Bernard Futter

Doubtless the two intending travelling parties realised there might be ''difficulties'' which is why we telephoned.This doesn''t alter the fact that the home club''s policy is clearly ridiculous!I have been going to City games at The Valley since an Errol Crossan goal secured a 0-1 away win in the 1960/61 season and I have never seen anything unseemly between the two sets of fans.

Agreed CP - we had a party of three all dressed and ready to go with relevant train times scribbled on wrists, only to be told by the ticket office we wouldn''t get in. How a club in Charlton''s financial situation can turn away revenue opportunities is beyond me.I can understand a segregation policy on its merits, but since when have our fans sacked a city?

YC & TFAaPleased to pass on further info supplied by the GITR Fund Treasurer James Wallace.It is reassuring to know that the PFA were prepared to help. The PFA have been very helpful to Ron over the years, but as Chris (Ron''s late wife) told it, they (the PFA) couldn''t help with the hip ops while he was living in the States.  I believe they would have helped and would have helped with Ron''s travel/accommodation expenses back to the UK, but not Chris''s.  In the event, he had one of the best hip op surgeons in the States looking after him.All the best.James  

Good question TFAa!Apparently there was a reason they couldn''t help which I''m trying to get to the bottom of.Hope it had nothing to do with the chief executive''s banker sized salary...

I posted on here a while ago about The Give It To Ron fund, an iniatiative to pay for desperately needed hip operations for that prince of former City no 9s - Ron Davies who had fallen on hard times and was living incognito in a trailer park in New Mexico.Some of you may even have contributed - all of you of a Ricardo age-set will for certain remember his near 3 seasons at City with genuine affection.For those of you who don''t go back that far and would like his abilities to be put into perspective, Ron in his first season (1966/7) in the old First Division for just promoted Southampton scored an incredible 37 league goals in 41 appearances!Due to in no small part to his trademark prodigious leaping throughout his career (has there ever been a better header of the ball?) Ron found that his serious lack of mobility meant he couldn''t continue working as a tiler.Thanks to the Fund and Saints US-based fan Tim - and notwithstanding the untimely loss of his long time partner and support Chrissie - Ron is now able to start rebuilding his life.I am grateful to GITR Chairman Duncan Holley for permission to use his e-mail.Hi BernardWe must get round to updating that website - apologies. Much has happenedsince we last spoke.Ron has had 2 successful hip operations which in the end were partlyfinanced by the American health authorities after a Saints fan in LA cutthrough all the red tape.This left us with quite a few thousand pounds. Unfortunately, just before Xmas Ron''s partner Chrissie, passed away and obviously this shook Ron to the core. We decided that we would use the money to pay off some of Ron''smortgage on his rv trailer and buy him a car and that has now happened. He seems to have got over Chrissie''s death and with the help of Tim (the LAfan) is rebuilding his life and even planning a visit to the UK this year, hopefully. Physically he is much improved so the GITR appeal was veryworthwhile. I think that donations have stopped so I have asked JamesWallace to arrange for that to be reflected on the website. If Ron does comeover I will let you know.All the bestRgds Duncan (Holley)

You''ll be contending Peter Vasper was a better ''keeper next - sorry,  this is a ludicrous proposition and I can only think that you must be rating KK towards the tail end of his long career when a lack of assertiveness inevitably afflicts every custodian nearing 40 - eg Peter Shilton. Hope this doesn''t presage you championing Iwan Roberts over Ron Davies next!

Can anyone throw any light on why the great man was released  after the 59/60 promotion season and never got so much as a kick for City in the 2nd Division?Macaulay presumably thought he couldn''t step up - 52 goals in his first season for Peterborough, albeit in the old 4th Division, made that one look a bit silly...

So WWLB, you really think with a record like that, that they actually deserve the benefit of the doubt?As I''ve pointed out before, even experienced HR professionals don''t get it right every time, but even if we use your gloss on events, 1/5 is an abject strike rate.I really do hope that lightening strikes this time but the portents are hardly encouraging!

It is so predictable that the Board will make yet another lash up with the managerial appointment - incredibly, it will be their sixth in a row* - that I thought I''d better minute my displeasure early.* In a list that includes Rioch, Hamilton, Grant, Roeder and Worthington and no, I don''t think the latter overall was a good appointment either - one lucky season and tactically inept, he had no idea how he''d achieved it!

