Time For Delia To Goo Hintut?

Just logging in to Facebook would be enough. There’d be no need to look at results or a league table because you’ll quickly notice yourself falling out/disagreeing/having “healthy” keyboard-smashing debate with the same friends you did the last time we were shit.

Move over to Twitter and you’ll see the same people bitching about Moxey’s apparent subterfuge as used to moan about McNally’s apparent omnipotence.

The same people that said it couldn’t be worse than (insert pretty much any managers name) are spouting the same thing about Alex Neil. And then….

And then you stumble across – actually, no that’s bollocks – and then you continue to have rammed down your throat a timeline about how it’s all suddenly down to Delia again.

It’s the same folks. The ones that hold her solely responsible for poor appointments, give her credit for “taking a different role” and allowing McNally to run the club (to start with), then claimed her power-hungry nature led to her over-ruling the Dark Lord of the boardroom.

I’m not really sure where this notion that she is some sort of master puppeteer comes from.

I don’t think she uttered a word at the AGM. Her husband was pretty brusque, Ed was pure politician, Jez sounded like a bad Matt Damon performance and Tom was honest, open and receptive. But Delia said nothing. Zilch. Throughout this meeting of folk who hold shares in her “dolls house”.

Maybe it’s because she’s a successful woman? Maybe it’s because she’s a TV star? Maybe it’s because, whisper it, that she IS a woman?

Hell, no. Not in Norfolk.

The most common turd hurled in her general direction is that she “isn’t rich enough” to take the club forward.

I get that. If you look at the top of the Premier League, the Mansours, Abramovich and the like bankroll huge transfer fees and massive wages.

In order to provide balance, look around us in the Championship. It’s awash with big money owners, people like Lakshmi Mittal, one of the richest chaps in England. QPR are languishing and, like us, aren’t very good at the moment. They’ve got the desirable owner though. Where would those bemoaning Delia’s pauper-like status direct their ire if they were in a Hoop’s shoes? Still at Mittal/Fernandes? Are they “not rich” enough? Should they spend more of their wealth (money they’re hugely unlikely to recover) in order to sate the appetite of the terrace hordes?

What if we were ALL owned by billionaires? What then? Still only twenty teams in the Prem and three of those – fancy foreign owner or not – are going to get relegated. It isn’t a closed shop, it isn’t as easy as just “being richer”.

Yet still “sheer gorta goo”.

It’s a thoroughly ridiculous and petulant reaction to “not winning”. Simply saying, Delia Out, suggests irrespective of who comes in, it doesn’t matter as long as she has gone. She’s holding the club back, we hear. From what exactly? Rampaging through Europe? Pillaging some villages in Suffolk?

They’ve said they won’t even listen to offers….uh huh. It was a story in a paper. It was edited. To create maximum interest. As much was clarified at the AGM – but then, they would say that, wouldn’t they?

If people want to blame the manager – it’s the change most likely – then I think he’s underperforming, fair enough.

If people want to castigate the players, again, they’re underperforming, I don’t think anybody would argue with you.

But if you give it all your thought, assess the situation fully and then decide that it’s Delia that’s underperforming then you probably shouldn’t be allowed to use metal cutlery, let alone use the Internet.

We’ve just spent 4 years out of 5 in the Premier League. We did that with owners that aren’t rich enough. We cleared our debts. We didn’t hide behind administration, we worked our way out and paid our way. We did that with owners not rich enough. We’re blooding young players and maintaining an impressive academy, with owners that aren’t rich enough.

I wonder how many clubs with owners that ARE rich enough are envious of that?

We’re in testing times. The fix is unlikely to be immediate but our little Norwich owners have been through worse and still found a way to get us through it and back at the top table.

Would a bloke born in some far flung outpost with no affiliation to the club at all fight as hard to make that happen as a couple of lifelong fans?

Who knows? Personally, I doubt it.

According to Wiki, Barnsley have a richer owner than us so with money being the all-important factor in football, we really shouldn’t be surprised or bothered by Saturday’s setback.

The fact that we are suggests that perhaps the nod towards money as a reason for ousting our owners isn’t particularly sincere. Barnsley have a richer owner but we should be beating “teams like Barnsley” and I can’t imagine a single City fan would want to trade places, owners, stadiums, bank balances, facilities or even weather with them.

In comparison, our owners are poor. However, they’re far from poor owners. It might be hard for the Delia Outers to recognise during a poor spell but it really is there for ALL to see; it’s just that little bit beyond the end of the nose.