Some people on here will be surprised at thatā¦
Iām one of them!
Probably indicates our new owners are more hard nosed than the previous regime.
They also have sufficient backing to remove the desperation for quick sales.
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I should have added that if Idah continues to score at the rate he has since joining Celtic last January they canāt complain about the price.
Interesting piece from Henry Winter today in his Substack feed in praise of Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones. In summary, despite their flaws (and staying on too long) he praises them as custodians, fans and ultimately owners who cared for and loved their club. The loss off more local owners who loved their club - a dying breed in English football
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It started ok but they failed to see how the game was changing and far from saving the club in their later years they were holding it back.
It will be very interesting to see how the Norfolk Holdings companies strategy unfolds.
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I appreciate your congratulations & interest Mike.
Being rather further away from Carrow Road than @JohnF I am not as well versed in how all this may pan out as I suspect he is. I have also had more time for Delia than he has of late, hoping the self-sustaining model could be made to work for no better reason than all the passion she has for football & Norwich City. I never, for a moment, thought she was in it to ātake the money & runā (not saying John did, but plenty of others accused her of it).
Two things particularly endeared me to her. Firstly, she attended just about every match, home & away. This in an age when I suspect several club owners have probably never even visited their stadiums & some wouldnāt even know where they were!
Secondly, I went to Home Park Plymouth in the mid 90ās to see us play Argyle & bumped into Delia & party pre. match. One of the group happened to be someone I had conducted a lot of insurance business with in Norwich 15 years previously. He recognised me & introduced me to Delia. As soon as he told her of when I lived & worked in Norwich she started chatting to me for 3/4 minutes about games we both saw in that period & players she liked at the time, just as any real fan would when meeting someone they didnāt know but finding they had their football team in common. You immediately felt the club was safe in her hands.
As John said, her major failing was not seeing clearly that football was changing & we need to move with the times, like it or not, instead of trying to swim against the tide.
I am now trying to look to the future with optimism but canāt help reminding myself that this is Norwich & in the 45 years I have been a fan we have rarely failed to turn near triumph into disaster! You had a taste of this on Saturday. Two nil up early on, first game in higher league. What could possibly go wrong? Iāve had 45 years of this & John, quite a few more than me!
I am trying to be optimistic but, Norwich being Norwich (again), I can already see that whoever wins the US Presidential Election, will reintroduce prohibition, instantly bankrupting Milwaukee Brewers & wiping out Mr Attanasioās multi-million dollar fortune & reducing him to begging Delia for a bail-out to save the club.
Far fetched? This is Norwich I am talking aboutā¦
On a more realistic note, the future looks brighter than it did yesterday, provided we can avoid relegation this season. Perhaps those players already with us will not be so keen to leave & potential new signings will be more enthusiastic about a move to Norfolk.
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I find the whole āfootball has moved onā thing endlessly fascinating. In essence football finance āexpertsā dismiss self-funding and fan ownership as āunsustainableā but opt for a āmodelā which is sustained either by a sugar daddy with investment which turns out to be loans/debt; an assumption that TV money will continue forever and only ever go up, or, has funding streams which only rich clubs can afford e.g. City and Chelsea hoovering up kids with promise with no intention of them ever going near the first team. Just being sold for profit.
This narrative makes zero sense. Many here will support clubs devastated by the loss of ITV money. Memory is short. Most can only dream of being able to support other revenue streams. Essentially the model is held up largely by the ability to convince fans that the only way forward is to do what the big boys do. Football as fantasy. The number of clubs who have done that; found themselves in the EPL or Championship and then spiralled downwards grows by the season and yet still we ābelieveā despite that evidence. Every club will have its own story about people with ill intent etc. but essentially all of them step into a void explicitly created by this fictional model of sustainability.
Off the top of my head the many variants on the worst of this shoot for the stars theme have included Blackburn, Cardiff, Hull, Derby, Leeds, Luton, Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield United, Stoke City, Sunderland, Swansea, Barnsley, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bolton, Cambridge, Charlton, Huddersfield, Reading, Stockport, Wigan, Wrexham, Wimbledon, Bradford, Doncaster, Swindon, Macc, Chester and Tranmere. Thatās about a third of the 92. In non-league you still have York, Oldham, Rochdale and Southend.
Some are in recovery. Some are tentatively on the up. Some are a long way from that and some will never recover.
Most fans of my club are āenjoying the rideā. You only have to seriously ask what happens next to end up with your head in your hands in a very short time.
