Beyond the league and form tables, I have little insight into the other Championship clubs, aside from preconceptions and second-hand opinions.
I’m guessing that’s also true of other teams’ fans.
Ask a neutral what they make of Norwich and I suspect there would be raised eyebrows at the lowly league position, and some platitudes about being a well-run club that should be in or around the play-offs.
That has been the widely accepted narrative, ever since Emi Buendia and Teemu Pukki fired City to two Championship titles and the prudent approach to Premier League survival.
Self-funded, canny operators in the transfer market, with a conveyor belt of academy graduates. A club that was prepared to buck the trend and deserving of respect.
But it’s an outdated view.
We’ve all digested the figures within the annual accounts and dissected the latest failed attempts from our Head Coach to get a tune out of his playing squad.
I have nothing to add.
A back-four of Placheta, Warner, McLean, and Fisher, says it all.
It is worth highlighting that ten years ago, City’s Under-18 side, containing the Murphys and Carlton Morris, lifted the FA Youth Cup. Last Saturday, the present Under-18s were beaten 7-0 by Aston Villa and remain pointless in the U18 Premier League after eight games.
So that’s three pillars of our model (the finances, the playing squad, and the ‘youth’), which wouldn’t look out of place in Pisa.
The development of the training centre continues, however with results as they are, the new ‘recovery hub’ would arguably benefit more from having a team of therapists and a licensed bar rather than a swimming pool.
In football, results are everything. They create the lens through which we view and judge what’s happening off the pitch. But ultimately, what’s happening off the pitch will determine what happens on it.
So we can blame the defender whose mistake led to a goal. We can blame the Head Coach who picked him or the Sporting Director who bought him.
In reality, there are two people who are the architects of this unholy mess.
I’ll try to keep this impersonal and avoid going in two-footed on the owners. They are nice people and genuine supporters. I’m sure they believe that every decision has been made in the club’s best interests over their own.
The debate on whether they ‘saved’ the club has played out many times and is always emotive.
Perhaps what we can all agree on is that there was a time when the club needed them, more than they needed the club.
That was in November 1996. In their first season as majority shareholders, City finished in 13th place in the second tier.
Twenty-seven years later, City finished last season in 13th place in the second tier.
Six promotions and six relegations.
Seven seasons in the top flight, 19 seasons in the second tier and one season in the third tier.
The landscape of English football has changed significantly since they took the helm. Maintaining the club’s status as a mid-table Championship club could be seen as an achievement in itself, considering the financial revolution within the industry and their relative lack of personal wealth.
Last season, Vincent Kompany’s Burnley were the Manchester City of the Championship. They spent £90 million in the summer to become the Norwich of the Premier League.
Chelsea’s transfer spend under Todd Boehly passed the one billion (not a typo) pound mark. They are currently in tenth – one point and one place behind Brentford.
But we are not currently pitting our pittance against the top-flight billionaires. We’re getting battered by Plymouth and just about everyone else who shows up to Carrow Road. And all while ‘enjoying’ the advantage of Premier League parachute payments.
It would be wrong to accuse the club of not trying to change or find a formula to bring success.
The problems arise from the choices made and the pace of change.
While it’s unfair to use hindsight to criticise decisions, the indecisiveness is less forgivable and represents a lack of leadership.
It is clear that Delia and Michael value patience, stability, and loyalty, and have embedded those values into the club. Commodities that are rare within football. They have often been accused of delaying the decision to part ways with a manager. Trusting or hoping that things will turn around before finally succumbing to the inevitable.
However, all those who serve Norwich City, whether as employees or as self-proclaimed stewards of the club, have to face the fact that at some stage, their services will no longer be required and be deemed obsolete.
It’s a harsh but common reality for playing and coaching staff. Club legends, Iwan Roberts and Darren Huckerby were released at the end of their contracts with no sentimentality or regard for their past contributions. No option for them to decide to part ways at a time or manner of their own choosing.
Of the 14 managers (excluding caretakers) to serve under the current owners, only Paul Lambert chose to leave the club. All the others were relieved of their duties.
