A bit controversial and by no means is this the only reason for any club struggling or making the wrong decisions. However fans fickle reactions and constant criticism of club, manager and players can not help performance in any way. I should say this is relevant for all clubs and not just a dig at Norwich fans. It seems to be getting much worse with the increasing use of social media and increased coverage of matches. After almost every game there is criticism players/ manager saying so and so missed a sitter he is **** drop him etc. Some huge overreactions. Clearly you want opinion in football and fans deserve to voice theirs, but surely this just increases pressure on the team and is detrimental to performance? So often if a side is struggling fans come out and say the team is playing with no confidence so sack the manager as it is his job to deal with that. Maybe it is because of the fans constant criticism that they have no confidence. Even when things are going well fans pick on the negatives which cant be encouraging for any player. Negativity is generally reflected which is not healthy for a club. The huge money in football doesnt help anyone. Fans see big sums chucked about and expect immediate success and when they dont get it after 10-20 games they believe the answer is to sack everyone. Surely some stability is required on many occasions? After all do you think you would work as well in your job if you had low job security and could be sacked at any second? While being constantly criticised/ You can certainly argue that they are paid a fortune to play so they should be profession al and ignore everything they hear, but they are human and they will take notice. It would be very interesting to see how a team performs over a season if fans are constantly positive compared to when they are constantly negative. Or even how performance is with no fans at all.
My tenpence worth is that when you charge £30 to watch a game or £45 for a replica shirt then you are going to create an expectation to see value for money. Simple as that.
To an extent I agree with you. As I mentioned the stupid money in football makes people feel they deserve the best. However if fans believed or understood that their negativity is part of the reason for poor performance would they be more inclined to reduce their criticism in the hope it would lead to better performance? What should paying big ticket fees allow fans to do? Should they be allowed to make all the decisions? Control the club? etc
without fans there would be no club, they are all entitled to thier opinion whether fickle or not, will always be differences but we all love NCFC
Of course a club needs fans. But is their behaviour often not negative on club success and performance?
IMO, fans definitely, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, affect performances. And not just a little - a lot. The evidence is all around - Villa, us last season, or in the converse talk about the Britannia Stadium (I've never been). I really don't doubt it for a moment. However, I don't think that necessarily means fans should bear the blame for failure where the atmosphere has contributed. The real problem is the vicious cycle we've got ourselves into where bad results lead to bad crowds leading to more bad results. I wonder whether something like slashing ticket prices to 1/2 price for a match or two (i.e. refund for STs) would get the stadium rocking. Announce it ten minutes before kick-off. What a statement that would be. Nothing like a feeling of value to get the atmosphere going. It would be like a tenner for the youth matches where, by all accounts, the crowd never stopped singing and though the stadium wasn't full the feel was better than any recent first team match. Maybe it wouldn't work and would cost the club c.500k fruitlessly! but I'd be surprised.
No more so, than teams being detrimental to fan performance. I think the pertinent point is as you mentioned, stability, stability with the right ethos, team, structure is great, but was CH et al the right tteam and structure? Not for my money, adequate results for a time, little evidence of progress and a dire spectacle. NA moderately more entertaining but little evidence of improvement, direction, or results. Stability can only come about when the job is being done right, or at least more right than now or then. I guess it comes a little down to perspective, optimism and expectations. I'm I don't think Adams was the right appointment, so I feel little optomism, however due to great financial position and squad strength expectations were high. Hence a problem. My expectations have now plummeted and I am confident we will be a championship club next season. So whilst Adams was definitely the wrong appointment, wtf, let's all get behind him and hope blindly that he'll learn fast enough to get us up next year! Bah!
Very much agree with the stability point. The question is how long? Also it can be hard as fans as we dont see much of the work that goes on behind the scenes. Maybe they are building a very strong foundation for the future, doing great work but it is not clicking on the pitch at the moment? No saying that is the case, but there is a lot more that must go on behind the scenes to create a successful and sustainable club. Something a side such as Norwich with less financial resources must do to be successful long term.
This sums it up [video=youtube;Ehlw-9PJkIE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ehlw-9PJkIE[/video]
In answer to the Op's question, 'probably' but football fans have forever and a day complained, moaned, criticised, booed, you name it and it will never change. However they generally have good reason to and are perfectly within their right IMO as they pay hard earned money to go and watch their team.
