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The board are on thin ice

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5 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

Such a weak argument. Of course fans on messageboards can;t give you names but there will have been interest and there would be an awful lot more interest if they came out and said they are open to considering offers ratther than "we will never sell, we don;t even listen to enquiries." Virtually every other club in the country has changed hands during the period of their ownership. Its inconceivable that there would be no interest in us if we were genuinely made available. 

So no, you cant give me names. I mean, we could go round in this circle all day long, I can't prove your wrong, but I can say your working off a hunch and hypotheticals. Do you not think if someone was serious they wouldn't go public knowing there would be pressure externally for them to sell. What about the other share holders, why have none of these interested parties started buying up their shares to show they are serious if Delia won't budge? Probably because it hasn't happened. I don't doubt interest, probably to buy us on the cheap to be a play thing for someone, or in the hope they could make a quick return on us being promoted, but I doubt anyone who could actually move this club forward in the way we all want to see. 

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2 minutes ago, Badger said:

Ollie McBurnie - £17.5 million - 6 goals in 36 appearances - 353 minutes per goal as a striker

Callum Robertson - £7 to 10 million depending on who you believe - struggled for game time before being loaned out. At not really bought as a player for the future.

Luke Freeman - £5 million - 3 starts all season

Ben Osborn - £4 million - 6 starts all season

Sheffield Utd stayed up, we didn't - but the evidence that the cause was their better transfer spending is exceptionally thin.

Plus, Sheff Utd had the advantage over us financially because they in the last few years they have been financially very stable after great difficulties before this. They benefited from previous financial discipline.

Erm, Sander Berge, £20 odd million. Regular since he signed.

Lys Mousset, £10 million. Also a regular.

The evidence isn't as thin as you'd like it to be, I suspect.

And financial discipline? That's a funny interpretation of having a minted Saudi Royal owner.

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Just now, birchfest said:

So no, you cant give me names. I mean, we could go round in this circle all day long, I can't prove your wrong, but I can say your working off a hunch and hypotheticals. Do you not think if someone was serious they wouldn't go public knowing there would be pressure externally for them to sell. What about the other share holders, why have none of these interested parties started buying up their shares to show they are serious if Delia won't budge? Probably because it hasn't happened. I don't doubt interest, probably to buy us on the cheap to be a play thing for someone, or in the hope they could make a quick return on us being promoted, but I doubt anyone who could actually move this club forward in the way we all want to see. 

I've heard this argument quite a few times. I think there is a difference between someone who is serious about buying a football club and someone who is serious about buying Norwich City FC.

If you want to buy a football club, look at Norwich but see owners who aren't keen on selling then you're not going to go through all the effort of buying up small shareholdings and trying to force them out if there is another club you could buy without the same hassle. 

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15 minutes ago, lake district canary said:

I didn't persist with anything I said the season was "hideously distorted" - that means that it affected everyone.  I know we were poor, it isn't rocket science, but to pretend covid did not affect the season for everyone is just denial of the obvious.

Exactly.  It affected every club, so clearly can’t be used as an excuse for the woeful performances our lot produced week after week.

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12 minutes ago, king canary said:

McBurnie's goals are directly responsible for 7 points for Sheffield United this season.

6 goals also make him joint top scorer for the season along with another new signing, Lys Mousett who you chose not to list.

Yes, "McBurnie's goals are directly responsible for 7 points for Sheffield United this season" - this was 13% of their total points

Pukki's goals were directly responsible for 11 points for us - this was 52% of our total. McBurnie cost 17.5 million, Pukki was "a free." 

Happy to mention Lys Mousett - £10 million for a central striker who scored 6 goals from 30 games.

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1 minute ago, Badger said:

Yes, "McBurnie's goals are directly responsible for 7 points for Sheffield United this season" - this was 13% of their total points

Pukki's goals were directly responsible for 11 points for us - this was 52% of our total. McBurnie cost 17.5 million, Pukki was "a free." 

Happy to mention Lys Mousett - £10 million for a central striker who scored 6 goals from 30 games.

Is there a point buried in there somewhere?

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5 minutes ago, canarydan23 said:

Is there a point buried in there somewhere?

Spending money is bad or something.