It is the nature of the game because football is a ruthless, results-driven industry.
If you had a player at the end of their career, whose ‘legs had gone’, you wouldn’t change your formation and tactics to accommodate them and expect someone else to do the running for them.
In essence, that’s what Delia and Michael are doing. They have created a leadership structure in which their responsibilities as owners, to hold the directors to account, have effectively been delegated to those very same people.
Ironically, when Stuart Webber concluded that his own time was up, it was Delia and Michael who pleaded with him to stay on (at 90 percent), such was their reliance on him.
In doing so, their position becomes increasingly problematic. Without investment and/or decisive leadership, their roles amount to little more than a pair of figureheads enjoying ‘free’ season tickets and corporate hospitality. It creates a vacuum in which decision-making and authority lack clarity and effectiveness.
It is easy to see why they are reluctant to give it up, especially as the proposed three-year transition would see them reach the landmark of three decades in charge.
It’s been their life. In many ways, it defines them.
Some would argue that they have earned the right to run it how they choose and to leave when it suits them but the club needs more from those at the top than they can currently give.
With new investors waiting in the wings, we are now in a place where the owners need the club more than the club needs its owners.
🥱🥱🥱 Delia Michael Delia Michael, rinse repeat!! I’d have thought the My football Writer contributors might be able to come up with something a little bit different by now, different writers regurgitating the same thing. C’mon gents give us some thing else, we know we need a reset and all of this has been said before………. You’re losing your appeal nearly as quickly as a trip to Carrow rd at present!!!!
How about you submitting an article that we can all read on a subject other than the club’s present plight which stirs up lots of emotions, and each day with no news coming forth from the portals of Carrow Rd more supporters find this a way of letting out their frustrations.
I echo Alex’s comments, Jinxy … you’re more than welcome to pen a piece of positivity. I promise to post it.
How about he doesn’t?
Spot on Alex. Personally, it’s cathartic to try and work through and articulate my frustrations.
We’re all lucky that Gary provides the forum by which anyone with the will can express their (largely) uncensored thoughts and opinions. As Ed mentioned in his piece yesterday, with the amount of NCFC material being posted across many different channels, it often feels like there is nothing new / more to say and of course it’s dispiriting when your efforts are so quickly dismissed.
Jinxy – at least MFW content is not hidden behind a pay wall so you’re not out pocket
Oh yes, did you write the article which stated 30 years of failure under Delia and Michael, I mean……….. Tulrue being a football supporter is an inexplicable phenomento most and yes very emotive and yes we’re in a mess and yes the owners have lost their way, but change is coming, we’re Norwich City not Manchester City!! It happens and has done perpetually since I first set foot on the terraces back in ‘85 as a 10 year old boy. Of course football has changed and the way “fans” express themselves has too. A conversation down the pub is now played out in front of thousands on platforms such as Facebook. You guys make some interesting points and maybe my first reaction belonged on an inferior Facebook platform. But 🤷🏼♂️ The change we crave is coming but writing off 30 years and some of the good things that Webber and the smiths did achieve at the club is short sighted to say the least as for extending the vitriol to the u18’s!!!
I’d like to think I managed to steer clear of ‘vitriol’. I appreciate that this piece is just one more in a long list that doesn’t paint a positive picture but I chose my words and supporting statistics carefully.
If our current approach and model is based on youth development and the progress made at academy level, you would hope to see some indication of progress in that area, relative to previous eras?
Interesting to see that this subject is boring to you?
Everything article/comment wise has been spot on!
The club is in deep Sh*t!
Amazing how after these comments were made online and the radio, Webber is leaving early now?
Sorry but if we’re quoting “spot on” we achieved 3 consecutive seasons in the Premiership after Lamberts swashbuckling promotion 🎤 ⬇️
During Delia’s reign there’s been six or seven good years and the rest have varied between ordinary to miserable.
Looking through the accounts the only director who appears to have invested in the club recently was Michael Foulger and he’s now sold up.
During this time we’ve slipped from the top tier to second tier relegation candidates with record amounts of debt.
