The Attanasio Takeover And The End Of The Delia And Michael Era

It’s a sad reality but to even live up to our raison d’être as a self-sustaining, fan-first club in the current football landscape, we need to have plenty of cash behind us. 

Recently, us fans have come to realise that, in this model, we are a large part of the “self”. With Delia and Michael having given everything they have in an investment sense over the years which, let’s get it right, has saved the club on more than one occasion, their role had reduced to that of figureheads – or, as has been made official by this week’s game-changing news, life presidents. For a few years now, with Norwich continuing to swim against the tide, and with the current version of self-funding beginning to fall apart, paying punters have begun to feel the pinch the club has been in.

The lack of a true benefactor may or may not be linked to the fact Norwich’s season ticket is the most costly outside the Premier League and why casual tickets have been pricing out the sort of customers this club should be going out of its way to attract – families. This isn’t unique to Norwich, mind. Football fans up and down the country are being milked and treated like numbers on spreadsheets, and more aggressively in places. Such distance at a club like Norwich, however, only serves to defeat its entire purpose and its entire mission statement as a provincial, community pillar. Delia and Michael would be the first to tell you that the fans are Norwich City – they are, of course, lifelong fans themselves. 

For a football club to be run as Norwich City are, in the modern game, it requires near-unanimous supporter buy-in – both in terms of the rhetoric and in a literal financial sense. Carrow Road needs to be full and away ends need to be packed out, and those in attendance need to have full belief in what the club is about and where it is going. This connection has been there for most of the last 27 years. Over the last two seasons of mostly miserable football, however, and the subsequent frittering away of parachute payments, the direction of travel hasn’t been clear and it has, visibly, driven some people away. Whether it’s the increased price of admission, the lack of excitement on the pitch or the dismissing of dissenting voices by the club’s higher-ups, or a combination of all three, empty seats have started appearing.

Certain ill-judged comments, including one made by Delia at the last AGM, have also therefore cut deeper. It wasn’t long ago that we felt proud to be different from the rest with regard to openness and transparency, and fair scrutiny wouldn’t be met with such cold standoffishness. Recently slipping into the territory of acting and talking like just another football club, or just another corporation, has hurt. There has been division and disconnect, and a lot of it has stemmed from the radio silence – with the few answers we were given being delivered in a rather belittling and brusque manner.

What is more closely linked to the absence of new money coming in from ownership, more so in the last couple of years than ever before, has been the unhealthy amount of pressure to emerge from each transfer window with a sizeable profit – not just to make the squad more affordable, but to help with everyday running costs. The lack of reinvestment into the playing staff is an obvious by-product of having to prepare for life without parachute payments, which had become relied on too heavily as a regular source of income. 

Norwich’s accounts in each Championship year in the last decade have glaringly spelt out the need for more Premier League football, and soon – hence the desperation for getting there regardless of how far off the standard we’d be. Having that money, plus the top flight TV revenue, was key to us staying competitive, but not as a current or future Premier League club, but as a “top 26” club. It’s not really “self-funding” if most of your earnings are coming from BSkyB is it? 

In short, Norwich were failing at being Norwich and the “prudence with ambition” messaging of the 2000s and 2010s had become harder and harder to buy into with debts increasing (£59m or so) and more black holes appearing. All this despite the tight purse strings, holding back from “giving it a go” when in the Premier League and finishing rock bottom with 21 and 22 points on the last two occasions. While having to operate in the Championship for the foreseeable, getting back out of the red would’ve been a pipedream – without the arrival of the Attanasios, Richard Ressler, and their considerable wealth and, more importantly, genuine respect for the club’s values. 

The agreement enables the slate to be wiped clean and gets us back to a point where we can just be Norwich City again. But the very best version of Norwich City that we can be. Attanasio and his consortium have a clear track record of turning a small-market franchise into a perennial overachiever without extravagant spending, all while committing to bring the fans along on the journey and serving the local community. Having been to Milwaukee, there are definitely parallels between that city and Norwich as well as between the rural and remote Wisconsin and Norfolk. Since day one of his and their involvement, it has looked like a perfect match. If it was anything less, Monday’s historic events wouldn’t have come to pass. 

That’s where Delia and Michael deserve their flowers. We’ve read certain interviews in the past (typically in national newspapers) where it sounded like they would swipe left on any and all suitors. While they, by the same token, may not have openly put up the “for sale” board either, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle – that they would step away gracefully if an aforementioned perfect match came along. Now that the Attanasios are here, and have been since the last relegation, we know there’s no need for any EFL fit and proper persons test, because they’ve already passed the Delia and Michael test – which is far more rigorous. Most outgoing owners aren’t anywhere near as bothered with performing such a forensic level of due diligence and will willingly cut and run, without a care in the world as to what happens to their former plaything.

It has probably, therefore, been the slowest takeover process ever in English football history to reach this point but this long intervening period has no doubt removed any and all scepticism that they are the correct custodians to pass the torch to. Delia and Michael aren’t taking a penny for themselves, and that speaks volumes for where their comfort levels must be – coupled with the fact they aren’t, and never have been, in it for personal gain. I would hope and assume they’ll still be here, still watching every kick, still popping into The Lion & Castle for a drink and a chat, which is what has made them truly special and unique as owners of a football club – in that, they are simply good humans, who are present and are visible. 

So here we are, uncharted territory, certainly for me as a (just about) under-30 year-old. While it’s not the boldest prediction, this won’t spell the end of self-funding – not that we should necessarily want that. We will still be developing our own players and selling them, much like every other club, and spending within our means. Except now, the means are greater. Hopefully to a point where we aren’t backed into a corner each summer, having to part with a prized asset before we can start making any signings ourselves. Player recruitment will take a data-driven approach, but if we need an extra few quid to get top targets over the line, we can do it. We can, as Tom put it on our ACN Podcast, make decisions based on our model, rather than based on our debt.

Maybe we could also eventually see the long-since-shelved development of the City Stand, a revival of matchday entertainment, even greater synergy with the women’s team and Carrow Road hosting more of their games, maybe (hopefully) tickets returning to at least pre-hike levels, maybe an occasional subsidising of away day coach travel and other goodwill gestures which remind fans they are truly valued and which make following our great club feel rewarding. Oh and pies. We’d better address the pie situation. 

In a football pyramid with various glass ceilings and hidden prices for entry nowadays, success for Norwich City can’t be defined by league positions or certain statuses. Rather, it should be measured against their own objectives, like those set out by Attanasio for the Brewers. They’ve now given themselves the best possible chance of achieving it.