The fourth international break of the season is with us and, as ever, fans all over the country will have different hopes of what the period will bring for their clubs and equally for their personal supporting aspirations.
Burnley fans might well use the fortnight to add some new apparel to their collection, or in their case wait until all the 2023-24 PL-designed kits are announced first. They’re canny lads in the real North West so I’m sure that’s how they’ll be thinking.
“What’s that Mrs Gallagher? Yes, I am aware that diehard Citizens are real as well. I used to work with a small tribe of them at a large facility in Cheadle Hulme for years and our Amanda ran the short-lived Shaun Goater Fan Club, which shows how long ago it must have been now. Mr Berry of Mondays fame chatted her mum up with a bottle of champagne in a club one night but she turned him down as he was “too young and too off his face”.
And we all know note for note how Blades and Boro fans must be feeling right now and fret not ye Hornets of Watford, I am sure that nice Mr Pozzo will be along with a new manager for you very soon.
Luton fans will each be slapping their brows with a pair of Lowestoft kippers to regularly ensure themselves they are not dreaming as although they doubled us they were far from the best I have seen in the Championship on either occasion. I suppose the one time it would have been sensible for a club to gamble on an injury-prone player would have been this occasion but they chose not to take the risk.
Rotherham supporters would be forgiven for taking the time to properly mourn the departure of Paul Warne. This worry becomes tangible if they were to go down and Ipswich go up of course. It’s not that Warney or Millers’ supporters aren’t welcome in Norfolk of course. They are.
It’s the collateral damage caused by the very existence of the fixture that spooks me!
Then we have the jitters of those who support Wigan, Blackpool and Huddersfield and it now, right now, looks as if they have been joined by both aforementioned Millers and the Hoops of QPR, where Gareth Ainsworth cuts it on all fronts for me.
Mix the rock ‘n’ roll with the football and he’s perfect for me to hero-worship and he comes over like a nice guy too. But the Rs are in freefall and the addition of them into the mix keeps it interesting for the neutral if the type of neutral you’re looking for enjoys knitting, wearing red white and blue rosettes, and possesses an intense dislike of the aristocracy.
Meanwhile one Neil Warnock of 13 Trump Terrace, Littlehampton celebrated his Terriers gaining a point against Norwich on Wednesday in his usual ebullient fashion. He has a local connection that maybe even he himself is not aware of.***
So what will Norwich City supporters be thinking over the next 12 days?
The Easter bunny, fluffy bright yellow chicks, maypoles and ribbons? Churches, far off Gethsemene, Golgotha and all that kind of stuff?
That’s fine for those who choose to believe in it and heaven knows the morbid details of the original work of fiction lead to a very deep, dark, brooding backdrop that is quite appropriate for the average NCFC supporter.
I can’t remember exactly what we’re supposed to be celebrating here in East Anglia, but a trip to Delia’s Bar & Grille for a roast lamb dinner while surrounded by ghosts of Easters Past and Present. Easter Future exudes an aura of mystique that has become all too genuine over the years.
I guess I’m like most MFW readers in that my speculation is done with friends and much of it is light-hearted although certain things can’t be ignored as much as the Club would like us to ignore them.
Too many questions and somebody [we’re not even 100% sure exactly who] is continuing to achieve their aim of net zero answers even as I write.
Easter is also a traditional time of year that is often associated with peace if you were thinking of making up with our Pink Un boys Mr Webber, the here and now wouldn’t be a bad time to start, now would it?
And there are always two sides to every story Mr Porritt. [Richard Porritt is Editor of both the Eastern Daily Press and the Eastern Evening News].
It’s been too long now. Please at least try to get the show back on the road.
*** If there were a best anagram of all time I think Colin 
would definitely win with Star Wars as Ars Warts coming a good but distant second. One of the UEA science students created that when magnetic cinema lettering was still in place so that idea must have spread as rapidly as… an ars wart, I guess. There were certainly a couple in East London.
I don’t know for sure who created the Star Wars one but legend has it the same guy turned Old Watton Road into Old Tw@t On Road near the main entrance on University Drive.
So I’ll leave you with my Easter message from one John Lennon:
The truth is we have the weakest squad in years together with the biggest debt we’ve ever accumulated.
Thank heavens it will soon be the cricket season and hopefully 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞new owners before next season to end this miserable cycle.
Hi John
It doesn’t strike me as natural that people who have previously extolled the virtues of *prudence with ambition* suddenly decide one fine day that they think it is perfectly acceptable to run up a debt we have heard quoted at some £58 million.
For me, this doesn’t have Delia’s stamp on it.
Cheers
However, the buck should stop with her having told us she is the only safe option.
