Mick Dennis

SPORTING MOMENTS: Slow swimming… schmoozing… & the great Peter Jones June 1, 2023 - A few days by the seaside in a decent hotel, on expenses, with merely a soupcon of unexacting work? Great. I mean, how taxing could it be to report on swimming, even if it was my first ‘away’ gig in my first Fleet Street job? My new employers – The… ...
Go well, Todd. You’ll forever be one of our own January 25, 2023 - It was a moment we could scarcely believe but also the moment we dared to believe. It was 19 September 2019. The two previous home games of that Premier League campaign had been hugely encouraging: a triumph over Newcastle and a narrow defeat by Chelsea. Now the Champions, Manchester City,… ...
Because football. Because the Championship December 21, 2022 - He shouldn’t have said it. But I certainly understand why Dean Smith felt relieved that Norwich City’s next game is away from home. I said the same to my wife as we trooped out of Carrow Road on Saturday after the defeat by Blackburn. But before I elaborate – and… ...
Webber: ‘The club’s objective is a prolonged spell in the Premier League’ September 6, 2022 - Stuart Webber insists Norwich City are determined to achieve a long spell in the Premier League. At a time when some supporters are asking: “What is the point of winning promotion if the club is going to ‘yo-yo’ back down again?”, City’s Sporting Director asserts that he is focussed on… ...
“This club is a laughing stock” … “A fish rots from the head down” May 24, 2022 - Here are some comments made in the last month. I have précised some a little, but the tone and specifics are faithfully recorded. The names of those saying these things and the people to whom they are referring have been replaced by letters, to protect the guilty. I offer them… ...
You say you don’t want the Webberlution? May 5, 2022 - There is some symmetry at least. Stuart Webber enraged Norwich City supporters with an interview in The Times and now he is so upset by an Eastern Evening News front page that he has stopped talking to reporters from the Archant group. But let’s be clear: he hasn’t banned them.… ...
As we watch the fall of Roman’s empire, we at NCFC should be careful what we wish for March 7, 2022 - It is extraordinary that City’s encounter with Chelsea on Thursday is likely to be the last before the fall of the Roman empire. The arrival in West London of Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich in June 2003 began the transformation of the Premier League into a rich men’s playground. English football has… ...
It’s the hope… September 30, 2021 - What if, improbable as it seems, we claw our way to safety in the brutally unforgiving Premier League? Without quibble or fudge I agree with those who say that, currently, we look a long way off being able to compete, let alone linger, in the top tier. I’ve been there… ...
The salutary tale of Graham Poll – a fallible human, alone in the centre of a storm September 15, 2021 - When he realised his career had imploded in a moment of global humiliation, referee Graham Poll needed to be alone. But solitude is hard to find when you are at a World Cup match. Eventually, he managed to shrug off solicitous colleagues, forced his head up and walked out into… ...
They’ll Never Stop Us Dreaming – Part Two July 12, 2021 - Trust the process, ignore the noise. The Norwich City mantra, invented and applied by sporting director Stuart Webber, should be the England motto now. After previous disappointments by and for the national team, the upset has sometimes been so great and the failure so abject that managers have fallen on… ...