Would relegation be so bad?

[Clever Farke 64]

Probably not as bad for us as for Newcastle and Sunlun, we are used to it.

Seems we have found our niche in life. Every time I think we are about to move up to the next level as a club, expand the stadium and so forth we manage to screw it up.

[Katie Borkins 1]

[quote user="Making Plans"]Time they realized that being a football supporter is about seeing your team doing the very best it can, to it''s best ability at the highest level possible & not glory hunting more trophies in inferior leagues against inferior opposition.[/quote]

Well, I''m sorry.

I think we are watching our team do the best it can at its best ability at the highest level possible.

If our team isn''t good enough and gets relegated, I will not turn my back on it.  It sounds as if you might.

See you next time we get promoted?

[Making Plans 936]

[quote user="julian hudson"]FAIR WEATHER FAN ALERT!!![/quote][quote user="Katie Borkins"]

If our team isn''t good enough and gets relegated, I will not turn my back on it.  It sounds as if you might.

See you next time we get promoted?

[/quote]I actually started supporting NCFC 1957 (Third Division South) and I''ve experience all the ups & downs over the last 59 years so don''t try & lecture me about not being "being a fair weather fan" or "turning my back on it"

[CanaryOne 0]

[quote user="Hughtonanny"]Probably not as bad for us as for Newcastle and Sunlun, we are used to it.

Seems we have found our niche in life. Every time I think we are about to move up to the next level as a club, expand the stadium and so forth we manage to screw it up.[/quote]Yes all our own doing and the shame is so many very ordinary sides surviving to get the big money , while yet again under these owners we return to the Championship in double quick time . Just shows what a superb manager Lambert was , it takes something special to keep Norwich up in the top flight and Hughton ,Adams and now Neil dont come even close .

[Herman 9,732]

Hughton got us to our highest position in years.

[king canary 7,580]

I had a bit of a realisation during the Hughton years that as long as I''m enjoying going and the football is decent to watch I don''t mind too much which level we are at. Some of the most fun seasons I''ve had following Norwich have come at the lower levels while the most boring have been in the Premier League.

I know that being in the top division is better for the club financially but as long as the club is not in any great financial difficultly I can deal with it. I get just as much enjoyment out of going to watch us at a random ground like Griffin Park than out of going to Old Trafford or Anfield.

The only thing I don''t want for this club is what them down the road have had- stagnation. The idea of spending 15 years doing nothing in one division sounds like hell. So yeah bring on relegation if it comes, bring on another run for the title or the playoffs. It''ll be fun.

[SwindonCanary 455]

Let''s face it, the Championship is for the fans, the Premiership is for the board.

[Keith Scott 243]

I really don''t understand why so many of you bothered to get so excited and emotionally invested last season. The whole point was at the end of it to become a premier league team and stay a premier league team. Now it looks like we''ve screwed it up once again all of a sudden nobody cares about being a premier league team. So what''s the point? What are we playing for? If that''s the attitude of our fans the club may aswell as fold and call it a day. No ambition. No expectation. Norwich City FC.

[king canary 7,580]

I think your missing the point Keith in your desperate need to be melodramatic. Do I want us to playing in the Prem? Yeah sure. If we don''t though it won''t be the end of the world, I''ll still go, still support and still want the team to do as well as possible.

However I''ve never felt more miserable as a Norwich fan than in that second season (and part of the first one) under Hughton. Going to Carrow Road felt like a chore and I contemplated giving up my season ticket. So as long as it isn''t that I''m ok.

Is that a lack of ambition? Maybe. But as I don''t run the club or manage the team I don''t think it really matters.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

It''s a setback, yes. It''s becoming more frustrating in that we have teetered on the edge of becoming a stable premiership side for a few seasons now only to screw it up.

The problem is, most here are massively underestimating the Championship. Yes we''ll have a strong side but we were lucky to go up last time round and there''s no guarantees we''ll be good enough to bounce straight back.

