Stowmarket Two - tight as a duck's arse McNally - recruitment ****e Neil - Tactically naive Players - been here too long (a la Delia) Supporters - happy clapping for life Ergo - relegation and the legend that is "Little Norwich" remains
Glad to see We can sometimes agree Even if ´odds against´ are stacked, But I´ll not blame Wherever in the frame We end, or if we´re soundly whacked.
Here´s another version: Stowmarket Two - as good a pair of owners as you´ll find McNally - almost single-handedly turned the Club around Neil - naive perhaps, but still light years ahead of KIO Players - longevity, a sign of loyalty, which will get you a lot further than one-season wonders Supporters - perceptive, loyal and enduring , and for the most part realistic - they don´t come much better Ergo - ´Little Norwich´ who will every now and again punch above their weight We all see what we want to see KIO
My answer is much simpler. Football fans become identified with their club and their egos rise and fall with the success or failure on the pitch. When we won the play-off final everyone was ecstatic. We were on our way. What fools the pundits were for making us favourites for relegation. Ups and downs follow, leading to relegation. There's something rotten that has done us down and we must find it out. Blame must be assessed or I'll be embarrassed the next time I'm in the pub. It's this, that or the other and it makes me very angry. Back to blame. Except it isn't that - it's football, and anything can happen!
I don't think anyone calls us "little Norwich" even 5% as much as you do. I think all this "Little Norwich" you keep reading about is your own posts!
No blame anywhere we are NCFC this roller coaster ride is what we do we can't compete with the mega rich clubs and their faceless plastic support Rejoice in following a real club and enjoy
Excellent post jarrold and sums it all up. It looks like both the blue and red side of Manchester will be spending around £500M between them in the transfer window. #ludicrous I do however want to be entertained when I to home games and the players to be proud to wear yellow and green. There have been occasions in recent months when I feel they haven't!!!
I agree with your summary RBF 100%. We also have the lousiest press in Europe and this probably is partly behind the over-reactions that you alude to. Enjoy our Summer.
If when Alex Neil was interviewed at the start of the season said " I doubt we'll stay up to be honest but it won't be my fault and I will still receive my weekly income which is higher than most of the suckers that turn up every week get in a year anyway so it won't effect me much anyway ". Most would be dissappointed, the fact is we were relegated and he is paid to win games. To not be able to criticise or blame him or the players or refs that give offside goals against us and not give perfectly good goals for us is pretty daft. We weren't good enough and went down and it certainty wasn't my fault.
Evening ´Nuts´ , am not, in this thread, and have never, disputed that a percentage of fans will always criticise, blame and generally rant and rave after a poor performance. My point, and the question raised in the OP, which still hasn´t been satisfactorily answered, is WHY some people think it necessary, and exactly what good they think it will do, apart from possibly making themselves feel a little bit better. Certainly the blame, throughout the season, aimed in an assortment of directions, did nothing to improve either results or performances. The only tangible result has been the resignation of McNally, and whether directly connected or not, that seems to me to be a loss we could have done without at this time.
A good example would be Mourinho, he won titles at Chelsea and made them into a great European side. When things were going well he could do no wrong but for some reason last season Chelsea lost their way and they spent most of the season in the bottom half. He had failed in his objective and blamed for their poor form and fired. If goalkeepers let in stupid goals all the time then they can be blamed If strikers can't score they are blamed . Just being nice to them and encouraging them regardless of how they perform is how you treat small children, adults who work in professional sports teams know what they are getting into and have to be extremely driven to get to the top level. If Norwich get beaten by Aston Villa in a game that we should expect to be winning , If those players don't put in the work rate and make costly errors then they thoroughly deserve to be criticised. The thing is it wasn't just Villa away Palace away Man U at home Newcastle away Bournemouth away they were not good enough in most of the games. We can't match the other sides for skill and guile but surely we can match them in determination and work rate. Sadly we gave up with 5 games left to play and they deserved the criticism.
You say, and I quote, ` if goalkeepers let in stupid goals all the time then they can be blamed, if strikers can´t score they can be blamed` - Fine, but when Ruddy returned after being dropped, was he any better, and Jerome, constantly criticised and blamed for lack of goals through the season, did he suddenly respond to the blame and start scoring? Sounds as if you want to play the roles of prosecuting counsel, judge and executioner, all rolled into one, and if they don´t perform to the level you think they ought to, then they have to be blamed. Just can´t see what earthly good it does, but if you think it does, then I´m sure you´ll carry on. I never had the remotest of high hopes of reforming any of you anyway.
They are professional sportsmen and personally I think we should have signed a new goalkeeper in January. Both Rudd and Ruddy let in too many goals losing us games. Or failed to make Important saves , it's the same thing. Jerome completely lost form and I believe should have lost is place in the starting 11 . Nobody is getting executed but professional sportsmen are to be judged on performances . It wasn't the critism from fans stopping Jerome scoring goals , If it was then he's clearly in the wrong line of work.
To put it another way I have a bicycle , every morning the chain comes off making me late for work with oily hands. After two weeks of this it gets a bit tiresome , I complain to my boss about this bike and criticise it's ability to deliver me to work on time. Does the bike work any better because I complained about it ? No . I had been patient with the bike and hoped it would improve but it didn't, so I buy a new bike . Why persevere with something that clearly isn't working in the hope it will eventually Improve? .
You know , that´s very interesting - how can you actually, possibly tell,? I think you´ll find that most footballers are a lot more human than you give them credit for, and they react very visibly and very acutely to fan reaction. I´ve seen Bassong visibly wilt, I´ve seen Martin visibly wilt after mistakes that they´ve made, and the subsequent barracking they´ve received from fans. So don´t be too sure, ´Nuts´ - anyway enjoyed our little chat, I´m off now.
