Last time we were in this league our wage bill was actually 97 per cent of our total turnover, even having regard to the then relegation clauses and the subsequent promotion bonuses – that’s unsustainable long term without Premier League football.
Gary Field
Can our club grow and progress? Or has Norwich City hit its footballing ‘glass ceiling’?
The club’s DNA is currently entwined with a self-funding model, a seemingly old fashioned model of simply spending what we can afford. Many are questioning, as commendable though that is, whether it is actually now sufficient to survive in the Premier League beyond the odd season or three? Whatever your view, it raises two recurring themes, which seem to be “in vogue” throughout football at the moment: club ownership and additional investment.
Changes are inevitable, the January window huge, and some big, unpopular decisions needed
Our 18 goals have actually been scored by TEN different players, with Nathan Redmond being top-scorer with FOUR goals. Perhaps more telling, our main three strikers – Cameron Jerome, Dieumerci Mbokani and Lewis Grabban – have just FIVE goals between them.
Not long now! But who will fare best out of Neil’s Canaries, Flores’ Hornets and Howe’s Cherries?
Alex Neil does have the benefit of a squad with much greater Premier League experience that the two promotion rivals, even if the cynics may suggest, some most part of the relegation team from the season before last.
While City prepare for their fight for Premier League survival, the other Canaries await a very different fight
For the past decade the Hitchin Town Supporters Trust has been raising funds each year to help pay the players’ wages. However, that doesn’t go anywhere near telling the whole storey, as the club’s problems are much bigger.
The silly season is upon us, yet still plenty to ponder, including what will 2015/16 bring for our Wesley H?
If there’s one thing we’ve all learnt during Alex Neil’s brief tenure it’s that he has a meticulous eye for preparatio rarely seen before at Carrow Road. And it’s that which is highly likely to set him apart from his counterparts at Bournemouth and Watford.
How long before the fine ‘one of our own chant’ is redundant? And where next for football’s EPPP?
Football is naturally a competitive game and, when your club is completing at the highest level, whether in the Championship or the Premier League, it’s understandable why very few managers are brave enough to risk an inexperienced, academy player, rather than a seasoned old pro. The odds are stacked so much against the academy player.
In times of all seater stadia and inflated ticket prices, football must revisit the needs of its very own lifeblood
Football has changed its image, largely for the better but, in some instances, for the worse. Whether we liked it or not, football suddenly became sanitised. Pre-match entertainment consisted of pre-determined musical play lists.
From Hucks to Mooney. Many an emergency loan has graced the yellow, but an out-dated concept?
With the benefit of the present loan system, these clubs can loan out their players to other Premier League, Football League or Conference clubs, supposedly in the name of player development. Chelsea, at one stage earlier this season, actually had twenty six players out on loan!