Di Cunningham: Boring, boring Norwich City... what have we become?

There’s always been something going on at our club. There’s the history: our colours, our ‘On the Ball City’ - the oldest known football chant still in current use, our name inspired by the pet birds of the refugee weavers who sought sanctuary here in the 15th century, plus the chalk pit stadium that was the Nest; the grainy sepia images from the early 1900s of the Rosary Road ground depict stands with a rake and capacity astonishing and terrifying in equal measure.

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We cherish *those* player moments; like the Justin Fashanu volley, the Gossy volley, the Safri volley. Those disallowed goals - Jerome v Palace, Pukki v Spurs, Cantwell v Leicester. The cup runs - ‘59 FA, ‘85 Milk, ‘93 UEFA. The promotion runs under Worthington, Lambert and Farke. The rivalry with the club down the A140. And the fans who’ve reinvented the atmosphere at Carrow Road, who campaigned successfully to remove Robert Chase, who include Philip Pullman, Delia Smith and Stephen Fry.

On the pitch or off it. Always. Something. Going. On. Until now…

Though it’s the best thing to see us triumph, I don’t mind seeing the team lose if they show some class and grit. But the watchword for our defeats recently has been indifference.

The stats for Saturday’s game make it clear which team wanted to win. Brighton players had 32 attempts missed, blocked or saved. We had six.

Massive credit to Tim Krul for keeping a clean sheet despite the barrage of assaults on his goal and to Grant Hanley for some valiant defending but really, if that’s all there is to compliment, it doesn’t reflect well on the rest of the team. Not just in terms of skill but in highlighting an absence of passion and attitude.

Perhaps it’s the inevitable outcome of City’s current economic model. One that I confess to have applauded. Rather than seek maximum investment from dubious sources along the lines of some other clubs in our league City have cultivated a profitable market niche; signing, developing and selling on young players - like Maddison, Godfrey, Emi and others.

The City fans that made the trip to Brighton were rewarded with an indifferent performance. (Image: ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +44 7813 022858)

So, the focus for individual players may not necessarily be on the here-and-now but on what happens next in their career. Almost as if everyone’s a loan player. And so perhaps Matthias Normann spoke for the squad in his comments last week to the Norwegian media distancing his future from a Championship-linked Carrow Road.

And as the Colney fast-track production line with its gyms, ice treatments and soccer bot may not have produced much shine on the pitch this season, it may also in itself have taken an edge off player star quality away from it too.

The club has never lacked players prepared to take a stand and use their platform to speak up on social justice or human rights issues in the past.

Think Hucks, Eadie and Ruddy, Russ Martin, the Murphy boys and Vrancic. But these days there’s an awareness that a player’s social media voice might negatively impact their marketability - remember Jacob Murphy’s Snapchat faux pas while on loan at Blackpool (he posted a selfie with the words ‘‘We are going to lose...Again”)? The Bloomfield Road loan spell was swiftly concluded.

Not all footballers enjoy the limelight away from the game and most don’t have the drive or eloquence to speak out Rashford-style on issues that are important to them.

It could be argued that his level of campaigning has become a distraction for the Man United forward and negatively impacted on his play.

But for me, guiding young players on how to use their voices to amplify local, national or global messages and articulate their values is responsible mentorship and may promote the confidence and individuality on the pitch that we need right now.

I know I’ll find the club less compelling in future if in the interests of the balance sheet the squad is to become 26 shades of dull.