised that the Wild Duck Holiday Park had a professional football team as well as an awesome swimming pool.
I don’t remember too much about the game, but the record books show we lost 1-0. I was more preoccupied with the sheer thrill of the adventure – going out for the day to the big city, armed with Sunny Delight and snacks, watching a football match in real life instead of it being Man United on TV, discovering there was a place “up North” called Bolton and meeting new people.
I was hooked, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Fast forward to the modern-day, where I have to pay upwards of £40 on a ticket which quickly becomes a £100+ day out whenever I want to attend, and my thought process has changed somewhat since being a five-year-old boy.
My last memorable game in the flesh was Arsenal away at the Emirates earlier in the season in September. It was another beautiful sunny day, we found possibly the best place in London for burgers, loaded up on the beers, went to the game and felt… just blah.
Another 1-0 defeat but we could, and probably should, have got something from that game. A familiar story, another woeful defensive error let the Gunners slot in a sloppy goal.
I then went to Leeds at home, where the away coaching staff had stolen my purchased seat behind the dugout, so I had to sit on one of those stewards’ seats at the top of the section as if I was on the naughty step. It was so small and uncomfortable, and it looked like I was getting ready to get folded into a wheelie bin.
Leeds beat us 2-1, another frustrating day out. But I go to the snooker club with my mate for some games then watch West Ham on the telly, so the Sunday is salvaged.
Yes, I’d had a nice day out, but the football ruined it as usual.
When I was five, I barely understood the concept of promotion and relegation, let alone what GF, GA and GD meant on the Nationwide League Division One table on Teletext. They say ignorance is bliss. But there’s no escaping the reality of things when you’re a grown-up.
We have been trying the same thing at Norwich for five years now – half a decade. People like to focus on the positives naturally and, yes, we have won the Championship twice in the Webber era but let’s go back 10 years since Paul Lambert left.
We have made progress everywhere off the pitch, churning out more youth products and rough diamonds for dazzling profit. This has kept us away from the threat of administration at times, I think all fans know that the sales of the Murphys and James Maddison quite literally kept us in business.
But we have also blown so many golden opportunities to establish ourselves in the Premier League that I fear this is the one where we stay down for good.
My worry is there is only so many Maddisons in the sport. Once the conveyor-belt malfunctions, and we buy a few duds, our whole raison d’être goes out of the window. When this happens in the Championship without TV money, we are in the brown stuff.
Einstein said trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of madness. I think so anyway, I read it on Twitter so it must be true.
Even in our best-case scenario, I like to use the analogy of Norwich being a salmon constantly trying to jump upstream. That stream has turned into a tidal wave of money in recent years, and the TV billions will keep on flowing in as long as the product is there, the wealth gap will get even more cavernous, and the likes of Norwich are simply going to fall away and be swimming in the ponds of the lower Championship or even League One.
I don’t think that’s an alarmist or reactionary take either – there are plenty of big clubs in League One.
Despite our proclivity for frugality, our finances are still finite – mainly because we have Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones holding onto this football club like retirees with a mortgage-free bungalow; ready for nephew Tom to inherit a football club.
A football club as an heirloom, can you believe it?
Yes, for sure we don’t want to be tarnished with the shame of being a plaything for Russian oil crooks like Chelsea. Or, pawns in the journalist and Yemeni-murdering Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s push for the extension of soft power on British shores.
We all need a bit of good PR sometimes don’t we?
Perhaps Stuart Webber should take lessons from Amanda Stavely and Mehrdad Ghodoussi at Newcastle – Webber is only responsible for ending our chances of becoming a Premier League team next season. They represent a state that ends a lot more than PL survival hopes.
Anyway, my point is, like my discovery of that wonderful place called Bolton, there are other things over the horizon beyond your front door.
Norfolk is a pretty insular place, and some Norwich fans seem to like the comforting feeling of the familiar. But if we are to compete in modern football, we need to get with the times and overhaul the club from the top.
It’s not 1996 anymore.
Robert the Bruce didn’t agree with Einstein, perhaps we should change our nickname to the spiders. The promotion years have been some of the most enjoyable I can remember but then we manage to mess it up. With some self belief, fair refereeing decisions and the sense to play a defensive midfielder, we could stay up. If it’s just about money the game’s not worth watching anymore.
That’s the problem, just because the modern game is awash with money, doesn’t mean us pointing this out will help improve our current situation.
We can’t win promotion on ethics…
Your headline Sam
“Our Club as a heirloom” says it all.
To even have the question asked shows where we are as a club.
Majority shareholders should see themselves as stewards of the football club not as the owners.
Will it take another relegation to L1 to be rid of these octogenarians, with their fantastical notion, who want OUR football world to turn to their way of thinking ? While the club we support, follow and love slides deeper into this false world littered with failure.
Time is up, the longer fans do or say little, the more this club will slide down deeper and down
Excellent article and great comments.
The events of the weekend show that the mask is slipping. The support are viewed with contempt in the corridors of power.
In his diatribe, webber revelled in making the owners beg him not to leave. Out of touch and incompetent doesn’t begin to describe it.
The realisation may be dawning that self funding or prudence with relegation to give it a more apt title is crumbling and that webber is the only chance of clinging to the club left. Webber however has already zoned out leaving his wife in the boardroom and Neil Adams, formerly a failed manager, covering his work.
Many were shocked by webbers behaviour on Saturday. I was more shocked by the notion that he was actually present.
