So it’s official. City have been relegated from the Premier League for a record sixth time and for the third successive time following promotion.
Breath-taking stuff.
Where to even start to dissect this rotten season – it’s a case of take your pick. But we have to start somewhere, so…
The summer transfer window of 2021 – quite simply, an absolute circus.
Then BK8 – financially, it would have been seen as a good deal but after the disturbing social media and ‘entertainment’ very quickly came to light via the click of a button. What on earth were they thinking?
It had to be pulled and it appeared that Ben Kensell was the sacrificial lamb, even though the club insisted otherwise.
From my understanding, while it was the correct decision to scrap the agreement, it did cost us the Kristoffer Ajer deal – one that the club had been working on for months.
Having a self-funding model means that there is little room for mistakes and having cost us that particular deal, it resulted in Stuart Webber having a dig at the fans for the collapse of the deal.
But, the number one rule of any football club is don’t criticise the fans – it never ends well.
All the reports from the summer, and some that have emerged recently, suggest that the club wanted Josh King, Robert Andrich and Phillip Billing, to name three, but got none of them because the club simply didn’t have the funds.
Instead, options on the C and D lists arrived and, while I don’t believe all the blame for the recruitment should fall at Stuart Webber’s door, the assumption that we did spend big money this summer is nonsense.
It’s nonsense, as most of the funds were from selling Emi Buendia. Webber can only work with the cards he has been dealt.
The story that City were going to do no business in January was another line fed to the fans.
As I understand it, an attacking player was sought on a loan deal while Webber was stuck up a mountain. It wasn’t the case there was no money, as Todd Cantwell departing to Bournemouth would have freed up a significant chunk of wages.
(That Cantwell now risks throwing a promising career away is a conversation for another day).
A lot has been said already on Webber’s interview with Henry Winter and so there’s no point going over it again, but this quote from Zoe Ward in 2020 is worth noting:
“I always say to people when they are coming in to work at a football club, you work at a football club on the football club’s terms – not yours. It’s a lifestyle job. It’s 24/7.”
So what’s changed? Because anyone whose heart isn’t in their job – not just at Norwich City – should look elsewhere.
What people have missed though is while it’s of course okay to want to try new things and fulfil lifetime ambitions, our owners – due to them having no Plan B – practically begged Webber to stay on. In doing so they made it all on his terms and certainly not the club’s.
Whether we hear from Webber before the season ends remains to be seen (it’s unlikely to be in the local media as it was confirmed by Paddy Davitt yesterday that he’s refusing to speak to Archant), but who we really need to hear from is Delia and Michael.
Not through a national newspaper, a radio station or a podcast but an interview with the local media. It would make a change.
Why has this not happened?
Well, probably to avoid the difficult questions, but the fans deserve to know after three consecutive Premier League relegations, what is the plan going forward.
Is it:
- To gift the club to nephew Tom as stated in 2016.
- To put any “suitable” offer to a fan vote.
- The club simply isn’t for sale.
Bullet point two above is farcical and would never work practically, but it would be good to know where they currently stand because at different points in time they have stated all three.
Which one is it?
But, like it or not, they really don’t want to sell and that makes it hard to fully get behind a club where there is no clear direction or plan for consolidating its position as a Premier League football club.
No, of course, accepting ‘blood money’ isn’t the answer – and how the football authorities signed off that Newcastle deal is a debate for another day – but if Leicester, Wolves, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Brighton and Burnley can become permanent fixtures of the Premier League, then why not Norwich City?
The current owners cannot deliver this and never will but will try to hang on for as long as possible just to prove a point – the evil of the Premier League.
More blogs will come out over the next weeks from the usual suspects, saying that nothing is wrong and we should be grateful, but with season ticket renewals not having been announced yet, you get the sense more and more supporters are fed up and bored.
Relegation should really hurt but this time it just feels normal.
And how is that right?
At full-time at Villa Park, the TV camera panned to the director’s box and we were greeted with the sight of a laughing Delia.
A large section of the fan base appears happy to accept failure and sees visiting Premier League grounds as just a good day out. Should we be surprised?
As they say, the apple never falls far from the tree.