It''s likely Newcastle will go down with us, meaning that''s one place taken as they will be too strong for the league. Villa will be better next season and the likes of Sheffield Weds, Hull, Derby and maybe Boro if they don''t go up will have terriffic squads and plenty of money floating around. While we should get into the top 6, i''d say it''s more likely than not we wouldn''t bounce straight back and it will become harder and harder with each year we spend down there.

[Jools 584]

Tettey''s Jig ~ [quote]It''s a setback, yes. It''s becoming more frustrating in that we have teetered on the edge of becoming a stable premiership side for a few seasons now only to screw it up.

The problem is, most here are massively underestimating the Championship. Yes we''ll have a strong side but we were lucky to go up last time round and there''s no guarantees we''ll be good enough to bounce straight back.

It''s likely Newcastle will go down with us, meaning that''s one place taken as they will be too strong for the league. Villa will be better next season and the likes of Sheffield Weds, Hull, Derby and maybe Boro if they don''t go up will have terriffic squads and plenty of money floating around. While we should get into the top 6, i''d say it''s more likely than not we wouldn''t bounce straight back and it will become harder and harder with each year we spend down there.[/quote]Nay. Going down to the 3rd Division was a rare & major hiccup, but 1st Division relegation''s and 2nd Division promotions are in our DNA.

[sgncfc 1,223]

[quote user="westcoastcanary"]City 2nd wrote: "What''s not to like?

Ask the back room staff who are likely to lose their jobs just as

they did last time round (numbering several) because of the drop in

income!!"The effect on individual staff members is one thing, the broader implications for the club''s infrastructure are another. A lot has been made of the failure to recruit well in the summer, and questions have been raised about our scouting network; then there are the outdated facilities at Colney which we are told have already impacted on player recruitment. If our strategy in the event of relegation is the same as last time, i.e. we aim to retain our best players to give us the best chance of coming straight back up, then big savings have to made elsewhere and any progress made this year in improving the football infrastructure will at best be halted or, more likely, reversed. It''s in these areas that the real damage is sustained when dropping down to the Championship.

[/quote]

When did the facilities at Colney become so "outdated" that players have refused to move here? Must have missed that one.

It seems to me that promotion and the extra money just goes to players, whereas when we get relegated all the backroom staff get sacked.

Retaining our best players - none of us actually knows what that means. Do they not earn less for a season? Or perhaps not quite as much less as they should do?

Like most people on here I suspect we would all go every fortnight whatever division we are in. Relegation to League One was supposed to be a disaster but that was one of the best seasons I can remember (after a particularly bad start).

Last year at Wembley was one of the best days and we wouldn''t have had it without Mr Hughton''s ineptitude the previous year.

So I''m an "every cloud...." kind of person. I don''t really care what league we''re in, it just brings different highs and different lows.

I don''t think the PL is very much better than the Champs anymore - the standard of player in the top half of the Champs is pretty similar to the bottom of the PL now. The top 4 in the PL are not streets ahead of everyone else like they were 10 years ago; the bottom 4 or 5 are not far off mid-table. Both divisions are now pretty competitive.

The difference in the Champs is that it is relentless, but most of our players know that and will adjust easily.

It would be very different for the North East teams who haven''t been down there for a while and it will be for Villa too. It will help us that they are there, because last time everyone tried to beat us as the big scalp whereas this time it will be them.

I think with the right rebuilding in the summer we''d have a decent chance of the top two, but I''d happily take another Wembley win.

[Ivan Easter 0]

What we have to do if relegated (and at the moment i am not optimistic about staying up) is get better scouts and the board will have to spend money on better players. We need a good strike force and enhance the defence. As for the Manager well he has now experienced how hard it it is the Premiership so should have learned something from this. I still think we should stay with him ?

[93vintage 16]

If we get relegated then I''ll reserve judgement until the next window closes. The corresponding one under Adams was a disaster, but this time we need to really address the issues instead of going for more sticking plasters and bandages.We need to aim at cutting our cloth according to our means and trying to improve the football. Throwing money about and blindly aiming for promotion haven''t got us very far towards our goal of becoming an established Premier League side.

