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Darren Kenton: I remember him being substituted 20 minutes into home game he was having such a nightmare. Within a few weeks The Barclay were singing "You''ll never beat the Kenton."

Molte grazie signor Tifoso di Dereham. Molto interessante...

Two for punk rock/political reasonsFC St Pauli (Hamburg, Germany) - great anti-fascist/non-conformist/anarchist fans.Livorno (Italy) - again for their left wing fans and sometimes players. Check out their most famous player Cristiano Lucarelli.

I don''t suppose anyone remembers a friendly against either the Iranian or Iraqi national team - maybe early 1990s? We basically played our reserve team and beat them. The best bit was seeing 50 or so extremely enthusiastic Iranians/Iraqis in the city stand jumping around and singing for the whole game. Never did find out what they were singing about....

"Damien Francis has poked Mrs Mckenzie" Hilarious (and potentially actionable).

My girlfriend is a season ticket holder at Ipswich Town. We met each other at the first ''Shake Hands for Derby Day'' fans'' football match in 1999 - so clearly, at that time, I didn''t feel a tremendous amount of hostility to the horsey feckers.What changed that was meeting some of her fellow ''super'' blues. I''ve always felt that a lot of NCFC fans'' hostility towards Ipswich was a bit like hissing at the pantomime villain but many of my g/f''s (otherwise perfectly amenable) Ipswich Town supporting friends are obsessive in their dislike for Norwich - could it be that they don''t have much of a life outside of football? That''s when my attitude began to change.Add in their club''s disgraceful episode in administration, their takeover by an evil baron who makes cash from arms-dealing conferences and some rather unpleasant derby day experiences at Portman Rd and I now reciprocate some of that hostility.

[quote user="Epic Beard Man"]This is as far as I got. What arrogance to think that 72 million children even want to read your blog [/quote] Have stopped lurking and logged in just to say that is the funniest reply I''ve seen for ages. And also to say to WITS - I dig the guerilla charity work.

I''m pretty sure Trevor Brooking was a success in the brief time he was at West Ham? He took over from Roeder (oh, the irony) when they were at the foot of the premiership and saved them from relegation?Now, if only Bryan Gunn could do that sort of trick....

To whet your appetite for old farm fun have a look at these....Never Mind The Danger (pt1)Never Mind The Danger (pt2)"It''s very rare that you lose 5-0 and play well."

Spot on and very well put Johno. Since the fag-end of Worthington''s tenure we''ve had a succession of managers who would claim that because they were fire-fighting there was no time to think of the long-term. Which, rather inevitably, led to more firefighting. The board''s hands-off approach to managing the football team manager hasn''t helped - the board seem to take the attitude that they''d better leave that ''football stuff'' to a professional who knows more about it than them.And you''re so right about the terminated contracts. I''m struggling to name another club that sacks so many players so close to the beginnings of their contracts that they have to pay off the substantial remainder. It''s the sort of thing that I can imagine an egotist  like Barry Fry or the Latvian lunatic at Hearts doing.

20% of total club income on the player wage bill? Surely you mean 8.5/19.2 x 100 = 45%.

Today Neil Doncaster said, for the umpteenth recent time, that our player wage bill is £8.5m - of which only £4m is covered by income generated by the club. People on this board have continually argued the toss over whether enough cash has been spent on the football side of Norwich City.  I had no idea whether £8.5m was a pittance or extremely generous in Championship terms but this article suggests that we we still spend more on our player wage bill than than around least half of the Championship. It looks like our wage bill is somewhere close to average for the division.The top eight (inc. Birmingham, Wolves, Reading QPR and the Arms Dealers south of the border) and two clubs in our cohort have either got wealthy benefactors or parachute payments. The article then goes on to look at this season''s performance of the different teams in relation to how wealthy they are. Norwich City is second bottom in terms of bangs per buck. Or if you prefer, we don''t pay peanuts but we seem to have got monkies. The other main under achievers include (from worst to least worst) Charlton, Derby, Forest, Watford, QPR and the not-so-super blues down the road. It''s fascinating - have a look.

[quote user="PAFC"]norwich - i think your home form vs clubs around you will keep you up [/quote]Blimey - thanks for that. But you obviously haven''t seen us play at home....What about your lot (Plymouth, I presume). Confident you''ll be well out of it?What did you make of us when we played you?

Footballers play better for a manager they like and better when the fans support them.Surely these are two of the most important ''football reasons'' for appointing someone like Gunn?Roeder & Grant on the other hand had coaching qualifications coming out of their bumholes....

As a politically correct, Guardian reading, pinko vegetarian I''d like to say that is the funniest take on Obama''s election I have seen.Brilliant comedy.

I once had a two hour discussion in Delaney''s with Phil Mulryne about the history of the Irish Republic. He is very well informed. It was after a victory at home against Ipswich.

I have some sympathy with people who are angry with the situation in which we find ourselves - I suppose the buck has to stop somewhere. However, I''m not so sure the current administration deserve all of the criticism they''re getting. After all, the main reason we''re losing money on a day to day basis is because we''re paying players more than we can really afford and every so often someone (Delia, MWJ, Turners, Cullum) is the chair to make up the shortfall. So in a funny kind of way the board is being a bit profligate. And I don''t hear anyone saying that the solution is to replace our squad with players who''ll play for less money (the implication being that the new players would be even worse.As for the Cullum situation, I''m sure I''m not the only on who thinks the man is being a bit of a pr1ck teaser. From what I''ve gleaned I don''t trust him and (irrespective of their own personal motivations to hang on) I don''t blame the board for being wary. Yes, if we are to prosper soon we''ll need new cash but I doubt very much it''s going to come from Cullum.Colchester: both Grant and Roeder shipped out a considerable amount of ''dead wood. I don''t think we could afford to do it again and I''m not so sure it''s desirable. If we''re going to survive it''ll have to be as a result of this core of players gelling and achieving some kind of consistency. We can tweak a bit but that''s it.

