There Is A Light But Maybe Not AT The End Of This Tunnel

[YankeeCanary 0]

I originally posted the following message during March of this year. Given what has transpired since then I am interested in whether others agree/disagree. Further, having looked at my past comments I would say, if anything, it appears the Board is even less ambitious to get to the Premiership than what I had previously thought. It does appear that Delia and Michael are content to have a nice little football club ( that they own without too much interference from others ), a restaurant in the club ( Delia''s recent comments in the Guardian article ) and a manager who does their bidding without causing waves. Am I wrong and, if so, what is the evidence to suggest so? Have the owners anytime in the recent past laid out any set of goals for the fans as to how we are going about attaining Premiership level with a plan that gives us a reasonable chance of sustaining that level? I know I''m "over here" but from reading/observing/watching football news I am honestly not aware of any other football club of our size who appear to be less forthcoming in stating their ambition.

There Is A Light – But Maybe Not At The End Of This Tunnel Nigel Worthington is not the manager that will lead Norwich into the promised land of competitive and ongoing Premiership participation. That much one can take to the bank. In football, in a single season, the attributes of a manager will display themselves. Therefore, six  seasons is a long time, on average, for the life of a football manager with one club. There is not going to be, for most managers, much further development emerging that will cause the fortunes of a football club through his leadership, all things being equal, to soar to sustained participation at a higher level. What you see is what you get.   Our owners know this. So why do they like what they see. Because, in my opinion,  Nigel’s talent is a reflection of their ambition level at this point in time. This is not to say our owners are not ambitious. There are different levels of ambition in all walks of life. There has to be, or there would not be a room big enough to house us all.   All the talk observed post the Robert Chase era was that Delia saved the club. That may well be true, but I doubt that being a saviour was the single or even primary motivating factor for Delia Smith and Wynn-Jones. They saw opportunity. The opportunity to turn a club that always had promise to be something more from a jaded, almost bankrupt entity into a more well-heeled organization. If they could also do this as true fans, all the better. Everyone always cites the financial risks involved. Debt is relative. Almost no one will step forward to speak of beneficial tax considerations when managing the cash flow of different business interests. Couple that with parachute payments from an almost unexpected brief visit to the Premiership without even pretending to invest in an attempt to stay there, a quick turnaround investment on a young striker, and you have owners who can hold the sherry glass up to each other and say, “We’ve done well”.  And they have.   The point is if their ambition for Norwich City FC was at the same level of the paying fans who clamoured “ten years in the wilderness is long enough” then, when Premiership opportunity presented itself again, the current owners would have had sought cash injection into the club from other quarters. There were certainly interested parties knocking on the door. No, the timing wasn’t right for them. In my view, this management and this ownership is not the light at the end of the tunnel that matches the desires or the support level already in place ( with more to come ) for this club. This is not to make light of the efforts and success of current ownership. It has been good. Just not good enough.