Saturday should be interesting Dave 
I see the quietly excellent Darren Moore is slowly turning the good ship Huddersfield around.
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Indeed, it should be a decent game, and I fancy our chances against Boro … … … but then, I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Not sure whether Greenwood is allowed to play against us. Hope not, as he can be lethal with long range shots and set pieces, and our defence is still occasionally wobbly.
2-1 Leeds. 
M.O.T.
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It wasn’t sparkling, we still waste golden opportunities, clean sheet eludes us again but we scored 3 beauties and Messlier had zero to do other than pick the ball out of the net once. Job done.
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Nice to see, too. An excellent result at Sunderland last night.
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I just hope we can give you a decent game, eight first-teamers out injured plus Greenwood ineligible. But, like yourself, I still fancy a decent game, with both teams having potent attacks and wobbly defences. So it’s probably 0-0 
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Our AGM last night. Delia blamed the 20% moaners and injuries for our current plight. I take it the other teams in the championship do not have injury problems and the people who sit around me at games are all 20%ers!
Despite a debt of at least £70 million and rising we are still applying the self funding model.
Glad everything is tickety-boo!
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You must have found her message very reassuring…
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Read the reports and watched the video of the press conference. Glad that I did as it confirmed to me how easy it is to misunderstand what’s being presented. The take aways for me were:
- Delia isn’t saying that only 20% are unhappy. She’s saying that 20% are moaning sufficiently at matches that it’s impacting the players. I can’t comment on Norwich specifically but it’s certainly something I’ve seen repeatedly at Wrexham so it carries credibility with me.
- the point, also made by me here on a different football thread a long while back, about you not attracting investment from within Norfolk over 28 years was well made. You then have to be extremely mistrusting of why an outside investor want to come in. There is generally no good reason. The example of Everton, for whom money has made everything worse, is a valid example.
- your new man is clearly not interested in taking outright charge and was 100% upfront on that.
- your “self-funding” model is not going to change. Again, your man is absolutely wedded to that.
- they’re actually going to do what you argued with me about here. They’re going to do what my club are initially doing i.e. increase the revenue base rather than look for outside investment. Ground expansion and training ground expansion ahead of promotion. Immensely sensible stuff.
Outside of that it was clear to me that Delia is anything but your problem. The problem was so obviously Michael. It’s hard to know where to begin. There were so many red flags in his few words; his demeanour. The lot. He would bin Wagner tomorrow. Your new man is making them pause and wants data and infrastructure in place before even contemplating a change of manager/coach. Unless you’re bottom 3 you’ve clearly got him for the foreseeable.
If you weigh up the cost of ground expansion against revenue it will not work.
The only time it works is if ground development to another use pays for a new stadium in another location, or the West Ham model.
Delia blaming the customers is a huge mistake and all the message boards are saying it is 80/20% the other way.
I think we’re seeing the end of her reign but heavens knows what Norfolk Holdings will do.
Did you watch the video? Any of it?
To a neutral that didn’t sound like the end of anything. They work as a three. No more no less. None of them seemed to have a coherent thought on three years time.
You might want to explain your theory on ground expansion to our owners. If it was as simple as you suggest no-one would build a ground. They’d just play in fields.
The calculation for us is that 5,500 seats equates to roughly 3,800 season ticket holders and the remaining 1,700 will be competed for by roughly 5.000 fans. That then translates to an engaged extra fan base of 8,800 which instantly translates into around 7,000 shirt sales etc. That’s before you factor in the rest of the stuff they buy and the extra advertising that a constantly sold out home end guarantees for years ahead.
So does it pay to expand a stand? Not immediately. Does it pay to expand a stand. Yes. And then some. Do you seriously think the likes of Liverpool just want a few thousand more fans to see them? It’s worth small fortune. There is a staggering and very boring video on YouTube of Ian Bancroft talking about the economic benefit to Wrexham of such simple things as this. It’s eye opening and on this occasion I’m going to call you out and say you’ve let your hatred of Delia get well and truly in the way of the messaging from all three and your understanding of why extra seats are critical is genuinely lacking.
