PM: Brandonio, re: cloggers

When I became a Norwich fan, we were a top flight side who'd generally win a few, lose a few, and finish mid-table. We'd look like world beaters on our day, hideously awful on others... but we were (or at least, seemed like) the top flight club who did things differently. Something unique about us. A poorer man's Spurs (which stood to reason given how many players we'd nabbed from them and turned into far better footballers).

Even as things collapsed post-Munich and Milan, I still had that sense intermittently. Not under Deehan, sure - I but under Walker in 96/7, say, we failed, but were still recognisably Norwich. I loved Mike Walker because he WAS us: he was how we saw ourselves.

Then, in 1999/2000, it dawned on me. Norwich were now the most ordinary side in the whole second tier. An entire squad of cloggers given Eadie was sold and Bellamy and Mulryne were injured: a squad which got caught offside more than any other side in the division, and finished 12th. The epitome of ordinariness: even though Bruce Rioch was horribly unlucky and doing a far, far better job than I or most appreciated.

We've had plenty of ordinary sides since; a few worse than ordinary, a few better ones. The only transfers I can remember being really excited by were Huckerby, Crouch and Harper's loan deals (and especially Hux' permanent one) in 2003, and Ashton in 2005; but what's curious is when we've tried to branch out, we've fallen flat on our arses.

Damien Francis. Thomas Helveg. Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Johan Elmander. If a player is that gifted, what's he doing at a not particularly successful English club to begin with? Answer: more than likely a bad/greedy attitude. How many clubs has Kyle Lafferty played for now? It's laughable actually.

In the end, like most fans I think, I'm a lot more forgiving of workaday triers who aren't very good than lazy egos who waste their talent and - in Francis' case especially - go some way to f**king over the whole club and their teammates by not trying a leg. But it's not an either/or: we need a balance of real leaders, hugely committed players, and gifted matchwinners who'll play not for themselves, but for the team.

Finding that balance is the challenge facing pretty much all clubs - and it's a very tough one to strike.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Feb 3, 01:32:47