What’s to celebrate Jinxy?
That is history and not relevant to the current situation.
Hi Steve
Many have been saying the same for 27 years
The matrsa was many clubs would like to have been in cities position with promotions and I agree with that but many of those clubs would have made a better fist of things than City did.
Under this ownership regime only 2 consecutive seasons in the Premiership that’s no good enough for a club of City’s size.
Smith and Jones wants to leave on their own terms and speed, a 3 to 7 year handover is ridiculous and saying it’s for a Sporting Franchise owner to learn how to run a Football club is a slap in his face.
Will the new potential owners be a:
1) Breath of fresh Air
2) A clone of our present owners
3) A Glazer type owner
In reality the 3 options above don’t fill me with any hope
1) They might breath fresh life into a club for a short while to get promotion and stay in the premiership but large investment isn’t how they work.
2) Let’s hope not but see above
3) This is the most possible situation as in option 1, stabilise in the Premiership and sell for a big profit to an unknown country with a poor human rights pedigree.
Maybe Smith and Jones have sold the club down the river Wensum or have they got lucky only time will tell but the sound of silence coming out of the club as for how they see the future is deafening, maybe Zoe might come out with a statement soon or leave it to the new Sporting Director
I agree Alex. Personally I don’t believe Mark Attansio to be the answer.
Because of the woeful decision making of the current owners, Norwich are massively behind where they need to be.
The ground capacity should have been increased by 10,000 in the Lambert era.
You are probably talking £150m to do that now?
Then there is coaching and scouting investment which is probably short of about 30-50m short a year?
The club needs to turn over roughly 110m a year to break even.
Only once these holes are filled can Norwich start surviving on its own.
Unless we get an investor who has money to burn, we will always have to be a selling club.
Hi Alex
I’m looking forward to finding out what MA will bring, if for no other reason than breaking the status quo.. I’d like to see a revised Management structure too with clearer accountability. Fans are clearly and rightly frustrated but it’s difficult to know exactly where the failings are and who is to blame within the cosy cartel of our boardroom,
Spot on.
This is the article that should be read to at the next board meeting. It probably sums up all of the ills at Norwich City. Eloquent and exact, for the sake of their dignity Delia and Michael should relinquish the reins. Most fans do not relish what is going on, yes we all vent but don’t we all just want our club back.
Andy;
But according to them, it IS our club.
They are merely custodians, ensuring it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, and saving it for future generations.
Given their record, it’s a shame we haven’t fallen into the wrong hands.
How many other clubs of our size would have bitten hands off to have had just one shot at becoming an established PL entity?? (I’m looking at you Brentford and Brighton…)
They have had so many opportunities…..and they continue to stuff it up.
Go; go now before we are once again a league one outfit….although given this season’s recruitment it looks as if we’ve already planned for that.
O T B C
I certainly believe that their time has come and gone and as “stewards of the club” as I think Delia has put it in the past, they need to sell on. There was a seemingly quite exhaustive process to allow Mark Attanasio to come on board. Seems like a great fit for the club. My concern now is that if I was him and saw Delia publicly stating they’ll be around for 3-7yrs longer, I’m not sure I’d wait that long. The decline since we got promoted in 2021 has been staggering really. I think Webber mentally checked out quite early that season and that has run through the whole club. The only way to really change that now is new ownership in my opinion.
Hi Steve I’m fairly confident when SW leaves and BK starts and he is left to his own devices things will start to turn around . But reports of Frank Lampard another one of SW candidates scares me ,once this man has gone it will be for the good of the club .
How do we know if MA hasn’t made some decisions or at least had an input i.e BK appointment also the change in the dates incoming outgoing .
Where is Neil Adams role in all of this now and what about Delia’s son Tom ??
We have too many organ grinders for a true path or more heads make less work ??
SW BK is such a positive lets hope it works out & hopefully our recruitment team will be sorted out as well.
