May you not get what you want

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,362]

The Chinese don’t say ‘good luck’. They say ‘may you not get what you want’.

A thought occurred to me, going over the Villa game, the atmosphere, the feelings, the approach, that - for a Norwich fan - perhaps this is our sweet spot.

Not what we ultimately dream of, not the greatest success we’ve ever had or can envision, but - within the realpolitik parameters of football in 2018 - perhaps the most enjoyable part of the ride.

We are playing the kind of coordinated, fast-passing, one and two touch football that is excellent to watch, joyful to play with and demoralising to play against. (Those dee of you complaining when we cannot penetrate where we want to and thus turn out, play back around, perhaps even to the goalkeeper, to try to come out the other side and / pull the opposition out of shape and / or encourage them to make a structural mistake, should think for a moment how it feels to chase those shadows).

We are promoting young academy players that we can truly support, encourage and watch grow before our eyes. That means something.

We can also turn up to any game reasonably expecting the possibility of a win, that may not occur, but which is well within our grasp. The combined understanding, unity and clear methodology also sees the players clearly feel this way.

In the Premier League all lower table clubs do not win between 26-28 games a season.

That’s out of 38.

This means regular losses have to be dealt with psychologically. This affects the confidence to play the kind of football we all saw on Tuesday. It basically is hardly possible. Particularly when most other teams have - and can have more of - much better players than us.

We also - through lack of finances - do not now waste as much time on somewhat simplistic solutions to deeper problems, such as repeatedly dreaming of a new messiah to replace the latest lightning-rod-for-failure Manager.

Top level success is a wonderful thing, it imagine the utter despair of Manchester United fans whose £50m each central defenders are not the £100m each central defenders they really need. Then recoil as you realise that at their level that grotesque assessment is probably near the truth.

We can’t see the kind of football player by us on Tuesday at that level. We can’t see the come-from-behind wins, we can’t sustain the love for the players, for the Manager, the passion to sing On the ball City seconds after the opposition score.

I have written before that the true test of the new model, the new philosophy, the commitment to nurtured, youthful talent, will come with success. Will we be brave enough not to spend, to invest structurally instead, to make better what we are doing that is already good, to really trust in youth, momentum and long-term progressive development across the Club.

This is a great time to be a Norwich fan, perhaps the best of times.

May you not get what you want.

Parma

[Midlands Yellow 4,486]

Another few paragraphs would have been appreciated.

[cornish sam 1,012]

Amen Parma, articulated far better than I could manage... The last few weeks I''ve actually been coming round to the idea of the PL being a closed shop with us outside it. Yes we wouldn''t get to play the superstars very often but it would stop people chasing the poisoned rainbow that is promotion. Everyone''s finances would be better and the football much more enjoyable as we go for wins, not survival...

[Hairy Canary 734]

Oh great. I can just imagine the "enjoyment" of staying in the championship for 16 straight seasons like Ipswich.

[sonyc 5,966]

Some interesting comments PH.

I felt on Tuesday I was being transported back to 1992/93 at times in our play. It reminded me so much of that era and probably (for me) was the best ''moment'' in our style of play I''ve seen in over 50 years of watching. And that includes the Lambert days which were fun in s different way.

And you''re right to remind ourselves to simply enjoy.

May you not post what you wish Parma.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 2,395]

There is a Chinese proverb that says “anyone who writes something starting with a Chinese proverb is talking out of their posterior”.

(The Chinese don’t say “may you not get what you want” to mean good luck, they just say “good luck”).

[lake district canary 4,695]

Can''t disagree with the sentiment, but the truth is that what we need to do is get promotion, regardless of what it is like in the PL.  I agree that success boils down to what is happening right now - the feeling we are playing great football to watch and that we can get results doing that - but ultimately if that continues as it has done, it leads to success in terms of promotion. 

I also agree that the PL is a poisoned chalice and very difficult to sustain your way of doing things, as Huddersfield have found, but Swansea succeeded for several seasons, Burnley are succeeding and Huddersfield are at least still in the league (atm).  Hughton is succeeding too - so it''s not impossible to keep your philosophy and do well. 