I can see clearly what benefits “self funding” bestows on club owners. Ill be buggered if I can see any positives for the support
If Norwich end up in the championship / league one / two or where ever or heaven for bid we go bust and do not have a club, no doubt we will be in good company. The current owners / custodians of our club, what ever you want to call them have tried to go to their own way to establish themselves in the premier league and have failed. And, so what ! I admire them for trying. If the ridiculous amounts of money in the premier league and ethics no longer become a concern when discussing how we have progressed as a club then what’s the point of any of this ? The whole structure of football in England has been 100% ruined by the manner in which the premier league operates. Football is merely a reflection of the sad state of affairs of the world we live in today. Unfortunately, like global warming the situation is now probably irreversible. As for Norwich City and their ambition ? Well, Putin is ambitious isn’t he ? I for one will continue to support NCFC in the same manner I have done for nigh on 60 years and trust those running the club will continue to do their best in impossible circumstances. And, whatever will be will be OTBC
Again, you are arguing about the ethics of modern football, which whether we like it or not…..we participate in.
Norwich City and its owners do not levitate on water, we aren’t going to win promotion back to the Premier League with ethics and acting like this football club is the local corner shop. Sport is there to be won, we watch sport because we want to be entertained by it & we want to see our team be successful. Dropping down on our knees and becoming a lower-league club goes against that basic principle of why we show up to watch. It’s a loser mentality that too many Norwich fans cling onto. If we had always been a League Two team for most of our history, then yes not much to complain about. But we’ve been in the top two divisions for every of the past 63 years, aside from the 2009/10 season. We should expect better from our club owners & sporting director. We are sliding backwards with them in charge.
We need serious owners, with serious investment. Football is like no other business, it’s a toy for rich billionaires. There are good and bad people among them. But the way we are “self-funded” is in itself, no longer sustainable just looking at the macro economics of it. We physically didn’t have ANY MONEY to strengthen in this January transfer window, because we had already spent around £53m in the summer…….£53m that sounds like was our absolute limit, is small fry for most others. Fulham will probably spend another £125m this summer……and they can afford it.
If we continue, we will probably settle in League One. Best case scenario, we will be a Reading or Birmingham with no money, just scraping Championship survival each season.
Well clearly ethics are not important to you, neither is the sick way the premier league is run and as I despise the premier league with a passion I couldn’t give two hoots whether we get back there or not. You continue with your pipe dream and wishing we were owned by rich billionairs as a toy thing, you are a part of the merry go round who will stop at nothing to get what you want. Worried about being entertained and scraping survival in the championship, you’d rather scrap at the bottom of the premier league because that’s the best you can hope for ? You think you will be entertained watching a scrap for survival at the bottom of the premier league ? NO neither do I, and then your demands will get even greater. I am a million miles away from the opinions of the likes of you and glad to stay there. OTBC bring on league two, I’ll be there if I’m still around, will you ? And don’t get too excited about being back in the premier league, if there is to be any change then it will be that the elite will have buggered off into their European league and THEN you might actually see some entertaining competitive sport with the majority that are left behind. And don’t forget, if all in the prem were owned by rich billionairs then someone still has to get relegated and those will of course be accused of a lack of ambition clueless etc etc. Pathetic really, anyway I’m pretty sure I will be enjoying the championship more next season and watching from afar the predictability of the premier pan out with all those other pipe dreamers trying to cling on in a relegation survival campaign. Here’s to being grateful for what we have got, for being 20th in the football pyramid and for not stressing about who owns the club.
Hi Tim,
To an extent I agree with what you are saying, League 1 was one of my favourite years following NCFC. Great memories of Bristol Rovers, Stockport, Walsall away etc. However, where I strongly disagree is this notion that football is either good or evil. Sam advocates ambition and we have repeatedly shown a lack of ambition, selling our players of the year, not targeting successful loan players, poor recruitment etc. We are now linked with Villa youth players for goodness sake- a team we finished above only 3 years ago. I follow NCFC because they’re my team, but it doesn’t mean I don’t want them to play at the highest level or have the ambition to try. I will never understand any fan who doesn’t want this.
Cheers,
“OTBC bring on league two,”
Sums up all that is wrong with some of the Norwich fan base, you are the fans who clapped relegation in 2016 and will continue to clap for failures.
Truly bizarre. “Support” like that isn’t welcome at the club. Sums up the wet wipe attitude of the delia lovers
If you want a real laugh look at the 1997-8 and 1998-9 League tables – Man City finished below Derby, Sheffield Wed, Wimbledon, Charlton, Sunderland, Bradford, Ipswich, Bolton, Grimsby, Barnsley, Tranmere, Stockport, Swindon, Crewe, Portsmouth, Port Vale, Bury, Oxford Utd then Walsall. They were also playing against 6 teams no longer in the football league or are now defunct in 1998-9. Things could be worse or things could be better but none of the teams above would want to keep there current position and not swap it with ours – except Man City.
You make a great point Tony. I’d say we’ve over achieved and have some wonderful memories. Quite a list of clubs where possibly only Stockport fans will feel happy this season and they’re in the National League! Taking Tim+ Sell’s point, we’ll support City whatever.
Okay, it’s all gone Pete Tong again but so it will this season for two out of Watford, Burnley, Everton or Leeds, all far wealthier clubs than City. You cant do it without big money but big money doesn’t mean you can do it.
As a business owner, what a mess football is in, the whole house could soon come crumbling down. Will there be European football or a Qatar World Cup, Vlad the Impaler holds that wrecking ball.