Hey PatchesI can''t believe no-one''s replied to this. Let''s face it it, the senario you describe of "absolutely no outside investment forthcoming in NCFC" is the most likely outcome for a long while. And a bit like you, I''m neither congenitally pro or anti the current board.In the absence of new cash, I''m afraid, as supporters, that there''s very little we can do to improve the situation. ''Pressurising'' the board won''t magically make new investment appear and the means of doing it (boycotts, booing, calling for Roeder''s dismissal etc) will actually jeapordise our chances of recovery. I wish it wasn''t so - but it is.As far as the supporters go, it''s a case of cross your fingers and keep turning up to games. As for the team/club, I know there is one thing we definitely shouldn''t do and that''s change the manager yet again. In the longer term. management stability gives us the best chance of improving things. And I say that as someone who is deeply sceptical of Roeder - but I do accept he has the makings of a competent manager at this level and we should give him time. Unfortunately, some of that time could be in the First Division.Miserable isn''t it?

I hate to have to do this - because to be frank who cares - but: a) I''ve had a season ticket for over twenty years in the Barclay b) I was heavily involved in both the Chase Out and Worthy Out campaigns. Ok, that''s over and done with. I go and see Norwich City play for a number of different reasons - I like watching football, they''re my local club, it''s a good opportunity to catch up with various mates scattered around the country. For the last three or so seasons I haven''t been going because the football has been entertaining, we''ve been winning football matches or because we''ve been a successful football team. Me and 22,000 others I suspect. Your football team is a bit like your family - you don''t choose it, it chooses you. I got Norwich City - a medium sized football club which once in a while achieves a modicum of success on the pitch. I''m happy with that - if I''d been ''given'' Crewe Alexandra or Notts County I''d feel the same way and, in fact, I feel a lot more kinship with supporters of those teams than I do with those who are continually frustrated with the misfortunes of their ''sleeping giants'' (insert the obvious candidates here.) The Peter Cullum episode disturbs me for a number of reasons - the main one being that in exchange for a short-term influx of cash we may be giving up a sense of community that we won''t get back again. I don''t think there was one ounce of altruism in what Cullum was trying to do when he offered the club millions of pounds to buy players when we were at a low ebb last season - as subsequent events have shown. Why you appear to place such trust in him I have no idea. You''re right he''s a "shrewd businessman" - good for him - but I''d rather my club was run by people who were a little less shrewd in business terms and more in touch with what it means to be a supporter of Norwich City and what the club signifies in our county and beyond. I''ve a few Ipswich Town supporting friends and even in the midst of their good fortune they''re still aware that something they once valued about their club has changed forever and are worried about what will happen if Evans decides to take his toys back - or flog them off to someone else. To that extent, PC is similar to Evans and the current regime is different. No, I''m not a fan of Delia & MWJ as people. In fact I''ve often been perplexed by some of their decisions while they''ve been in charge of the club - take your pick from Hamilton, the slow death of Worthington, Peter Grant, bloody yellow shorts etc, etc. But what I am a fan of is the ethos that in some almost abstract way the club is more than just a collection of business assets and calculations. It''s that ethos which must be protected. We *are* a medium sized club and every so often we get the pot of gold that comes with promotion. For sure, I''d like us to use that windfall to ensure more success but just because we don''t/can''t/won''t doesn''t mean I automatically want to load the dice in our favour. And as for not caring less about the events at clubs in crisis, shame on you. There but for the grace of God etc.

And to Reading and Wolves you could add Coventry, I suppose. All clubs whose new, big investor seemed to have some kind of emotional or community tie with the club they invested in. But at Reading, Madjeski is looking to sell and the Wolves model doesn''t seem to have brought much joy to their fans - mainly because of their unrealistic aspirations. So even if Cullum is more a Madjeski than, say, a Mandaric there''s no guarantee that you''ll be attending matches at a ''community'' club forever. And if Cullum is more of an Evans or a Bates to start with then we''re in trouble. FWIW, I''m getting the general impression that in Cullum we may well be dealing with a Marcus Evans style figure - Waghorn''s pieces make that pretty clear.

Spot on jbg. Let''s hope the penny drops with the conspiracy theorists....

Erm, surely the whole point is that we *should*care where the investment comes from and how it is structured. How about a big wad of cash in the form with a huge rate of interest that can repayment on can be demanded instantly? A bit like the huge Chase overdraft which kicked off this whole saga....

Events at West Ham and Newcastle (and in the more distant past at Ipswich) have convinced me that "a Cullum" isn''t actually what would be in the best interests of the club or its supporters. What we have here is far from ideal but we don''t have managers resigning because they''ve been undermined and our club controlled by shadowy representatives of Marcus Evans/Abu Dhabi investors etc. Yes, of course I''d like the improved chance of success a new inflow of money could bring - but not at any cost. To be honest, if we do get ''a cullum'' or ''a marcus evans'' or whatever I''ll probably start to lose interest in Norwich City, irrespective of how much on-field success they may bring. It won''t be Norwich City any more just another football investment vehicle - and I''ve got no emotional ties to one of those. I suspect i won''t be alone - thousands of people following AFC Wimbledon and FC United have shown that it''s very easy to become so disillusioned with events at your ''old'' club that you eventually start to despise them.

Man In The Stands doesn''t work for Archant. He works in a city many miles from Norwich.