ricardo

The closer we get the more 35 points looks to being safe. We should have already been there comfortably but we aren''t and now it doesn''t look so easy.The only certainty is that 32 points won''t be enough.

Lambert never struck me as the kind of guy that would ever contemplate a backward step. He had to much confidence in his own ability for that. We had three wonderful years and you would need to live a second lifetime to hope to experience that again.It will never be seen again but I am eternally grateful to him for what he did.

The only thing I have ever expected is that after all the trouble of getting to this league we will do everything possible to stay there for a bit longer.I don''t expect us to be permanent members but neither do I expect it to be needlessly thrown away.

If he says its a case of "knowing" then I think we should accept that he might actually be privy to a bit more than you and I LDC.A lot of this under the counter stuff seems to be leaking out so best not to dismiss stuff because it runs counter to what we''ve been led to believe. I have no contacts anywhere so the best I can do is read the runes based on many years of experience of the machinations at CR. In that respect it''s obvious that not everything has yet come out into the public domain.If C1 says he is certain of what he has been told then I''m inclined to accept it until and unless I find out different.

Don''t bet on it.It''s a toss up what will happen first. Either Wiz calling for Adams head or the first Cuckoo.[;)]

[quote user="City1st"]if there is any shred of truth in itSadly it is all too true, as I have been saying oon here since the ''rumpus after the Villa game last seasonIt has been a constant source of amazement and frustration that Hughton was kept onLook at the stuff with Becchio in the press, then he appears as a sub, Hoolahan over Jan, Fer snubbing Hughton when celebrating and going straight to Bassong who had long fallen out with HughtonI can only imagine that when Lambert was ''shoved sideways'' the board wanted someone who would not side with the players - and ''hard man Hughton was brought in. A position and attitude that was not only condoned but wanted by the board so it rather put them on the spot when it come to sacking him.mWhat they didn''t want was the players trying to decifde things as with Lambert. It was the player revolt Saturday night that finally did for him - by that soundings were taken and the consensus was ''enough is enough''. I don''t believe it is one of communication as McNally is fairly hands on and will listen to almost anyone, and replies. I just think that Hughton has two sides to him and was able to assure the board that it would all come good - after all had he not delivered 11th place last season ? Bowkett even confidentially talked of ''mid table mediocrity'' such was his (supposed) believe in Hughton.Saturday was as much about the manner of defeat as the defeat itself. The players were dispirited and Hughton was clueless about how to change things and how to motivate the players, the ''whip'' had been used too many times.To see such a decent fellow as Ruddy argueing with the fans was perhaps a defining picture of the straw finally being broken.Time to rebuild.... the player''s confidence and belief and the bonds between the supporters and the players and clubonwards and upwards[/quote]Well that''s a very sad tale and much sadder because most of that has been kept from ordinary fans. Hughton always came across to me as a decent bloke although I will admit that his quiet manner at AGM''s and Fans Forums never filled me with huge confidence. At the time I thought that it was the right decision to stick with him, after all, the Board should have a better handle on things than most of us ordinary fans.

No probs or issues with Firefox[Y][B][:D]

A doubt that anybody losing a million quid a year job would be over the moon about it.

[quote user="City1st"]"Not the type of person you want as manager of your football team however, give me someone hungry, inspirational and desperate to prove themselves who in turn finds players in his mould desperate to prove themselves. We have none of those any more in our starting 11."eh !we have 25 of them in the squad, it''s just that Hughton stifled them with his negative and almost defeatist approachHughton was hungry and desperate to prove himself, be under no illusion about that. The problem was in the methods he used.Players who reach this level, and are signed by City are well motivated. What they don''t expect is to be constricted by absurd tactics that focussed almost solely on stopping the opposition. There is a wonder Laurel and Hardy clip where Stan decides the best way to stop himself from getting a pounding in the ring is to fling his arms around his opponent and cling on for dear life - that was Hughton.The club had brought in those players, Hhughton had little to do with that side of things - which some may argue was the root cause of the failings.However when the tactics and the consequent results are as dire as they were is there any wonder that players loss faith ? Try playing cricket when the manager insists taht it is better to hold the bat by the thick end  and that the wicket keeper should stand on the boundary to stop any fours being scored. Any dissent was met with the cold shoulder, and the pleasant man in front of the camera was not the same man at Colney. Basically he was a bully, using his position to force his way, rather than by consent.That you could write the above quoted paragraph beggars believe and makes me wonder if you have watched many City games. ps again. I would strongly urge folk to read the OP .... simply a brilliant piece. [/quote]I don''t know where you get all that stuff from, C1, but if there''s any shred of truth in it then why was it allowed to go on? If the players were agin'' him then why didn''t somebody go to McNally?I suppose the truth will come out in the end, it usually does but if you are correct then a lot of needless damage has been done to the club with very little time left to get back on an even keel.The Board kept faith with their chosen one and ordinarily I would have applauded them for that but surely they should have had someone keeping tabs on things. It''s right that they backed their man but not if they knew there was an unhappy ship.All this stinks of poor communication to me.

