Thanks Mike. I read the print version. That was an awful upbringing though possibly all too common.
I would have liked to have known more about Russell Martin’s link with Tony Adams at Wycombe, though I think I can guess 
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The EPL thread is a disaster. If that’s banter, they can have it.
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Every now and then, despite my better judgment, I am unable to resist the compulsion to make a comment in the EPL thread. I always regret it.
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Just come back from a Natalie Merchant gig; seen the score; read the report. Then I read certain comments on there from one person, whose team wasn’t even playing, and the sheer level of anger and bitterness makes me glad we’re sat here politely disagreeing who has the poorest owner.
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Not many artists I really hope to see, but Natalie’s up there.
Lucky you.
Oh gosh. You really must if you get the chance. I’ve seen her twice with 10,000 Maniacs and twice solo. Given her health issues her voice was full throttle last night. The only disappointment was zero Maniacs songs and a sedate set list. Band was lovely and my eighteen year old was very taken with her guitarist.
I live near Reading and you could have worse, whatever her fault (plenty) she genuinely cares for the club , the good news is we could have Mike Ashby as the new owner
Now that’s helpful. Well done Rotherham.
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Tough watch for Celtic supporters vs. Atletico. A Scottish referee would not have sent off Maeda. Players based in Scotland, when in Europe, need to understand the difference in how the rules are applied. Nae bother though @bhoyo , a game vs. Aberdeen at Parkhead on the weekend will be just the ticket to put today behind you.
Switched to Milan/PSG for the last 30 mins. Nothing special to report.
Football. What a stupid bloody game. Don’t know why I bother, man.
At the moment, I agree with you 100%…
Mind you, there’s always the next game…
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At the moment it’s gallows humour only in the south stand!
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These things are always relative.
In 1997 we were in league one and competing for a play off place. We competed for three consecutive years losing out by smaller margins each year. Friend of a friend said that one day we’d look back and see that as a golden age. We laughed dismissively. More fool us. First club to have a points deduction, essentially because the fit and proper person test was, and is, unfit for purpose. Fifteen years in non-league in consequence of the downward spiral that triggered. Eight hours from ceasing to exist.
You’re mid table in the Championship. You’re a small ish well run club with benign ownership in the best sense. You flew too close to the sun and got burnt (as might we in due course) but the overwhelming majority of fans would kill to be where you are. There is no world in which every season is a failure if you don’t get promotion or get relegated.
As was astutely observed on another rather annoying BBC video about my club today, fans tend to panic when managers (and owners) don’t. Enjoy the ride.
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A truly depressing read.
Clubs relegated from Premier League ‘will get new financial edge’
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Part of the problem is Delia convinced people we were little Norwich with no aspiration but to retain her ownership.
We regularly sell out at 27,000 and over subscribe for season tickets at the 22,000 level.
We could, capacity allowing, sell around 30,000 to 35,000 per game.
We have little nearby competition and are in one of the fastest growing economic regions in the country.
I hope this is what Attanasio and Norfolk Holdings have noted as it fits in with what they have achieved with the Brewers.
It could be a slow but successful new dawn and at worst give us more hope than the present debt laden basket case.
Hi John, I don’t deliberately intend to put a downer on it but I’m going to repeat a comment from @mikehughescq about the fortunes of my club earlier on this thread. It is possibly equally applicable to any Championship club: ‘you are probably one duff appointment away from relegation and disaster’.
Taking the positives, one or two good appointments could see us (and possibly you) staying in the Championship and in business. This is the limit of my hopes at the moment.
C.
Couldn’t agree more but in our case we’ve managed to waste seven years premiership or parachute payments together with £170 million transfer fees and end up £78 million in debt!
I’ve said on our local club site that we are more likely to be relegated than promoted.
I’d like to see Attanasio take over if only for the fact things cannot get any worse.
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Aspiration and achievability are two different things. Fans aspirations and perceptions of what ought to be achievable are often a million miles away from reality.
I think the perpetual description of your club as some kind of basket case is illustrative of this. Look at debt across the 92. You are nothing of the sort but it might feel that way because you’ve maybe not had this experience before. You’re having the experience now not because your owners don’t have enough money but because they understood that throwing around £150m plus to stay in the EPL would never guarantee that you did and to come down with that level of debt would actually put you at risk.
I appreciate you see this very differently but there is no-one in football such as David Conn or Swiss Ramble seeing you as in any kind of peril at all. It’s simply not true. Equally, the record of your new guy shows very clearly that the same model will persist because it has to.
In reality, expansion and sustainability nowadays are defined by a much higher level of debt not lower.
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I’m afraid our owners made a pigs ear of things around 2012
Chairman Alan Bowkett and CEO David McNally were brought in and managed to clear the debt and put us on a sound professional footing, leaving a decent squad and a profit in 2013/14. The team were promoted within two years.
Unfortunately we’ve now reverted to our previous state but with a far greater debt.
I think Bowkett & McNally demonstrated that if clubs are run on sound business principles they can be successful.
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I agree with your assertion, but possibly for different reasons.
I believe that this was the period when a lot of our current problems started & it centred around the manager, Paul Lambert.
Via the father of one of the better first team players at hat time, with whom I did a lot of business, I was told that the players worshiped him because, although he was a very strict disciplinarian, he earned their respect by demonstrating that he was an ex. player who had ‘done it all’, never expected anyone to do things he couldn’t do & showing that his tactics worked.
As you said, at the same time the board earned everyone’s respect by getting the business side in great shape, on a professional footing.
Unfortunately, the wheels started to come of when Lambert was courted by Aston Villa & being tipped as a possible successor to a largely ineffective, second time around, Kenny Dalgleish at Anfield. Lambert departed with indecent haste to Villa Park amid rumours of a big falling out with McNally. I heard another very unsavoury story from a friend with good connections inside the club which I am not prepared to divulge due to the nature of what possibly happened. If what I was told was true it would explain why there was suddenly huge player unrest & a promising squad, with good team spirit, quickly fell apart &, in true Norwich fashion, was relegated. Again, if what I heard was true it also explained why Lambert departed in haste for the first job offered rather then waiting a while longer to see if Liverpool, or someone similar, came calling.
Whatever the reason for Lamberts departure, it seemed to signal a slow decline for a club that had looked like being on the way up & based on solid foundations. There have been a few ups & downs since then & the biggest up the progress made under Farkes’ reign that, as I think we both agree, was marred in both our premiership seasons by a lack of backing from the board & consistently appalling transfer dealings from Mr Webber.
Whilst not believing that Delia is some sort of saint, I confess to having more time & sympathy for her than you do. She is a genuine supporter who attends all the home games & pretty much all the away games, at a time when I doubt that some of the owners of our biggest clubs have ever been to their clubs stadiums & would struggle to find their locations on a map.
As ever, I must end by saying that I am far more distant from the club than you are & can now only try & follow events from afar. For this reason I therefore feel that, where we may differ in our views (& they are never very far apart) yours are likely to be more pertinent to the dire situation we are currently in, than mine.
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