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Just now, king canary said:

Spending money is bad or something.

It's certainly easier when you've got a multi-millionaire Saudi Prince bankrolling you.

I'm staggered that there are people who think that Sheff Utd spending £60 million, ignoring their loan fees as well (Dean Henderson would certainly have come with a seven-figure loan fee), had little impact on the season that they have had.

And also that there are Norwich fans who think that because Sheff Utd, with their aforementioned wealthy backer, spent so substantially (and it was substantially, I think it became overshadowed by Aston Villa's splurge) then its a damning indictment on us being so unambitious in the transfer market. The argument that because they did it then we should just doesn't hold water I'm afraid.

We may have done a Sheff Utd, but we may also have done an Aston Villa. And you know for a fact that we would not have had the luck with technology that kept them up. 

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10 minutes ago, Badger said:

Yes, "McBurnie's goals are directly responsible for 7 points for Sheffield United this season" - this was 13% of their total points

Pukki's goals were directly responsible for 11 points for us - this was 52% of our total. McBurnie cost 17.5 million, Pukki was "a free." 

Happy to mention Lys Mousett - £10 million for a central striker who scored 6 goals from 30 games.

As far as I can tell life exists entirely in spreadsheets for you. 

McBurnie may have only scored 6 goals but that doesn't mean it is all he did.

Similarly with Mousett.

The fact of the matter is Sheffield United added to their squad and stayed up. We can't measure how much of an impact those signings had on pushing the current players to be better to keep their places or how much Mousett and his pace created space for other players to play in or how much McBurnie unsettled defences. 

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1 hour ago, komakino said:

Norwich City will never be successful for as long as we have owners that do not invest or attract investment. 

That has and still is the case. 

Therefore can anyone tell me what purpose Smith & Jones serve the club and how their tenure is helping? 

They do not have to have a purpose they are simply fans who own a football club and share in it’s successes and failures.

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It always strikes me when I read threads like this just how abjectly dim a proportion of our supporter base is.  

Yes this season has been a footballing catastrofcuk, and I cannot abide relegation - especially when we pass Leeds going the other way.  

But.

* You don’t get a big wad of cash upon promotion.  It is paid in instalments. See also parachute payments

* No-one wants to “invest” in Norwich City. If the majority shareholders were rejecting takeover offers left, right and centre do you not think that maybe, just maybe, the press might get wind of this.  There may also be a duty to inform shareholders of offers, someone who knows more about company rules could answer that.

* “The board” could have mortgaged the club’s future for a better shot at staying up.  The last time this was tried NCFC ended up back in the Championship and close to administration.  Only selling James Maddison prevented this from happening. 

* Delia/the board/the tea lady aren’t “trousering the money.”  The accounts are published and are there for all to see.  Just look on the Companies House website.  If you repeat claims that the owners are pocketing money then I submit that you are mostly bone from the neck up.

* The general consensus at the start of the season, and certainly after we beat Man City, was that a good approach had been taken re transfers and spending.  There’s a hell of a lot of revisionism going on here.

* Setting a target of being a top-26 club doesn’t mean no ambition.  It’s realistic.  Would you rather Delia came out and said “we have the ambition to win the Premier League in five years?”  Of course not as it would, rightly, be derided as bunkum.  Being a top-26 club does not preclude further ambition.  Having this target does not exclude having an improved target once this one has been reached.  

Norwich City is a mid-sized, provincial football club with a very strong local supporter base but little international support and marketing potential.  Norwich itself is small provincial city with little in the way of opportunity for large international investors. There are no major infrastructure projects and poor connectivity to places with secondary interests potential new owners would look for.  The club is also, now, financially stable, meaning investors can’t buy it on the cheap and turn a quick profit.

The reality of the club’s position is that it must live within its means or stand the very real risk of going out of business.  Would you really prefer a couple of mid-table Premier League finishes followed by relegation and then administration, over attempting to build something sustainably? 

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46 minutes ago, canarydan23 said:

Is there a point buried in there somewhere?

Yes - I was replying to a previous post.

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1 minute ago, Badger said:

Yes - I was replying to a previous post.

But your point seemed to be that Sheff Utd staying up had little to do with their transfer policy. That was the point that I and KC were contesting. And your post offered nothing that supported your initial claim in my eyes.

