You know it’s really bad when anger turns to apathy. When the final whistle that signals another abject home defeat is met with silence from deserted stands, rather than a cacophony of booing.
Without condoning the actions of those who recently chose to vent their frustration outside the Directors’ boxes, at least it shows that there are still people who care enough to do it.
Others, like myself, are struggling to see the point of it all.
As things stand, 17th place in the Premier League is our glass ceiling. While it’s hard to form a robust argument as to why Norwich City deserves a higher place in football’s hierarchy, the disheartening truth is that we’re not even pressing against the glass, let alone threatening to break through it.
Worse still, we’re forced to endure the taunts and disdain from those staring down from the other side of the glass, waving their money in our faces and their hands to bid us farewell.
In happier times, when he was more likely to walk on water than up and down mountains, Stuart Webber gave an interview in which he referred to football being an ‘infinite game’, a phrase he had taken from a book by the author and motivational speaker, Simon Sinek.
According to Sinek, a finite game is one with a clear objective and played within defined parameters, whereas in an infinite game, the rules are changeable and the objective is simply to perpetuate the game.
When it comes to football, a match would be considered a finite game. Played over 90+ minutes with the objective of scoring more goals than the opposition and with rules that are clearly applied and understood (unless Simon Hooper is officiating).
It’s fair to say that a football season is finite too. Whoever collects the most points, wins the league and gets a trip in an open-top bus. Those who fail to pick up the points are sent off to a lesser tier.
But after a brief summertime break, the league tables are amended and reset, and the whole thing begins again.
And again.
And again.
And so on.
So, Stuart Webber is right; since the 19th June 1902, Norwich City Football Club has been playing an infinite game. Year after year, across multiple divisions, against an evolving list of opponents.
It’s a game you can’t ultimately win, as it never ends.
However, in the infinite game you can ‘lose’ – if or when you stop playing, as fans of Bury and Aldershot, amongst others, will testify.
I’m old enough to remember when the phrase “it’s a game of two halves” constituted the epitome of footballing wisdom, so to have our sporting director philosophising about the infinite game while developing a Club strategy built on long-term sustainability was a refreshing eye-opener.
And yet, here’s a man who finds himself increasingly criticised and accused by some of our fanbase as being arrogant and self-serving.
I’ve never met him and have no reason to challenge the perceptions of others.
However, it’s hard to reconcile that opinion when Webber has clearly prioritised the Club’s long-term stability over his personal ambitions. A truly self-serving man would surely pursue short-term success and be prepared to gamble with the Club’s future, knowing that someone else will have to deal with the consequences after he has gone?
The fanbase remains divided over the ownership and direction of the Club and perhaps that division, alongside the recent criticism of Webber, is driven by the extent to which we as individuals embrace the principle of football being an infinite game.
There are those, often branded as happy-clappers or apologists, who fully accept the Club’s journey up and down the football league. The pain of relegation lessened by the knowledge that a new season will start soon enough, with their team taking the field. They will experience the same matchday emotions regardless of which division that’s in and who the opposition are.
In many ways, I envy them.
Because there are others, like myself, who struggle to accept that the principal aim of the football club is merely to survive. Deep down, I know it’s true, and with over forty seasons under my belt, you would think I’d have made my peace with it by now.
But I haven’t.
And the main reason I haven’t is that while I accept that the Club is playing an infinite game, the resources that I have to invest in it – namely time and money – are finite.
To accept the status quo is to accept that I will never get to see the club I love, challenge for the Premier League title, or play in Europe again in my lifetime. And while I realise it’s something the vast majority of football fans are resigned to, I want to believe there’s at least a chance.
Aside from the ‘elite’ few with their limitless wealth, every club has its own glass ceiling. For some it’s breaking into the top four, for others it’s getting out of League One. Many more face the prospect of mid-table mediocrity each and every year.
The fact that we find ourselves, alongside Fulham, residing in football’s purgatory between the top two divisions is both a blessing and a curse.
On the one hand, it provides us with a tangible target each season, beyond simply fulfilling the fixture list. On the other, it serves as a stark reminder of our place in football’s hierarchy and the chasm that exists between ourselves and the rest of the top flight. One that, as things stand, we have no chance of bridging.
And it’s for that reason, that I want a change of ownership. A reset of the dials and expectations.
I don’t want to be told that League One was fun (NB – it was) because I aspire to bigger and better things and want to see some sign of progress.
It probably makes me guilty of all the things that Stuart Webber is being accused of. Self-serving and putting my own interests ahead of the Club’s long-term future.
And if it was to happen and we broke through the glass ceiling, only to find a new one in its place, what then?
Well, I’d probably moan about that too.
Agree with nearly all of this, except that as things stand, 19th place in the Premier League seem to be our glass ceiling…
Hi Steve
A very enlightens read.
Classing city with Fulham is strange we have owner with a pot of £30m while Fulham’s owners have a pot in the region of $6billion and spent on their last promotion £125m and went down.