Hi Jim
I hope you’re right. I’d have preferred someone who was tried and tested as my fear is that BK has been appointed as someone they can mould into SW 2.0 rather than being the catalyst for genuine change. We’ll see but as you point out, the next Head Coach appointment is critical.
Brilliant article Steve.
Here is a little tale that just goes to show how outdated Delia and Michael were 15 years ago let alone now, Delia was aghast at a London Supporters meeting regarding the negativity over Bryan Gunn’s stewardship when he was manager.
“Don’t you like Bryan” she said.
Now the whole of Norwich City LOVE Gunny but as manager? Sorry a definite no.
I predicted a bad ending to that tale, but even I couldn’t envisage the scale of the disaster.
All the good appointments, along with some bad, have all been made by people other than Delia and Michael. That tells a tale.
Would I now advertise myself to come along to interview and appoint the next manager, not in a million years. I am completely unsuitable. I have neither the experience or knowledge of football, I was a poor amateur player at a low level that could only do one thing, score goals. That does not qualify me to do the job of choosing the next Norwich manager..
But Michael nor Delia are qualified to do that either. And that’s the whole point of all this.
And isn’t it terrible that here I am talking about the next manager while we still have one. David Wagner should have been removed from his post after Sunderland. To be fair to him and to the fans.
Even I am qualified to see and say that he is struggling badly and that the whole club needs a shake up from top to bottom. It’s fellow professionals like Chris Sutton saying it as well.
Norwich City will sale on brilliantly if we get the Sporting Director, the coach and the recruitment team vacancies right. If Delia and Michael left tomorrow, handing over to a Mark Attanasio type investor, as long as the three posts I have said previously are successfully filled then they are not as invaluable as they think they are.
We can all have opinions, that is our right. Gary did an excellent article the other day highlighting that The Government, Manchester United and NCFC were all going through similar disasters.
And he was spot on. But rather than discuss the point of the article one supporter took offence at myself for bringing in politics into an article about politics and football.
But that is his right. I do not agree with it at all, just as I don’t agree with supporters who want Delia and Michael to continue running the club. I have a friend who won’t go that far but isn’t as rebellious as me. I understand that.
The trouble is when you get unqualified people like Delia and Michael making football decisions no wonder they have thrown away 4-5 chances over the last 20 years of making this club an established EPL club.
I remain in the Delia and Michael did help save the club all those years ago, not only them but many others. But they definitely saved us from bankruptcy. I wish I had got the chance to talk to Martin Penney about all this as I promised🌹
Hi Tim
I promised Martin I would try and get down to Norwich and have a get-together and a good chin wag but it looks increasingly unlikely
I wish him all the best and pray for a miracle
Tim, do you think Sheik Mansour is qualified to run a football club? Or Sheikh Mansour? Or perhaps Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The model we have I’d that rich people own football clubs but employ others to run them. If they have to make decisions, they seek guidance from experts.
Our owners are no different to others in that regard — except they’ve been doing it longer than most and so are often approached by other, newer owners for advice.
Well written and thought provoking article from Steve and I agree entirely. My thoughts as to why in Jinxy’s opinion we all seem obsessed with Delia and Michael’s time at the club needing to end is simply because the passage of time has shown that we’re no further forward from a playing point of view from when they arrived at the club. If you’re the sort of person who’s happy to accept the status quo on the basis that it could be worse, then fine but the evolution of mankind tells us that most of us aren’t happy to stand still and the urge to progress is strong.
Whilst I don’t personally subscribe to the view held by many that Delia and Michael were the saviours of our club, I realise that there are many people (including me) who would wish them a dignified departure from the club and to spare them from the toxicity that will inevitably turn towards them if the current malaise continues ad infinitum.
As an older person I don’t get involved in the booing or vitriolic chants whatever happens, I guess it may be a generational thing but that still doesn’t mean that I’m happy with what I’m seeing week after week and I’m seriously considering giving up my season ticket as a result.
