Norwich / Finances / Owners / Strategy - lots to think about

[Olé]

Incredibly long and thoughtful report in today's FT on Norwich and what football's "have nots" need to do to keep up. 

https://www.ft.com/content/2334c941-a1ab-48ce-b4fd-6747710c8054

I won't post the whole thing (it really is that long), but here are some really choice segments that reflect on our club and strategy and current clamour for change too - about the importance of provincial clubs to identity and local pride; about being sold short by the Premier League; about mysterious foreign owners floating about and supporters who yearn for their short term investment; about innovation; and about long term thinking on sustainability being a strategy not about results but infrastructure.

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Since the turn of the century, however, Norwich have enjoyed five promotions and suffered five relegations between the divisions. Too lean for the big league, too fat for the lower tiers, they are part of a group dismissively referred to as “yo-yo clubs”. 

Manchester City used to be one too, before a 2008 takeover by an Emirati sheikh turned them into regular title winners through spending more than £1bn on players. Takeovers like this have given fans of other clubs hopes of attracting their own sugar daddy, an extravagant billionaire willing to spend whatever it takes to acquire glory. Teams such as Chelsea and Leicester City are among the sides to have been transformed in recent years by the backing of benevolent benefactors. 

Yet this has helped to create instability at less wealthy clubs like Norwich City, which have had an unfortunate history of overspending on players, all in a forlorn effort to keep up with opponents’ unmatchable financial resources. Can the club do anything to snap the elastic that led it to bounce between the leagues? 

Over many hours of interviews, I am told of a new blueprint to avoid the club’s boom-and-bust cycles. It is a plan designed around unearthing more talents like Cantwell. The club’s ambition is simple yet strikingly sober: to become strong enough to avoid yet another relegation from the Premier League, should they return.

Is this enough? Many of today’s leading football clubs began as community institutions — Norwich City was formed in 1902 by two schoolmasters — each one as good as the locals who made up their teams. Over decades, the biggest have morphed into multibillion-pound businesses, international workforces and global fanbases. But the majority, like Norwich City, are still followed mainly in the smaller cities and towns in which they are based. Here, supporting a football club is part of a civic identity. The team’s successes — and failure — are a matter of personal esteem. 

“There’s part of me that just wants the club to go hell for leather, spend loads and win things,” says a consultant who has worked for Norwich City but declined to be named. The assumption here is that winning matches is the driving purpose of football clubs, victories the way it pays back fervent support. “How does football stay relevant to these small communities otherwise?” asks the consultant. “[Norwich City] has a great model and lots of good people, but the question I have is, what’s the purpose? What’s the point of a football club anyway?” 

 

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The couple [Delia Smith & Michael Wynn-Jones] entered the sport just as it was undergoing a revolution. Norwich City were a founder member of the Premier League in 1992, when the country’s top sides launched a breakaway from the rest of English club football, setting up a competition funded by Sky, then a new satellite broadcaster.

“A small group of very canny, greedy chairmen hived themselves off and got the whole lot and left the rest of football struggling at grassroots level,” says Smith. “It was a sad day for football.” 

Overall revenues for Premier League clubs rose from £120m in 1992 to £5bn last season, according to the consultancy Deloitte. In that period, Norwich City’s annual revenue has risen from £4.6m to £119m, according to Companies House records. But it remains far behind England’s richest club, Manchester United, which made £627m last term.

Most of the cash sloshing through the game is used to finance huge transfer deals and mega-wages for football’s superstars. “Player salaries basically got out of hand,” says Wynn-Jones, a gentle man who speaks barely above a whisper. “That really triggered [takeovers by] sheikhs and the like, because the clubs needed them.” 

Smith and Wynn-Jones are among the longest-serving club owners in English football, part of the old guard of supporters-turned-owners who seek emotional returns on their investment over financial ones. Elsewhere these have been replaced by an international cadre of club owners united by net worths — from Arab royals to Russian oligarchs, American moguls to Chinese entrepreneurs.

Several “odd people” have approached Smith about a potential takeover of Norwich City over the years. One investor offered a nominal £1 to take a previously lossmaking club “off our hands”, she says. Another suitor planned to put it into administration to settle debts and cut costs. None was deemed to have the club’s best interests at heart. 

