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.
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