I think she’s been a bit *in denial* on that one for a while now 🙂
The club was actually better off before we had a so called sporting director !!!How the mountain climber is still in a job baffles me,thats an answer i would like to hear.
Hi Tony
Yep.
Kind of reminds me of the influence a certain snake oil salesman turned priest had over the Queen of All the Russias in the early 21st century in a funny sort of way!
Cheers
I understand the mixed feelings about our Sporting Director, of course. But for perspective: when he came in we were in deep financial trouble, with an overpaid squad (including two huge earners on long-term contracts who weren’t playing) offering no prospect at all of returning to the top division. Additionally, we had antiquated and neglected training facilities that would put off most of the coaches and players we’d want to recruit.
Since then we’ve had two promotions, paid off the legacy debts and built training facilities to be proud of.
A mixed bag – but not sure we were better off before Stuart Webber.
Easter , hmmm , chocolate eggs bring it on. Also the cricket season starts just as I raid the first buttons egg. With live cricket being streamed for free by the counties I may just watch a bit of afternoon leather on willow . Given the choice of a boring couple of hours watching Kent’s bowlers struggle to take wickets at Canterbury, or Norwich going the motions at Ewood Park producing the dross of the last three games. However as we are all emotional fickle beings a win against the blades will have us all back on the play off trip.
Talk about confused , we have an owner who believes she’s got a heart of gold, a team thats brilliant one game, awful the next, still don’t let it get you down, and remember nothing is perfect.
Hi Bernie
You must be just as confused as the rest of us – the cricket season can’t have started today as it isn’t snowing, at least not yet.
Despite their FA Cup heroics there is no way Sheffield United will take their foot off the pedal in the League – they simply can’t afford to at this stage of what is likely to deservedly end as a hugely successful season for them.
Cheers
Rumour has it that Sheff U have till Thursday to confirm payments to players and staff if not they could be deducted 12points this season.
The FA have finally decided the points deduction happens the sane season as the offence.
The Saudi owner isn’t will to bail them out and the potential Nigerian Billionaire is unable to prove where his wealth came from, now that’s strange 🤣🤣
I think Del Boy and his mates would have admired the ways in which many *investors” are currently operating in modern football 🙂
Said Nigerian’s wealth most likely comes from thousands of emails claiming to be a rich prince needing to get money out of the country and willing to give you a 10% cut in return for your bank details … 😉
I’m not usually keen on international breaks but I think this one comes at a good time for us. The squad looks knackered and strangely demoralised considering we haven’t had any really heavy defeats (yet). Perhaps it’s because under Smith, training apparently consisted of rolling up to Colney about 11.00am for a game of head tennis followed by an hour on the pool table and a lunch of pie and chips, then getting home before the infants’ school kicks out and now it’s 2 high intensity sessions per day.
Hopefully they really will be a different animal when those lovely tykes from Sheffield visit NR1..
Good luck to Angus who looks set to make his international debut for mighty Scotland.
Hi Don
I don’t generally like breaks either and I reckon that failing to terminate Dean Smith’s contract during the Nov/Dec suspension will comfortably remain the most significant [in]action of this season, however things end up.
Running training around the manager’s golf sessions really is something from the 1960s and only Norwich City would countenance it during the modern era. Proof of *jobs for the boys* yet again I suppose.
The fact that the younger, mainly *foreign* players felt they had to ask for extra training and were apparently denied it remains both shameless and shameful.
It’s a logical decision by Angus and I too wish him all the best.
Cheers
Is the.rumour regarding the denial of requests for extra training actually true martin? I find it hard to believe. If indeed it did turn out to be true then Smith would be even more of a charlatan than I’d originally thought.
It has to remain a rumour mate because I think it cropped up some time in Nov/Dec when DS was still manager, probably during the World Cup tbh. It wasn’t on one of my articles but I seem to remember it being by one of our usual *faces* but I’m buggered if I can remember who.
It didn’t mention Ramsey but I said about him in my post-Millwall article:
*As MFW is a family publication I will keep my thoughts on the guy with the season-ending injury racing half the length of the pitch to score the first of a personal pair against Reading. I can’t remember his name just now but I think he’s got a brother called Jacob who plays for Aston Villa?*
If we have a reader out there who wants to own their comment, please give me or Chris a shout on this page 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi Martin
City must be a the lower end for Ref selection as the ones we have had I the last few games haven’t been fit for purpose.
A shove in the back is a foul, putting your hand on an opposition player is a foul yet time and again it happens not only to City I will admit but the Ref Association have got to grow a pair and be firmer in booking players.
Shoulder to should isn’t a foul but a shoulder in the back is another that rarely gets a booking all ment to disrupt play City aren’t good at the dark arts Stoke under A N are but also play good football and as Gary said without Gunny Jr we could have shipped a Wherry load.
