Delia Smith faced a backlash from Norwich City supporters after describing some of them as ‘whingers’.
City’s joint majority shareholder didn’t hold back when asked after the club’s AGM about negativity from the stands at a time when the team are struggling in the bottom half of the Championship.
“I still think we have the best supporters in the world but we have 10, 20pc of whingers – part of being on the board is living with the whingers,” she said, in a comment reminiscent of her famous half-time rant during the game against Manchester City in 2005.
Smith had spoken of fans‘ negativity during the meeting and was asked to expand on the theme in post-meeting media interviews.
“I said 80pc of our fans are the best in the world,” she said. “I’ve always believed that – it is very unfair to say that we don’t relate to them because every game and away game, I go and see supporters. For home matches now we have the Lion and Castle (pub in the Lower Barclay) and we’re both able to go and relate to them. That has been a real joy for the both of us.
“I feel really, really strongly that if I was a footballer and walked out on the pitch with all that negativity, I wouldn’t be able to play. I wouldn’t. I remember the days when we used to go to Portsmouth and they would cheer their team whether they were losing 6-0 or winning. They would be cheering and cheering and driving their team on.
“To have that negativity, which all the good people who are supporters get overwhelmed by the boo boys who have the loudest voices. Okay, we have 20pc of whingers and 80pc of fantastic supporters – I love them all dearly.”
When Smith was asked if a way to shift the negativity was as simple as winning games she replied: “I think we need the drummer back. We need the drummer back.
“It is a bit like church mice sometimes – there isn’t a sound anywhere. I still think the majority of people and all the supporters I meet at home and away, unlike the question (in the AGM) that said the board doesn’t engage. One of the stewards came up to me and said ‘they don’t see you, Delia. They don’t see you with the supporters’.
“It is a load of rubbish. I still think we have the best supporters in the world but we have 10, 20pc of whingers – part of being on the board is living with the whingers.”
One of Smith’s mantras over the years has been the perceived danger of selling the club to owners who do not share the commitment of herself and husband Michael Wynn Jones.
“I think the supporters have to be careful what they wish for,” she said.
“It’s all very well having someone with lots of money come in who knows nothing and wants to change the back four and can because he has all the say. You have to look at it for that. My ambition for this club, which I’ve achieved once, is not to have any debt.
“Michael and I spent all those years firefighting debt year after year. The day (former chief executive) David McNally came up to us and said ‘I’ve got good news, we don’t have any more debt’, it was probably the best moment of our tenure so far.”
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