[SwindonCanary 455]

After relegation we should buy some of these players :- 

PFA TEAMS OF THE YEAR 

Championship team of the year:

Tom Heaton (Burnley); Bruno (Brighton), Daniel Ayala/Michael Dawson

(Middlesbrough/Hull), Will Keane (Burnley), George Friend

(Middlesbrough); Adam Clayton (Middlesbrough), Alan Judge (Brentford),

Joey Barton (Burnley), Barry Bannan (Sheff Wed)l Andre Gray (Burnley),

Ross McCormack (Fulham).

League One team of the year:

Jon McLaughlin (Bradford); Reece Wabara (Wigan), John Egan

(Gillingham), Craig Morgan (Wigan), Rico Henry (Walsall); Yanic

Wildschut (Wigan), Bradley Dack (Gillingham), Romaine Sawyers (Walsall),

Mark Duffy (Burton); Will Grigg (Wigan), Adam Armstrong (Coventry).

League Two team of the year:

Adam Smith (Northampton); George Baldock (Oxford), Curtis Nelson

(Plymouth), Aaron Pierre (Wycombe), Joe Jacobson (Wycombe); Ricky Holmes

(Northampton), John-Joe O''Toole (Northampton), Matt Crooks

(Accrington), Kemar Roofe (Oxford); Jay Simpson (Leyton Orient), Matty

Taylor (Bristol Rovers).

[ZLF 271]

relegation so bad? The club will continue and will always have my support.

However I want us to be in the top flight competing against the best sides and seeing the best players in Britain.

Whichever league we are in I want us to do well; it seems to me that not enough players have enough the same hunger. We need to rotate the staff and recruit those with that desire.

If we do get relegated its key that we try to repeat our immediate bounce back; succeeding post 1st season is increasingly difficult and our second one will leave us at a huge disadvantage to those just down as their parachute payments will dwarf our income. As with 94/95 as relegation could, potentially, not be worse timed financially. However it will not be a disaster

Hopefully the team can summon up the required hunger to maximise our return from the remaining 12 potentially season changing points

[westcoastcanary 0]

sgncfc wrote: "When did the facilities at Colney become so "outdated" that players have refused to move here? Must have missed that one."

Quotes from David McNally''s podcast interview on The Little Yellow Bird:

David McNally on… COLNEY BEING AN ISSUE FOR PLAYER RECRUITMENT“We

need to develop Colney to being the best possible training facility of

its kind. Best in class, world-leading, a place where elite athletes

look at and think, ‘wow’… So when we are bringing in a potential new

player to the squad and they’re looking around the facilities – and bear

in mind they come to this fantastic old ground once every fortnight

when they’re here, but they actually live and work at Colney.

So

all their week is spent at Colney, so Colney is really important. So

Colney needs to do two things for me when we fully develop it. When a

prospective new recruit, or indeed an existing player walks in, or goes

through the driveway, they say, ‘wow’. They say, wow, this is a

fantastic football facility. And then when they go into the buildings

and into the dressing rooms and they go into all of the other

facilities, there’s everything that we need here for a Premier League,

world-class footballer.”

David McNally on … WHEN THE COLNEY UPGRADE STARTS“We

start this summer and we’ve got a full-sized 3G floodlit state-of-the

art new artificial pitch going in to complement the beautiful Desso

replica [of the Carrow Road pitch]… so we’re going to do another one of

those so there will be two plus the artificial pitch.

We’re going

to relay the dome, so that’ll be a quite significant amount of

expenditure. We’re then going to have to develop the Academy pitches

because they are clearly not at the Premier League standard yet. And

then the infrastructure behind the buildings – hydration pools,

gymnasiums, sport science labs, medical labs, the physic rooms,

relaxation rooms.”