We just can’t seem to beat the bully boys of this league and Stoke where from the first minute bulling City, they possibly have the richest owners in this league with a family fortune reputed to be £9billion plus via bet365 yet they haven’t bought promotion.
Will we see new owners or at least majority owners I’m not going to hold my breath, they say no news is good news again I’m not holding on to that no news can mean we stick with what we have and league one in 2024
Yeah Alex but at least we didn‘t sell our souls to one of those nasty betting companies and those naughty ladies do not pose in our team kit. Our debt is clean debt we are a good wholesome club.
And look where it’s got us, all this talk of dirty money and clean debt gets on my tits, money is money and debt is still debt and we’ve got shit loads of the later,
When we went down to league one I wonder how much we owed the bank then and how much interest was added to negotiate our way out of it
I think it was Alan Bowkett who took on the job of renegotiating everything with the banks, poor $od!
I mentioned the other day, we are in a worse position after McNally and Bowkett set to work, by reducing the financial out going. Eventually leading to a debt free club. Now twice that total of around £28mill (seem to remember that figure) or close to it.
A lot I feel is the Sporting Director along with his crap scouting set up, highlighting players who we would never have looked before, along with his penchant for buying or loaning injured players. Those that could not play the Farke way were dispatched, now we are at that point again. We need another influx of German players, if only another Steiperman, Vranic & Zimmerman could be found somewhere.
I know it is not going to happen. I was not going to comment as had nothing fresh to add, but saw the mention of prudence with ambition how be it very little of that.
*Prudence with ambition* comes from a time when Delia wanted to emulate Charlton, for all the good that did either of them!
The difference between BK8 and Lotus was a couple of million. It wouldn’t have made a difference.
Hi Dave
Surely it makes all the difference in the world when the devil incarnate lines up against the supercar company that customised an Elan for Emma Peel in The Avengers?
The Elan lives on in the MX5, strangely, and I know it wasn’t really a supercar, but in terms of image in the 60s, wow!
I suppose they got the sleazometer out and found that Leo Vegas and DafaBet were okay but BK8 pushed the boundaries a little bit too far.
Cheers
Hi David
If I owed the bank I’m sure they wouldn’t give the debt a hygiene test before committing the biblical sin of usury upon me.
Cheers
Hi Cutty
Ah, the aroma of fresh, locally sourced home-cooked irony.
Nice one!
At our age Cutty tits are nice little birdies that frequent the camelia etc in the garden.
They have been known to manifest in other, more chilling ways, such as when the don sharp suits and winkelpickers and begin to wave their spreadsheets around the corridors of Carrow Road.
A close inspection of the paperwork might show it featuring the motto of the Accounts Department: *Never clarify what you might obfuscate*.
Alex, surely one of the biggest problems has to be between our players ears?? We stood up to and prevailed against Millwall, but were well short at Stoke. Consistently inconsistent! O T B C
Hi John
I can only put that down to collective insecurity about implications for what individual personal futures might hold really.
It must be bl00dy difficult for players to concentrate on giving their all to a club on a matchday when in so many cases they don’t know if they’ll be part of it or not next season.
Cheers
I was once told footballers had nothing between the ears it was in their feet
What, cotton wool?
Collectively, Refs are a problem that have been around almost as long as Delia.
Some quite probably even predate her looking at a few recent encounters we’ve had with the likes of Keith Stroud and his peers.
The only answer I can see is to order in 180 clones of Perluigi Collina – there’s plenty of cover for FA Cup matches, etc, in there too if we overorder.
Actually that’s a bit unfair as I could never do their job and what with VAR and all they can’t even aim for efficient anonymity as a mark of success any more.
Regards any change of ownership everyone’s been fed so little information that they are forced to second guess and I remain steadfastly unconvinced there will be any short to medium term changes anyway which could easily be as damaging as you suggest. Sorry, I missed this comment earlier.
Cheers
What on earth will you find to write for us during during the break martin?
I suspect the news blackout from carrow Road will continue and we will have to be content with rehashed articles in the pink un informing us of the latest exploits of cantwell and Morris.
The gloomy outlook regarding the injuries to dowell and hernandez, two of the brightest sparks under wagner has cast yet another cloud on this second successive season from hell. It appears that going through the motions is the new normal. The lack of pace and invention, effort and concentration is the only thing going up this season. In truth we were never in the hunt.
Seriously concerned now with regard to next season. Deplete this squad to the bare bones and fail to address the low morale around the place and its got all the hallmarks of another deliagation.
Still, with easter on the horizon perhaps a rabbit will appear out of someone’s hat.