[quote user="Wiz"]The board get my support especially after taking my advice Saturday night![;)][/quote]Was it a long phone call and could you tell if Delia was in tears.[:D]

Nail hit squarely on head Daniel.The Board had no choice in the end. In football management results are everything. He must have known that time was up on Saturday, everybody could see it.

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="ricardo"][quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Bury Green"]Purple, the Chairman had considerable business before and during his tenure as the clubs Chairman and yes I''m very much aware of what he said at the last AGM, from memory he suggested his son very much wanted him involved with the club. Dennis has, for me at least, always resembled Blackadder''s Lord Percy, very keen to bow and scrape around the feet of the joint majority shareholders, let us not forget his behaviour around the time of Roeder''s departure? Given the events of the last twenty four hours does this really seem like the same decision making process that sent McNally down the M4 to send Gunn home, the acquisition of Paul Lambert''s services and subsequent treatment of the poor old Col Who''s Chairman? Not really, of course Bowketts principle goal of financial security has been achieved. We are of course all eternally grateful that the club now finds itself in such a wonderfully healthy condition, my point remains that this last twenty four hours has none of the traits we have come to love from the Chairman and Chief Executive. How so?[/quote] It is much more likely that, as I argued all along, there was never a moment when it became obvious Hughton would have to go. And that Bowkett and/or McNally were either never able to make a strong enougb case or even weren''t arguing for sacking at all. For all we know either or both might have been defending Hughton.[/quote]I bow to your superior knowledge of what goes on in the Boardroom Purple, but that conclusion was pretty much the same as the one I drew. I have no idea if there was a split Boardroom but I would have thought even the dimmest Board member would have seen which way the wind was blowing at 4.45pm on Saturday.The only surprise was that they took so long over the decision that I was beginning to think I''d called it wrong.[/quote]Boardrooms generally, ricardo, although the odd straw from Carrow Road floats past my balcony from time to time! Of course there may have been some deep rift in the board, but the more likely explanation is indeed that there was never, until now, an obvious moment.I can pretty guarantee that if you had taken seven posters from this message-board in the summer and put them in a room once a month through the season if there ever was any unanimity it would have been for Hughton to be kept on. There would never have been unanimity on sacking him.[/quote]Yes I think that''s right.Critical mass wasn''t achieved until Saturday afternoon. It struck me as being a "Worthy/Burnley" moment as indeed it must have to thousands of others. Once you''ve seen it you know what''s coming next.

[quote user="Dubai Mark"] So, when it has now happened it would have been a shock to everyone..........or did somebody genuinely predict this after the Albion game?   [/quote]This is what I posted at 7.15 Saturday evening Mark. We have been walking a tightrope all season. I was hoping we could keep our balance a little longer but it seriously looks like we will fall off just before the end. Hughton has proved a master at clinging on by his fingernails but you got the feeling that this afternoon was a bit of a "Worthington" moment. Will he make it until the last game? I don''t know but the odds have tilted against him today. Perhaps this time he really will be "gone by Monday".you didn''t need to be Nostrodamus to see that the wind had changed direction.

[quote user="ellis206"]Did I really just read people saying the atmopshere at Norwich hasn''t been sour? Every subsitution has been boo''d, even when Hooper got taken off when injured that got boo''d, when taking of Hoolahan this weekend that got boo''d despite him being the worst player on the pitch. Every halftime was getting boo''d unless we were winning and every fulltime got boo''d unless we won (bar Man City).   The fans that boo''d are pathetic and deserve relegation as they are as much to blame for the negative vibe around the club as Hughton is.   [/quote]This is true but Hughton always got the result in these home games and had his luck held on Saturday he would still be here now. He managed to do just enough each time his head was on the line and despite some desperate away results he didn''t look like getting the push.It was obvious he would make it to Xmas and then with decent wins v Hull, Spurs, Sunderland he was looking odds on to go right through until May. Only something disastrous at home was going to de-rail him. We finally got it on Saturday.

