I hope you didn t type that in the bath with your notepad plugged in mate?................ After reading that wopper of a comment a few good points were raised, it only seemed a few years ago when Plymouth were in the Championship with Olly and you lot were getting players in beyond our means....... What went wrong?
its awful really that i myself am banging on about incidents in games whereas poor plymouth can't even pay their players and are on the verge of going out of business. in many ways, my attitude has become that of a premier league fan - technically its not something which i can help as i am one, but you know what i mean. it was only two years ago that my own club were sailed relatively close to the wind, so its important we don't forget that and be thankful that we even have a club to support! the premier league has brought a lot of good to the game and some fantastic players have signed up, but it is bound to end in tears eventually and for some the tears will flow sooner rather than later.
It is so hard to believe that only a couple of years ago we were playing Plymouth in the Championship. In fact I vividly remember Paul Mariner managing the Plymouth team when we played at Portman Road. I am still trying to forget the tonking you gave us that night!
this is not a case of me over-dramatising here warky, but this could easily have been norwich had we not appointed david mcnally the summer we went down to league one. even with him on board, the 7-1 opening day loss in league one saved the club in my opinion! i really believe that we were in such bad hands that the only way was down and further down. mcnally himself admitted that had we not gone immediately up that season we wouldn't have been able to pay the interest on our loans to the bank. we could have been in league two, fighting for our lives. fine lines between success and failure.
The attitude i keep expressing on here is exactly that, the 90 mil we will receive for promotion has given us a firm footing as a football club for a few years..... We did nt buy any big time Charlies and feel that we are bloody lucky to even be in the prem......... We must nt lose sight of this..
Well Supers as you are sometimes quick to point out we went into administration when we got relegated from the Premiership. A very sobering experience and something that we haven't really recovered from to this day. Sheepshanks decided to go for it after we finished 5th egged on by us fans and the bubble burst spectacularly! ITV Digital also went tits up meaning that a big source of revenue also went with it. In those days the parachute payments were a fraction of what they get today and for only 3 years as opposed to 4 years now. The parachute payments imo deliberately distort the championship and make it completely unfair for smaller clubs to compete financially.
What went wrong at Plymouth is the easiest thing to explain in the world. We bought players for reasonable sums but offered them wages we could only afford if success followed. When that didn't work we went out and bought more with the same offer. The players we initially bought were poor but on wages that made them impossible to shift on as either nobody else wanted them or could not afford to pay. With failure on the pitch the crowds went down and we had outgoings several times larger than income. The further we sank the more the differential grew. Ergo bottom of the football league with no money and not a great prospect of a saviour turning up anytime soon. With all due respect to Norwich, you are not an "attractive" club for investment by some sugar daddy figure given your size and location. We are even less of a prospect way down here. I absolutely agree with your comments on here about the Championship. It is the best league in this country by a mile. The only problem is that every team in it is trying to get out of it. Time maybe for a European super league and a return to proper football clubs for the rest of the Country. Less about money and more about the competition.
Yes and no JWM. The past couple of seasons have taught us that team spirit and momentum seem to have had a levelling out effect with regards to the insane amounts of money being lavished on ex premiership footballers. Is the desire still there when they drop down a division? Do they put in a good enough turn when they are on such phenominal amounts of money? It seems having a solid forward thinking, break the mould, kind of manager will have a bigger impact than heaping money at the problem of promotion. Its not the be-all-and-end-all as money unfortunately does still talk but it does at least give some the belief that promotion is a possibility for those in not such a wealthy position. I just think that looking at the virtues of the Championship and Premier League that the Championship is like looking at the Old Division One 20-25 years ago without the so called big names. Anyone is capable of beating any other team on any given day. How often do we see the statistic of the big four hardly dropping points against any of the bottom half teams and in particular the newly promoted clubs. Not quite the same in the Championship right now! If the top four to six teams in the PL wanted to go into some kinda European Super League then I'd be all for it. Good riddance. Maybe then some plastic fans would understand what it feels like to support a proper team and be hurt when they can't win for a few matches in a row because the opposition can pay players more than they can afford. The whole thing is just crazy
A very good post Acle and I agree with you. I have begun to HATE Man City for totally screwing things up even further! Long gone are the days when an Ipswich or a Norwich or a West Ham could even attempt to compete for the major honours. Football has turned into F1 and I stopped watching that charade years ago for the very same reason. The world has gone mad yet we as fans salivate over the thought of being there amongst it all!
I know what you mean about Man City but perhaps that just illustrates to everybody exactly what it takes to break into the golden group of clubs at the top of the PL an Europe now - a billionaire with limitless amounts of cash to throw at the team. Anyone outside the top six has to just grin and bear it. Unless you are bankrolled by a super rich financier then you really are just making up the numbers. Like I said before, I couldn't give two hoots about the top four to six teams buggering off. At least then there would be a realistic chance for more clubs to win something. The PL is as boring as the Scottish Premier for who is going to win the title/other cups.
Great to hear your comments sensible, a true supporter that is going through some tough times. I'm Norfolk through and through and wouldn't dream of supporting another club. I really don't get my friends who are from Norfolk, with a perfectly good club nearby who then go on and support Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool. All they're interested in is winning all the time and supporting the best players without actually watching the club at the stadium. Those who don't support these clubs have been through it all. For Norwich, I've been through relegation to League 1, near administration, and two promotions to the PL. I haven't supported the club any less when going through the bad times. Whether we're in League 2 or in the PL I will stick by club.
Just to complete the comments about the merits of the lower leagues above the premiership here is the Argyle attendance for tonight away from home against Barnet. 434 for a Tuesday night when Champs League is on Sky. That's why clubs in the lower reaches should not be allowed to perish even if their Board is made up of idiots or rather in our case was made up of idiots as we don't have a Board right now.
I feel now that I should apologise to you sensible. We moan and moan about refs and the fact that we have to deal with the diving Drogbas and the rest when you're at the bottom of the Football League and potentially could go out of business. We are in the best league in the country which has some of the best players in the world. We get to watch Rooney, Lampard, Nasri and Bale while you get players that the majority of people haven't heard of. It's a little embarrassing, so I'm sorry.
No appology required my friend. You are where you are and we for our sins are where we are. It is not the fault of anyone other than our previous Board. Best of luck to you and if I look at the prem results, which I don't bother with much then I always look to see if the "smaller" clubs have stuck one up the prima donna sides. I did watch the results of Blackpool last season because you could hear the premiership wince when they were promoted. Good luck for this season and I hope you manage to stay there.