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2 hours ago, Wings of a Sparrow said:

The whole nation isn’t laughing at us, the only people who think we are an embarrassment are some of our fickle fans.

It’s more pity, I live in the midlands and get opinions from fans of many different clubs. 

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Isn’t it wonderful that no matter how many promotions we have and all the parachute payments we get on our inevitable relegations we are told we haven’t the money to invest in any significant way in the squad.

Thank goodness for the dumplings. 👏👏

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53 minutes ago, Badger said:

Yes, "McBurnie's goals are directly responsible for 7 points for Sheffield United this season" - this was 13% of their total points

Pukki's goals were directly responsible for 11 points for us - this was 52% of our total. McBurnie cost 17.5 million, Pukki was "a free." 

Happy to mention Lys Mousett - £10 million for a central striker who scored 6 goals from 30 games.

Assists/tackles/aerial duals won/successful dribbles... etc etc.  Don’t just stop there, if you are going to compare players, all stats should be included.

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1 hour ago, king canary said:

Was she? 

Genuine question, not a dig, just don't remember it.

Yeah, she was definitely on Jim Whites show, acting as if we'd just won the Champions League whilst he did some top level butt licking. There was a couple of other interviews too. Now I get they can only be interviewed when asked as such, but I don't think the same media types wouldn't be interested in hearing from them now. Chris Goreham said the same about only hearing from them on the good times 

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I love how some people think we aren't successful?

What is success?

Obviously to some it is challenging Liverpool and ManC. I put that in for a giggle.

So despite spending over half our campaigns since 1970 in the top division, we aren't successful?

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22 minutes ago, Dr Greenthumb said:

It’s more pity, I live in the midlands and get opinions from fans of many different clubs. 

It’s not very complimentary is it. Same here, do the majority just laugh like mine?

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1 hour ago, Felixfan said:

They do not have to have a purpose they are simply fans who own a football club and share in it’s successes and failures.

Exactly, they are fans. Not investors. 

The club needs investment to be successful and they are not willing to do it. I could not give a damn whether they are fans as ultimately that means nothing. 

They should take over Stowmarket Town out something, not use Norwich City as a hobby horse. They should sell their shares to somebody who is serious about making the club successful instead of treating the club like an old family heirloom. 

To think fans complained when we were not in the top ten under Chase. Now we have fans who are happy to be relegated. How sad things have become. 

Edited by komakino

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5 minutes ago, Highland Canary said:

I think the ambition of the majority of our supporters is entirely aligned with the club’s board.

I agree. That means no ambition. 

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Just now, komakino said:

I agree. That means no ambition. 

I don’t think many would want it any other way. Keep the status quo and be grateful forever to have such caring owners seems to be the general consensus. 

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6 minutes ago, Midlands Yellow said:

It’s not very complimentary is it. Same here, do the majority just laugh like mine?

There’s been a lot of laughing and shock Delia and michael are still running the club. But pity has etched in as the season has gone on and the results don’t seem to be a surprise to people. I’ve been bugging up the squad rebuild for next season, I hope they don’t let me down now!

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4 hours ago, Canary Wundaboy said:

Or we could have stayed in the Premier League and been financially much better off. The fact that we didn’t even attempt to do so, or make any suggestions that we even wanted to, is what grates.

i have to say I can’t remember such a bombardment of negative media and punditry for any of our other relegations, we seem to have offended a large section of the footballing circus by accepting relegation as an almost-certainly and not spending any money. For all the club crowing about being a self-funded operation, we can now see (despite all the previously glowing press) how much that is valued ahead of performance, competitiveness and fight.

Yep and that is just unfortunate. 

I would rather stick (to the plan) than gamble the security of our club.

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Maybe we could have spent a little bit more but if we did I doubt it would have been any more than £10m. With us already in debt, the board didn’t want to spend much and risk putting us in huge debts

What would the fans who are criticising the board for not spending much say if we’d spent somewhere in the region of £100m and still got relegated? There’s no guarantee that new signings will turn out as good as they have been for other clubs - look at Naismith: PL experience, signed from a decent club, turned out to be a total failure for us. Look at Sanchez: regular goal scorer for Arsenal, goes to Man Utd, can’t even make the bench

At least now our debts have been sorted out, and so if we do manage to bounce straight back up next season we will be able to spend a bit more on strengthening our squad 

Edited by HazzaJet

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4 minutes ago, Midlands Yellow said:

I don’t think many would want it any other way. Keep the status quo and be grateful forever to have such caring owners seems to be the general consensus. 