If we get promotion, I think we will keep the players and coach and do ok next season because Farke won''t want to change his methods for the PL, however if we just miss out on promotion, we could lose several players to bigger clubs, such is the magnitude of the way some of them are now playing. We could also lose Farke too, which would be a real shame, so the way we are playing may be difficult to replicate next season with the changes that may happen.

Of course I hope that in the event of no promotion we keep most of the players and Farke too - he may feel that he needs to see us through to promotion and stay the following season.  Whatever happens the premise of the op is right - enjoy it now and the future will take care of itself.

Whatever happens this season, we are in good hands and the football on show is as good as I can remember since the 80''s and early 90''s. Sure we had the success of the Lambert and Holt years, largely built on the strength of a few key characters, but that was not purist football - great in it''s own way, but this is different - this feels like the real deal.  We may not get promotion, we may have setbacks - margins are very small and it is a very competitive league - but at the moment it feels very, very good.

[Van wink 2,994]

The chase is often more rewarding and than the prize.....said confusus.

[dylanisabaddog 5,629]

[quote user="Van wink"]The chase is often more rewarding and than the prize.....said confusus.[/quote]

Sums up my marriage perfectly

[4th floor 4]

I was saying back in March that the football was the best I''d seen in over 20 years. It weren''t the finished article by any means, but I could see back then exactly where we were headed, and I''m not at all surprised how things have developed since.

So it''s interesting that some on here are now saying the football is better than under Lambert. However, just a couple of weeks ago someone else strongly disagreed with me on this point, even going as far as saying bits of it were amongst the worse he''d seen.

I sometimes wonder if having slagged off the quality of Farke''s football, that some people are now going to be setting the bar ridiculously high in terms of things like number of goals scored and league position. If we don''t get promoted then Lambert will still stand as better than Farke, and the Farke sceptics will therfore have been justified in their caution.

[4th floor 4]

[quote user="Bethnal Yellow and Green"]There is a Chinese proverb that says “anyone who writes something starting with a Chinese proverb is talking out of their posterior”.

(The Chinese don’t say “may you not get what you want” to mean good luck, they just say “good luck”).[/quote]I''m sure I''ve had "may you get what you want" from a takeaway in Yarmouth a few years ago. Possibly a bad translation explain things?

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,362]

“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” ~Dalai Lama

The essence is the rejection of an acquisitive mindset that is unlikely to lead to happiness. It shows a fundamental understanding of human psychology in identifying that the struggle, the energy and drive inherent in the journey towards, is often truest moment of joy and conversely that the attainment of something often merely leads to wanting more or a better version of the same.

The man with a bike wants a car, the man with a car wants a yacht, the man with a yacht wants a plane.

Finding a sweet spot is also ephemeral, open to criticism of unambitiousness and likely different for all. The observation after the Villa game is not intended as definitive or prescriptive, but the Manchester United unhappiness analogy is instructive. That is their reality, though objectively and in context to the vast majority of football fans, they sit at an unattainable pinnacle.

We have a moment of real contentment. They are rare as a football fan.

Parma

[Big O 269]

Parma,

I have to say that whilst I have always been for patience when it comes to Norwich and particularly Mr Farke, I have to admit after watching the Preston game I thought we were in trouble. We just seemed to lack any plan or confidence in our play.

I am so pleased that I was wrong, because as you say the club is in a good spot at this moment in time. We have to urge a little bit of caution in that this run could splutter to a halt but there looks to be a steel that wasn’t there previously and players competing for spaces.

If I had one concern, it is that we don’t have enough players who score goals, we need Stipermann, buendia, Cantwell to add a few but I’m really looking forward to McClean playing too.

[wcorkcanary 4,561]

I have to say that im really happy with the way the Club has ''changed tack'' the last couple of seasons, we were never going to compete in the Money game, we can only really do it the way we are doing it.It just needed the right people running the Football side of things well, within the limits set by the money men at the Club.

We are playing good footy and as someone said earlier , a win is likely, lately, maybe it was Lakey.

When we equalised against Villa i said to a friend via text '' we''re gonna win this now''....I.Love. That Feeling.

[westcoastcanary 173]

Among the many honeyed aspects, sweetest for me is having Moritz Leitner playing for us. I had to pinch myself when he arrived on loan, and again when he signed permanently. Special player and a crucial contributor to the development of our team.