Smith and Wynn-Jones’s refusal to sell splits opinion among the local fan base. Some believe that, without heftier external funding, the club is being sold short.

“You have an awful lot of Norwich fans who absolutely love Delia to death,” says Robin Sainty, chair of the Canaries Trust, a supporters group. “A small minority of people absolutely detest her, who think we should be selling out to an Arab multibillionaire or whatever. Then there are quite a lot in the middle who . . . appreciate what she’s done but think it would be quite nice to be a rich club.”

 

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In 2017 Norwich City’s owners hired [Stuart] Webber. Alongside Ward, he recommended upgrading training facilities rather than spending more on players. This explains why the club is acquiring a futuristic new machine: the SoccerBot360.

Created in Germany, it allows players to control a ball on a small turf pitch, surrounded by a wall of video screens that replicate the sensation of having a blur of teammates and opponents around them. In any match, players are forced to make hundreds of snap decisions about when and where to pass and shoot. The idea is they will make faster and better decisions in a real game if they have already seen it thousands of times within the SoccerBot. Set to be built next year at the training ground at a cost of around £750,000, the facility will be the first of its kind in England.

However, if the goal is to reach the Premier League next season, surely the club needs to spend on players who could advance the team right away, rather than many years in the future?

To answer, Webber refers to a book by British-American organisational guru Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game. Relying on research based on mathematical game theory, the writer suggests that in any competition there are two types of “game”. Some are “finite”, like a football match, where there are “known players, defined rules, and an agreed upon objective”. The team that scores most goals over 90 minutes wins. But there are also “infinite games”, where the players and rules keep changing, and the objective is “merely to stay in the game as long as possible”.

Sinek reckons too many organisations fail to understand which game they are playing. In a 2018 presentation, he said that, in the Vietnam war, “the Americans were trying to ‘beat’ the North Vietnamese, while the North Vietnamese were fighting for their lives, and invariably, a different set of strategic choices was made . . . The United States . . . ran out of the will or the resources to play. They didn’t lose, they dropped out of the game.”

For Webber, the objective of a team, winning matches, is different from that of a club. “Football’s an infinite game,” he says. “So when some people say, ‘Why are you spending £2m on a gym? Spend it on a striker, you have more chance of winning next week,’ well, yeah, you probably have. But this team will be here for ever. [Practice facilities will] train more strikers than £2m can buy you. In 15 years, you will look back and think: we brought 30 players through here.”

This long-term mindset has influenced how the entire club plays the game. Under Webber’s direction, Norwich City’s academy players, starting from age seven up to 21, are instructed to play in the progressive, passing style demanded in the first team. Sainty of the Canaries Trust says this is one reason why most Norwich City fans accept the club’s frugal approach: “From a fan’s point of view, we love watching it.”

The playing style was also devised with an eye on the bottom line. Youth teams are told to play with two forwards rather than one, doubling the chances of developing valuable goalscorers. “[Strikers]are like gold dust,” says Webber. “If we can create our own, over time that will then save us millions and millions of pounds.”

 

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The result left the club top of the Championship table, on course for a swift return to the Premier League. Webber says that with less need to invest in infrastructure, the purse strings will be steadily loosened to acquire players, providing a better shot at staying in the top division for longer.

But the club’s humble culture will come first. “Even when the day comes to spend more money,” says Webber. “It might also not be the right thing for our club to put a £20m player in this dressing room. It would be like putting a Ferrari in a Vauxhall garage. It would look out of place. We’ve got to try and make all our Vauxhalls almost as good as a Ferrari.”

Executives around the sport tell me they have watched the Norwich City model in admiration. But they argue that, ultimately, modern football runs an efficient market. The best players attract the highest price tag and are paid the most. The best teams win the most matches.

That leaves the club with a dilemma. Leaders such as Webber and Farke and emerging stars like Aarons and Cantwell admit to ambitions of moving to the world’s biggest teams in the future. What are clubs like Norwich City to play for, if not the sport’s shiniest silverware? 

“It’s about that infinite game,” says Webber, who insists that the process of self-improvement is reward in itself. “Every decision has got to mean that this club is left in a better place than when we arrived.”

