The Wynn-Jones Fan Club

Broadly speaking there are two types of members in the Wynn-Jones fan club. The first group, whilst acknowledging that success on the football is really rather nice, know that it isn't really THAT important. You can spot them a mile off: they adopt a pompous mien and intone words like "tradition", "community" and "pies". Dewy-eyed they evoke a golden age when eleven horny-handed sons of the soil ran out to represent City under the paternal gaze of a ruddy-cheeked Norfolk farmer. And finished bottom of Division 3 South. Curiously though, these unabashed nostalgists NEVER mention Cup competitions.

Then there is the other lot. They know that success on the football field is important, but unfortunately they think that what we are experiencing now IS success. Chests bursting with pride they recount how in our last ten second tier campaigns we have finished in the top 6 not once but twice! Just be glad, they imply, that we have risen above our natural place in the order of things and aren't scratching and scrabbling to avoid relegation to the third division every season. This group have even more selective memories - naturally they never mention cup competitions either, and for some reason they also don't mention what happened in our previous ten seasons in the second tier. So in the spirit of education here's the record: we managed top 6 finishes on four occasions - which only sounds twice as good until you remember that they were actually all top 3 finishes and were all accompanied by promotion.

I don't have much truck with either group. To me the words "Football Club" are a big clue as to what Norwich City should be overwhelmingly about - I simply don't understand anyone who thinks differently. The other lot are almost worse: from 1972 to 1995 this club spent just 3 seasons outside the top flight (and they were all promotion winning seasons). Anyone who believes that our natural position is in the bottom half of the Championship is ignorant of where we have come from and what was built in the decades following 1957. They slight the work of Geoffrey Watling, Archie Macaulay, Ron Ashman, Ron Saunders, Duncan Forbes, Arthur South, Dave Stringer and hundreds of others who transformed this club.

Posted By: Reg Presley, Aug 23, 11:34:29