In part two of his John Ryan trilogy, Ed discusses John’s time at Luton and how a certain John Bond spotted more in him than just a steady Eddie full-back… John’s arrival at his new club (Luton) neatly coincided with the end of another journey, albeit one that was a little more challenging than driving […]
The John Ryan Interview: Part One – Early days at Arsenal and a spell at the Cottage
In part one of Ed’s three-part interview with City legend of the 1970s John Ryan, they talk about his brush with Billy Wright while at Arsenal, an embarrassing encounter with Johnny Haynes and a close call with Bobby Robson and Ipswich Town. John Bond was never happier as a manager than when he was out on […]
TV WEEK: Star trekking across the Universe with Picard and our Ed…
My name is Ed. And I’m a Trekker. I will, at this point, distinguish between a Trekker, such as myself and a Trekkie. Trekkie’s are devotees of the original Star Trek series, as conceived and written by Gene Roddenberry and made by NBC. And I can take it or leave it. Trekkers, on the other […]
Farke’s miracle isn’t the first in NR1. The Saunders title win of 1971/72 runs it close
Pinch me. On second thoughts, don’t. I might wake up. And I’m in such a nice place at the moment. We’re all in dreamland at the moment, aren’t we? A well-deserved promotion back to the Premier League, our eighth to the top flight of English football since Ron Saunders and his band of craggy and […]
The Ghost: Remember that time when City could bring in World Cup winners for £50K?
As far as the study and appreciation of Art is concerned, I am, and will forever be the type of person who the artistic cognoscenti would look down their long, thin noses at, regarding me and my simple appraisals of the great works as opinions that matter less, to them, than those of, say, an […]
NOSTALGIA: Suggett and see – an understated City legend, identified by Saunders, refined by Bond
It’s a footballing fact of life that, every now and again, a young footballing prodigy leaps to the attention of those in the know who immediately, in a flurry of excitement and feverish hyper-ventilating, announce him to be the “next <insert name of footballing legend here>”. The subsequent acres of newspaper space that are allocated […]
The cheeky lad from Coventry, who played with a smile on his face and puts smiles on the faces of others…
Ah, the 1970s. It was the decade when it was firmly believed we’d all be flying around in hover cars, holidaying on the moon and foregoing conventional meals in favour of tablets that would meet all our nutritional needs as we got on with our days. Days that were mostly spent at leisure as the […]
Feel the hate. And the feel the disconnection. Football is no longer United
How many of us can say that, back in the day, we really did knock on a neighbour’s door or peer at them over a garden fence and ask if we could have our ball back? For me and my football loving friends in Brancaster, if that ball had just happened to decapitate a few […]
The modern football era – defined for some by Sky Sports and a certain Scotsman
So, Classic FM. Bear with me. Classic FM. It was, for me, the radio station of choice a few years ago if I wanted some comfortable and relatively easy going listening in the background. Bland voices, familiar music. Background noise to work to. Not anymore. The aforementioned station has, in recent years, become so self-congratulatory […]
Drawing the Line. And by line, for Jacob Murphy, that means a figure that is eight digits long
Inevitably, as we continue to discuss the ins and outs at Carrow Road this summer, talk drifts, nervously, to the prospect of losing a few players that we’d rather the club looked to keep hold of, brave new economically sound business model or not. Not too many yellow and green tears were shed at the […]
Football’s gone home. But what a tangled, dodgy and sometimes shady web it keeps on weaving
Question… What would your reaction be if the Canaries announced that their latest close season signing was Liao Lisheng? Never heard of him? No, neither had I before today. Liao plays for Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande. The Chelsea, if that’s possible, of a country that aims to be a world football superpower by […]
'Norfolk's' Mark Walton, one of the Class of 1992/93, recalls City’s best ever Premier League season
“I remember Lee Power ordering 40 vodka and oranges and bringing them to the tables; Robert Chase’s face was a picture! On some of the away trips, that bus resembled a disco on wheels at times. So yes, we enjoyed ourselves. But we were professional and we kept fit, trained hard to get the excess out of our systems.”
Football. Simple? It was once but that was before agents, financial advisors and image gurus happened
The tradition then, of course, was not to have them stood on the pitch holding up a scarf or shirt but, rather, sat at a battered old table, pen in hand and smile on face with the manager and chairman stood behind, gurning away in practiced fashion for the camera.
1976. Bondy's under pressure and fans asking if City have what it takes to survive amongst the elite
Dave Stringer and Big Duncan are primed, ready and as good as anyone in the country at dealing with the sort of centre forwards we are used to seeing every week, the likes of Alan Woodward, John Hickton, Mick Jones and Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson, all sinew and elbow, the very best that English centre forwards can offer.
Filthy lucre. And now where's the incentive gone? More lessons to be learned from the Class of 1992
Professional footballers, despite what they may say in public, do love to talk about money and the class of 1992 were no different. One of the ex-Canaries I spoke to said he was chatting to some Manchester United players after our first game against them that season and, inevitably, talk of wages came up.
Lessons to be learned from the Cubs? Out with the old and in with the 'young and hungry' worked a treat in Chicago
I could do a long list of footballers who the Canaries have plucked from either obscurity or near footballing oblivion who have, in time, embraced the opportunity given to them to prove themselves, who have felt wanted and have, in turn, wanted to be here.
Self belief: where to find it, and do City's current crop have enough to drag the club out of this division?
“A season of struggle beckons for Norwich…”, reckoned one old sage in whatever old rag I picked up the next day, adding, “… if the Canaries play like that for the rest of this season then Nigel Worthington and his men will be looking forward to trips to the likes of Port Vale, Northampton and Blackpool next season”.
Time: A rare commodity in modern football and one that's no longer afforded to mis-firing gaffers
Geoffrey Watling had been appointed as the new club chairman in 1957 and had declared that his objective was top flight football. When Norwich appointed Ron Saunders as their new manager in the summer of 1969 it did so with the caveat that he got the club promoted to the First Division within three years.
Whose product is it anyway? When a thought shower turned into an info cascade and the EFL was born
The people in power are too afraid that, for example, thousands of Norwich fans who would normally get themselves along to Carrow Road to see their team play Brentford will all think, as one, “…no, sod that, I’m going to watch Real Madrid against Barcelona on the telly instead”.
Fancy a new Fiat? A look at the lost innocence of football and its fans, and Keith Bertschin in jeans
Pitch invasions these days are often instigated and precipitated by violence and provocation. No-one found the actions of the Hibernian fans who invaded the pitch at Hampden Park during last season’s Scottish FA Cup Final delightful. Yes, the Hibs fans were joyful at their win. But they were more content in goading their opposite numbers with it.