That’s no reflection on the Norwich City coach and the quality of his answers. It was more to do with the fact that the song ‘Stacy’s Mom’ had only just got stuck in my head and was refusing to come off my internal jukebox.
Wagner had followed City right back Jack Stacey into the little room underneath the City Stand that magically becomes ‘The Mixed Zone’ after matches. It means that’s where those of us with radio microphones have to wait for our interviews.
Not every player enjoys doing the media duties but all must take their turn. When you’ve just scored your first goal for the club and it turns out to be the match winner there is a fair chance that you’ll be sent out as the nominated team spokesman for that day.
As interviewers it’s our job to make the players feel relaxed enough to leave behind the comfort blanket which has “Yeah, obviously, we’re just taking each game as it comes” embroidered on it. It’s not that we are trying to catch them out but it’s an opportunity for fans on their way home to hear some insight and get an audio glimpse of what’s really going in the dressing room.
Norwich City’s 1-0 win against Stoke City ended up being rather scrappy in the second half. It wasn’t a game packed with talking points other than 1-0 against Stoke being about as ‘Championship’ as a victory can get.
Stacey himself concluded that it was a match that only he and his mum would remember because he’d scored the winning goal. It was a comment that offered a little crumb of inspiration to one of my colleagues in the written media who asked about family being in the ground.
What followed was a lovely story about how the City right back’s mother had been invited to watch the game with Delia Smith in the director’s box. It was a gesture that clearly meant a lot to this Norwich newcomer.
The novelty of following a football club owned by one of the country’s most famous tv chefs has long since passed for most of those who were at Carrow Road on Saturday. It’s refreshing to see the world of Norwich City through the fresh eyes of a recent signing.
Our match summariser at the weekend Cedric Anselin revealed that Delia had done the same for him and his mother when he arrived in a strange new city in a strange new country in the late 1990s.
In amongst the understandable and entirely justified question marks about how far Delia and Michael really can take the club on the pitch and what the succession plan is for when they have gone, aspects of their ownership style have been taken for granted.
A firm focus on family and providing support to those who work for the club in any capacity must be admired. It’s a rare example of Canary consistency during a turbulent two and a half decades.
Jack Stacey’s mum was the latest to discover what it really means to be part of the Norwich City family. That song is back in my head again now.
‘Stacy’s Mom’ was a hit in 2003 for the American band Fountains of Wayne. I’m tempted to change that to Fountains of Wayne Biggins in order to keep the interest of Norwich City fans of a certain vintage.
When you can’t stop humming a tune the received wisdom is that you have to listen to it to make it go away. I did just that with ‘Stacy’s Mom’ on Saturday night and now I wish I hadn’t. I had forgotten quite how keen on ‘Stacy’s Mom’ the singer is and now I am worried that I’ll blush the next time I have to interview Jack Stacey.
Luckily he was also officially City’s best player on Saturday so the band being American might help us. We can just agree that in this case the Mom in ‘Stacy’s Mom’ stands for Man of the Match and move on.
Deano support group
Wednesday night promises to be a proper occasion under the Carrow Road floodlights.
There hasn’t been a huge amount to shout about for Norwich City home supporters since they returned after lockdown in August 2021. A meek Premier League relegation followed by a mid-table marooning in the Championship have made it a bit of a slog.
The last game before Covid stopped fans attending football was a pulsating 1-0 win over Leicester City on a Friday night. A rare Jamal Lewis goal sent supporters home happy, although they didn’t know it at the time, for the last time in 18 months.
It’s early days but this new look Norwich City are beginning to get the place jumping again. Three wins out of three at home have included stoppage time heroics against Hull, a mauling of Millwall and stubborn streak against Stoke. Some of the football David Wagner has had the team playing in all three matches has given supporters something to get excited about and believe in.
Good results at home don’t half help a manager’s cause. When you don’t perform in front of a packed house things can turn ugly pretty quickly.
Just ask Dean Smith who never did manage to truly win over large sections of the Carrow Road faithful during his 13 months in charge.
Even if the game doesn’t live up to its pre-match billing the two sets of fans can at least form a support group for teams recently relegated from the Premier League under Dean Smith.
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