corbs

2-2

We need a bit more prudence and a bit less ''ambition''.

our hotel, score boards and Land sold for flats will see us alright.. infact.. the score board will get a hat trick against colcehster Next week.... I always thought the READS flour mill would of kept out some goals, but it was always played out of position!  

So your answer to everything in life is to be baled out by other people like some fairy-tale! Please name your new team of Directors, and your new investers, and the fresh strategy. If you cannot then just zip it up. 

My understanding was that it derived from a critical letter sent to the EDP mistakenly believing that the ''infill'' was responsible for racist chanting. The naive correspondent claimed that that area of the ground was like a ''snake-pit'' of vipers. Correct me if I am wrong, as I am no fact and figures nerd, but my recollection was that we were chanting ''Ulf, Ulf, Ulf'''' in honour of Ulf Ottosson (who played for City in 1997), and some people mistook this for racist monkey chants. That''s it.    

So the Club is ''rotten to the core''? Strong stuff. Please elaborate as this implies some kind of corruption or sickness in the body of the Club, not mere mis-management or ineptitude. 

I find myself in the realistic and relieved to be where we are camp. BUT watching Cardiff and Barnsley in the F.A (which I rate as the best Club knock out competition in the world) did make me feel uneasy to say the least. Why have we been so crap in this great competition for so long? As a ''Bread and Roses'' guy, I have always though the Cup was a great way to raise cash (by going as far as we can) as well as grab some glory. I hated the way we lost to Chelsea in the Cup not that long ago, and we were all clapping each other on the back, and accepting the patronising plaudits of the commentators. Well, Barnsley showed how it should be done, forget gallant losers, they took the poseurs on and won! So there you are, that''s my moan. Reasons to be cheerful - watching Gippeswyk in the play-offs.

Not so sure I agree that this is a poor division, infact I think rather the opposite, that there are very few poor teams in our division. Two of the poorer sides have not done too badly against premiership opposition (Chelsea and Boro). Methinks the prem is not so hot, infact English football generally is much hyped, especially at the top level! The likes of Gazza are just not around, and the Lampards of the prem are nothing more than good players. 

Personally I think in the past she has been a bit too generous (e.g Cedric Anselin), and has let her heart rule her head. In a sense the Club and the team are like Family and children to her, which is good and bad. Again speaking for myself I would prefer the Club/family to grow more independent, and like WBA, try and balence the books, and not rely on the patronage of wealthy business types. Why cannot we get away from this reactionary system of having semi-wealthy or wealthy individuals on the Board of our Clubs. To me a Board of Directors should be made up of fans, and experts in their chosen fields, but instead we chose to run our clubs the way Robert Maxwell ran his empire. In the end this type of capitalism just crumbles. 

''The books must, must , must be balanced''. In the unlikely event that you ever find yourself on the Board of a plc which is 17 Million in debt (and being entrusted with the future of a company which is integral to Norfolk life), I think you would find that getting some balence betweeni income and expenditure might just be one of your considerations.

I moan at the moaners, so I am a moaning hypocrite.

GR has produced one of the best turn-arounds I can remember, but thankfully his honeymoon is coming to an end, and normal service will be resumed, which is inevitable. All Managers make mistakes, have weaknesses, and make enemies, and Glen is no different. It is still early days, but I am cautiously optimistic. But I accept that the natural state of many football fans is one of cynical pessimism, and it is all to easy to predict doom and gloom, and blame the Board/Government etc. This is a very typical english trait, which says more about the individual than it does about the subject matter in hand. I am indifferent to these views and their predictability. Basically the anti Board/Anti Delia people have yet to come up with a single fresh or intellectually stimulating arguement. In a league of over 20 teams it is hardly rocket science to predict that most teams are set to fail, and we may be among them. As I have said before when I first watched City I stood in the old River end amongst the moaners. They will always be with us, bless.   

No question he has made a great start to his City stewardship, but also no doubt in my mind that the honeymoon''s over too, and although unrelated to this payout news story it does hint at how alienated we fans have become from the football business.