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]relegation so bad? The club will continue and will always have my support. However I want us to be in the top flight competing against the best sides and seeing the best players in Britain. Whichever league we are in I want us to do well; it seems to me that not enough players have enough the same hunger. We need to rotate the staff and recruit those with that desire. If we do get relegated its key that we try to repeat our immediate bounce back; succeeding post 1st season is increasingly difficult and our second one will leave us at a huge disadvantage to those just down as their parachute payments will dwarf our income. As with 94/95 as relegation could, potentially, not be worse timed financially. However it will not be a disaster Hopefully the team can summon up the required hunger to maximise our return from the remaining 12 potentially season changing points[/quote]

 

With you 100%.  Just look at teams that have gone down and got stuck in the doldrums of the Champs/League 1 like Leeds for example, or us after ''95.  I remember it vividly.  For all that our players are towards the bottom end of the Prem in terms of ability, they are still generally better than any squad we''ve had for a long time.

[birchfest 397]

I don''t want us to go down, I really really think the gains and benefits of managing to pull off an escape would be huge to a club in our size and I honestly believe Neil will have learnt a huge amount about his squad and himself this season and would do much better at a second go.

However, if it was to happen, one thing I feel that is different to last time we went down is that largely the club and fans have stuck together, there''s no poisonous atmosphere or players refusing to play or a stand in manager with a question mark against them. What''s more we have kept the majority of our squad and would think that like last time on a couple for the right price would leave. I think Klose (if he gave us a season) would be the best defender in the league by some way and we know that in Jerome we have a 10 goal + striker who we can add to with other signings. I''d also fancy players like Jarvis, Howson, Tetty, Oneil to really look a class above,

[Buh 0]

Won''t somebody please think of the streams!

[Katie Borkins 1]

[quote user="Making Plans"][quote user="julian hudson"]FAIR WEATHER FAN ALERT!!![/quote][quote user="Katie Borkins"]

If our team isn''t good enough and gets relegated, I will not turn my back on it.  It sounds as if you might.

See you next time we get promoted?

[/quote]I actually started supporting NCFC 1957 (Third Division South) and I''ve experience all the ups & downs over the last 59 years so don''t try & lecture me about not being "being a fair weather fan" or "turning my back on it" [/quote]

All that said, and with your 59 years of support (one day I will do a league table of "Years Supported" as it seems to be the equivalent of pen1s size for some on this board) then you should really know better than to suggest people want to see Norwich relegated.  It would not be ideal but all I am saying is the world won''t end.  It has nothing to do with "an easy life" or "glory hunting".

[quote user="Making Plans"]Can''t believe some of the posts in this thread but it seems that are at last getting to the crux of the situation with many "supporters" who just want an easy life.These so called fans are obviously not at all concerned, or excited, about seeing our Club perform in the best league in the World, couldn''t care less about seeing our team up against some of the best players in the World and are not all that bothered with the challenges that all that brings.They would much rather that NCFC operates in a league that fits more comfortably with their particular life style - more games, more wins, 3pm Saturday kick offs, more home games and playing inferior teams like the Scum.Time they realized that being a football supporter is about seeing your team doing the very best it can, to it''s best ability at the highest level possible & not glory hunting more trophies in inferior leagues against inferior opposition.If that''s what it''s all about why don''t we go straight down to League 2 and be done with it.[/quote]

[Horse Renoir 1]

If we keep Neil, give the squad a good freshen up by replacing a lot of our PL-nearly men with younger, hard working players from smaller clubs and manage to find a 25 goal a season striker (McCormack/Assombalonga) we could have a lot of fun next year.

Staying up and doing the same thing (-the proven prolific striker) would be all the more sweeter. No matter what happens I just want this season to be over and want to see the squad overhauled. I''m tired of this set of players and their limitations now to be honest.

We''re just so one paced, full of errors and predictable, full of older players who by now must know that the PL isn''t their level. We need players who are desperate to get to the PL and haven''t failed there before, younger hungrier players who''ll bloody listen to the manager and work hard every game, not just the important ones!