 

[Sheltons Army]

Impressive , a recipe for success for sure

[Hxj]

Excellent article - sums up my view and that of SL - football is a long game 

[Leveller]

1 minute ago, Hxj said:

Excellent article - sums up my view and that of SL - football is a long game 

Many will sneer at that view, but I agree that the Lansdown strategy seems pretty similar, while not as successful so far.

[Alessandro]

I agree with playing the long game, don’t think many disagree.
 

But you’ve got to have the right people in the right places for it to work:

At Norwich, they have the benefit of having a proper “football” person, proper experience (decades worth) running academies, recruitment and scouting, in that key top position.

That’s key to the model for me.

[JustinCider]

Knowing our ******* luck, if we went and got the Soccerbot 360 too it would get injured during training.

[Will Rollason]

thanks ole. there's some big questions in there. what is a football club for? especially one like ours. Hopefully we will reap the benefits of the investment in infrastructure but short term we are in a mess right now. 

[SuperRed]

4 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

I agree with playing the long game, don’t think many disagree.
 

But you’ve got to have the right people in the right places for it to work:

At Norwich, they have the benefit of having a proper “football” person, proper experience (decades worth) running academies, recruitment and scouting, in that key top position.

That’s key to the model for me.

Nail on the head. Steve has bet on the wrong horse. 

[steviestevieneville]

9 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

I agree with playing the long game, don’t think many disagree.
 

But you’ve got to have the right people in the right places for it to work:

At Norwich, they have the benefit of having a proper “football” person, proper experience (decades worth) running academies, recruitment and scouting, in that key top position.

That’s key to the model for me.

This is exactly how I think & couldn't of put it better. This is what’s letting us down and makes it all the more frustrating. 

[tin]

20 minutes ago, Leveller said:

Many will sneer at that view, but I agree that the Lansdown strategy seems pretty similar, while not as successful so far.

What’s SL’s strategy? For all the hot air about identity, we don’t have one at all. No clear way of playing through the age groups and consistently contradicting our goals (eg one minute it’s the five pillars, then it’s sign young, develop and sell, then it’s to reach the PL — we’ve either abandoned or done the opposite in those examples). We’re always playing catch-up, trying to be the next Southampton, Reading, Swansea or Brentford. There seems to be no clarity over the long or short game at Ashton Gate. Mixed messages from those in power do nothing to suggest SL has any sort of clear strategy, IMO. 

[Alessandro]

1 minute ago, steviestevieneville said:

This is exactly how I think & couldn't of put it better. This is what’s letting us down and makes it all the more frustrating. 

The problem is...the more I think about...the more all roads lead back to SL.

We know SL, we know his previous with the club.

Surely MA doesn’t have “free-reign” to do as he pleases. That’s not SL is it.

More and more I just feel like MA is an extension of SL. SL doesn’t want to let go of the day to day running of the club - so he ‘steps back’ on paper, but puts someone in the position of ‘over-watch’ of pretty much all aspects of the club. Someone he can trust. Someone to tow the line and rattle off the company spiel. MA does exactly that - he’s the perfect lieutenant for SL.

It’s more and more clear, to me, that MA most likely runs 99% of his decisions past SL first. Let’s be honest, SL gets a phone call before probably any player is sold. He probably gets a phone call before anyone is bought - contracts, budgets - MA puts it to him, he signs it off.

Holden was a SL appointment. MA did his job and dressed it up for him.

Not excusing MA, but just for those that think a failure for Holden is a failure for MA. I’m really not so sure.

That’s why, despite being desperate to get a proper football person in a DOF role...I’m not sure we will while SL likes to have final say.

[Eddie Notgetinya]

Living in Norwich it is clear that there are some stark differences between what are fairly similar clubs, in terms of City size and catchment areas. Norwich are definitely doing it better and are noticeably well supported by those that live here. You don't see many football colours around other than yellow and green. I’ve always wondered how they seem to get it so right and we never do. 

 

 

[steviestevieneville]

8 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

The problem is...the more I think about...the more all roads lead back to SL.

We know SL, we know his previous with the club.

Surely MA doesn’t have “free-reign” to do as he pleases. That’s not SL is it.