Why would it be impossible to allow all season ticket holders a single vote on a proposed takeover?
You suggest that this would be “farcical” but I think it would be a good idea. Why are you worried about letting the fans have a say?
Or even not all ST holders you could just have all shareholders get a say. Doesn’t seem farcical at all
Just remind me what happened last time there was a referendum on a single topic issue, requiring a simple, “yes / no” answer? Whatever your political views on that specific topic, it led to widespread division and dissatisfaction all around.
Why are you worried about the fans having a say?
Why is it impossible?
Woeful owners have produced a woeful team and thoroughly embarrassed the club.
The very least they could do is explain to the fans why their continued ownership is the best course for the club to be taking!
i recall an interview with a journo, Winter ?, in which Delia put it out there that she considered success to be in the top 26 in the pyramid . Bottom of the premier equates to top 6 of the championship in Delia world. so by her own metric, this season has been a success . shakes head as cant believe thats her ambition, but it looks like it is.
“…they really don’t want to sell and that makes it hard to fully get behind a club where there is no clear direction or plan for consolidating its position as a Premier League football club.”
I hope you’re not suggesting that whilst we are in the Championship you’ll be offering only 90% of your efforts as a supporter…. What are you going to do with the other 10%? Climb Gas Hill?
Hi.
Our owners are a dying breed in many ways and not for the good of the club.
Most clubs in the UK had well-off local owners and that started to change in the late 80s, but really took off once the EPL started and outside investment became the norm for those that wanted to be successful.
Robert Chase decided, well before the Smith and Jones double act from Stowmarket came in, that City could survive by selling all the gems and replacing them with cheap imports from the lower leagues and then selling them for a profit.
That idea can only work if you have a good scouting and coaching infrastructure and until those lower league clubs don’t catch on to your plan, but it really falls apart when the bigger, more ambitious clubs start looking in the same marketplace and outbid you for those targets.
Delia was a Bluenose and there are pictures out there of her in blue and white shirts and scarfs but say she was convinced to change her stance by her husband. I wonder if she did and is still a Bluenose at heart.
Her celebrity status is no more, so the only mention she gets is as the NCFC owner. Her friends have been made Dames she hasn’t – now that must hurt. Instead of going into peaceful retirement and allowing the club to regenerate under new owners, their aim seems to be to let it wallow in self pity.
The big cheesy grin at the end of the Villa game – relegation gets them back to their comfort zone again; something they can’t afford to be in as they will be at the lower end of the rich list no matter what league they are in.
Do these owners know best? I really doubt it
The heir apparent is no rich benefactor and he might get the club’s shares but her cash is going elsewhere, so again unless he is called Ratcliffe, we will be much worse off than now.
Gary stated that there are shares that can be purchased to invest in the club which is great but under what conditions will the board release said shares? No reputable investor would trust his money to our current owners and why would he?
Delia says no offers but is that part of her agenda and because of the conditions she has placed on them. Would she be happy to follow the Derby, Bury route? I can only hope not and only time will tell how this pans out, as they will never have an open-door debate to inform supporters of the club’s plans
To be fair, I believe she was offered a peerage at some stage. Onto the ownership my concern is that at some point the issue will be taken out of her/their/our hands
I agree. That’s the logical conclusion when the money runs out
It would be interesting to analyse the last 5 years major decisions made by the Club, including player purchases, and see the overall success of the management of the club and the cost
Agree 100% with the point of the article that it would be good to know what the strategy is -Then people can at least make a decision if that is something they are prepared to accept or find something else to do on Saturday (sometimes) afternoon.
Its been an immensely frustrating season where I’ve witnessed the most gutless single performance I can remember, let’s not go into that – and I’ve seen a few since the 80s.
Best I can say is that least we haven’t settled for being a mid-table League One club. Yet.
Mid-table League 1 like Charlton is where our expenditure would place us if we strictly adhered to self funding post parachute payments. That assumes that we continue to sell all of our tickets
There’s no plan.
