Anyone Can 'Talk The Talk'
Throughout the course of the season many Town players have given their views on the promotion credentials of the club. Almost everyone from the keeper via defenders and midfield to the strike force have aired an opinion.
“It’s just a blip”
“We need to kill teams off”
“It’s only a matter of time”
“We need to beat the sides around us”
Just a few of the clichéd statements given by players to the media as a supposed reassurance to us the supporters that a happy end to the season is still a real possibility.
The reality is that with very few exceptions, if any of them could ‘walk the walk’ as well as they ‘talk the talk’ the playoffs would be a virtual certainty.
Whether or not they have any conviction regarding their statements or they are reading them from a list of ‘media friendly answers to awkward questions’ supplied by the club, we will never know.
If the former is true, then I can only say that the level of ability in the players self assessment is now falling well short of the expectations of a growing number of dissenting fans.
The importance of last Saturdays game in relation to any hope of achieving a top six finish was given more emphasis than any before it, but once again when it really mattered, the teams performance did not meet the ‘top billing’ on ITV’s Championship coverage, or that of the ardent travelling support. Swansea cruised to a 3-0 victory with consummate ease. So much so that they now probably view the drawn game at Portman Road as two points lost.
The transfer window is now well and truly closed and any reaction to our only new aquisition will seemingly have to be put on hold until the season as any sort of living entity is no more.
Luciano Civelli, may become a Town legend and I hope he does but given Jim’s frail chances of salvaging the season, was it any way pertinent that his only attempt to bolster the qualities of an obviously lacking squad was the solitary signing of a player apparently six weeks short of match fitness.
Highly unlikely to make the instant impact required I think.
Civelli may be one for the future which we can only look forward to realistically in the long term.
That future though needs far more structure and stability.
Town this season have proved if proof were needed that finance alone does not provide success.
It is much easier for football fans to come to terms with failure in the face of adversity, when however all the tools are in place to succeed, failure is put under greater scrutiny.
You wouldn’t want to be a Norwich fan at the moment?
Or would you?
The remaining games for Budgies fans will probably hold a lot more excitement and attendances at Carrow Road will far exceed those at ‘The Library’ our ground has become.
There have been times you wanted the season to go on forever, sometimes though you just want it to end.