Happy where we are?

It was something else, being a City fan at the Bristol City away match. I can’t remember ever, in my 28 years of supporting Norwich, playing better than that across an entire 90 minutes, yet walking away from the game empty handed.

However, it got me to thinking: Where are we better off just now as a football club? In the Championship, or the Premiership?

I’ll explain my thinking, or at least try to.

I should get one thing straight, to start with – we definitely wouldn’t be better off in League One. This kind of goes without saying, I know, but in my darkest days of pessimism and disillusionment with all things NCFC, I’d be lying if it hadn’t crossed my mind that “if we’re going to be shit in the Championship, we might as well be shit in League One and have a few different grounds to visit.” Of course, such thinking is plainly ridiculous, especially with “big clubs” such as Leeds and Forest in no way certain of promotion back to the second tier this year, and Southampton (oh, I do hope so!) and Sheffield Wednesday looking nervously over their shoulders as the curtain comes down on the current campaign.

I travelled to the Cardiff away match in February a day early in order to make a weekend of it, and remember picking up the Friday evening paper in order to read the pre-match blurb. In it, I got to read Dave Jones ask the following question: “Why on earth would we (Cardiff) want to get promoted this season?” I remember thinking, “What a totally ridiculous question to ask!”

Why?

Firstly, who, in any walk of life (and particularly those involved in sport), doesn’t strive to graduate to the next level of achievement? In terms of football professionals, surely if you had no desire to do anything but stay put in one division, you’d either go play for/manage Rochdale (sorry guys!), or just get involved in meaningless friendly fixtures from here to eternity?

Secondly, what message does such a statement send to the fans? Fans who, indeed, pay obscene sums of our hard-earned cash buying season tickets, travelling to away matches and (perhaps) buying club merchandise - yet for what gain, if the manager of our team comes out and effectively says he’s happy for the club to stay where it is?

Food for thought.

I spent the next month or so digesting, and reflecting upon, Dave Jones’ comments. My conclusion is, despite what I think of him as a manager, I think that, in the right context, his question is not as ludicrous as I first thought it to be.

Without using this article to closely scrutinise Cardiff’s chances of survival, were they to get promoted (although my gut feeling is that they would be almost anorexically slim), our visit to Ashton Gate added a certain clarity to my thinking. Ergo:

Bristol City were outplayed from start to finish by Norwich City FC on Saturday, March 29th 2008 – fact. Yes, a defensive lapse where we stood off one of their midfielders allowed them to hit the post first half, a goalkeeping gaff shortly afterwards gifted them a goal that was absolutely against the run of play, and (though he did little else wrong, to be fair) a poor decision by referee Andy D’Urso afforded them a last minute winner. But, beyond those three occurrences, Norwich were head and shoulders above a side that, ultimately, returned to the top of the Championship that day as a consequence of three, albeit extremely fortunate, points.

Sounds like sour grapes? Not a bit of it. Football is football, and most reading this piece will be accepting (if not comfortable) with the fact the supporting Norwich is rarely a bed of roses. And for all City’s fantastic play on the day, the Sky Sports Football Yearbook will not reflect that City pissed the Robins off the park for 90 minutes; merely that the score was Bristol City 2, Norwich City 1. I’m even magnanimous enough to resist saying “We were robbed” (even if it felt like that for a few hours afterwards).

But we should, at least, think about how the Dave Jones’ thinking equally applies to the likes of Bristol City and Norwich.

In the case of Norwich, did we really want to go up this season? Well, of course the answer was a resounding “Yes please!” before the season started, when David Strihavka was going to be the next Chris Sutton, and Peter Grant was going to win the manager of the season award. Come November, however, and the glittering prize was instead somehow avoiding the need to find out train times to Hartlepool next season.

And even in early February, when Ched Evans rifled in a 35-yard pearler to complete a memorable smash-and-grab raid at Ninian Park, and the local press was filled with fans’ wide-eyed speculation about somehow making the play-offs, did we – and I mean "we" as fans, club, players and manager – really, really want to get promoted this season?

I’ll use two other clubs to help me answer that question - Bristol City, once more, and Derby County.

I believe (at the time of writing, on the train back from Ashton Gate) that Bristol City will win promotion this season, and automatically at that. No-one gets results like they did yesterday if Lady Luck isn’t beaming down on them. It reminds me of the year we last went up – you can count on more than one hand the games that City were mediocre at best (and downright shit at worst), yet still walked away with three points. Nottingham Forest, on the day Hucks got confirmed as a permanent fixture, springs most notably to mind. But, hey, in the dogfight that is the Championship, make hay while the sun shines.

Yet how will Bristol City fare? Well, they won’t, basically. They will merely have succeeded in winning promotion from the worst Championship since its inception. They’ll make a few quid from being promoted, enough (probably) to help finance their new ground, and feasibly might return to the Premiership a little stronger in a few years time (then again, that’s what Forest said). Bottom line, though, is that they’ll not have enough resources to buy anything like the quality players needed to give them even a sniff of survival. I have no doubt that Ashton Gate will be packed to the rafters with expectant fans, but I’d suggest to those “fortunate” enough to be there that they cling dearly to moments of pleasure like their victory over City, because you can bet your petrococadollar that they’ll have bugger all similar memories once next season is over. Well, they’ll probably beat Newcastle, I guess.

So, Derby County. Bounce straight back at the first time of asking (after their relegation was confirmed last weekend)? No way in this world. It matters not a jot what walk of life you’re in; you can’t take a battering in the manner they have game in, game out this season, and somehow be reinvigorated and full of confidence two months later, in shape to take the Championship by storm. OK, Watford have had a go this season, but they’ve hardly been convincing, they’re in no way certain to go back up, and arguably they were a lot less shit in the Prem than Derby have been this season.

If any Norwich fan is clinging to the merest scrap of belief that City would be in any way, shape or form prepared for anything but a total hammering in the Premiership next season, had we somehow managed to extend that unbeaten run from 12 matches to 15 to 18, or whatever, then dig deep in your analysis of the Bristol match. Why will the football yearbook say what it says about the result of the game? Because we can’t score for toffee on anything like a consistent basis (unless a team as laughably poor as Colchester roll into town), our defence (though getting better) leaks like a colander, seemingly at random, and we’ve had far too rough a ride this season to be anything like mentally prepared for the step up.

Is Glenn Roeder the man to take Norwich forward? In my opinion, without doubt. He might even get us into the play-offs next season, for my money. The amount of cash available in his summer transfer kitty will be a pivotal factor, mind you.

But for now, Dave Jones, I think I have an answer for you. Premiership or Championship? We’ll stay where we are, at least for the moment, thank you very much.

JD

PS - I feel really bad about mentioning poor old Rochdale AFC. Well, sort of. See what you think for yourself; here's what Wikipedia says about them:

"The club have played since 1974 in the Football League's bottom division, currently entitled League Two. This is the longest time any team has been in the bottom division of the football league, with some even derisively renaming it "the Rochdale Division".[1] They reached the League Cup final in 1962 - the only time a club from the bottom league division has reached the final of a major competition - where they lost to Norwich City."