I walked away from the ground on Sunday feeling like many I’m sure utterly deflated and with a genuine feeling that nobody at the club really gives a toss and its likely to stay that way. After such a display (of which there’s been many) upon leaving the ground I usually just mutter the word ‘rubbish’ and walk out but we live in a very different world to the one I was brought up in and there are sections of the crowd who will have no qualms at all about turning on Delia and Michael if they see this as a vehicle for change. As Gary said a few days ago ‘go now’.
I imagine the quotes from DW’s latest press conference will fan the flames
The lunatics have taken over the asylum and they aren’t even trying to conceal their madness.
This is going to end in serious tears
Never fear, Chris … it’s all good.
In this afternoon’s presser, Wagner said he’s not worried by relegation and that he’s had a lovely warm and fuzzy phone call with Delia and Michael during which they told him that they understand why the results have been not ideal (injuries blah blah blah) and that he has their full support.
Only at our football club…
Hi – it is an old problem stemming from the 90’s. I recall Bruce Rioch resigning listing no ambition as the reason. Nigel Worthington saying one player took his budget. Adam Drury actually staying his disappointment at the lack of support for Worthington. Lambert walking away when the money was needed, for him to get the players in early, beating other clubs to them.
In between these there have been absolute jokes of attempts with people who should never have been appointed.
It isn’t like D&M have just started out on this road to nowhere, it is 27 years and rightly people say we are no more forward that when Watling sold the club to them.
Yes they made loans to the club, then in repayment took shares, only strengthening their place as majority owners. Allowing nobody get near them. I don’t have a problem with that, but when they just limp on and on making the same mistakes, I do have a bloody big problem.
Now they have someone else on equal footing, but still they put a barrier around that. The American may be what we need, he may not, but looking at what the Brewers fans say, We simply have Status Quo, he doesn’t spend on players for their sport.
I have said many times that the Stowmarket duo would not let anyone in, who would threaten their position, I still stand by that. What have they allowed?
Only another whose views an ideals match their own.
Where is that having the best interests of the club at heart? Custodian, to me, that is a sugar coated bully. Another coach soon getting his P45, while another one somewhere is being talked about as a possible.
Yes they could bring the joy, excitement of a Stringer, Walker Lambert, or Farke. But what about when that backing is needed to strengthen the foundations and building up a squad to be established? History will repeat itself.
Another Coach another SD or exective are no more the bloody big sticking plasters and bandages
It’s natural to seek scapegoats when things go as wrong as they have at Carrow Road. However, I don’;t believe all the vitriol aimed at Delia and Michael is justified. The decline in performance levels is largely due to extremely poor recruitment over the past three years, particularly the way in which the windfall fee received for Buendia has been frittered away on very average replacements. That’s down to Stuart Webber, not the club owners. I’m hoping Ben Knapper will be much smarter in identifying talent available within Norwich’s budget, as well as revitalising the youth production line.
Let’s hope BK can bring about a change in fortunes, Alan. I also agree that D&M don’t deserve abuse or vitriol. However, they are the owners and as such, they are ultimately accountable for everything at the club.
In the same way that I am accountable for the house that I own. If I appointed builders to make repairs or renovations and they did a poor job, that’s ultimately on me. To labour the clumsy analogy further, if I asked them to build me a palace and gave them no money to do it, I wouldn’t end up with a palace.
I get your point, Steve. But many people seem to believe there is a long queue of suitable investors who would jump at the chance of pouring cash into a medium-sized club like ours. I don’t think such a queue exists. And I certainly don’t want people like the Glazers or Middle Eastern sheikhs turning Norwich into their personal plaything. No one can be blamed for the depressing fact that Gunn, Hanley, Sargent, Barnes and Sorensen are all injured. That’s quite a bit of missing talent.
The Financial Director at the club mentioned numerous offers to invest in the club have been received over the years whilst Smith and Jones have denied those claims.
The Financial Director also said all credible offers were passed on to the majority shareholders to review, there was no mention if any of those credible offers ever had due diligence done on them to ascertain the type if investment they could have made into the club.
The new owner of Coventry City was asked about his support of Norwich and said on a couple of occasions he had offered Financial help with investment to the club but it was never taken up(no reason given)
Asking D&M to review offers into the club when they have announced no one was interested would seem to disprove that statement and only show that they want to hang on for as long as possible.