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Bury Green"]Purple, the Chairman had considerable business before and during his tenure as the clubs Chairman and yes I''m very much aware of what he said at the last AGM, from memory he suggested his son very much wanted him involved with the club. Dennis has, for me at least, always resembled Blackadder''s Lord Percy, very keen to bow and scrape around the feet of the joint majority shareholders, let us not forget his behaviour around the time of Roeder''s departure? Given the events of the last twenty four hours does this really seem like the same decision making process that sent McNally down the M4 to send Gunn home, the acquisition of Paul Lambert''s services and subsequent treatment of the poor old Col Who''s Chairman? Not really, of course Bowketts principle goal of financial security has been achieved. We are of course all eternally grateful that the club now finds itself in such a wonderfully healthy condition, my point remains that this last twenty four hours has none of the traits we have come to love from the Chairman and Chief Executive. How so?[/quote] It is much more likely that, as I argued all along, there was never a moment when it became obvious Hughton would have to go. And that Bowkett and/or McNally were either never able to make a strong enougb case or even weren''t arguing for sacking at all. For all we know either or both might have been defending Hughton.[/quote]I bow to your superior knowledge of what goes on in the Boardroom Purple, but that conclusion was pretty much the same as the one I drew. I have no idea if there was a split Boardroom but I would have thought even the dimmest Board member would have seen which way the wind was blowing at 4.45pm on Saturday.The only surprise was that they took so long over the decision that I was beginning to think I''d called it wrong.

[quote user="mrs miggins"]to you it does[/quote]And to me.There is no chance of getting a "name" in when you are perched on the trapdoor. Nobody would take it on while there''s a strong chance of next season being in the Chumps.It seemed a perfectly logical decision to me.

[quote user="Indy"]It’s not personal it’s business choice / gamble worth £80 million +.   I can’t for the life of me see why everyone is so surprised and negative, it had to be done for the sake of the club. [/quote] This is indeed true and should have been obvious to everyone by the final whistle on Saturday.Having said that, Indy, I wonder why you gave this thread the title you did. City fans have a wide range of opinions on the management situation so it was inevitable that some would cheer and some would cry. Nobody should have been astounded by that reaction.Far too many people seem to invest an emotional attachment in managers and players which in my opinion is fatal if you want to draw sensible conclusions from events at CR. They will always let you down in the end, one way or another. The last time I got upset with a manager leaving was Archie McCauley back in the 1960''s.As individual fans we have no control over events. They simply unfold at their own pace, they can''t be forced. Saturdays chanting was a perfect example of this. The result caused a groudswell of feeling that had previously only been an undercurrent to suddenly erupt. We all heard it and we all must have known what was coming next.Invest your emotional attachment in the Club, not the players nor the manger. They come and they go, the Club is here forever.

Anything less than a point and it''s curtains IMO.

After Saturdays crowd reaction the decision was a no brainer. You can''t have the manager suffering that level of abuse during games without it affecting the entire team. I think the Board wanted to stick with him but the chanting forced their hand and there really was no alternative but to pull the plug.Right or wrong we have to move on and at least we will be united for the final 5 games.

[quote user="City 2nd"]mrs miggins wrote the following post at 2014-04-07 1:56 AM: I think people just realised norwich for what we are. WHICH IS?[/quote]A club that gave their manager every chance but finally pulled the plug  when the wheel started to fall off.

[quote user="Dicky"]I actually feel very sorry for Chris Hughton and a little bit sad.[/quote]You are not alone Dicky. I wanted him to succeed just as I want every NCFC manager to succeed. I don''t think he can complain that he wasn''t given money and time but he gradually lost the support of the crowd and once that goes the game is up. I think he realised that himself at the end of the match yesterday.A shame for a decent bloke but more managerial careers end in failure than success.

Probably because they weren''t at CR yesterday.If they had been then they wouldn''t have been surprised at all. There was just no way he could carry on after the chanting started.

Nobody can say he wasn''t given every chance. Most clubs would have been quicker with the trigger finger. I hoped against hope that he would succeed and for a while it looked like he would. There was just too much against him in the end.

[quote user="tom cavendish"]Adams is a very nice guy so I think that he needs a strong motivator to help him.[/quote]Has he rang you yet Tom?

Would they want to condemn him to a home match against Liverpool with the inevitable result of the crowd turning on the poor ba$tard.No it''s best he goes now for his own sake if not the clubs. I''ve always supported him and the team. Not to have done so would have been perverse IMO Once the chants started it was non survivable.