If we back Neil and have a decent window for once next year should be a good season regardless of what league we''re in

[norfolkbroadslim 223]

[quote user="Making Plans"]Can''t believe some of the posts in this thread but it seems that are at last getting to the crux of the situation with many "supporters" who just want an easy life.These so called fans are obviously not at all concerned, or excited, about seeing our Club perform in the best league in the World, couldn''t care less about seeing our team up against some of the best players in the World and are not all that bothered with the challenges that all that brings.They would much rather that NCFC operates in a league that fits more comfortably with their particular life style - more games, more wins, 3pm Saturday kick offs, more home games and playing inferior teams like the Scum.Time they realized that being a football supporter is about seeing your team doing the very best it can, to it''s best ability at the highest level possible & not glory hunting more trophies in inferior leagues against inferior opposition.If that''s what it''s all about why don''t we go straight down to League 2 and be done with it.[/quote]Nail hit firmly on the head!  [Y]

[norfolkbroadslim 223]

If the Championship is so good, what''s the point in getting promoted?  [:^)]

[BroadstairsR 2,139]

Although I''m no longer a "superfan" I still have that elated feeling for a considerable while after a we win and that depressed feeling following a defeat.

To me relegation would be a bit of a disaster, for so many reasons.

I will particularly miss the streams a lot.

The only scenario whereby relegation would not be that would be if we were to romp it straight back up, including getting the usual six points from the paupers down the road.

That would amount to a very decent compensatory package.

[Andy G 10]

I think Relegation would be terrible for Norwich, don''t get me wrong I really did enjoy last season and i find the football to be far better.

However I''d like for us to become a settled PL team, I think its not too unachievable especially with the money floating about in the PL these days.

My Biggest concern is how good the Championship has become, there are some great teams in the league now, ones who are spending money and buying pretty solid teams. I would be concerned that we''d go down with the expectation of being the best in the league and find it not to be the case.

If we can we MUST stay in the PL, the money is getting ridiculous and is driving a huge wedge of class between the PL and Championship, i''d rather be on the Gravy Train than battling to get there.

4 Matches left, total of 12 possible points.... it is in our hands, we just need to fight for it!

[Van wink 2,994]

MP

"Time they realized that being a football supporter is about seeing your team doing the very best it can, to it''s best ability at the highest level possible & not glory hunting more trophies in inferior leagues against inferior opposition.

If that''s what it''s all about why don''t we go straight down to League 2 and be done with it."

The OP was about if we went down but then came straight back up in the first or second season. My remarks were in response to that scenario not one where we drop further down the Leagues.

👍

[Guest]

Getting relegated wouldn''t be a disaster providing we recruit well this summer and succeed in getting promoted straight away. Anything else and there will be trouble ahead.

Our better players will slowly leave - some will certainly go this summer - and as we become less wealthy and less competitive we will struggle to attract decent signings. We''ve seen it all before, sadly.

Our previous season in the Championship is ultimately remembered fondly because of the final result at Wembley. There was plenty of doom & gloom during the season when we lost to Middleborough and when Neil Adams began to struggle mid-season.

So, get things right this summer recruitment-wise and we can look forward to next season with some positivity.

[Essjayess 307]

For the fans, no, most enjoy the Champs. For the board, well they take a hit financially, but we are lucky to have DM, who is about the best any club could have when you consider how almost impossible it is to structure for any mid to long term plan when a club like City yo yo so much. Really hope the Colney improvements go ahead despite a drop in finance.On the pitch, well, who knows. This close season may well be dramatically different to the last one, when we kept most the players. So many factors making up an unknown picture ahead, totally impossible to predict how our team will look like by August.Biggest question of all..what about Alex Neil?..he will have his first failing since becoming a manager, how will he handle it?  Will he finally find a style of play that works? The Prem. was pretty brutal on him, showed his inexperience in totally clear light, so he has much to ponder on.

[Buh 0]

If we go down the highlights are on channel 5 at 9pm so we won''t have to wait up so long! Hooray for early nights!