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BlyBlyBabes

Ron Saunders and wandering thoughts.............

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Randy Lerner has invited Ron to be their guest of honour at the Man Utd match on Saturday.... he has accepted and the Villa fans are over the moon. Remember he brought the league title to Villa and his team won the European Cup the following year.

Wouldn''t it be nice if we invited Ron as our guest of honour as well? After all he did pull us up through our bootstraps to the promised land for the very first time.

And John Bond and Ken Brown and Dave Stringer and Mike Walker. And honour Archie Macaulay''s memory appropriately.

Delia might be so embarrassed that she would go and find someone to invest in City and bring back the glory days. That''s what she wants isn''t it?? Isn''t it? Isn''t it?

OTBC.

 

  

 

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Thoughts I can only applaud as I firmly believe the current incumbents would be well served with an active history lesson on the principles on which our great club was built. Certainly Ron Saunders paved the way with an effective but rather unattractive blend of football for the man who must surely be our true messiah, John Bond?

Whilst I appreciate JB has visited the club over the years is there anybody better who really understood what it was all about for a club like ours? Shrewd purchases, attractive football and the first signs of a youth system that would stand us in such good stead for a generation. Lets not forget the comedy genius of his radio and TV interviews that were truly second to none

“Magic Gerry”

“I love the little fella Gerry”

What I wouldn’t give for somebody like that at the helm today with an owner willing to back him. None the less I fear to many are caught up in the modicum of limited success we have seen over the last decade to open their eyes to a proud history that preceded it.

 

Keep wandering...........

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I entirely agree that we should celebrate the acheivements of the past.  They were great days and should be cherished.  I fail to see how that reflects on the reality of the huge amounts of Sky money that have been poured into other teams leaving us and other well-supported Championship clubs with a wide gulf in purchasing power to bridge.  When using nostalgia to make a point, it helps to counter-balance it with the modern reality, don''t you think ?

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Ahhh the joys of Ron Saunders and EDP pictures of Big Dunc and Co in washed out training gear running up and down St James Hill and Hemsby Dunes in Pre Season or when we had turned in a poor performance!

Perhaps training sessions like that would put some fire into the disinterested bunch of money grabbers we have now.

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What Ron Saunders did at this club was truely amazing. When he took over there were no expectations of playing in the top flight which  was a different world for us kids at the time. In the late 60''s Norwich were mid table every season. The highlight was ALWAYS the third round of the FA Cup and to be fair we had some good results, notably away to Man.U. and Sunderland. If we got knocked out they would maybe arrange a friendly against someone like Nottingham Forest on 4th round day! Ron Saunders took over a club trying to get over continually selling anyone who could score goals! (Nothing changes!) Ron Davies had been sold to Southampton for £60,000 and was replaced by a string of journeymen players, Laurie Sheffield and the like. Then Hugh Curran started scoring for fun so we sold him to Wolves for £40,000. Then Ron Saunders came and put together a team that took us to the promised land. He was known as a diciplinarian and he got the players super fit through hard work on the training field, but they always responded to him. Years later I was lucky enough to meet the late great Trevor Hockey and he had nothing but good to say about Ron Saunders and the players he had at the club. Most of his solid defence was already at the club when he came but Keelan, Butler, Black, Stringer and Forbes looked different players under Saunders. His record in the transfer market was truely amazing too, he would find players like David Cross from Rochdale who went on to be one of the best targetmen in the top flight. He also signed Paddon and Livermore quite cheaply and od course Jimmy Bone! Later of course there was Trevor Hockey!

I could go on and I''d love to go on because they were happy days but i have to back to work! Thanks for bringing back these memories BlyBlyBabes!

Just to make one more point, the more recent memories I have of the 2002/5 are right up there too but maybe more water has to pass under the bridge before others look back on those years fondly!

 

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Being that I was born in 1985, I would give anything to be able to go back and watch Norwich through the 70s. Sounded like great times.