The new Norwich owner is big on sustainability but the only difference between him and the Smiths is money. Itās not intent or skill set. Itās just money. Delia gets some serious rubbish from people but her only crime was to step into a void which could have just as easily have been filled by a Moshiri or the money laundering operations which own certain other big clubs. One day Norwich fans will appreciate that she was a custodian in the truest sense and maybe appreciate better why that matters. Fans tend to assume that extra money must mean extra expertise. Moshiri and many others are fine examples of why that isnāt true. Norwich have struck lucky but itās important to remember that it is just luck for the second time in a row and that it wonāt mean instant success or a prolonged spell in the EPL. Far from it. If he runs UK stuff like his US stuff then the model will be to aim for actual sustainability andā¦ thatās it. Of course heāll foolishly make noises otherwise. They all do. However, a serious examination of his US approach suggests that the intent will not be to produce an EPL club but to produce a club which is always at the top of the Championship; capable of good cup runs; produces and sells good young players; engages with the local community and, if it makes the EPL, comes down with finances intact regardless of parachute payments etc. Plus ca change.
The owners at Bolton are not dissimilar to the Smiths. Enough money to rescue and run sensibly. Not quite enough to perhaps sustain a Championship club any more. Few Bolton fans appreciate that the alternative is a short burst of glory followed a flirtation or worse with extinction once again.
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Sufficient to say the problems which prevented lufc gaining auto promotion and performing at Wembley were there in glorious technicolour last night and to a lesser extent (our best current 11) on Saturday v Portsmouth. The legacy of Radz tenure (Ortaās signings) is a burden we still carry, in particular our reluctance/inability to sign a ball carrying/line breaking/goal scoring centre mid. In addition, last night, some of our players (not all Ortaās signings) were bone idle. Itās been a poor start. Farke has his work cut out and needs signings to succeed.
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Things continue to slide downhill for The Mighty Whites, as, having lost both Wee Erchie and Crysencio Summerville, it now looks as though Giorginio Rutter is catching the Brighton Amex express, due to yet another of the poorly thought out escape clauses in playersā contracts.
Oh well, onwards and upwards, I suppose. 
M.O.T.
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A good summary I thought. Guardian article today titled
football/article/2024/aug/13/the-end-of-an-era-delia-smith-brought-pride-and-passion-to-norwich?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Strange article as there was no mention of Michael Foulger, the man who financed a large part of Deliaās reign. Once he decided to withdraw the reign quickly ended.
Also no mention of the fans who paid for upgrading the training facilities through the issue of a bond.
In the early days Delia provided loans at favourable interest rates but these were paid back many years ago.
A very well considered & reasoned post Mike.
Hard to find fault in most of what you say.
The only things I would say in reply are:-
1 Norwich is a āPremierā city. If you havenāt been there I wouldnāt expect you to understand but I wouldnāt expect many who have to disagree with this. Itās citizens, & football team, have experienced life in the top flight & are conditioned to wanting to be an established member & competing for the top prizes. That is what sport is about at pretty much any level & without the desire to do so, it would not exist.
2 I doubt that Attanasio was a closet Norwich supporter for just over 60 years & then finally succeeded in buying the club of his dreams for the same reasons as Delia did, i.e. a fan. I suspect that he saw his fellow American businessmen buying into English clubs as profitable investments, not for the love of the English game &, having made a bob or two himself, decided that this is for him as well.
His small fortune, a mere $700m, meant that he probably could not afford a ābigā name club & therefore found that we fitted his bill. An affordably club almost always in the top 26 sides in the football leagues &, perhaps, needing just a little more business professionalism to join the really big boys & get amongst the real money without needing to spend the bulk of his fortune? If thing go well, perhaps selling on for a tidy profit in years to come?
I just donāt see that there are plenty of American billionaires desperate to get their hands on English clubs because of their love for the game.
Like you, I donāt see Attanasio throwing his money around, But I would hope to start seeing some sensible investment to try & establish us back in the Premier League on a rather firmer footing than the past half dozen or so times. He canāt possibly have come here to stabilise Norwich as a Championship side with no aspirations to rise further. There is no money to be made in that at his financial level.
As you have said, it should be fascinating to see what happens. However, I doubt Man. City et. al. are trembling just yet!
I read the article as being to brief to go into great detail, focussing purely on the club most outside the city know solely as āDelia Smithās Norwichā.
I suspect the valid points you raised would have no interest to non-supporting readers.
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She was certainly a master of PR.
I would add the fund Attanasio and his partners run is worth around Ā£22 billion.
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A bit of a cook too, so I hear.
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Youāll be pleased Ipossibly) to hear that Iāve been to Norwich many times dating back to the late 1980s when my mate John was doing his teacher training there. Also been to watch Norwich play a fair few times, again dating from around then. Have vivid memories of my first game which was v the Crazy Gang; absolutely freezing day and a dreadful game finished 0-0. I know the wider area well as Iāve a friend in Cambridge; sailed the Broads a few times and holidayed in multiple locations along the coast.