Maybe Mr. Foulger sold his shares to the Norfolk Group as he wasn’t happy were the club was going and one rumour was he had tried to buy D&M out a couple of years ago.
That was a turning point for me Alex.
We had in fact been lied to, as all we heard from the club emphatically that no credible offers had been received.
My mate Marty didn’t believe them, to my shame, I did.
Like Canarylad I remember Nigel Worthington saying “List A is gone it’s List B now” straight after the Fulham debacle.
And look how bad List B was😱
Losing Sargent and Barnes was a hammer blow for sure. I know critics will say that their absence doesn’t account for the appalling defensive record but Wagner’s tactics out of possession rely on a high and aggressive press. Barnes in particular was crucial for that.
As for a queue of investors, we don’t need a queue. We have (seemingly) got the next owners lined up. As per the comments above, we don’t know what the Attanasios will bring or what they’d change when (or if) they are given full control. However, it’s hard to imagine that the current structure and dynamic at Board level would be adopted or accepted at any other multimillion pound business.
Where’s the ‘grit in the oyster’?
Bruce Rioch walked out, Peter Grant quit … so, no, Lambert isn’t the only manager Delia and MWJ didn’t sack.
I’m not sure what point you’re making about dismissing managers, though. That’s how football works.
They did save the club btw. It’s not debated by anyone who knows how the end of the previous era came about.
The bank wouldn’t continue the loans to NCFC while Robert Chase remained in charge, so Geoffrey Watling bought Chase’s shares. But that money (£700k) went to Chase and did nothing to help the club debts.
That is why Delia was approached. As you say, correctly, the club needed her.
She and Michael put in £1m. It paid off the debt. That saved the club.
But the idea that they now ‘need’ the club is hilarious.
Need it for what? Status? Do you imagine they don’t know the current mood? Yet you think they put up with all that for status?
Or perhaps you think the need the club for a social life? The last time a columnist suggested that I phoned him to point out that Delia and Michael were dining with HM The Queen at Windsor Castle that very week.
Great to hear from you Mick…. your presence and input have been missed. If only our back-four could provide such a robust defence.
“I’m not sure what point you’re making about dismissing managers, though. That’s how football works.“
That is exactly the point. Football is ruthless. Players are released when they’re deemed surplus to requirements. Managers have their contracts terminated when results are poor. (as they were when Rioch and Grant, parted ways ‘by mutual consent’). That level of scrutiny and accountability should apply to all who serve the club. I acknowledged the patience and loyalty shown by D&M. Rare qualities in football, which were highlighted again this week during Wagner’s press conference. What other club would accept this run of results and offer their unequivocal support to the Head Coach who is responsible? Does it make Norwich City different? Yes. Is it a good thing? Perhaps you can answer that.
“Need it for what? Status? Do you imagine they don’t know the current mood? Yet you think they put up with all that for status?”
I didn’t say that and won’t pretend to know their motivation for remaining in place. You’re better placed to know, but seem to be suggesting that they don’t need the club at all? Why cop abuse at The Carra when you can be dining with royalty? The implication being that their continued involvement is some form of selfless and reluctant service to club and community? If that’s the case, (and please correct me if I’m wrong) the obvious question is what makes them think that they are best placed to provide that continued stewardship, bearing in mind the steady decline over the last two years?
I wonder if Mark Attanasio, finds the idea of a 3-7 year ‘vetting period’ of his suitability to be vaguely insulting, bearing in mind the experience with The Brewers. And what is deemed to be suitable? Someone who shares their values and approach? It could be seen as slightly arrogant to conclude that the next custodians have to be carbon copies of themselves and won’t deviate from their chosen path.
We all want the club to perform and (I’m guessing) we’d all accept it’s not. Some people are seemingly happy to put that down to bad luck and injuries, but I’d love to hear your assessment and I’m sure Gary would welcome an alternative view.
Anyway, hope you’re well and let’s hope for 3 points today!
Wot Steve says 😊