Delia Smith’s hilarious four-word response after someone once tried to buy Norwich City for just £1

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Norwich City will end their Championship campaign marooned in mid-table after showing early signs of making the play-offs for the second season running.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Norwich, who sacked Johannes Hoff Thorup following the embarrassing 5-3 defeat to Portsmouth in April.

Jack Wilshere was then placed in temporary charge of the Canaries, and the former Arsenal midfielder has impressed the hierarchy during his short spell in the hot seat.

On Wednesday, EFL Analysis exclusively revealed that Sporting Director Ben Knapper wants to put Wilshere in charge of Norwich permanently.

But whilst there are continuous changes on the pitch and in the dugout at Carrow Road, one thing has been a constant at the club, and that is the presence of co-owner Delia Smith.

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Delia Smith reveals someone once tried to buy Norwich City for £1

Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones have been co-owners of Norwich City for over 27 years, only recently handing over their majority stake in the club to Mark Attanasio’s Norfolk Holdings Group in August 2024.

The group now have 85% shares in the club, with Smith and Wynne-Jones holding 10% after stepping down from the board and becoming honorary life presidents.

During almost three decades among the Norwich hierarchy, Smith has seen it all, including countless promotions, relegations, record transfer fees and sales.

Unsurprisingly, there have also been times when interest has emerged in buying the football club, with the 83-year-old telling a rather interesting story.

Speaking on the Talk Norwich City podcast, Smith revealed how someone almost tried purchasing the Canaries for just £1.

She explained how they said: “We’ll take it off your hands, we’ll put it into administration and we’ll get the money right. Then, when asked what her response was to that, she hilariously replied: “Go away! Bog off!”

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Smith shares her major problem with Premier League football

In modern day football, it’s becoming increasing difficult for sides to compete at the top level after winning promotion.

The gulf between the Championship and the Premier League is highlighted by all three promoted teams being instantly relegated to the second tier for two seasons running.

Burnley and Leeds will hope to dispel that trend, but after becoming an honorary life president last year, Smith spoke about how difficult it is to compete in the top-flight, stating how she finds the Premier League ‘boring’.

“Bodies age, but souls don’t,” Smith said in February 2025. “You stay 19 inside, and I think Michael and I were a bit oblivious to our age. We were going along with our football club, thinking we could do another couple of years. I think we could have carried on in the days before the Premier League. I’m sure we could. Definitely.

“It’s boring. The Premier League has made it harder for people like us. We became used to losing. It ceased to be sport really, because if you’re trying to play a team and the guy sitting on their bench, who doesn’t even play, is worth more than your whole team put together, where’s the sport?

“A £ 50 million player can seem cheap at the price now. There are two ways to look at it. One is that the Premier League is the best in the world and everybody lauds us and our competition, but in another way we’ve lost so much of what football really is.

“I think that’s a bit sad. I’d swap that. I don’t want to be the best league in the world. It’s getting now that we prefer being in the Championship, we really do.”