With a 0-1 win at Portsmouth this afternoon Norwich have put themselves out of the reach of third place Cardiff City. At the beginning of last season they lost 7-1 against Colchester and stood in last place in the third division (Southampton were actually below them with negative points) and seemed poised to fall apart entirely. Since then they've put together a team composed almost entirely of League One and League Two journeymen who have somehow managed to take the Championship by storm and make it to the land of milk and honey. I'm still not entirely sure that I can comprehend that.
I'm really hoping that Paul Lambert keeps the core of the team together and continues playing an attractive passing game. The current team is nowhere near good enough to challenge at the top of the Premiership, but they absolutely play well together and the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. It's hard to place a monetary value on that, and i think it's likely to be enough to get ahead of three teams next season. The Canaries packed their stadium full in the third tier, and they'll be out in force supporting them against the Manchester Uniteds and Arsenals of the world too. It'll be fun to see how it plays out
Thanks for tolerating my Norwich post of the year, and it'll be nice to actually be somewhat relevant to the prevailing conversations next year!