Fear not... The fun is not just in the chase!

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

We spent 9 years getting this season.  Year after year we drove to Rotherham and Crewe et al in the pouring rain to reach this goal, this dream- The Premier League.  Now we''re finally here and it''s not quite how people expected, it''s suddenly rubbish and full of c**p supporters, clubs with too much money, too many celebrity players and even worse ref''s than the first Div.  Now that last point I don''t agree with!!   

I think it''s fair to say that Norwich fans have discovered that they don''t like to support a losing side.  For the majority of the 9 years since our last Premiership exit, we have been looking for the top 6 and winning more than we lose.  Suddenly for this right to be taken away from us, fans can''t work it out and their looking for someone to blame.  Shall we blame the players?  Or the management?  Fact is we''re playing teams whom 6 or 7 years ago I could only dream we would be playing.

So now that we''ve reached the promise land, tasted it''s fruit and found it to be sour, is all the fun in the chase?  Is the best bit tying to reach stardom because by the time you get there, you actually preferred the safe sheltered world of the first Division?  In my opinion NO!  I know it''s a spectacular cliche and I''ve used it many times, but this season has been a learning curve.  We can''t expect to become a Premiership club in a year.  These days it just cannot be done.  However, if we have more seasons like the last two (good ones mixed with bad ones) sooner or later we will wake up and realise that we can be an established Premiership club.  Yes it will take time, money, graft and I''m sure a lot of tears but we can do it.  And when that happens and we achieve our own Charlton status, the fun will be in the Premiership, not in the chase.   

[kev g 0]

Good call DD

You are spot on about it being a learning curve. Problem is everybody has very short memories and people just like moaning,there are two old geezers who sit behind me in the Barclay we could win 10 -0 and they would find fault. Everybody wants their team to win but in the premiership there is 19 other teams with more money trying to do the same.

I think we will come back up it will be tough but we can do it but we have not gone down yet!

I for one will still make my 380 mile round trip next season for every home game and shout until i am hoarse

[YankeeCanary 0]

Tadley Yellow, you make me want to go down on bended knee in admiration of you as an ardent and loyal supporter. Sometimes, I kid myself that I''m still a supporter but cannot make it to the games because I reside in the USA. In truth, however, that it is merely an excuse when compared to the dedication you put forth. Did you do this in the lower division also?

[Morph 19]

[quote]We spent 9 years getting this season. Year after year we drove to Rotherham and Crewe et al in the pouring rain to reach this goal, this dream- The Premier League. Now we''re finally here and it''s no...[/quote]

DD, has the fruit of the Premiership really been sour? I can''t believe that to be true.

I''m a little disappointed in some of the posts I''ve seen in the forum of late about:

a) how people will be glad to not to have to worry about the kick-off times
b) how people will be glad to get back to games on a Saturday

and so on. I don''t quite know how to describe how I feel about those posts.

We waited 9 years to get back to the big time and you''re not going to tell me in all honesty that we''re really any worse than Palace, or West Brom, or Southampton, or Fulham, or Portsmouth, are you? If we really aren''t that bad why are we all so glad that we might be heading back to the Championship.

I''m not. I''d rather see us up there in with the big boys giving it our best shot week in week out. I''d rather City were playing the likes of Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, Newcastle et al on a regular basis i.e. more than one season.

I have to say I''m sort of fed up with the mindset "oh well we didn''t expect anything more than that anyway". Sure we''re not going to be disappointed but surely to God we had higher hopes than that of the season in the Premiership. Didn''t we? If you go in with that mindset then you won''t be disappointed but it seems a bit too defeatist to start out with - yeah, we got what we expected but we didn''t expect much. If the players have that sort of attitude then, if I were manager, I''d be really p***ed.

I guess I''m feeling a little frustrated. Being unable to attend games as much as I''d like given the geographical distances (Tadley puts me to shame too), and seeing what few games I have seen either as recorded matches or live broadcasts over the internet, I guess I would expect a more positive attitude from all - supporters, board, management and players.

We are a Premiership side - the board has helped us get the financial stability the club needs, the management and players have got us there. Why can''t we expect to stay there? We shouldn''t be patting ourselves on the back and saying "oh well we tried" because I don''t think we''ve done enough. We should still be a Premiership side NEXT season. Where''s the belief? Where''s the expectation? Sod the fun of the chase we should have had loftier goals to start with.

...

[shropshire canary 0]

Like tadley, my son (aged 11) and i have a 400 mile round trip to Carrow road, haven''t missed a home game all season (including a 1.30 am return after the mega depression of the Man City game) and have only missed 4 away games this season as well. we reckon that adds up to about a week a year sat in the car travelling to/from football!

It has been hard work this season though; i don''t like losing and last year was much more enjoyable.

