ITV's view Norwich City: 'Yo-yo club' stuck in purgatory

[Badger 2,411]

 

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2022-04-30/will-yo-yo-club-norwich-city-ever-break-out-of-footballing-purgatory

[cambridgeshire canary 6,782]

'The answer is simple: New ownership.'

 

There it is

[Herman 9,819]

Put it this way, we have one brilliant season out of two, whereas nearly every other club has one brilliant season in 10 or worse. Sounds good to me.😉

[canarydan23 4,060]

5 minutes ago, Herman said:

Put it this way, we have one brilliant season out of two, whereas nearly every other club has one brilliant season in 10 or worse. Sounds good to me.😉

Exactly. The real question is do we want to? 

[Herman 9,819]

14 minutes ago, canarydan23 said:

Exactly. The real question is do we want to? 

Ending up being another Brighton or Burnley isn't very appealing to me to be honest.

[Icecream Snow 762]

If we're in purgatory, where are Ipswich Town? 😝

[Duncan Edwards 2,261]

16 minutes ago, Icecream Snow said:

If we're in purgatory, where are Ipswich Town? 😝

Lavatory 

[PurpleCanary 5,580]

It is a well-balanced piece, although I think a theologian would argue that yo-yoing between "heaven" and "hell" is not being stuck in purgatory...

Edited May 1, 2022 by PurpleCanary

[Nuff Said 5,166]

1 hour ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

'The answer is simple: New ownership.'

 

There it is

To quote it slightly more accurately “…but for some fans, the answer is simple: New ownership”. And they have already compared us to Fulham - how much money have their owners spent on the club to achieve exactly the same as us? So wealthy ownership isn’t doing it for them is it?

[ged in the onion bag 856]

32 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

It is a well-balanced piece, although I think a theologian would argue that yo-yoing between "heaven" and "hell" is not being stuck in purgatory...

Which one’s which?

[PurpleCanary 5,580]

15 minutes ago, ged in the onion bag said:

Which one’s which?

Oh come on! You've read the endless posts of Big Vince and others...

[ged in the onion bag 856]

11 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

Oh come on! You've read the endless posts of Big Vince and others...

🤣🤣… not the purgatory!   

[Dr Greenthumb 750]

7 hours ago, Herman said:

Ending up being another Brighton or Burnley isn't very appealing to me to be honest.

Able to compete at premier league level? I’d take it

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,797]

People said the same of WBA but theyve managed to break that this seaaon by being mid table innthe Championship

That will probably be how we end it too

 

[BroadstairsR 2,199]

It's not such a bad label to wear. Many clubs would envy it, despite us being ridiculed in some quarters.

If it were to be guaranteed, would you accept yo-yoing for the next ten seasons?

The best of both worlds? Premier League money, worldwide exposure and seeing the cream of the game perform at Carrow Road one season, then the fun of the Chumps and promotion the next?

I could. It might be stagnation, but at least it's not decline. It certainly wouldn't be purgatory.

Edited May 2, 2022 by BroadstairsR

[essex canary 504]

80 per cent of the problem is with the game of football itself. Any solutions, and they will probably be limited, can only come from the likes of the Government Fan Led Review and Independent Regulator. The more Clubs like ours make noise the better.

20 per cent comes from our internal issues. For example according to the Zoe Ward You Tube interview that Greavsy posted last week, Delia has converted 'if at first you don't succeed, try try try again' motto into ' don't be afraid to fail.'

[Herman 9,819]

2 hours ago, Dr Greenthumb said:

Able to compete at premier league level? I’d take it

Fair point, but I feel that being stuck in an endless relegation fight like them would definitely be purgatory.

[Jim Smith 2,339]

8 hours ago, Nuff Said said:

To quote it slightly more accurately “…but for some fans, the answer is simple: New ownership”. And they have already compared us to Fulham - how much money have their owners spent on the club to achieve exactly the same as us? So wealthy ownership isn’t doing it for them is it?

Let’s see how they do next season in their newly expanded and improved ground which (unlike us) they’ve managed to do whilst down in the champ. 

[BroadstairsR 2,199]

Do we fear relegation, or do we fear that the latest one might be irredeemable and might just be that particular one that condemns the club to Championship mediocrity or worse?

[canarybubbles 1,937]

8 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

It is a well-balanced piece, although I think a theologian would argue that yo-yoing between "heaven" and "hell" is not being stuck in purgatory...

Good point. I think those clubs that finish between 8th and 17th are in purgatory - no chance of heaven and constant fears of falling into hell.

[hertfordyellow 460]

15 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

Let’s see how they do next season in their newly expanded and improved ground which (unlike us) they’ve managed to do whilst down in the champ. 

Are you suggesting we haven’t invested heavily in infrastructure while in the championship? 

[hertfordyellow 460]

44 minutes ago, BroadstairsR said:

It's not such a bad label to wear. Many clubs would envy it, despite us being ridiculed in some quarters.

If it were to be guaranteed, would you accept yo-yoing for the next ten seasons?

The best of both worlds? Premier League money, worldwide exposure and seeing the cream of the game perform at Carrow Road one season, then the fun of the Chumps and promotion the next?

