Nick Townsend: Prudence: Delia's vital ingredient

Celebrity cook budgets for her Norwich to finish bottom - but fourth from bottom would be lovely

It is difficult to work out quite why we have such affection for Norwich City. Perhaps it's because we find it reassuring that one of the nation's outposts should have consistently supported a high standard of football (which, as someone once said, is because they're so far east they think they're playing in the Dutch League). Maybe it's the Canaries' colourful and unintimidating strip; perhaps it's their passionate but benign supporters.

For some who were there on an emotional and almost surreal night in Munich a decade ago, it goes back to when Bayern were eclipsed 2-1 by Mike Walker's team, a motley collection containing the curly-haired midfielder Jeremy Goss, who spawned many imitators among the fans and scored the equaliser and the Uefa Cup tie's winning goal in the return leg.

Whatever the reason, Delia Smith has been the recipient of much goodwill in the last week. Yet, even as the woman who, with her husband, Michael Wynn Jones, is City's majority shareholder, savoured that piquant flavour of promotion, the whiff of rancid reality floated towards her. Ladbrokes immediately instal-led her Norwich City team as odds-on to be relegated. Even worse, they offered the kind of price you get when Frankie Dettori partners a Sheikh Mohammed million-dollar colt against modest rivals.

Not that the iconic TV cook would dispute that estimation. She represents the kind of figurehead that most supporters have come, some begrudgingly, to appreciate: utterly committed to her club but pragmatic where balance sheets are concerned. Which explains why there have been no outrageous declarations of intent emanating from Carrow Road. "We've done all our sums, and have budgeted on what kind of income we would have if we were bottom," she told me. "Anything above that is a bonus. Because Norwich City Football Club was, nine years ago, in some ways ahead of all the others in terms of bankruptcy and administration, we've been through that. Therefore there is a culture here of ambition with prudence."

It was not long after that Bayern Munich adventure that the Canaries fluttered to the bottom of the Premiership cage under then-chairman Robert Chase. Only 11 years ago, Norwich finished third. Two years later, they were relegated. Their followers believed it was merely a temporary setback. "On loan to the Endsleigh League" (as the Nationwide was called at the time) was the message of defiance on the backs of their shirts the following season. It has been a clamber back of chafed limbs and open wounds, including one unsuccessful visit to Cardiff in 2002.

Initially, correspondence to the local newspaper was less than appreciative. Smith, who in her seven years on the board has put £7m into the club, accepted the criticism stoically. Events have vindicated her strategy, but she will not indulge in triumphalism. "At a moment when we're getting a lot of adulation, I just feel, 'Well, I'm glad I went through the other bit, because now I know what it's like'," she said. "I understand football supporters having deep suspicions about people who are investing in, or running, their clubs. If it hadn't been me and Michael but other people coming in, I'd have been just as wary, thinking, 'Why are they there?' "

Promotion has been secured in cautious stages, not by extravagant cash binges. The current state of euphoria will not deflect her from that philosophy as City attempt to secure their newly acquired status. What she has accepted, as all those promoted to the Premiership without the advantage of a replica Roman Abramovich should, is that it need not be the curse that it once was. Learn to profit instead from what may be termed the Premiership Bounce. The first occasion an economical takeaway; the second, financed by their BSkyB parachute payments and other income (which could total £25m), a more extravagant seat at the top table.

"It's obviously going to be very difficult," Smith admitted. "But we've always followed Charlton as our model. They went up, came down, and used the money that they got effectively. There's no other way you'll ever get that kind of income. They used it to strengthen the squad, got back and they've stayed there. They've also stayed with the same manager, and in that they're very lucky."

When Nigel Worthington succeeded Bryan Hamilton three years ago, not everybody was convinced that City had got lucky. Smith, however, harboured no doubts. "I've always had faith in his abilities, particularly as he hasn't had much of a budget. What he has proved is that, with very little money, and a lot of spirit, things can happen. I admire his style: if you don't work hard you don't get in the team, and if you don't care if you don't get in the team, you go."

Smith, who says there is already a waiting list for season tickets and that match-day catering is also sold out (that's 28,000 covers over the season in culinary-speak) added: "He seems to create a work ethic that is quite demanding. I've seen players in the Premiership this season, and I've heard about others, not playing with spirit. It makes a lot of difference, doesn't it? That's why I am hopeful about next season. The thing about Nigel is that he is not a one-track, selfish, I-me-and-myself manager. He wouldn't put us in any kind of jeopardy [with demands for expensive acquisitions]. We have only got to be fourth from bottom. That's the aim."

The bookies may not envisage it, but with such an attitude, and given Smith's record, you would be foolish to dismiss it.

Swearing by the Turf

Delia Smith would no more dream of cursing than breaking an egg incorrectly. Gordon Ramsay would, though. As anyone who witnessed 111 such utterances in the Channel 4 programme Kitchen Nightmares can attest, profanities are his preferred form of address. Which, by a rather circuitous route, brings us to Mick Channon, who, remember, had three years at Carrow Road in the early Eighties. On Wednesday evening, he was honoured with a tribute dinner at the Cafe Royal, in aid of Barts Cancer Centre of Excellence, and to promote a new biography of his life*. As he recalled his football and horseracing careers, the thought occurred that in a swearing match between celebrity trainer and celebrity chef, you would be hard-pushed to call the winner. Only with Channon and that inimitable burr, the legacy of his upbringing in a village on Salisbury Plain, it is simply impossible to take offence.

Among a litany of anecdotes from former footballing colleagues, Lawrie McMenemy told how, early in his management of Southampton, he had given Channon a lengthy half-time "bollocking". The response? "You've got to remember, gaffer, that this is only a hobby..." Big Lawrie, like the rest of us, knew the former England winger was keen on the Turf, but could not have imagined that over two decades later he would be one of the country's most successful trainers, with over 200 horses currently in his charge at his West Ilsley stables in Berkshire.

All that eludes him is a Classic winner. Today, he runs Majestic Desert and Silca's Gift in the 1,000 Guineas. Few would begrudge him a belated success.

Mick Channon: The Authorised Biography (Highdown, £18.99)