Colin Chapman has followed Norwich City for almost six decades and this is also in the blood of his granddaughter Jess and his son Simon who are also season ticket holders. Watching the Canaries’ celebrations last Monday, he looks ahead at the team and its tactics for the coming season in the Premiership.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur – by results Europe’s top teams this year – will all be at Carrow Road next season. The Canaries will also face huge crowds the Emirates, Stamford Bridge, Anfield and White Hart Lane. Most, if not all, the matches will be shown on television across the world.
This is the real and just reward for the players, owners, supporters and staff of Norwich City Football Club, celebrated in fine style on the May 6 bank holiday. Our boys will be mixing it with the best Europe currently has on offer, providing fans the kind of stylish football all four play, and that has also been the hallmark of City’s title-winning success.
We are talking of fluid football, pleasing to watch, not the bruising style of many Championship teams ,in a league hard to get out of and where the standard of refereeing leaves much to be desired.
Thanks to an excellent article in The Times, we know the building bricks of the Canaries’s success were laid at a crucial meeting in last summer, when the board and the management had to face up to mounting debt and the threat of going into administration. Immediate decisive action was agreed. As we know, this involved the lucrative sale of valuable assets like Maddison and Murphy, and parking overpaid misfits (Naismith and Oliviera come to mind) out on loan. Then came the rebuilding of the time, under the daily stewardship of head coach Daniel Farke, who bravely mixed experience with young men from Colney and unknowns from abroad.
This squad gelled into a team not seen at Carrow Road for many years. An estimated 50,000 fans, most garbed in yellow and green, swarmed in front of City Hall to watch the players come on to the balcony, in groups of two or three, to relate their experiences of an amazing year. They had partied together the previous night, and quaffed champagne for breakfast.mixing with backroom staff at City Hall, who had all been invited by joint majority shareholders Delia Smith and husband Michael Wynn-Jones. The couple received many deserved tributes from those present, including talented BBC broadcaster Chris Goreham, whose live two hour commentary was streamed on the internet.
As fans sang in unison the club song “On the Ball, City, with more than a little scrimmsge in the packed market place, they really needed no reminder that Delia and Michael rescued the club 21 years ago from the perilous position it found itself in . They not only risked their own personal fortunes; there was a huge emotional commitment.
‘I’ve supported Norwich for over 60 years”, explained Wynn-Jones proudly from the City Hall balcony, “but I can honestly say this is the best squad and the best football I’ve ever seen”.
Delia thanked the supporters for sticking by Norwich through good times and bad.When we went down to League One we sold the same amount of tickets.This is really outstanding. Everyone feels like they've gelled together as one and I think this year the supporters are in on that. We are all one.”
Then it was Farke’s turn, again to acclaim not seen before across Britain’s most famous market. Television presenter Jake Humphrey, conducting the balcony proceedings, exchanged views with Farke about his success, but then turned to the future, and the challenge of life in the Premiership. A smiling but guarded Farke refused to be drawn, insisting it was a time for celebration and that the future hard task would come soon enough.
He is right. Farke is known to be a friend and admirer of his fellow German Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool manager, who is widely credited with the introduction of gegenpressing into professional football. For the uninitiated this is broadly the system whereby a team, on losing possession of the ball, immedialy seeks to get it back, rather than seeking to regroup. One theory behind gegenpressing, which is also followed by Spurs, is that you can concdede goals but hope to score many more. Farke’s team has done this, along with speeding up City’s possession and passing game that has served them well, even when falling behind.
It does not look as if our head coach will be joining his players and having much of a vacation in coming weeks. He will no doubt be watching the conclusion of the Premier League season and then the Europa and Champion's League final with four teams who he will be pitting his wits against next season. Oh, and there is the little matter of working with sporting director Stuart Webber in agreeing half a dozen reinforcements to strengthen the squad for the tougher days ahead. These will include a new deputy for goalkeeper Tim Krull and Striker Temmu Pukki, an additional, fast winger, defensive midfielder and one or two defenders.
We should not forget the benefits to our fine city, Norwich. The Premier league has a worldwide TV audience of 47.5 million, and it provides a wonderful opportunity to attract more tourists to find out what one of Britain’s oldest cities is like, and that it has many other attractions than the football club.
The Maids Head Hotel in Tombland, Norwich has revealed a new contemporary look for its AA 2 rosette Wine Press Restaurant, which is located in the former courtyard of the 15th century inn that first took the name Maids Head.
The Lord Mayor of Norwich, Councillor Vaughan Thomas and the Sheriff of Norwich, Dr Marian Prinsley visited the hotel on Thursday, November 14 to officially reopen the restaurant following its £60,000 makeover.
Interior Designer, Nicola Lovell, working closely with General Manager, Christine Malcolm, has created a colourful and exciting restaurant with new tables, chairs, banquettes, pictures and decoration, which complement the ancient courtyard of the hotel.
The Wine Press refurbishment is the latest project at the Maids Head, which has seen £3.5 million invested by the hotel’s owners, the Chaplin family, over the last six years across all public areas and guest bedrooms.
A new pilot wayfinding scheme has launched in the city centre comprising of 12 newly designed and branded City of Stories totems.
Delivered by Norwich Business Improvement District in partnership with Norwich City Council the pre-existing infrastructure has been redesigned to fit a new image for the city centre.
The 12 newly designed directional totems are located across the city centre, from outside St Peter Mancroft and The Assembly House, to Dragon Hall on King street.
Each totem is colour co-ordinated to match city centre districts and features directional content, immediate location information, 3D buildings and icons, accessible fonts and designs, as well as heritage information on the surrounding district.
Norwich is already home to eight eye catching large-scale street murals and now the Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) has unveiled its latest urban artworks.
Working in partnership with Norwich Market, 12 market stalls have been transformed into vibrant street art for residents, visitors and market vendors to enjoy.
This collaborative project engaged with five community groups including Notre Dame School, Free School Norwich, The Norwich School, Open Youth Trust and Norwich Theatre Royal to help transform the market. Ideas were brought to life by seven artists (Kieran Harper, Amy Fellows, Lucie Knight, Emma Hulett, Katie Nice & Maisie Moffat, Ralph McCarthy and Joey LaMeche) who ran workshops with each of the groups to understand their artistic briefs.
The Maids Head Hotel in Tombland, Norwich, is the new permanent home for The Norwich Panorama, created by John Moray-Smith in the mid 1940s for Morgans Brewery.
The Norwich Society acquired the Panorama in 2016 to both save and restore the panel. The magnificent 2.5 metre by 1.5 metre panel is now on display next to the entrance to the Maids Head's Wine Press Restaurant.
The three-dimensional panel depicts the view of Norwich from St James Hill. It was commissioned by Morgans Brewery for the Cock Inn on King Street. Following the Inn’s closure in the mid 1970s, the panel was moved to Caistor Hall Hotel, where at some point after 2010 it was damaged and placed into storage. The Norwich Society bought the panel in 2016, and with the support of the Paul Bassham Charitable Trust, the John Jarrold Trust and the Norwich Heritage Fund, paid for its restoration.