It looks like we are just going to play the season out now, as top six out of reach, with the young loanees still bedding in. I notice Time Out pre Watford report says this is a good time to play us! Sorry that few of our own youngsters will not get a look in, so not even that consolation. Not much to be pleased about post Blackpool except the fact that Glen has kept us up, and ready to fight another day. He really has done a good job so far. But Hucks clearly lacking his old fizz. As previously expressed, my own preference would be to build up the youth for the medium to long term, but short-termism is everything now, so I expect a feverish summer of transfer speculation and set-backs, with the predictable calls to ''release the funds''. Glen himself probably will pressurise the Board in this area, and I cannot blame him, as he is, as Delia is in her own way, someone who desperately wants to (and expects to) succeed. As a fan I am thankfully free from such ambitions, and I would possibly get more satisfaction from seeing a couple of local lads make it into the first team, than I would see us ''splash the cash'' on new ''star'' players.       

''Norfolk Noddies'' -both.

Nice one!

I have often said Norwich v Leicester is the closest we get to Norwich v Gippeswyk, partly geography, East Midlands, partly other stuff. ''Bernie is our Leader'' (Nostalgia).  

The Board had one job and one Job only that they had to do, and that was to appoint a decent manager. Roader has one Job and one Job only this season, to keep us up. Well done to both parties, so far so good.  

I can only say I would not be very happy if I were a Man U, Liverpool, Ipswich, Hearts, Swindow fan, and I guess I could go on.

Ah, ''the next level'', I wondered how long it would be before this cliche made an appearance. Is that the level where the mega wealthy asset-stripper comes in promising investment on the pitch? No doubt all those ''little Norwichers'' would then be off the Board, to be replaced by ''ambitious'' new blood ready to take us to the next level. It seems to me that there is quite a lot of prejudice against Delia because she is a celebrity, and because she is a women (by a vocal minority). The debate about ''little Norwich'' is an dull one. It seems very clear to me that the Club have succeeded in bringing in good gates in an area not traditionally considered a football hotbed. There are various reasons behind this, and some have been mentioned e.g more women, more middle class fans. For me Norwich has never been particularly defined by its size, so much as by its geographical location, as well as its socio-economic character. It is obvious we are a small/medium sized provincial City, we are in rural Norfolk, and although some light manfacturing still exists, the City is mostly characterised by its  administrative, media and Insurance type employment. Therefore we are not the average industrial conurbation, who in the past drew its crowds from the manual working class. We are a distinctive and relatively isolated provincial club supported by City and County. This gives us our character, and defines how others see us. We are seen as the ''country cousins'' not because we are small. If we take Huddersfield Town for example, a much smalller place than Norwich, but they are not labelled country cousins because they are/were a typical Northern Industrial town. It also explains to some extent the inferiority felt by some City fans, who feel quite comfortable dis-respecting their own fans whilst singing the praises of fans of other Clubs (e,g recent comments about Leeds fans suggesting they have more ''bottle'' than us and therefore should be held up as some kind of example). P.S I liked the post by Ackney Canary. I also live in Hackney.              

...forgot to mention 30 goals for Saints, in 122 games, not bad (1991-5.

Apologies, 3rd place it was, and I supported Arsenal in Cup when Linighan scored! Memory. Actually Dowie was a decent above average player at the time, and would of got a few goals. As for me not being a fan, maybe you are right, I just like to hang out on ''little norwich''s'' board for all the kudos it gives me. Maybe i live in Huddersfield, and watch only non-league, or just maybe ...

Sorry to be a bore but my best mate (WBA fan) is convinced that we would of been Champions if we had signed him in 1992/3. Maybe! Stange looking back how genuinely gutted we were because we finished 4th in the top flight. We were so close and my mate said get Dowie in as back up because you will have some injuries, and he will always get you a few. Perhaps we will never be the close again. For once Ambition would of been the answer.

No Heroes anymore. Well not really, we have our own in Delia.

''but I thought it was the job of a football club director to put money in to the club?''. Really, and who is being naive now!