Interesting article from James Kent on the subject - http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...f-being-the-latest-yo-yo-club-whats-it-to-be/. Personally, I'd rather stay in the PL and gradually improve the ground and the quality of players we're able to sign.
I would feel very uncomfortable if we had been relegated.The record of teams getting back up recently isn't good of late.Better by far to stay there.
Steady progress may not be exciting but is more rewarding the medium and longer term. Boom and bust like in the economy is not a great way forward and while here are short term highs there are various car crashes that undermine everything. Classic cases like Rushden and Portsmouth are but two examples and where are Wolverhampton Wanderers now?
Whereas relegation hurts like hell for a while, the pain of not bouncing back straight away can last for years - look at Burnley, Blackpool, Hull (until this season) and (uncomfortably ) close to home, the mighty 'we-used-to-be-famous' Ipswich Town.
I have mixed feelings on this. I think the gradual building of the club and team is great and the way forward but I would like to think that in a season or 2 we will have enough squad depth to try to target a cup each season. Really going for it with full strength teams fielded. Ultimately staying in the premier league for the next 10 years would be great. But it depends on the manner. If we as is probable will often struggle and be in a relegation scrap, will the football be dire again? Will the novelty of being a premier league club and only winning 10 games from 38 per season wane? In 3 years time will we be glad to go down? We will be financially stable, have a good squad and who wouldn't love to see a romp to a championship title? (Not exactly a forgone conclusion) But those 3 heady years on the up were as good and as exciting any I have experienced as a Canary. (Ok possibly excluding challenging for the title in the 1st PL) Do I want us to stay in the premier league? definitely! Would I worry if we got relegated? Not one jot, a new and exciting adventure to begin. (And 6 points of binner beating fun again!) Bah!
I think this is a deep problem of the way the PL is set up. The mass of clubs have no realistic chance of ever breaking into the top 4 or 6, so clubs hit a kind of glass ceiling. At any given time there are clubs on the rise (like Swansea, ourselves, Southampton) but they eventually reach a point where the momentum goes, everyone gets bored with finishing mid-table, and they sink (like Blackburn and Bolton). There doesn't seem to be a solution to this, and a cup seems all that clubs of our size can hope for. To answer the question, at the moment I choose the PL. Whether I'd feel the same way five years from now if we had finished mid-table every season, I'm not so sure.
That is a very good point Vietnam and I guess the only hope is the fair play aspect, but I have no faith in that sad to say. let the FA prove me wrong!
Mid-table security in the Prem with good cup runs in the League or FA Cup with an occassional Wembley appearance would suit me fine thank you.
Having responded to Kent's article, I'll paste it here as well: People talk about models, but for me the example to follow is Everton. A few years ago they were struggling against relegation year after year. They didn’t sack their manager, as some have urged City to do this year, but instead continued to build a stronger team to now being a team vying for Champions League football. With further quality players to come in to replace the outgoing Championship+ players (like Jackson, Tierney, Camp and Fox), City will be stronger in both the league and the cup. This may take time before we are pushing for a Europa League place, but it is possible once we have a Squad of 25 PL quality players and talented youngsters also pushing for places. I’m optimistic, anyway! OTBC!
I only need to look at the events of our club from 1995 onwards. It took nine years to get back for just one season then we declined further to the third tier. You can never guarantee getting back up quickly. I've thoroughly enjoyed our recent seasons and being in the Premier League can only be good. Two good final positions with the new deal, RVW and the summer to come, it's looking good.
If we're talking about following a current PL team's model and not creating our own one, for a club like us I don't think we could go too far wrong by looking at Everton.
Staying up and improving sounds like the way to go to me too. I want us to expand Carrow Road, and really the only way to afford that is with Prem football. I think the glass ceiling is definitely there, due to the money owners and champions league football bring. I'm sure a figure of £70m was bandied about by Arsenal as the reward for qualifying, its too high and ruins the league as a competition. Laudrup was asked what it would take for Swansea to improve on this season, and his answer was £200m. Whilst we haven't quite had the season they have, it really shows that 7th is winning the league for us.
It sort of puts the whole thing into perspective when you see how excited the once mighty Bolton are about signing Marc Tierney (though I'm also very happy he's found a good club to go to).
realistically, when you take everything into consideration, last season norwich city effectively finished 4th. you may as well exclude manchester united, manchester city, arsenal, chelsea, tottenham, liverpool and even everton, simply because their wage structures are so much more than anyone else's it's not a level playing field - that's without even mentioning how much they spend on transfer fees. we cannot and probably won't be able to compete with any of those clubs any time soon. we can try and creep up on the rails though and i think that's what we are doing. only two teams in the premier league are debt free - swansea and norwich - i think both clubs should be highly commended for that achievement in this day and age. everton were mentioned by someone above but in my opinion they are a bad example to focus on. they have been solely reliant on the premier league money for years. their wage structure is enormous! their top earners are believed to be on almost £100k a week. if they had a bad season and dropped to the championship they would go bust. we don't want to be in a situation like that again! we are aiming to be in a position where we aren't reliant on money from anyone. now obviously premier league money puts us in a much stronger position than that but its still important. for clubs such as ourselves, there is a ceiling and when you reach that ceiling its hard for the fans as they want to break through and push on. west brom and swansea, maybe southampton, are probably next in line to reach this ceiling but a quick look at similar clubs who have dabbled with the prospects of 'breaking through', charlton, bolton etc have generally turned sour very quickly. be careful what you wish for! its a tough balancing act to keep fans happy when all you can realistically aim for in the league is 7th max. we need to stay in the premier league as long as we can and reap the benefits financially and commercially that come with that. the club are putting large sums to one side 'for a rainy day' which will inevitably come at some point. get the ground capacity increased (i am reliably informed measures are now being put in place to begin work on extending the ground this time next year and i don't think it is dependent on league status). edge the wage structure up slowly but as rapidly as possible. transfer fees are generally not a problem for the club - they could probably spend £15m on a player quite comfortably, but paying a £15m players wages wouldn't be! cup success and sustained premier league football should be and will be the long term aim. cup success breeds european football and then you can attract even better players and grow from there. but to cope with the rigours of european football you need a top squad - it'll be interesting to see how swansea cope with their exploits across the channel next season. will it affect their league form? i'd put good money on us finishing higher than the swans next season simply because they will play so many games. football is about glory at the end of the day but what is the point in having glory and then falling straight back on your knees a couple of years later? is that really worth it? some may say yes - i say no. we should keep doing what we're doing, keep improving slowly and if that means going through a fairly boring few years of football (it wouldn't be boring at all in my opinion but not everyone would be happy) where we are a bit too good to go down but not good enough to get into the upper reach's, then so be it - far rather that than be scrambling around in the championship, even if we went up first time around - it's not worth the risk.
Couldn't agree more and I think he'll be an excellent player for them. I thought he was a superb player until he got injured last season, but hasn't regained that form.
This is why I supported the FA's proposal, of a couple of years ago, to have a play-off between the teams finishing 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th for the final Champions League spot. It's possible anyone could finish in that 7th position, especially now Everton have lost David Moyes, and would eventually lead to not only more excitement, but also a more even distribution of European money.
