Skip to main content

Can Norwich stop being a 'yo-yo' club?

In my view Murad Ahmed is one of the best contemporary journalists writing about football and he has done an in depth analysis of Norwich City for the FT Weekend Magazine.   The basic question is whether the Canaries are doomed to be a yo-yo club.  They have experienced five promotions and five relegations between the divisions since the turn of the century.

They realise that they cannot match the big spenders on players, although they have a squad at the moment that is clearly too good for the Championship.  In 2016 relegation from the Premier League after splashing out on players was a wake up call.  So they are playing a long game.  In part this depends on having a good development strategy for the Academy, although they are not the only club doing that.  Since 2017 the club has recouped £79.5m in sales of young players.

They have also spent £8m on upgrading the training ground.  They are spending £750,000 on the SoccerBot 360.  Created in Germany, theirs will be the only one in England.  It allows players to control a ball on a small turf pitch surrounded by video walls that replicate the blur of teammates and opponents one would experience in a match.   The idea is that it improves the ability of players to make snap decisions.

The elephant in the room comes in the form of the owners, Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones.  No one doubts their commitment to the club: we all remember Delia's 'let's be 'aving you' half time speech on the pitch.  However, do they represent an old guard of supporters not owners who can't mobilise the resources needed to succeed at the top level?

Fans are evidently split about the owners.   There have been approaches, but none of them were judged to be from fit and proper persons.  My take on this is that Norwich is a great city, but how many seriously rich people in the Middle East or the United States have heard about it?   The club is a 'stand alone' one with enthusiastic supporters, but investors may be attracted by bigger cities with a higher global profile.

There is a typical FT conclusion that argues that football is an efficient market with the best teams with the best players winning most matches and the silverware.  To an extent this is clearly true: there is a relationship between revenue, spending and results.

However, it is a market beset by information asymmetries as I argue in my forthcoming book on Political Football and they may actually make life more difficult for clubs like Norwich.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more