Even top human resource professionals within the most streamlined of businesses/organizations, accept that hiring key staff is not without its uncertainties.It is and cannot be an exact science, but they aspire to get it right most of the time.It does beg the question just how the current City board has got it totally wrong, so many times, with this spectacular unbroken line of failures*?Statistically,  a random selection process such as pulling names out of a hat would assuredly have yielded better outcomes than this.I am delighted that Roeder has gone, but I am fearful of what the our Board of Bodgers are capable of doing next time!* And I don''t exempt Worthington from being an ''overall'' failure - he lucked one good season and had no idea how. (Please don''t take me up on this as 4/5 still makes my point.)

Er no YC, the passage of time hasn''t produced a suffused glow of remembrance.Barry Butler was for me in the top 3 City players of all time . (Jimmy Hill and Ron Davies the others?)The other amazing thing was the fantastic skill he had on the ball - he would dribble the ball away from a tight situation when a hoof looked the only option.Virtually no one ever bested him in the air either and let''s not forget that stentorian bellow!

Call me an old fashoned sentimentalist, but I braved - what I fully anticipated would be a shocker - at The Valley today, at the prospect of seeing the 58/59 strip on view once again.Perhaps by half closing my eyes I''d be able to conjure up images of Barry Butler,  Jimmy Hill, Bobby Brennan and Terry Allcock and the other Greats who wore the old style yellow and green with such distinction.Noting the Club couldn''t even get the detail of the replica strip spot-on in a number of ways (eg the colour of the numbers should have been black) was hardly an encouraging sign.The lack of cohesion from two abject sides was such that I''d have needed Stevie Wonder''s visiual impairment to be able to transport myself back to the halycyon days of yore.I can take good players having an off day but  playing to a workable system, but this City side looked as though they had just met up for a charity match such was the lack of anticipation and understanding between the individuals.I hate to make pronouncements based on the evidence of this one match, but I can see both of these sides being relegation certs.  

You are correct BBB, this does have a serious dimension in lost points and despite referees stricter interpretation of the laws these days, four sendings off before the turn of the year is pretty disgraceful. By comparison, MW in his day also had to cope with the abrasive Bellamy in the ranks!

It was thought at the time, that one of the key reasons the Smiths brought Mike Walker''s second managerial spell at the Club to an end was due to the on the pitch indicipline of the players.And the reason, despite four sackings from his previous five managerial appointments, why Sgt Major Rioch was brought in with his startched white cuffs and military bearing to provide some long overdue correction.It occurs to me with sending off number four at the weekend and the third in just one month (surely much worse than MW''s record), by applying the same criteria, it is surely time for the Smiths to intervene once more?As a replacement my money is firmly on Craig Revell-Horwood to keep the troops in line.

A well consructed post for which SA should be proud.I really can''t see from a strictly playing perspective how his going has been in any way beneficial.Just how many of the current squad could have scored that sublime trademark goal against Sheffield Weds away at the very end of last season?(You needn''t spend long thinking that one through.)No, there were obviously two factors at work in the decision:-1/ His high salary.  And to that, I wouldn''t mind betting no one at the club inquired as to what cut price deal he would actually accept.2/ ''Not invented here'' syndrome, whereby people with limited ability/intelligence/imagination are unwilling to allow anything imposed before their regime to overshadow their own efforts. The greater the popularity,  the more the need to root it out.With a complete recovery from that hip problem allied to his own innate fitness, it is even possible that Darren Huckerby might just have been able to roll the clock back...

Er no SS, my journalistic claim to fame is that I wrote regularly for ''NME'' for seven years in the paper''s big circulation eraNow as other fellow scribes of the period such as Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill and Paul Morley went on to be famous, I get  flushed with excitement when I see my name on this site!

I was there too despite oversleeping and missing as planned the MUFC London Branch Supporters Club coach from Charing X.Somehow managed the trip by train -  would have been my biggest ever sporting regret otherewise! Keelan v Law summed up the game and you felt only the latter could have scored against the Great Kev.The goal was actually better in the flesh - the TV coverage doesn''t show the fantastic amount of swerve Law got with the outside of his foot.