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]

What Ron Saunders did at this club was truely amazing. When he took over there were no expectations of playing in the top flight which  was a different world for us kids at the time. In the late 60''s Norwich were mid table every season. The highlight was ALWAYS the third round of the FA Cup and to be fair we had some good results, notably away to Man.U. and Sunderland. If we got knocked out they would maybe arrange a friendly against someone like Nottingham Forest on 4th round day! Ron Saunders took over a club trying to get over continually selling anyone who could score goals! (Nothing changes!) Ron Davies had been sold to Southampton for £60,000 and was replaced by a string of journeymen players, Laurie Sheffield and the like. Then Hugh Curran started scoring for fun so we sold him to Wolves for £40,000. Then Ron Saunders came and put together a team that took us to the promised land. He was known as a diciplinarian and he got the players super fit through hard work on the training field, but they always responded to him. Years later I was lucky enough to meet the late great Trevor Hockey and he had nothing but good to say about Ron Saunders and the players he had at the club. Most of his solid defence was already at the club when he came but Keelan, Butler, Black, Stringer and Forbes looked different players under Saunders. His record in the transfer market was truely amazing too, he would find players like David Cross from Rochdale who went on to be one of the best targetmen in the top flight. He also signed Paddon and Livermore quite cheaply and od course Jimmy Bone! Later of course there was Trevor Hockey!

I could go on and I''d love to go on because they were happy days but i have to back to work! Thanks for bringing back these memories BlyBlyBabes!

Just to make one more point, the more recent memories I have of the 2002/5 are right up there too but maybe more water has to pass under the bridge before others look back on those years fondly!

 

[/quote]

Great days.....and happy days.

Nothing to add....except that I always envisage Bondie when I see Redknapp talking on the box about football. A bit of a dodgy boy......but the bringer of  ''showbiz'' to CR. There are great similarities in approach....and both had/have a very shrewd eye for talent. We weren''t "little old Norwich" beck then, that''s for sure.

Glad I experienced them anyway.

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[quote user="alex_ncfc"]Being that I was born in 1985, I would give anything to be able to go back and watch Norwich through the 70s. Sounded like great times.[/quote]They were GREAT times as were the 80''s well most of it ,and a lot cheaper to watch as well .

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god jas i''m the devil aren''t i because i was born in 1987. give us a break with the ''i started supporting norwich before you''

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Yes a great manager,

Allegedly, at that time, his team selection was based on the first eleven back-packed players to stagger off the training run on Mousehold Heath. My favourite players under him were Duncan Forbes, David Stringer and Max Briggs(whatever happened to him ?)

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Without Ron  City would probably have spent the last thirty odd years in the lower Football League . However it is worth saying that his first 18 months in charge whilst he sorted out the previous damage and built his own team was some of the direst football I''ve watched before or since at Carrow Road. In those days he got TIME as the only sniping came from the weekly Pinkun soapbox.(one or two of the contributors are still making the same comments). Ron has been invited back on several occasions through the historical trust but unfortunately he hasn''t taken up the offer yet. As far as I know his only recent visit to the City was for Geoffrey Watlings funeral.

 

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How well Nigel summed up the Saunder''s era and I can only add two words - Colin Suggett - in my opinion one of the greatest players to wear a Norwich shirt. Ron was his own man and didn''t suffer fools gladly, which may have led to his early departure from the club and Aston Villa''s gain.

I have mixed feelings on John Bond and it was interesting to read recently a comment from Ian Mellor who considered the Norwich team taken over by Bond were treated as second class citizens compared to his beloved Bournemouth imports. He was often critical of Saunders and I well remember what a fool Bond made of himself prior to our defeat by Aston Villa in the league cup final. Certainly our John was a Del Boy and the Player of the Year contest became a joke when we had a winner despite the supporters never having a chance to vote !  While nobody could complain about the signings of McDougall and Boyer it was strange that he paid a record club fee for Drazen Muzinic without even having seen him play. Despite convincing NCFC to give him a ten year contract he walked out on the club and somehow managed to insult Ken Brown. How ironical that Ken went on to be a far more successful manager with a Milk Cup win and a top five finish.  

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My sentiments entirely Percyvarco.  A few training sessions with Ron and one would have no dobts about fitness, and the players would have no doubts regarding the meaning of work.  One thing about Saunders he would be doing the workouts with the blokes.  I watched a few training sessions and was much amused when Ron was piggy backing big Dunc up that same hill. Ron was short in comparison to Dunc and had much trouble keeping Dunc high enough on his back to keep Duncs feet off the ground.  Ron always led from the front.  That is to say he led by example and was a man of few words.  Especially at interviews.

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