Hi Chris
That’s a very good question. Apathy is a quick-spreader and I cannot see anything retarding it as we continue along our anything but merry path.
This season I have developed a genuine respect for Brighton and Brentford in the PL and Millwall and Luton in the Championship. The former pairing have surpassed themselves in the PL and have built a platform for their futures by playing some great football – even flirting with the crown jewel of a Europeann spot.
Brighton of course have the bonus of an FA Cup semi they can chuck the kitchen sink at when the time comes which is a great reward for their fans.
Both Lions and Hatters alike have not wilted against far better-resourced clubs and have given their supporters terrific seasons to remember forever – and it ain’t over yet as the play-offs beckon for both.
Maybe the Smiths and the Webbers should take a collective look at themselves and ask what they have done for the supporters of Norwich City FC this season?
Telling us how much they got for the poor old unwanted SoccerBot would be a start.
Cheers
We are going to do cricket 🤔😂😂😅🏉
Thanks Martin that article cheered me up no end🤣
It really is a funny one this, an international break, though not with any humour i’m afraid I hate them more than rats. Well maybe not but it is close.
We get to see Lineker and Shearer get excited about Lithunia away, Sky Saturday afternoon becomes the wasteland of how Ipswich are doing while hoping Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth keep winning and hoping Kings Lynn win.
I am sure Chris Wilder goes into the International knowing that once we resume he has one game to save his job, Colin will be shocked himself after that win at Millwall that he may just keep Huddersfield up, and in the land of milk and honey Alex Mitrovic will be flicking through a travel brochure wondering where he can go for a 2 month holiday.
As for our lads it really is a mystery what they may be thinking. A return to the EPL ? Burnley found at the weekend that that is a double edged sword. Another season in the Champo ? a complete rebuild ? Will I be kept then ? Will I want to be kept ?
Either way with our financial situation neither exactly fills me with great enthusiasm.
But I think we have seen enough from DW that I remain confident he can improve this team for next season. But that is as far as it goes.
On the subjects of anagrams I put one on here the other day Martin as a joke, now as time passes I am starting to wonder if the joke is on me😱
Hi Tim, I solved your anagram straight away, quite clever too, I made a comment to Martins article last Friday along similar lines as to where those shares are heading, everybody is assuming them going ” State Side ” where as I think something fishy stinks about the whole episode, I hope to god I’m wrong though, but our Delia is cunning.
I bet you feel better for coming out with it Dave. You know, saying it, expressing your opinion, saying what you think and all that.
There is something fishy going on, and it is our duty as true supporters not to want to find out what it is. My days of having any faith in Delia evaporated at around the turn of the millennium and when it comes to self preservation she is indeed the very slyest of foxes.
Cheers
A huge issue within is the way in which Stuart Webber is running the football club in that he doesn’t currently have a Chairman or an acting CEO that he has to answer too?
This needs addressing immediately when Mr Attanasio takes the reigns.
Hi Mark
I am sure it would probably be the very first thing Mark Attanasio would wish to put right IF he took the reins.
Unfortunately to me this remains a ginormous *IF*!
Cheers
Bonkers read Martin but cheered up Grumpy, thanks.
Made a long list of things that annoy me and footy was pretty high up, sadly City were higher.
List of things I like, just one: time alone doing what I please.
Guess it’s the joy of old age.
We’ve had players like, Raymond de Waard,, Jullien Brelleir, David Strihavka, Simon Whaley, Steve Walsh, Paul Dalgliesh so our current crop don’t look too bad. Besides the standard this season across the board is woeful and not much better than Scottish Premier.
There, I feel better already.
Hi Colin
That’s another chapter title for my autobiography sorted then:
*The day I dragged Grumpy back from the depths of despair*
Some cast of villains you’ve assembled there. I hope Fermando Derveld is in the mix somewhere.
Cheers
Not the first time you’ve achieved such a feat, your co writers in ‘crime’ also. MFW exists to engage those who partake and a bloody good job you all do.
Thank you.
Thank you too sir 🙂
Martin;
Somewhat off topic, but this morning my ears could not believe what I heard on a Radio Norfolk sports bulletin….
Tonight is a big night for King’s Lynn with a match against the leaders of their division AFC Fylde…who are 2 points better off and have played 2 games fewer than Lynn. This in in Conference North, or as the authorities call it, step 5.
Fylde lost a couple of players recently to injury/suspension, and as the non-league window hasn’t yet “slammed shut”, brought in two replacements….one of whom is on a reported “basic” of 3k per week. That’s 150k per year, plus bonuses to play at step 5…..
We were definitely born way too early mate!!
O T B C
Yeah. Gone are the days of the plumber using a Saturday in the Southern League to top up his weekly wages!