Not all of them don't - Thai, Dave and RBF haven't been to a game between them in years. I'm not saying their opinions aren't valid by the way, just pointing out a glaring inaccuracy in your statement
This is the thing. Most fans if you ask them say that the crowds mood will have an impact on team performance. Yet everyone continues with the negativity and criticism. Seems a bit stupid from the fans in most cases imo. There are times I would agree with it but not in our current situation.
Sorry but why should this matter? They may still pay £45+ to get a replica shirt and still hate to see Norwich lose as much as we do But actually the main thing is that anything anybody says on this form which none of the players will ever read isn't going to affect to team's performance. So actually it is a perfectly fair system; only the fans who pay through their noses to watch us play get the chance to boo/cheer and affect the team's performance is a meaningful way. What's wrong with that?
Support the team when they are out on the pitch, the minute the whistle goes for half time or full time I'll rip them to shreds if they have not played well. The problem with fan negativity especially at Carrow Road is when the players do something wrong on the pitch, it seems like everything briefly goes into slow motion and the moaning seems to amp up by hundreds of decibels, it cuts through the players sometimes, we have a lot of impatient fans too, in a way I understand their frustration but the voices of discontent which can be heard when a ball is passed sidewards is beyond ridiculous sometimes.
Interesting article, which dovetails in quite nicely with this thread about how counter-productive booing can be during the match. As many on here have said, save it for phone-ins and internet chat rooms at / after the final whistle http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...but-what-can-booing-during-the-game-achieve/?
I completely agree with the article, booing will never help. And having a good winge should be saved for here or Canary call. I have never and will never boo before the final whistle. However after the whistle, if you have seen utter dross, then I think it is fair game to let the players, manager and board know that you have felt let down. It may still have a pretty negative impact but if the lads have been well supported from 1-90, then I'm sure they could deal with a bit booing, especially if they have been poor, it is likely that they'll know it anyway. Our support has not always been stella, but it was pretty good at the Forest game. The way they played second half though sucked the vibrancy out of the crowd minute by minute as the inevitability of an equaliser grew. by the final whistle I think I was to dumbfounded to cheer, boo, clap or anything. But it was yet another poor half in a season littered with very poor halves. Others booed and I think given the second half the players and manager deserved it, but it won't have helped. At CR is a different story, it's seemingly too often a nervous libruary type atmosphere, granted if the players could only start well it might pick up and give the players the sort of tangible boost that they would want. But for the crowd I still think it is understandibly hard to maintain any early singing gusto when we are often predictably sluggish out of the blocks, and some times never really get going. Bah!
IMO, we need another term for those who moan or boo their team, as neither 'fan' or 'supporter' makes any sense in that situation. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't have the right to vent their feelings, but perhaps they should become 'critics' (like in the theatre) or 'pundits' expressing their expert opinions. Personally, I have never booed my team and never will, because I feel it's detrimental to performance on the pitch, which is more important to me than any feelings I might have. I also feel that the booing and moaning last year was a contributing factor to our relegation and could be a contributing factor this year if we fail to gain promotion. It seems strange to me that people would do something so contrary to the very thing they want to happen.
I think at least the "fan" part is pretty much taken care of by attending a match as following your team I would say markes you as a fan. As for supporter, in essence I can't argue with you. However I think there are shades of grey. There are a number of fans who will sing or support any where in the range of; Near constantly ----- quite abit ------ sporadically ------ only when everyone else does ------ applauding good things --------------applauding and cheering only goals ----------------- mute. It then goes into the negative with non supportive; mute ---------- unhappy mutterings ---------- shouts of frustration -------- booing ------------- open hostility, with shouting and gesticulating. I think it is very possible to be a supporter by singing and applauding even if you then have a winge or a boo at the end. constant negativity and I would agree, and I would also wonder why they bothered? Maybe because they consider themselves a fan, but find the football infront of them very difficult to support for many reasons, from poor results, apparently lacking effort to unpallatable style. Critic may fit as a discription quite well but I'm still not totally convinced by these labellings, it was like the happy clappers vs the pant wetters last year. People in general will express opinions that they think are generally reasoned and supported by some evidence. That we can't all agree comes back to the perspective thing again. What do you want from your trip to Carrow rd?, what do you expect? how do you perceive the club, players and the game of football? Bah!
