There are many points of view on what happens next. No doubt you will have your own on how this season has gone and why? You can read my own views elsewhere on this site but it’s worth acknowledging as many opinions as you can to try to get a measured idea of why Norwich City keep getting relegated from the top flight after fighting so hard to get there.
Over at the Vital Norwich Forum there are always plenty of opinions and different views on our beloved football club. As usual after writing an article, I posted one on Sunday morning entitled
In the forum and it received an excellent, passionate reply from one of the forum regulars, Drayton Green.
DG is a long standing critic of the ownership of the club by Delia and Michael, whilst acknowledging what they did to save the club back in the mid-nineties. He is of the opinion that whilst under their ownership, City will never be able to progress to become an established Premier League club and that their refusal to sell the club in recent years has held us back. Obviously, any sale would have to be to the right sort of owner but that their time in charge needs to end and that they should sell to a more wealthy and progressive owner.
Anyway, here’s his take on things currently:
”I would like to write a long piece but I am too busy with work which is far more important than football all the time but especially now.
Therefore I can sum up with the same old comments I have made for years and even more recently.The Smiffs cannot own an established premier league football club and more worryingly do not want to.
The self funded experiment for the premier league has totally failed.
This is off the back of at least four regular starters coming from youth policy, three or four more from free or low price signings and remainder being journeymen from European countries.
This is the best it is ever going to get. We are very unlikely to have a good championship squad brought together for such a low cost ever again.
The funds for the premier league battle were minute. Tuckster, it may have added up to about £ 10 million but that was still about half what Sheffield United paid for McBurnie. It was way too small, even for an assault on promotion from Championship these days.
We were all happy to see players given new contracts, but of course they were going to sign. More money and playing in the Premier League with a club they already knew well. However the squad needed at least three good experienced players to help the current youngsters out. That may well have secured our survival.
What little money was available was wasted. Apart from Byram ( was only seen as cover for Lewis anyway ), the other loans and signings were a disaster.
Loans – Fahrmann, Roberts, Amadou and Duda : Either misjudged or not used properly by Farke. Either way, left early or stayed without being committed.
They were four expensive loans who appeared to have less quality than already here.
Permanent signings – Drmic and Rupp in January ( for championship ).
Cannot score and played out of position.
Records will show that in the majority of the Premier League matches, the starting XI were nearly always made up of the inexperienced championship
players from the previous season.
Just like last season, it could have worked given a lot of luck as there were a few weak teams in the league but they were still physically stronger than us and changed tactics to suit situations and ultimately got much better.
Starting at the top, the Smiffs need to sell up. You can mention Wigan but there are success stories and we need need richer and more ambitious owners.
The time to sell was a year ago. As players are sold and money used to keep the crazy self funded failure going, it will not be long before a buyer will be required for a lower championship club with no star players of big value and approaching debt again. Will the big chance have gone ?
SW had little to work with but all the signings have been failures.
He has to take a bit of the blame.
Daniel Farke had a small inexperienced squad but refused to change tactics and we were easily sussed out until it got to point when teams at bottom of league were easily able to beat us due to being totally predictable.
That, together with strange team selections and leaving substitutions way too late, leaves him with some of the blame too.
The players – Talented but weak, inexperienced and often played out of position or left out wrongly. Ignoring the games in front of empty stadiums when they really got found out, I absolve them of any blame.
As (Forum member) Yellow Belly says, the Smiffs are the common factor. SW has openly stated he will leave at end of his contract, DF may or may not stay much longer and players will be sold and money used to buy players with less quality.
They will all come and go but the Smiffs will stick it out and as the common factor have to take the majority of the blame.
We are now a championship club, with the Smiffs hanging the manger, players and fans all out to dry and now taking all the stick from the media and fans of other clubs.
If they have any love for NCFC, they will sell up and leave it up to more capable owners who actually want to own an established premier league club.
Whilst Sheffield United play in Europe I will be preparing for yet another visit to the flat pack stadium (That’s Queens Park Rangers), if we are lucky enough to be allowed in.”
Harsh but fair? I’d love to know your thoughts. Do you agree with Drayton Green?
OTBC