More and more I just feel like MA is an extension of SL. SL doesn’t want to let go of the day to day running of the club - so he ‘steps back’ on paper, but puts someone in the position of ‘over-watch’ of pretty much all aspects of the club. Someone he can trust. Someone to tow the line and rattle off the company spiel. MA does exactly that - he’s the perfect lieutenant for SL.

It’s more and more clear, to me, that MA most likely runs 99% of his decisions past SL first. Let’s be honest, SL gets a phone call before probably any player is sold. He probably gets a phone call before anyone is bought - contracts, budgets - MA puts it to him, he signs it off.

Holden was a SL appointment. MA did his job and dressed it up for him.

Not excusing MA, but just for those that think a failure for Holden is a failure for MA. I’m really not so sure.

That’s why, despite being desperate to get a proper football person in a DOF role...I’m not sure we will while SL likes to have final say.

True , I think the same & history suggests SL won’t change. If the penny hasn’t dropped by now it probably never will. 
I think if a experienced DOF came in with a experienced manager , they wouldn’t tolerate interference. SL’s ego won’t let that happen . Imo he thinks he’s a football intellect but is far from it .

[jay mizel]

I don’t doubt our model for infrastructure.
 

My issue is with our complete lack of plan for the team(s) on the playing surface.

[Bristol Oil Services]

In simpler times, a football club was there to put a team out to attract a, and excite its, crowd and if possible win something and put the town or city on the map. 

Now, it seems, the crowd are there to lap up the witless club media and buy stuff, to pay for an eye-wateringly excessive wage bill*, to have a team to keep an army of people employed that run a football club. And in some cases, put a few quid in the owners coffers. Or so that the owner can flog to someone even more monstrously wealthy.

For those that remember football before it began in 1992, it is ****ing difficult to like, at times. 

 

*Yes,  SL hasn't got there yet, and he covers the losses he in part, er, loses, but his aim is "sustainability," ie he no longer covers any losses.

[Son of Fred]

17 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

True , I think the same & history suggests SL won’t change. If the penny hasn’t dropped by now it probably never will. 
I think if a experienced DOF came in with a experienced manager , they wouldn’t tolerate interference. SL’s ego won’t let that happen . Imo he thinks he’s a football intellect but is far from it .

Thank you........SL for all the 'obvious success in his life isn't a "Football Man"....and very stubborn.

Mid table Championship and thereabouts is the best we can expect under this ownership...

As long as it is I've accepted this the frustration doesn't diminish... So near,,,,,yet..

[Cowshed]

5 hours ago, Olé said:

Incredibly long and thoughtful report in today's FT on Norwich and what football's "have nots" need to do to keep up. 

https://www.ft.com/content/2334c941-a1ab-48ce-b4fd-6747710c8054

I won't post the whole thing (it really is that long), but here are some really choice segments that reflect on our club and strategy and current clamour for change too - about the importance of provincial clubs to identity and local pride; about being sold short by the Premier League; about mysterious foreign owners floating about and supporters who yearn for their short term investment; about innovation; and about long term thinking on sustainability being a strategy not about results but infrastructure.

 

 

 

 

 

This long-term mindset has influenced how the entire club plays the game. Under Webber’s direction, Norwich City’s academy players, starting from age seven up to 21, are instructed to play in the progressive, passing style demanded in the first team.

Its a club identity.

Norwich's players are easy on the ball and pass and move with fluid regularity - The football is internalised over month upon months and years of training.
 

the SoccerBot360.

Created in Germany, it allows players to control a ball on a small turf pitch, surrounded by a wall of video screens that replicate the sensation of having a blur of teammates and opponents around them. In any match, players are forced to make hundreds of snap decisions about when and where to pass and shoot. The idea is they will make faster and better decisions in a real game if they have already seen it thousands of times within the SoccerBot. Set to be built next year at the training ground at a cost of around £750,000, the facility will be the first of its kind in England.

The soccer bot can also be programmed to reflect the game Norwich play. It internalises further their passing style. Bit deep but the constant repetition of training increases neuroplasticity which increases the ability to problem solve, those thousands of times become patterns the brain recognises and responses can become subconscious.