Your perception is really interesting as it shows what that taste of the EPL can do. For me Norwich have always looked like a Championship team very much punching above your weight and @JohnF reading and your reading of the article is equally interesting and understandable. I tend to read articles on Wrexham and not recognise the club I support very much or the events described. There anre always several āā¦ but what aboutā moments. The media do the best they can but essentially someone tells them stuff and they write it down. Checks on detail and gaps are rarely done.
There is huge American investment in British football and I find it fascinating how the relatively small ownership of clubs with Middle East connections is given far more scrutiny when in many ways US ownership is potentially more dangerous for the future of clubs. Theyāre here because theyāre broadening a financial portfolio and sport covers multiple bases. Our owners allow our players to sell themselves outside of football - Palmer has a clothing line; Mullin has his charity work and has now written an autobiography. Several players have launched restaurants, podcasts and much more. This helps disguise the many ways our American and Canadian owners are exploiting every commercial possibility. Do the club benefit? Of course they do. Do they benefit as much as McReynolds (one of their commercial vehicles not a nickname)? Nope.
Welcome To Wrexham has raised the profile of players, club and city. Not one penny comes directly our way from the TV series. Fans now pay to enter a fanzone before they get to pay a second time to eat and drink there. Our temporary stand is called the Fourth Wall. No prizes for guessing which whisky sponsors it or who owns that and uses product placement in adverts and more at every opportunity. Aviation Gin? Similar. The appearance of Mullin and Palmer in the latest Deadpool film.
Guess which club bullied the National League into streaming games? Guess which club didnāt make a statement in favour of FA Cup replays? Guess which club gave a player we needed for 8 weeks a 3.5 year contract? Guess which club has broken a 40 year old transfer record twice in three seasons? Guess which club wants to eventually run its own match streaming service outside of the EFL? Guess which other clubs support that idea? Guess which club wanted to run a league game in the US but then denied there had been any conversation? Guess which club will likely take less than 50% of the profit from said streaming service? Guess which club owners said theyād never loan against the club or sell without discussion. We have 3 loans against us and Eva Longoria watching Wycombe because her portfolio now includes the Mexican club who now own 5% of us. A sale which our owners neglected to tell us about. Yes, the one with an American and Canadian owner.
In our favour we are literally the only EFL club with an American owner which wants to retain promotion and relegation. The rest are all on (or inadvertently off) the record as saying the exact opposite. There is much to be worried about.
I hope this explains why Iāve a disproportionate interest in your incoming majority owner and have read about him extensively. His existence is of serious interest to all of us with an American in the mixā¦ Heās no interest in EPL level clubs. Look at his portfolio. He understands that itās not about being top. Itās about being in the market and having diverse revenue streams to make you sustainable and him rich. Expect to see discussions start on expanding your ground slightly. Expect to see a huge expansion in your leisure wear allied to a huge increase in community activities and the slow creep of charges allied to the latter. The kids holiday football club will soon have a cost attached. Expect being a mascot to double in cost. Expect a significant improvement in the media offer around interviews and highlights.
Donāt expect any outcome other than continued pinging between EPL and Championship. His aim is to be Delia with money and for self-sustainment for both the club and himself. He fully understands that being in the EPL simply costs money he doesnāt have and also upsets the calculation of year on year financial improvement. Read what heās said about his US portfolio and the many things heās said in the US about his financial approach.
These people are engaging and rich but also dangerous. They have the language (apparently our owners are not owners. They are ācustodiansā. Bravo you twerps.) but they also have āplansā. Your new owner is more of the same but in technicolour in terms of how Delia managed the club. Heās not however a benign presence.
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I donāt disagree with what you say in general Mike and as Iāve stated before I think it will be interesting to see what Attanasioās plan is. I certainly donāt expect a Manchester City but at worst a secure Norwich City.
The main reason for the need to change was the fact Norwich were debt free eight years ago thanks to the efforts of Alan Bowkett and David McNally and after they left, despite Ā£200 million parachute and three years in the EPL, the club ended up nearly Ā£90 million in debt. For any business this meant change and I believe the only reason we have it now is because the debt became to big for her to manage.
Iām certain Delia was not in it for the money but like me a true fan but enough was enough.
With regard the future Norwich is not a minor City but one of the fastest economic growth areas outside London and should be on a par with Brighton, Bournemouth and Brentford.
I donāt think it is being over ambitious to expect a better run club under the new owners.
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Hi @mikehughescq
Thanks for your posts which I find informative and fascinating. You are well informed and thanks for taking the time to post in detail. A good example of why many of us really enjoy the various threads that spring up on this site.
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