Training Ground Moles and Carrow Road Goals....
“Norwich City have uncovered a training ground mole” stated Matt ‘I wish I could pull off one-liners like Lineker’ Smith, at the start of this weekend’s The Championship on ITV1.
The fact that such a small story has made national news shows what a quiet and un-dramatic start to the English football season it has been. It is also just plain, wrong.
“Training ground mole” implies that “citizen journalists” (of which I guess I am considered one of) are doing their work for our opponents gain. OK we may have unwittingly done so but it is in fact the complete opposite.
It is our seemingly insatiable need for Norwich City information that has left us wanting to know every going on up at Colney.
I swear Norwich City FC and Anglian Water have some kind of secret deal to keep whatever is in the water in Norfolk, in constant supply.
Why else do we continue to have such loyal and strong support, home and away?
How else did we manage to find positives in Andy Hughes abilities for so long?
It’s what non-football fans just can’t understand. “Why do you need to know the other scores?” my long-suffering and clearly narked girlfriend asked as I turned on Radio 5 Live for ‘Sports Report’, “you don’t support them!”
I wonder what it’s like to not be consumed by “the beautiful game”…..
Anyway, once again us Norfolk folk are the butt of national chuckles and made to look stupid for being seemingly naïve when in fact all we wanted to do is feast ourselves on all things yellow and green.
As usual, it is a case of us being too damn nice (again, see Mr A Hughes) and as City’s Head of Media Joe Ferrari stated “it brings our policy more into line with that of most other professional clubs in this country, where access to training sessions is either heavily restricted or, in some cases, not allowed at all.”
As innocent as the whole thing is, it seems ridiculous that the club ever allowed it in the first place.
How do you prove you’re a Norwich City fan with time to kill and an interest in watching Darren Huckerby running rings around the rest of the squad and not a Preston scout?
I’m proud to support a club which gives so much back to it’s community and generally treats it’s fans pretty well but football has to come first every time.
It’s a dog-eat-dog world in football and we have to take every precaution that might give us the edge over our rivals.
Saying that, we’ve started off the 2007/08 campaign pretty well and with our key player yet to be added to the mix, I’m feeling confident that we can reach the play-offs if everybody is singing off the same hymn sheet.
Seven goals in two goals is not a bad return and the prodigal son is certainly having a pretty good home-coming so far!
Let’s see if we can use our combined ‘citizen journalism’ talents to un-pick other teams in the Championship and give Peter Grant and Jim Duffy a virtual hand.
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Cheers