Norwich City: Are We A Big Club?

Norwich City: Are We A Big Club?

As we stare into the abyss of another relegation, will Norwich City ever be big players in the Premier League again? Or are we doomed to yo-yo between the divisions, in a never-ending roller coaster of elation and calamity…

It’s considered blasphemous even merely to suggest that your team isn’t a big club. Yet the Canaries seem to be ridiculed and patronised by their Premier League peers, not to mention Match Of The Day. So are we really kidding ourselves to believe we’re one of the country’s best? Are we belittled into small club syndrome just because it’s a cheap blow? Or are we genuinely considered to be punching above our weight in each season of the world’s “greatest league”?

We Are A Big Club

Firstly lets look at what supposedly makes a ‘big club’: A large fan base, power in the transfer market, big name players, impressive history and, of course, money.  It is generally considered a large fan base when there’s only one professional team in the county. And while this has its flaws, for example the unbearable ‘local scores’ round up on Canary Call, the upside is the majority of Norfolk buh’s, live and breathe for the yellows.

Secondly we’ve spent 4 of the last 5 seasons playing in the top flight, we were the first team to achieve back to back promotions to the Premier League since Manchester City on the turn of the century, and while Southampton’s identical feat the very next year took a shine off City’s achievement, there can still be no doubt that Norwich have the stature and resources to cement themselves in English football’s elite.

Better Than Most

Should we receive a cup-tie against a lower league team, more often than not we’d be backed, unless however it’s a Tuesday night trip to Craven Cottage. Yet take a look at the ever-humorous Sky Sports pundit’s, Super 6 entries for the week and a Norwich backer is as rare as an Ipswich Town promotion party.

This really begs the question why? How drastic has the fall from grace been from the team of home grown heroes that beat Munich in their own back yard, to a side filled with “Championship players” desperately clinging to 17^th place?

The small club mind-set haunts us in the transfer market. When we make a nice marquee signing (or RVW) they’ll either flop or be considered ‘too good’ for us and be poached by a stagnating team in 9^th. (Make the most of Klose while you can). As harsh on the lugholes as it may be, it is easily backed with historical evidence. Let me take you back to a time of baggy long sleeved shirts and Samba De Janeiro... Incredible spectacles Vs. Newcastle and Middlesbrough were rife, as well as shock wins against Man U. We had a media dubbed, “up and comer” for a manager in Worthy and the future looked bright. However a lot of money spent in the transfer periods, with foreign names a plenty arriving through the gates at Norwich Airport, could not save us from a relegation scrap. It’s all starting to sound scarily familiar…

If we’re to expect any form of excitement in the Premier League era of money and goal line technology, then it’s going have to come via the cups, or the enigmatic “Fair Play table”. What we’re looking at here is a Bolton, Wigan, Swansea situation. A team that in every realist’s eyes; will rarely get a whiff of the alcohol free cologne of European competition. And why should we? It’s only little old Norwich.

The following transfer periods, post relegation, have seen the loss of players such as: Green, Ashton, Fer and Snodgrass, players who were highly regarded at the start of their respective NCFC careers. This is why we struggle to make a case to be an EPL big boy, we can’t hold onto our big guns.

We’re Doomed

Finally the pessimistic view that Norwich City is forever doomed to be a yo-yo club until it fall’s back into the pit from whence it came along with: Bolton, Blackburn, Leeds, Fulham etc.  The harsh reality is Norwich will never have the resources as some other geographically gifted clubs, therefore confining us to a glass ceiling. We won’t be gifted with a free pass into the Europa League, or a nice new 60,000-seater stadium (paid for by the tax payer.) to propel us from the yo-yo league to 4^th spot contenders, it just won’t happen. The main nail in our yellow and green coffin is that we aren’t a London club. Footballers who are of the standard we’re hoping to achieve want 6 figure salaries, fast cars and somewhere better than Mantra to spend their Saturday night.

Luke Keeler