I could. It might be stagnation, but at least it's not decline. It certainly wouldn't be purgatory.

I’ve always said this. People compare us to Burnley and say we are a failure. I look at the graveyard of clubs our size moping about in the championship or worse and I think we are achieving better than most. 

[Jim Smith 2,339]

12 minutes ago, hertfordyellow said:

Are you suggesting we haven’t invested heavily in infrastructure while in the championship? 

I’m suggesting the failure to expand our ground despite many years of premier league revenues will cost us in the long term. 

[kenfoggo 247]

Not sure that the yo-yo status will persist next season. The prospects for promotion next year look extremely unlikely in comparison to the last season after relegation. Then we had a stable , competent ,competitive squad with two or three excellent quality players such as Buendia. Going down this season where are the shining lights that will see us compete in a very tough Championship? Tzolis? Rupp? Sorenson? Just cannot see it. Even if we believe that Dean Smith IS the man for the job do we now have any confidence that Stuart Webber will provide the talent necessary after this season’s failure of recruitment? I would like to believe that we will be in a good position for a promotion attempt next season but at the moment mid-table or worse seems to be the best Norwich can aspire to, especially as the losing mentality generated by  “Mr 90 Per-Cent Webber “ will be difficult to shake off with this squad of barely adequate journeymen players. This bleak opinion is not just generated by the overwhelming sense of disappointment in this season’s failure to compete but also by a deep look at the squad we will have and an honest assessment of their ability and motivation.

[hertfordyellow 460]

31 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

I’m suggesting the failure to expand our ground despite many years of premier league revenues will cost us in the long term. 

We rebuilt the academy and the training facilities during this time. Hardly sitting on our hands. While getting promoted twice. The ground is less important than the academy at this time.

[yellowrider120 778]

10 hours ago, Herman said:

Ending up being another Brighton or Burnley isn't very appealing to me to be honest.

Well Brighton have a far better stadium than we do and unless my memory has failed me they have just won AWAY at Arsenal, Tottenham and now Wolves. They sit 9th in the table currently. Yet you would prefer to have been relegated again and see vast swathes of empty seats at Carrow Road by the 85th minute (at latest) of most home games?? How very strange. Whilst Burnley may be a dump of a town they have made far, far better (not exactly difficult I admit) fists of staying in the PL over the past few seasons and are now looking like they may pull it off again.    

[hertfordyellow 460]

22 minutes ago, kenfoggo said:

Not sure that the yo-yo status will persist next season. The prospects for promotion next year look extremely unlikely in comparison to the last season after relegation. Then we had a stable , competent ,competitive squad with two or three excellent quality players such as Buendia. Going down this season where are the shining lights that will see us compete in a very tough Championship? Tzolis? Rupp? Sorenson? Just cannot see it. Even if we believe that Dean Smith IS the man for the job do we now have any confidence that Stuart Webber will provide the talent necessary after this season’s failure of recruitment? I would like to believe that we will be in a good position for a promotion attempt next season but at the moment mid-table or worse seems to be the best Norwich can aspire to, especially as the losing mentality generated by  “Mr 90 Per-Cent Webber “ will be difficult to shake off with this squad of barely adequate journeymen players. This bleak opinion is not just generated by the overwhelming sense of disappointment in this season’s failure to compete but also by a deep look at the squad we will have and an honest assessment of their ability and motivation.

Barely adequate journeymen? They weren’t good enough collectively this season but that’s an incredibly disrespectful description. It all depends who stays and who gos. If the majority stay then there is a good mix of guaranteed performers and likely to step up performers.

The quality in the championship is diminishing not increasing.

[komakino 274]

37 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

I’m suggesting the failure to expand our ground despite many years of premier league revenues will cost us in the long term. 

Good Point.

We generally have no competition and could easily sell thousands of more tickets even when we're not doing well. And that is before you take away fans into the equation. 

The club would often fob fans off in corporate events, usually an ex player, with the line of 'next time we get promoted, we will rebuild the City Stand'. I remember Phil Lythgoe telling me that in twenty years ago! When McNally was around, he was not in favour of ground expansion as his view was the real money isn't generated by attendances. While true, that is still short sited. Norwich could take a long term loan out and the stand would pay that back, as the club for years has never fulfilled its potential in attendances and that is a shame. 

[Bomber 50]

People seem to think a season in the Premiership followed be a season in the Championship would be fun and I wholly agree - the problem is getting promoted in the first place - we have had it good getting promoted on the last two occasions but there is no guarantee that it will keep happening and a lengthy stint in the Championship (Leeds and Forest) is always another consideration - taking things for granted based on historic events can come back and slap you in the face 

[corbs 147]

6 relegations in 30 years or so is quite a few but I find the yo-yo tag exaggerated. Although this one certainly doesn’t feel anything like as painful as when I witnessed us going down at Elland rd in 95 for instance.
With a wider perspective, does success on the pitch really equate with more enjoyment and happiness? In 95/96 we finished 16th,  crowds of 14,500; and I still re those players fondly.