- Starting in ‘1990s, my fandom survived the Championship wilderness.
- From Goss to Libbra, the moments defined my early Canary years.
- Now Clement faces challenge of breaking club’s famous yo-yo cycle.
My Norwich City journey started in the Nineties. This was the first era of Teenage Mutant Heroes (Not “Ninja”- I have my own theory on that, but can be for another time), double bills of Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, sticker albums and video libraries.
Now at this point the more observant among you say “But Robert you are conflating a number of pop culture references that did not overlap during that time” and to that I yell “NERD!” from my car and then continue on my way to get some Sunny Delight while you are stuck with the lame purple stuff.
Yo-yoing…
It is so interesting that for a while Norwich City have been called a “Yo-yo” team. When I first became aware of Norwich being my team we were in the Premier League, Jeremy Goss got his iconic goal against Bayern Munich and Chris Sutton made headlines as the most expensive player at a then staggering £5 million.
After that period we got the First Division/ Championship wilderness years. People who talk about how much better the Championship is now forget the time where we were a mediocre team that wasn’t going anywhere.
The turnaround
I maintain that the moment it all changed was the Marc Libbra wonder goal. In my mind he scored it from 40 yards out but subsequent videos have shown my subconscious to be a total liar. We failed to win the playoffs that year but that felt like the moment when things could be better.
Then there was Nigel Worthington. For the whole season we were told how Norwich City weren’t good enough, we didn’t deserve to get promoted. With each snarky comment thrown at him Worthington was dignified and kept quiet.
When we got promoted he let loose with a “Right…!” and took his moment. In an ideal world this would have been the start of us staying in the Premier League. Alas it was not to be.
And thus the cycle continued. Lambert got us through the leagues and then left us for Aston Villa.
Alex Neill beat the odds to get us promoted but sadly made some decisions that with hindsight proved ill-advised (for example when we were ahead against Newcastle and he took off Tettey for Hoolahan. Don’t get me wrong great player but wrong decision in that moment).
Hughton’s football may not have been pretty but kept us up for a season.
Then there was Farke. Pure charm and delight, a German Pedro Pascal. We were treated to some of the finest football I’ve ever seen Norwich City play but alas we never quite managed to hit the heights.
Can we break the cycle?
For anyone who says “You didn’t mention…” there is only so much space here (but happy to talk about other managers or moments if we get enough NICE feedback).
Can the already iconic Clement defy our Groundhog Day-like promotion/relegation timeloop?
Only time will tell.