Today their owner’s son was 9n sky being asked what will they do differently this time his reply was simple buy better and stay in the premiership that’s this seasons ambition then build on that for the future of the club.
They have expanded the cottages capacity and trying to turn a listed building into a modern stadium fit for purpose without breaking the clubs financial structure.
City who I have supported since 1959 have an aging know it all owners with no money to strengthen the club with along with an aging stadium that hasn’t seen major improvements since the Chase era just patch work that will cometo haunt the club if or when any rebuild takes place.
Webber likes quotes it impresses people his latest plan to impress is to climb every mountain possibly standing on the summit in a nun’s outfit.
When he left Huddesfield the owner said this club was more than a one man show and they went on and survived that season in the premiership was that a snide remark or a warning about him I prefer the later.
Sadly like many others I don’t expect to see new owners coming in as you have said the conditions this pair have placed on the club will make it difficult for anyone to succeed and they will just shout from Stowmarket told you so.
This pair and Webber have lost all respect for city supporters and are worse than Chase ever was.
Hi Alex. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
The comparison with Fulham is (I believe) relevant for now due to us regularly swapping positions. year on year. But as you point out, there is significant financial disparity between the two and it it would be easy to argue that they are far better placed to breakthrough that ‘glass ceiling’..
Stuart Webber is of course employed and presumably handsomely paid to carry out his role and safeguard the Club’s long-term future. Whereas I would argue that we, the fans, are basically ‘investors’. We invest our time and money. The question we all face is what returns do we expect on that investment?
Some are clearly content with the direction of the club and the prospect of long-term stability regardless of what league it’s in. I rather suspect that Delia and Michael fit into that group too. The return on their investment is the opportunity to own the club without further outlay or financial risk.
Some of us, find ourselves questioning what value we’re getting from the time and money that we sink into the club. A season full of dispiriting match-days and ultimate relegation alongside the prospect of a yo-yo-ing existence or worse, a steady decline towards the lower leagues is enough to question whether it’s investment better spent elsewhere.
An interesting read Steve and I would also like to see a change of ownership because I share your aspirations and am getting a bit long in the tooth.
To become an established premiership side requires an initial investment upon promotion that is far in excess of what Delia can afford. You only have to look at Leicester to see the wealth required.
Even with substantial investment you are not guaranteed premiership status but without it you have no chance.
When was the last time Delia invested any money in the club? According to the accounts all her loans were repaid years ago and I haven’t detected any further investment other than parachute and media income. When the training facilities needed updating she persuaded the fans to provide cheap money via a bond.
Remaining in this current yo-yo limbo will gradually drain the club of energy and result in its decline. I consider this has already begun because each attempt at securing premier membership has actually resulted in the creation of a weaker team.
Now is not the time to rejoice in a few victories in the championship next year but to make it clear new ownership is essential. The team we’ll be left with next year may well make the ownership case for me.
Interesting piece Steve.
It is ironic that all this relegation/promotion turmoil should be exactly 50 years since our first ever promotion to the top league of English football.
I remember that great day at Watford in 1972 so clearly. The fans deciding it was best to run across the pitch to get to the covered stand so as not to get wet😂 Dave Stringer’s goal that clinched the Second Division Championship. And we stayed in the uncovered area and got absolutely soaked but I couldn’t care less.
The excitement for the club’s forthcoming first ever First Division season was unbelievable.
Nothing like the trepidation I had for this season that is for sure.
If you are interested in this part of Norwich City history I can heartily recommend Radio Norfolk’s 1971/72 Promotion Special on the Scrimmage. It is still on Iplayer. Chris Goreham and Rob Butler’s fathers reminisce about that time perfectly.
We were going to see all the players that were in ” Shoot” or “Goal” magazine at Carrow Road !!!! Wow.
Perhaps for youngsters at the time Nigel Worthington’s Championship winning team also recreated this feeling to an extent as it had been some years since we had been in the top flight.
But nothing will ever beat that first promotion for me.
And that is why my overriding emotion upon reading your article Steve is sadness. Recent events have made me realise that my City supporting time is finite and I would love to see us at least competing in the Premier League at some point.
The sadness is because of that excitement I felt as a 14 year old boy in 1972 has given way to a rather cynical 64 year old man regarding the changing monied football world.
But unlike Delia and Michael I except it. I would love to go back to when everything teams played for meant something, no resting players for a League Cup semi final or a UEFA Cup tie.
When teams would rather win a cup than risk getting relegated.
But we can’t and we have to face reality. And that means investment.
Until the board member let it out of the bag at an AGM that there had been reasonable offers for the club Delia had a smokescreen to keep her critics at bay. Now it is The Emperor’s New Clothes I’m afraid.
I was one who completely believed there was no one interested in buying Norwich City Football Club (I knew there was a failed attempt to secure investment in around 2012), but my mate Marty was adamant I was wrong and he has been proved correct.
I agree with most everything you said above AlexB, bar your last paragraph.