I can remember the promotion to the Premier League under Lambert and Delia Smith made the announcement at City Hall that our long term future had been secured. I believed this (I think she did too) as the shackles of the mess of the last regime had been removed. We finished 12th, we finished 11th and even after the shock relegation we bounced straight back. This was the top 26 status I would think was practical. We are not a top 4 club but by the same token we should be able to survive in the PL, at times with a degree of comfort. We would also feel that relegation would not be a major crisis and that we would be there 0r thereabouts if from time to time we were relegated. Looking at the world Brighton and Southampton inhabit. We are not there. Up to relegation under Alec Neil I had a view that we were secure and would be a big fish fish. The financial situation that came to light was a wake up call that our current structure for whatever reason doesn’t work. Football clubs spend more than they earn as owners pay a fee for the prestige of ownership. I’m not saying it is right but it is reality and I can not see how we are going to reach the stage where relegation and failure to win immediate promotion does not cause us to face liquidation at close quarters. We lack cash to buy, to grow and ultimately to survive if results don’t go our way
At last someone with some balls to say it how it is , very well said that man spot on .
You hit the nail on the head Joseph “to show the evils of the premier League”.
I have said on here before that Delia is using the club as a stick to beat the Premier League with.
And are the EPL worried ? They are not at all bovvered. One bit.
And it is quite frankly ridiculous. Would I like someone nice to take over in Russia ? you bet. Would I breathe a huge sigh of relief if that great exponent of democracy Donald Trump, real name Greg Stillson, retired from politics, absolutely. But there is bu**ar all I can do about it.
UEFA want to increase the total games in the Champions League from 125 to 225 after 2024, absolutely bonkers, a European League by stealth. But what can Mrs. D Smith of Stowmarket do about that ? Nothing. Zilch. Nor can you or I.
The greed of the rich clubs is only going to get worse. Gary Neville said the other day that the top 6 are trying to stitch up the other 14 EPL clubs so as getting into the top 6 is nigh on impossible. Gary Field made a really good point the other day, FFP is it there just to stop a Newcastle for instance getting into that top 6 position ? Because if it is doing nothing to stop clubs spending money they really cannot afford what is the point of FFP.
So Delia you can carry on this one woman anti-EPL campaign but it won’t harm them one bit. But it will harm this club. If we fail to achieve promotion in the next two years then the club will be in serious financial trouble if it wants to keep operating as it does now.
We need a Maddison and a Murphy to be sold every summer to maintain this amount of expenditure in the EFL. This scenario would even threaten our survival in the Championship. And before Delia and her followers say that I am talking rubbish, have we not been here before ? 2008/09.
I agree Joseph we do not want “dirty money” nor a leveraged deal but the clubs you mention have proved that there are good, decent owners out there (or Custodians as I prefer to call them).
I too have read Michael Bailey’s excellent article and I am afraid this proves that last years summer transfer was like ” Carry on Recruitment” a complete farce where Stuart Webber plays Brian Rix ( one for us oldies) with his trousers down😂
Daniel Farke wanted 3 top players, a centre half, a holding midfielder and a replacement for Emi not the mass influx that he got, the head of recruitment was on “gardening leave” and we failed to land one of our top targets because of wage demands that in the end were paid to Mathais Normann who was half fit..
Back to that point about what Daniel wanted added to his squad, it seems to me he still wanted to play 4-3-2-1 most of the time but ended up with players that were more suited to 4-3-3. Where is the planning in that.
It didn’t look good the smiling on camera at the end of the Villa game but to be fair perhaps Delia was just being polite.
What is unacceptable is the massive silence from Delia, Michael and Stuart since relegation.
Monday was a Bank Holiday so fair enough but I cannot believe that absolutely nothing has come out of Carrow Road by our supposed leaders in the last couple of days.
You are 100% right Joseph to call on the majority shareholders to come out and explain their plans. Even if we do not like them.
And as you say Joseph Stuart Webber, who has done a lot of good here, should know better than to start a argument with a fan in public.
I think the powers that be actively dislike us fans at present, It is like the words said by Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator to the Colosseum crowd, ” Are you not Entertained ?”
No.
Fantastic comment Tim.. and I never knew Donald Trump was aka Greg stillson.
Every day’s a school day.
I hope not Chris 🤣🤣🤣