A fine line between success and failure

[KeelansGlove 0]

Ok I have been redigesting some of the post over the period of the transfer deadline and had a couple of points id like to make.

It would appear that we fall into two camps the "glass half full" and "glass half empty" brigades I suppose it is only natural that some people generally have a rosy outlook on life while others fear the worst, I guess you cant really fault either point of view if it is from the heart.

We have a good squad, one that with the yellow and green glasses may well be enough to keep us in the premiership.

BUT.

The view of "little old" Norwich is being perpetuated by these well meaning fans that quite simply seem to continually infer we are skint. Even after the Rooney money Everton have less money than us ! We are a well run club and our debt even before promotion last season was very reasonable in terms of football debt. Now I am also not one for big money signings the 2M of so we have spent this summer seems good business and I certainly wouldn''t have tried to outbid West Brom for Earnshaw. We don''t know the situation with wages at city this season and I would guess that is where most of our windfall has gone.

Ok I have kept banging on about a centreforward and was very disappointed hat we didn''t manage to land one, the fact is in football here is one commodity that doesn''t come cheap. We have picked up quality defenders and midfield players of international class for less than the cost of a promising  League 1 Striker.

The Board were bold last season we were all in it together and knew that if it didn''t come off we would  have been waving goodbye to our most talented players (although the pessimist in me will say that this is even more likely to be the case with failure this season as most football scouts will have Sky TV)

Anyway what I am really trying to say is I think if we continually say we cannot afford to compete with the likes of Crystal Palace and West Brom in the transfer market we cannot at the same time scream at the pundits who write us off as a valiant little club doing its best in the big time.

I agree with Worthy , we should only bring in players that are better than we have, I for one had my heart set on a certain Mr P Crouch and with hindsight I think we should bitten the bullet and shelled out the 2 Mil ( or indeed found a big bruising centre forward somewhere in Estonia or the like, I would have been quite happy with Sandor Torghelle) to compliment what we already had.

Hopefully we will still be in touch by Christmas and can add this final piece of the jigsaw then I would personally have the deal sorted over the next month or so (at least in theory) as with the previous transfer window we shouldn''t be scrambling around to see what is available on the last day, that is bad business. I am happy that we have enough depth in the rest of the squad to get us through the season.

Fair enough don''t look at players for silly money and make sure we get a bargain, but we are here to compete in every way and not just pick up the players that no other premier league club wanted. (blimey almost sounded positive there !) OTBC

Hattrick for the Doc on Sunday anyone ??

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

Good post KG.  I agree with almost all of that.  IMO we are a superbly well run club.  Now that we are finally back in the big time I don''t think our board are prepared to gamble on that.  A striker would have been nice, yes.  But if West Ham, Charlton or whoever we were after wanted too much money then sod them!  We can''t afford to slap another 500K, £1M on an asking price, we don''t have the cash. 

We can''t run before we can walk in this game.  Just getting here is an achievement, especially after last years success.  People look to West Brom and see how much they have spent but IMO they are where we want to be in a couple of years.  They''ve come up, gone down, consolidated, raked in the cash and now building again, stronger than the first time.  I really hope and truely believe we can stay in this league.  We have the management, players, fans and belief to do it. 

We will stay up

[bananaman 0]

I am actually quite happy with not being a money-spending, big-name-signing circus club. I don''t care that we are regarded as "small" by the media and glory-hunting Arsenal fans because, in my opinion, we are small.With every big signing comes a huge risk, and (for example) Charlton and Saints have got away for a number of years by not spending oodles of cash. This means that their expectation levels are not too high, and instead they surprise a lot of teams and fans.I am personally happy that we are still playing (and paying) realistic football, not this hideous fantasy league stuff of "ooh, we''ve got £10m, let''s blow it all". Of course we need players, and good players at that, but as a club how much success have we had through spending large sums of money? Not much. But unearthing hidden gems? Much more fun, and more rewarding financially both short and long-term.

