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.
I blame Pep. Where once winning was the be all and end all, entertainment has now entered the football equation
I was lucky enough to spend time in the company of Kevin Bond not so long ago. Much of the talk was, naturally enough, about his father. And I wasn’t particularly surprised when he said to me in the course of our conversation, “…we never did much defensive training under Dad”.
With Jo-cob emerging as serious first team material, the faithful can finally rejoice in a Colney job well done
Luton paid Norwich a very decent sum for Cameron McGeehan’s services last year and, with him now attracting more than serious attention from a number of Championship sides, Norwich will, when he does move on again, benefit again by the sell-on fee that will almost certainly have been included as part of the deal.
The other way: If funding allowed would we prefer the Abramovich route or that of a Mr Lansdown?
The obvious question that I and, as it turned out, i journalist, Huge Godwin wanted to ask Lansdown was why, or when, he intended to just follow the oligarch lead and buy success – in this case, for his rugby club by also, by definition, for the football club as well?
From Cawston to Jones, via Baker, Hansbury, Lim and Bensead: a rogues gallery of reserve keepers
Hansbury, unlike Theoklitos, stuck around and stuck it out, despite his nightmare debut. And it paid off for him. He ended his Norwich career having made 84 senior appearances for the club.
Final window thought: why was Master Naismith's agent unable to seal the deal with the Black Cats?
There are plenty of professional footballers out there who dislike the game and the entire industry with a very high degree of passion. They do it because it’s their job and they have been fortunate enough to be rather good at doing it.
The swagger of youth: maybe, just maybe, Tuesday gave us a glimpse into a bright Canary future?
No wonder Alex Neil smiles whenever he is asked about him. He knows Godfrey could go on to be a special player, one who already, in his own mind at least, will be convinced he is ready for a run in the Norwich City first-team this season.
Time to stroll down Memory Lane and pay tribute to the oft-forgot man; the first City manager to claim a cup triumph
“Whatever else people might have thought of Reid, he is still one of only two managers to have won a major trophy with the Canaries, an achievement that has eluded many of the more famous names that have followed him at the club…
Who will step forward on Saturday and write their way into the history books as the Owls head for Norfolk?
Sheffield Wednesday then. A “proper” football club. It’s a term I often use in conversation about the game without really knowing quite what I mean by it. A mix, I suppose, of the club in questions history, their ground and the many and varying other ingredients that make up the whole football club package. You […]
Few strikers 'guarantee' goals. Even McCormack doesn't come with 20 goals already in the onion bag
McCormack’s overall record at Fulham is 100 appearances with 42 goals scored. An overall record of 2.38 games per goal. Now that’s not bad, not bad at all, but it does reflect these occasional purple patches he has had in his career, notably last season and 2008/09.