If Delia and Michael try to sell or do indeed sell Tim Krul, Grant Hanley, Max Aarons and Teemu Pukki for a quarter of their worth this summer than I will agree with you that The Stowmarket Two are worse than Mr Chase.
That’s all I can say. I like my Freedom😂
Hi Tim
Mr Chase was a gambler but a good businessman purchasing lots of property around the ground from the proceeds of players sale, would pay over his valuation of a player just ask Martin O’Neil and was the Daniel Levy of his day wouldn’t accept less than his valuation of a player.
The Smiths crow about saving the club but that was Geoffrey Watling and over the years have benefited from selling the land that Chase purchased.
I was once told his plans were to relocate the club to a site opposite the show ground or at Colney and build a housing estate at Carrow Rd we will never know but looking from the outside those that took over in 25yrs have taken the club forward and a business needs to move with the times or died are city at the beginning of a long decline due to lack of Investment only time will tell
Its hard for me to disagree with that Alex.
I just know Mr Chase had “plans” for his own survival that were definitely not in the interests of Norwich City FC 😱
Personally I think our present owners had very good intentions when they took over the football club, I just think over the years because it has been so hard to get back to competing in the EPL like in the Chase era, they have taken their disillusionment out on the club.
So many of their colleagues both at the start and in-between of their reign have left with a kind of gagging order.
As we never now the reason why the Turner’s, Bob Cooper etc left.
I think at the start they realised the club was bigger than them and did a massive amount to keep it out of administration.
Now I feel, and there is great evidence of this in interviews they have done, that the club could not survive without them.
I was astonished at Mr Chase’s plans all those years ago.
More so than if we escape relegation this season 😂
I see this slightly differently. To me the ‘finite game’ is Norwich City in The Championship. The finances simply do not allow Norwich to exist long term in that league, or below.
To say that Webber has forgone long term success at his own cost is something I disagree with. Firstly the money spent (and wasted) last summer suggests otherwise. Additionally, he hasn’t changed the business model of our club so that it could survive without Premier money. The fundamentals are exactly the same.
In fact, in 5 years at the club he’s only signed one person (out of 40+ signings) that’s sold for a significant amount. He took over the club with large wages in The Championship, while having a lot of assets to sell. He may leave the club with large wages in The Championship, while having very few assets to sell (he didn’t even sign Aarons!)
Good points Dave. I think most would agree with you that poor recruitment is a huge factor in why we’re staring at relegation. And as you allude to, the resale value of the current squad is not where it needs to be to support the ‘self-sustaining’ model. However, I would maintain that the thinking behind the recruitment is in keeping with the strategy. Tzolis, Sargent were bought as ‘assets’ that would increase in value. The fact that they’ve struggled is perhaps poor execution of the plan,
If Webber wanted to maintain or enhance his reputation during the remainder of his contract, surely he would have pushed to change the recruitment strategy? Diverted funds away from developing the training ground and academy and sought to bring in established players with Premier League experience. It would probably have meant changing the wage structure too. And yet the profile of player that we’ve brought in has largely remained the same
Both he and Farke referenced paying for the ‘sins of the past’, which I took to to mean signings such as Naismith. The kind of short-term, quick fix that may have led to a better league position but represents a significant gamble in the longer-term?
Naismith was a bad deal, but the recruitment strategy was fine. Let’s say Naismith cost the club 8M and another 8M in wages and bonuses. 16 Million quid. The same regime signed Maddison which easily covered that. They also signed Lewis, Aarons, Godfrey. Let’s also not forget the parachute payments that exist specifically for this reason.
Let’s compare that to Webber’s approach of ‘buying low, selling high’. He’s bought A LOT of low, a LOT of Medium, and as of the Summer, a LOT of high. Just look at the vast array of people who are still on our books, or we’ve given away free, and you’ll see a tragic tale of poor recruitment. Looks specifically at Webber signings and their sales. Not those who he never recruited.
Webber’s “recruitment strategy” has netted neither Premier League security nor profit.
I ‘think’ we’re on the same side of this particular debate. For the record, I think recruitment under SW has been more miss than hit and it’s reasonable to argue it’s gone downhill since Kieran Scott departed for. Middlesbrough..
But, for all the talk of City ‘spending big’ in the summer, I’d still maintain it was a) funded largely on the back of selling Emi (the one shining light of SW’s recruitment) and b) in adherence with the over-arching strategy of buying potential, rather than proven experience.
The individual fees we paid out, whilst record sums for the Club, are still pittance in relation to the Premier League.
So we haven’t ‘gambled’ on securing safety as perhaps we did before.
Hence my original point that SW is following the brief and the self-funded sustainable model, rather than pushing for short-term gain whilst risking the Club’s future.
I’d argue that one cause of division within the fanbase is people’s acceptance (or otherwise) of that approach. Some are willing to accept relegation as a consequence of our natural standing, including the major shareholders and gain comfort in the knowledge that we’re not flirting with administration. Others (including myself) would rather we took a chance.