Who sponsors you currently? Our last two shirt sponsors have been Tik Tok and United Airlines… in league two and non-league. In terms of business sense they know exactly what they’re doing building a new stand and your American sees exactly the same thing and just said so very clearly. You wanted the new guy. You wanted the knowledge and the money. You wanted the acumen and ambition. Now you’ve got it… you don’t appear to want it at all despite it making perfect sense.
Sadly I suspect thete is no owner on the planet who could satisfy your contradictory demands.
Two years ago it was estimated that to increase the ground by 6-7,000 it will cost between £40-50 million.
Average income per spectator is £425 per season.
Using mid figures the income is about 6% but the cost of the borrowing will be well in excess of this figure. This means you’d have to sell a lot of extra shirts to the extra fans to make up the shortfall, assuming we can sell an extra 6,500 seats.
Currently our attendance is just above 20,000 judging by the vast number of empty seats. The claimed 26,000 attendance comes about by adding the season ticket sales of 22,000 regardless of who turns up.
This is an unacceptable risk to a business holding £70 million debt.
Regarding the interview Delia clearly blames the pessimism of 20% of supporters and if you ask any City fan they’ll say the figures are the wrong way round. 80% are unhappy with her ownership.
As to the new owners it is not clear from the interview if he will take over or remain in the deal which is what is worrying fans. When Delia said it was a done deal Mark Attanasio quickly corrected her saying there were still is to dot and tees to cross.
It is clear from our current situation that if we are to remain in the championship an owner worth £30 million is unfortunately not the answer.
I think we’re at cross purposes here and you either haven’t watched the video or have wilfully or otherwise misunderstood it. There may well be 80% of your fans or 80% of match day attendees against her ownership. Her response though was clearly not about that. Her issue was that, within the ground, 20% were expressing whatever their discontent and, whilst they had every right to do so, they also had to accept it impacts performances. Could not have been any clearer from the video.
Having seen that at Wrexham over the years I can well believe that the fan base have an overwhelming perspective which then isn’t wholly reflected in match day behaviour e.g. some of our fans would boo at 0-0 simply because they didn’t like fan ownership. Lots more felt that way later on but would never boo the team performance regardless. Equally, one of our players eventually had to publicly explain that if you sing “If you all hate the English clap your hands” thst will impact the English players in your Welsh team just like Mullin being an anti royalist impacts his relationship with his royalist team captain.
That aside, your 80% clearly need to better interpret what’s in front of you. On the basis of that 35 minutes, Delia isn’t going anywhere and your new owner clearly shares the self-funding model as the way forward.
As I said earlier though I think you’ve now let your hatred of Delia blind you to what’s being said and done and your interpretations don’t really square at all with what has been very clearly said. Your posts are beginning to contradict themselves.
Here for example you’ve just absolutely dismissed the sensible financial move of growing your income base by expanding the stadium. This seems to lack any logic as you have almost wilfully excluded the impact of extra advertising and much more I won’t bore people here with. The main reason for you’re dismissing it seems to be because Delia would be associated with it, despite it clearly being just as much if not more the new guys plan.
You might want to cast your eyes back to, I think, the 21/22 football thread on here where you dismiss my suggestion that you couldn’t sustain that much in the way of extra crowds and you make a very clear statement that you could sustain 10,000 costing £20m more but the problem was Delia lacked the ambition and money to do that. Now you have someone alongside her saying that’s perfectly possible but you don’t want it essentially because she’s there and now it’s not sustainable. Do you see how little sense that makes?
Love the passion for your club but all rational discussion is out the window when your only consistent view is that everything is or will be Delia’s fault. You’re at the stage where already your new guy is tainted simply because he sits next to her rather than pushing her out. She could walk tomorrow and his view would still be that the self-sustaining model is the only way to go. He’s home from saviour to traitor in your eyes in literally weeks simply because she’s still there. He’s not echoing her views cos his stupid. You only have to view what he’s done in the US to see he’s anything but.