[KeelansGlove 0]

I spent 20 minutes replying to this, then decided I have said it all before so I wont waste anymore of your time saying it again.

If we chose not to compete in terms of quality of players and football we will have little reason to worry because these will not be the teams we are competing with come next season.

I really wish I could express my feelings regarding your post but im sure they would get moderated.

Can I have some of whatever you are on, must be good stuff.

 

 

[nolegs 0]

keelans glove.....your glass really is 1/2 empty!

[AJ 1,224]

sorry nolegs....

 

its half full............

[KeelansGlove 0]

you mean I have a glass ?

[nolegs 0]

AJ sorry I  just don''t do girly halves!!

[bananaman 0]

KG - chill. I know exactly what you''re saying, and you are right. It''s not easy being "below" others or competing on a different level, but you have to accept that we are on a different level. However, I don''t believe it will be forever, and I am sure that the board feel the same.

When the time is right (ie Charlton this season) to invest, the board will stump up the cash - we have no reason to doubt them, as we saw it last season.

But the phrase "From little acorns, great oak trees grow" really means something in our case. We are starting small - so? If we can bank some of the cash and use Worthy''s expertise to keep us up, or get us up next time of asking, we will be in a much better position.

Don''t forget - this club has been running for ONE HUNDRED years. There is more to life than just this season, and next season, and the season after that. Ten/fifteen years time, with managerial stability and good financial management, we WILL be that "established" premiership team that we never really have been (ok - we had a good period, but even then we got relegated and promoted a couple of times).

[KeelansGlove 0]

Ok I did feel particularly negative today but I think it would some pretty strong mind altering drugs to see things from your point of view.

Im sorry if I came accross a little offensive I really dont mean to we are all in it together I just cannot see some of the logic.

Yes West Brom came back up after being relegated so it is possible.

Yes we are much more financially stable than we were last season.

These are undisputable facts as are those detailed below.

Norwich City 9 years (nine) since we last won promotion.

Sides relegated from the premiership in recent seasons currently in the old division 2

Bradford, Barnsley, Wimbledon, Sheffield Wednesday.

Clubs who have spent a large amount of time in the top flight or been recently relegated struggling to get out of "the championship"

Notts Forest, Sunderland, West Ham, Leeds, Leicester, Coventry.

The good news is that the Championship is a cracking league, much more competitive than the premiership will ever be again so if relegated we can look forward to thrills and spills a plenty but we cannot look forward to a high likelyhood of promotion again.

The teams that were relegated last season were stripped of any players wanted by other premiership clubs, in general at poor prices. We have seen in the past we may not "need" to sell players but if the player wants to leave there is nothing we will be able to do about it.

I do not doubt the board has our best interests at heart and will do as much as they can to ensure we survive I just personally think that the task of getting out of the championship will be much tougher than people think, after all we really didn''t get close for almost 10 years. I think the odds may be better for us to stay up than get promoted again next season.

I know the club has been around for over 100 years I have been going to Carrow Rd since the early 70''s we spent almost all of the next 2 decades in the top flight.

Ironically as I have been bleating so hard at our lack of effort in staying up I have to admit it actually wouldn''t have bothered me if we hadn''t managed to get promoted for another 10 years, if ever. I enjoyed the first division it was exciting and competitive and you could never be sure who would win any game.

The only thing that fills me with dread is the thought of going through a whole season not competing, just waiting for relegation like Wolves.

I presume you think England are in with a damn fine chance to win the next world cup do you ?

Wake up and smell the coffee.

I hope we hammer Spurs or I might get really depressed !

 

 

[Texas1 0]

[quote]I am actually quite happy with not being a money-spending, big-name-signing circus club. I don''t care that we are regarded as "small" by the media and glory-hunting Arsenal fans because, in my opinion...[/quote]

Bananaman, you are spot on.We have a great fan base and just need to add some more success to it.Imagine supporting a team like Wigan, they will probably get promoted this season and splash money out on players next season but they will still probably only have about 13,000 watching them.I''m sure we''ll get better, it just takes time.