The Tale Of The Rolls-Royce, The Jaguar and The Vauxhall

[YankeeCanary 0]

Definition analogy:

Rolls-Royce - Ongoing participation in the Premiership playing good, competitive football.

Jaguar          - Occasional Premiership participation, always playing good football, near the top of Championship  

Vauxhall       - Management, players and football average at best, middle of the Championship pack every year         

 

What a sad season for poor bewildered Norwich fans. Why does it feel as bad as it does? After all, if this was a few short seasons ago,  we would have been downhearted at our continued mediocrity entrenched in the middle of the Championship pack. Grumbling, complaining, disappointment would have still been topics of conversation for fans but our subconscious ( at least ) expectation would have been a season equivalent to riding in a Vauxhall. 

Then, almost out of the blue, the club found that a team of average players playing, for all intents and purposes, average football, were not that far off being in the promotion hunt only to miss out at the final hurdle. Same situation the following season and the manager is told to recruit some talented recruits on loan. Not exactly a commitment to buy a Jaguar, but the rental gave the fans the taste they had long waited for. Finally, after lots of will he or won''t he, Huckerby signs, and the fans believe they are now a group ready to step up to the ongoing ride of a Jaguar. Even the rest of the team believe it and raise their level of enthusiasm.

Foot to the pedal on all fronts, City Hall celebrations are filled with joy, season ticket demand gone wild, everyone is ready for the Jaguar ride down Premiership main street. With the exception of a few level-headed observers, the majority failed to recognise our forward motion was in the wheels of a Vauxhall. Times were tough during the first half of the season but, with the arrival of Ashton, the Jaguar mentality was back and well and truly intact. Even if we were relegated many reasoned, we would quickly bounce back as Ashton and McKenzie would score goals by the dozen just for fun.

Inside the club, which the fans of course are not privy to, those in control knew the mode of transportation being chosen for the coming season. It was Vauxhall, Vauxhall, Vauxhall all the way. No matter they reasoned. We had all the fans with Jaguar expectations well and truly signed up. And here lies the nub of the problem. The owners go silent, knowing full well why they are doing so and leave poor Nigel to deal with the mismatch of automobiles. Even at that, Nigel spends too much on "parts", acquiring those parts at Jaguar prices to support a Vauxhall vehicle.

The problem with this season ( versus many of the other mediocre ones of the past decade ) and the ensuing discord, the heated debate, silence or any other form of fan emotion is not the type of car our club chooses to be. It is the fact that the club sold the fans a Jaguar but delivered a Vauxhall. Maybe we don''t all express it in those terms but at the root of the situation that is precisely what has occurred.   

[Silver Canary 0]

Vauxhall       - Management, players and football average at best, middle of the Championship pack every year  

I wish we were average - more like old bicicle than vauxhall!

Worthy out!

[ca 1]

You''ve hit the nail on the head Yankee, thats exactly whats happened.

[mystic megson 0]

I''m nowhere near as eloquent as you, YC, but our situation keeps reminding me of a childhood rhyme:

"For the want of a nail the shoe was lost/For the want of a shoe the horse was lost/For the want of a horse the rider was lost/For the want of a rider the battle was lost/For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost/And all for the want of a horseshoe nail."

That''s prudence with ambition for you.

 

[At last? 0]

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

[Dionysus 0]

Using your analogy, YC, I think Worthington tried to customise the Vauxhall with Robin Reliant parts when there were lots of affordable Vauxhall parts available for a reasonable price that would have us racing up and down Great Yarmouth seafront.