For me it''s become a routine/part of lifestyle now (god bless my wife for that) and as I''ve been round all the Premiership grounds in years gone by (and seen us win at most of them too) I can be sanguine about it. For my son I think it''s been a bit harder - it''s tough enough being an exiled supporter but losing with a high profile every week and facing school on Mondays isn''t easy. Fortunately they''re either Baggies or Wolves fans round here so they know the feelings well!

My biggest disappointment is that I thought we just about had a chance back in October/November - we''d played well/brightly in some tough games and with the spirit of last season still very evident. In the run up to Xmas and through Jan it just evaporated, and now it looks like the team have accepted the inevitable. A shame and the journeys will continue to feel long, but as long as my son can look back over the years at the ups and downs of it all and still believe that when you support a club like ours you at least know you''re alive rather than be a muppet following Man U etc then that''ll do for me. It helps to keep a perspective on things anyway.

[BedsCanary 0]

It''s not about dislike of supporting a losing side DD.

I''ll be the first to admit I''ve taken a pop at the state of the Premiership out of frustration - something I admit that I probably wouldn''t have done so much of if we were mid-table...

Fact is though, we''re bottom. And West Brom are second from bottom and Crystal Palace (along with the 2nd top goal scorer in the division) are third from bottom. And that''s the whole point - the Premiership isn''t how I remember it from ten years ago. The days of giant killings and premoted teams staying up, putting winning runs together and competing on their day with the big guns have gone and been forgotten.

The Premiership is all about money and making rich people even richer - at the expense of us, the fans. The step up from Division One to the Premiership is a step up from sport to business.

[Creative Midfielder 1,985]

[quote]We spent 9 years getting this season. Year after year we drove to Rotherham and Crewe et al in the pouring rain to reach this goal, this dream- The Premier League. Now we''re finally here and it''s no...[/quote]

DD, I agree with a lot you say about the difficulty of stepping up to the Prem but is it ever going to be fun in the Prem? I suspect not.

However frustating our nine years were in the fizzy league, we at least knew we were capable of winning it and I suspect lots of us thought at the start of every one of those nine years that it was going to be our year.

Year after year the fizzy league has produced intense competition with promotion and relegation often decided on the last day of the season. Here we are in the Prem with a quarter of the season to go and the title is already decided and relegation has only 4 teams competing for three places. Not exactly gripping is it?

Do Charlton, or Villa, or Man City, or even Newcastle fans think at the start of each season that they can win the Prem, of course they dont.

It may be fun to play the ''big'' teams for a while but as a competition the Prem is a non-event. So I am looking forward to next season, not because I''m only happy when we''re winning, but because I want the buzz of us actually competing in a serious contest.

[blacko 0]

I agree with you, totally. It feels to me like being a smaller team playing the big boys in the FAC, but nearly every week. We may have been beaten a lot. Only stuffed a few times, but I have enjoyed it and feel proud of what the team has done. Their commitment has been fantastic.

Its not all over yet though, I shall be at Highbury tomorrow and we have won there before. Mark Robins springs to mind, Paddon hattrick....................lets continue the dream!

[kev g 0]

Hi yc

yes i have supported city since i was a boy of 14 and followed the ups & downs ever since for me there could be no other team however good or bad we play i get a lot of stick from the easylifers (man u arsenal & chelski fans) armchair supporters mostly nothing wrong with that as long as they dont take the mick for being a city fan

[Chip20 69]

I have to admit that I enjoyed two of the last three seasons in the Championship more than the current season. The excitement of City cliniching a playoff place on goal difference in the final minutes of the season three years ago (and subsequent run to Cardiff) was far more intense than anything I''ve felt this season. Similarly, the march to the title last season was chock full of nailbiting tension (late winners/equalisers, tight contests). I was as delighted as anyone that we finally made it back and looked forward to this season with excitement and a genuine belief that we might surprise a few people.

However, I must confess that I''ve been left with a deep sense of anticlimax. I''ve supported the team just as wholeheartedly, but without those occasional victories against all the odds and our frustrating inability to even beat the lesser Premiership teams has left me feeling somewhat deflated. The passion has still been there and it''s been nice to admire the quality of the opposing players sometimes, but the excitement that makes me want to watch the football in the first place has been largely absent.

Although I''ll be absolutely gutted/disappointed the day our relegation is finally mathematically confirmed, I think I''m looking forward to the prospect of another potential promotion push, and all the emotional turmoil that entails, more than our last few Premiership games. Perhaps if we still had a realistic chance of survival and had won, say, two more games than  this before now then I would probably have found the whole season a lot more exciting.

That said, the prospect of a return to mid-table Championship obscurity fills me with dread.

[gazzathegreat 0]

lincoln canary

you have summed it all up so well, totally agree with everything you say - i can hardly summon up much enthusiasm to be honest - but we all knew this might happen

still going to go next season and already thinking about that instead of the match tomorrow