Previously you ridiculed me for suggesting inward investment of the scale to maintain an EPL club was impossible for a club your side without taking dodgy money. Here’s your owner saying that in 28 years not one millionaire courted in Norfolk wanted to part with the dosh. Really is time to wake up and smell the roses. You’re a well run Championship club punching above your weight and likely to get a tad better at that un future but no more than that.
And yes, yadda yadda yadda £70m but, again, that is absolutely nothing in the scheme of 0ther debt in your division or indeed the one below.
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A couple of seasons ago under Farke we had an entertaining team and a full house. Bringing in more fans would have been far easier than is the case now.
Delia as an owner telling her customers they are whingers indicates her time is nigh, you simply cannot do that and maintain the respect of your customer base. This is not the first time this has happened and a major reason fans are demanding a change. A considerable number of us still attend because football is unique in tying you to your team. I and the other whingers will always only be Norwich City.
Regarding the effect of the crowd on players I think it is reactive. If the team were up to the task nobody would complain but if you had watched them recently even you would probably complain.
As for the debt of £70 million it proves the self funding model is delusional and another factor that casts doubt on both Delia and Attanasio.
If you see clear answers from a carefully scripted interview you are doing better than the majority of fans.
As I say, you must have either not watched that interview or watched something else.
I do love this. It speaks hugely to the entitlement of fans of successful clubs who always believe they deserve and must have more.
I sat through 1982 to 1989 when we were in free fall and 1991 when we finished 92nd and only a vote mired in self interest kept us in the league. I watched us with a 43 year old manager in goal and playing on front of barely 800 fans.
I watched 15 years of us in non-league. Not all of it was awful but most of it was. Prior to the takeover the Covid break saw us escape relegation to the National League North solely on points per game.
Not once did I boo. Fans who express discontent at the ownership are fine. We held a very clearly targeted red card protest at one point. Fans who boo a team in the Championship because they don’t like the owner are entitled tw***.
Fans always have a right to complain if the entertainment on offer is poor as they do with any other entertainment.
How should they react to an owner not only calling them whingers but taking them for granted and blindly telling them she is the only safe option after they’ve paid for some of the highest priced tickets in the league?
Spending ninety minutes watching the ball continually going back to the keeper would test the patience of the nicest fans.
I honestly think we should vote with our feet and leave her with an empty stadium as it’s the only thing that will make her see reality.
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Fans do have a right to complain but how you complain matters. If your complaint is against the ownership as it is here then direct your ire to them. Directing your ire at the team is unacceptable and always has been. It achieves nothing positive and never has.
Your posts are increasingly inaccurate. She very clearly called some fans whingers. Frankly, from the privileged position of a club punching above your weight, but seriously thinking you’ve a right to better, that is exactly what you sound like.
Far from “blindly” telling you she’s the safe option she’s confirmed my assertion that there is no Norfolk investment to be had and outside of the odd good guy like your new man there is never going to be anyone that interested. You have spent three years telling everyone here how that is simply not the case. Why can’t you this? Why you can’t you that? You actually have all the answers to that but you dint want to accept them. That’s your prerogative but from the outside it no longer looks rational.
Given your previous assertions that there would be 10,000 people waiting to take tickets I doubt a ticket protest would achieve anything. The overwhelming majority of our season ticket holders have boycotted the EFL Trophy. The reality is that about 6,000 other fans unable to get regular tickets have stepped in.
In what seems to have been a feisty affair, with seven yellow cards and a dismissal, The Mighty Whites were able to hang on against Boro’s ten men, and win by the odd goal in five, which was just as well really, since the teams around us all won their games.
Next up are Blackburn, who are bound to be hurting after being hammered this afternoon by bottom of the table Sheffield Wednesday.
M.O.T.
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Sorry…………
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Look forward to watching the highlights of this at 9pm tonight. Sounds a cracker. Boro have climbed right out of an early season nightmare but are clearly play off material at best. Watford coming up on the outside though folks.
Interesting to see Leeds and Southampton right in the mix. The key will be being able to take advantage when/if Leicester or Ipswich stumble slightly.