Quite the decade

- Four promotions - two of which felt like miracles in many respects

- Two relegations, and a third presumably on its way

- After just one top flight season in the 2000s, five in this decade. 1-5 - that has a certain ring to it.

- Incredible football at times, football to make your eyes bleed at times; division among the fans, unity among the fans; and a spirit which, in three seasons at least, if not more, was completely unsurpassed.

In the end, the bottom line for me is this. Modern football being what it is, and our owners being as cash poor as they are, we have no right to be in this league: the richest, strongest, highest profile league in the world. We are doing outstandingly well to be there, even if we drop back out again in May.

Just to be a yo-yo club - if we go down, we'll be the first club in Premier League history to have been relegated five times; and no club in English football has gone up and gone down more often than we have since 1971 - is punching above our weight. By which, I don't mean our fanbase; I mean our financial resources, or lack thereof.

I've been critical of our owners on many occasions. But they deserve enormous thanks. Not once, but twice, they learnt from their mistakes and did the right thing. We're in a great financial position; for the first time in our history, we've left Ipswich for dead; and what we're trying to do under Farke and Webber, even if it requires going down to bounce back up, is admirable. Truly admirable.

Yes, there's a glass ceiling that's always present under these owners. That's frustrating, exasperating, call it what you will... but unlike so many clubs, we've not sold our soul. We do things mostly the right way, sponsorship by betting companies excepted. And life as a Norwich City fan, a great deal of the time, is FUN. Which is what football is supposed to be all about.

So thankyou to Delia Smith, Michael Wynn-Jones and everyone on the board. Thanks to Daniel Farke, Alex Neil, even (cough, spit) Paul Lambert... and all the great players who've graced the green and yellow over the past decade: Wes Hoolahan above all. We may not be the richest or most successful club in the world... but we've never lost sight of who we are or what we're about. A decade from now, I only hope that'll still be the case under whoever follows our present custodians.

It's never the end of the world at Norwich City. And given what's happened to the beautiful game at so many other clubs... thank God for that.

OTBC

Posted By: thebigfeller, Dec 30, 11:14:09