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Before I continue, I wish to make it perfectly clear that my one and only true love has always been and always will be Norwich City Football Club. An allegiance passed down the generations, father to son.
However, as a young lad growing up in the late sixties and early seventies, I had a 'second' team as most other boys did too, mine was Leeds, the mighty Leeds. My beloved Canaries had yet to be promoted to the top flight of English football and I, just like many others, wanted to be associated with the best. Leeds were the best, they had the best manager, Don Revie, the best team.
Sprake, (later Harvey), Reaney, Cooper, Bremner, Charlton, Madeley, Lorimer, 'Sniffer' Clarke, Jones, Giles, Gray and poor young Mick Bates who invariably warmed the one and only place on the subs bench. After forty years I can still recite that team, probably because it was the same eleven who turned out every week in League and Cup to destroy all their adversaries.
Leeds were arrogant (remember the numbered garters!), but they were entitled to be because Leeds were the best. However, the football purists didn't like Leeds, 'DIRTY' Leeds, as they bullied the opposition with their sometimes devious and underhand tactics. But to me as a young boy those men in white were special, I could only dream of City competing in the same division.
So who would have thought that forty years later City would be poaching their better players, Johnson, Howson, who next? Snodgrass?
Unlike Leeds who now live on past glories, Norwich who dropped into the third tier for the first time in fifty years two seasons ago, are on the up. They have one of the best young Managers in the game and a board with a forward thinking CEO in David McNally who has completely turned the club around. Without tempting fate, we should, barring a Blackpool-esque collapse (sorry!), retain our Premier League status for next year. The future looks bright to say the least.
Norwich is a unique city; you don't 'pass through' here to get to anywhere alse. Many people from outside the county don't realise that Norwich is now a thriving cosmopolitan city with a population that is growing fast and is set to get even bigger if the new 'eco town' on the outskirts finally gets the go-ahead. As such, our football club has outgrown it's stadium with more and more people wanting to watch the games. IF Norwich can retain top-flight status in seasons to come (and that's a big IF), I can only see my football club growing in stature and becoming even bigger than it already is.
How times have changed !
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