As I was fortunate enough to spend my formative football spectating years watching that truly charismatic 58/59 Cup Team, I am naturally pleased that commercial imperatives will be put on one side when the fully coordinated old strip will be given another outing instead of the ''oh look there''s a square inch of spare space, quick put a logo on it'' current day circus style confection.Embarrassed (at my age) by the whole notion of owning let alone wearing a replica shirt, I nevertheless seriously considered for old times sake, the purchase of said shirt.That is until I had a good look at what actually was on offer.From poor web imaging admitedly, it would appear that the neck now sports an overlap at the middle of the vee, the badge is rounded at the bottom instead of shield shaped and it also looks as though it has  sprouted a border. The annoying thing - especially with a fully commercial run of nearly a 1000x - it would have been just as easy to get it 100% right.I was expecting a replica not a pastiche, so for that reason, I''m out.

Wasn''t it only a short while ago that one of our ex-players and member of the Club''s backroom staff was within a fraction of being indicted for murder?Given that no one here knows the full facts, I would suggest that a sense of proportion and fair play would be appropriate at this stage, not whooping up glee,

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[quote user="Hairy Canary"][quote user="Bernard Futter"][quote user="Big Dave"]I''m working on a ship off Indonesia with 60 other blokes. It''s amazing what your mind does when you are away for long periods with no alcohol or female company![/quote]Amazing how you start a tread which you hope will spark some genuine constructive debate about the parlous state the Club are in (achieved) and then you get an absolutely puerile post like this which is not even remotely on topic!I guess it takes all sorts...[/quote] It looks like the situation has turned you into a real old misery Bernard. As you say it takes all sorts.   [/quote]Oh I get it now - it was meant to be funny?And I had no idea the acerbic Frankie Boyle was a Norwich supporter...

[quote user="Big Dave"]I''m working on a ship off Indonesia with 60 other blokes. It''s amazing what your mind does when you are away for long periods with no alcohol or female company![/quote]Amazing how you start a tread which you hope will spark some genuine constructive debate about the parlous state the Club are in (achieved) and then you get an absolutely puerile post like this which is not even remotely on topic!I guess it takes all sorts...

As old City hands, we all know that the Board''s pledges to back the manager with hard funds and to pass on any transfer income received in full (30% an accurate measure in the latter case?) are pretty vacuous.Following the extreme pruning of the playing staff and the backroom team, it must be obvious that Roeder has done this in the certain belief that the Board''s assurances can be fully relied upon.Perhaps we shouldn''t be concerned that numerically we could currently hardly put a netball team into the field, let alone a side with a realistic notion of challenging for promotion.Yes, we will all have to wait and see what develops over the next few months, but I will not be surprised to see the usual summer schenanighans where City are ritually beaten to whatever talent is out there by supposedly ''inferior'' sides. I don''t like spreading doom gratuitously, but this is demonstrably a defining make or break time for the Club. Based on previous Board experiences, I for one am not wildly optimistic of a successful outcome.I just hope I''m proved wrong...

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Huckerby affair (and I''m firmly in the further 12 months camp) the whole announcement has been handled with mind-blowing ineptitude by the Club and graphically illustrates just how out of touch the Board are with their grass roots supporters.That they clearly didn''t anticipate this level of negative PR backlash, I suppose is to be expected from a Board who blithly continue to appoint managers with serial failures writ large all over their CVs.Were they sufficiently arrogant or stupid that they didn''t even discuss that the situation needed ''managing''?I think I know which one my moneys on...

It is always dangerous to react on hearing one side of any story, but Darren Huckerby''s latest comments re the lack of ongoing contract discussions really does point to admin at the Carrow Road being more of the chip shop variety rather than their own perception of a gourmet''s delight!Clearly, it would be rash to extend one presumes the highest earner''s contract when it is uncertain even what division the team will be playing in next season.But surely the Club could come out and say "If we are still in the same league and we can reach an accommodation on the numbers, we would like you to stay...If in the meantime he finds a better offer elswhere, that is a risk that has to be taken.Remember, this is the guy who virtually singlehandedly got the Club the riches of promotion (and 2x parachute payments).Perhaps there''s also a big strand of ''not invented here'' syndrome by Roeder in the same way the buffoonic Worthington* wouldn''t touch Chris Sutton? *Yes we know he signed Huckerby - he had to get one acquisition right out of all the dross he signed.