I wish there would be something to be grateful for. 

If they really cared about NCFC, they would have sold their shares eons ago, realising that they could not take the club forward. 

I never wanted them here in the first place as I questioned Delia's true motives. Using the club as a vehicle as a fading celebrity to keep herself in the public eye, rather than attracting the significant investment it needed and still needs. 

The embarrassing 'Let's be 'having you' moment - imagine Chase trying to pull that stunt - and the xenophobic article from The Times made me realise that they are quite possibly the worst possible owners the club could have. 

They may be 'nice' people, but what does that mean? 

There needs to be wholesale changes and that will not happen until they have sold-up, as mediocrity and failure are ingrained in so many fans, they don't know what success really is. 

Money doesn't necessarily mean success, but no money means no success. 

This season has been a shambles from top to bottom and should we ever grace the league again, we should treat it with respect and  not the contempt that has been highlighted across the national media. 

I mean, what is the point of Norwich City? - with failure in situ, it does make you wonder. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Jonncfc said:

Exactly.  It affected every club, so clearly can’t be used as an excuse for the woeful performances our lot produced week after week.

Didn't Farke start saying we needed a 'little miracle' in February before the Lockdown?

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1 hour ago, Badger said:

Ollie McBurnie - £17.5 million - 6 goals in 36 appearances - 353 minutes per goal as a striker

Callum Robertson - £7 to 10 million depending on who you believe - struggled for game time before being loaned out. At not really bought as a player for the future.

Luke Freeman - £5 million - 3 starts all season

Ben Osborn - £4 million - 6 starts all season

Sheffield Utd stayed up, we didn't - but the evidence that the cause was their better transfer spending is exceptionally thin.

Plus, Sheff Utd had the advantage over us financially because they in the last few years they have been financially very stable after great difficulties before this. They benefited from previous financial discipline.

I agree with this totally. The Blades had a different philosophy of playing, keep it tight and very hard to beat and were very physical, the spine of their promoted team performed very well, their tactics and philosophy were much better at surviving in the Pl and they did so by a country mile. When they got promoted they had one of the best defenses in the championship we had a bottom 3rd one. Our charge of the light brigade tactics in the championship was wonderful to watch but we were never going to score the goals to make up for such a poor defensive record in the PL and when we were physically out muscled in defense and midfield and the people who scored our goals in the championship failed to do so it was curtains. In the main the Sheffield Utd side that got them promoted kept them up, you need to play differently to stay up than we did . I think with our style of play we could have spent £100m on new players and still gone down, you cannot let in 2 or 3 goals so often and have much of a chance and thats with a fantastic keeper as well. I like much about what Webber and Farke have done at the club and they are probably the best placed to get us promoted again, but if we go up again and play in the same manner and have so many physically lightweight players is suspect we will have the same result

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8 minutes ago, HazzaJet said:

Maybe we could have spent a little bit more but if we did I doubt it would have been any more than £10m. With us already in debt, the board didn’t want to spend much and risk putting us in huge debts

On the BBC website there’s a video about how proud Dean Smith is to have kept Villa up but in my opinion he didn’t keep Villa up - a fault in GLT did and this season Bournemouth did better than Villa

And there's little point in spending £10 million to try and stay in the Premier League. You've either got to go big or not at all, otherwise you're just p*ssing money up the wall. Even £50-60 plus, like Sheff Utd did, doesn't guarantee it, look at Fulham and even to some extent Villa who should by rights be getting relegated but for a technological failure. But it's not the end of the world for any of those three because they've wealthy backers ready to bail them out.

If we'd have spent even £30 million and got relegated, our future as a club would be in danger and our ability to try and get back to the Prem would certainly be diminished. However, if we manage to get back to the PL next season, or even the season after, we will probably be in a position where we can spend £30-40 million and not jeapordise the long term future of the club.

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