Hi Norwich City Fans, Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on your season so far and may it continue. Secondly, I am a third year student at Southampton Solent University, currently writing a dissertation on The Championships Finances between 2005-2009. I am wondering whether fans would be willing to give me their views and knowledge of when Norwich were relegated to League One and successively had back to back promotions to the Premier League. What I am getting at is, how did your club make financial cutbacks when relegated and what has changed financially since your double promotion? All views are welcome, even if you think about the financial cutbacks. Negative and Positive views welcomed. All the best for the remaining of the season.
Hi Rob. I assume you're a Sport Journalism student? I'm taking a gap year in September, but hope to become one myself at the Uni of Brighton next year. Seeing as I can somewhat relate to you then, I am willing to help, but fear I will be of little use. Although I'm sure you could look this up yourself, we were relegated in 2009, got promoted to the Championship in 2010, and therefore the Premier League in 2011. I'm trying to think about quite how we made cutbacks in 2009, and I'd have to say that the first sign of said cutbacks was the hiring of Bryan Gunn as manager, despite a 495 to 5 vote of no confidence at the fan's AGM. He was put on a 3 year deal, and I believe that that was probably due to the fact that the board didn't think they could get anyone better on similar wages. Despite this, however, we did make about a dozen signings in the summer of 2009, most noticeably that of Grant Holt, from Shrewsbury, for £400K. I honestly can't remember many more restrictions that were put in place, despite being so close to administration. This may be due to our fantastic season ticket sales, which were above 20,000 despite our divisional status. What has changed financially since then? Well, we're now in the Premier League, so we're making about £100 million a year more. Our wage system hasn't really changed though. All our players are on roughly the same money and the system put in place revolves around a strong team ethic that relies on squad happiness - money is key to this happiness. I realise I may not have been much help, but I'll leave you with this: many football fans think that our ascendency has everything to do with the hire of Paul Lambert. I think I speak for every single Norwich City fan when I say it also has a lot to do with the appointment of the Chief Executive, David Mcnally and the Chairman, Alan Bowkett. I don't know exactly what they've done, other than Lambert's appointment, but I do know that they will do absolutely anything to keep Lambert happy, giving him as much money as they possibly can to keep him at the club. They've also got a seven year plan in place which ensures that, at the end of which, Norwich City will be free of any debt. Paul Lambert aside, Norwich's revival is almost entirely down to those two, especially McNally (I may even suggest sending him an e-mail if you plan on using Norwich as a case study). Hope that helps.
All I can tell you is that the club made the gesture of offering a £70 refund to fans who had bought season tickets thinking we'd be in the championship the following season - many took it and when I've asked some who did if they'd now pay £100 into a 'transfer kitty', they all said, "Yes, absolutely!!" Michael Foulger, one of the NCFC directors offered to match any money that fans 'donated' by not taking their £70 refund and that was the money that enabled us to buy Grant Holt - need I say more??? Don't know if you're a Saints fan, but looks like we'll be playing them in the Prem next season.
