Andy OTBC

Basically, I think that we cannot afford to have players like Ashton. We spent most of this years player budget on him last season then spent the rest of the budget giving him a contract extension. Therefore, we can''t afford to have a proper squad. If we keep him, we will not be able to bring anyone in in january and we will probably not have a squad good enough for promotion. Its a shame but is keeping him worth having a squad that is too small for promotion, especially when he is not used properly anyway.

Cheers for the responses. In answer to some specific points. Safri was dropped after the Liverpool game. Fair enough. But he was not the only player who played badly that day because it was a truly awful performance by most of the players. However, the point is that Holt had loads of bad perfomances after that game and Safri was not brought back in. He was injured for some of the time but, as I said, he was on the bench for 2 months before he was finally swapped for Holt. We then had a dramatic improvement in form. Whether this was down to Safri or not (I believe it was), it certainly didn''t do any harm. Does anyone really think that Holt is a better player than Safri, given that Holt was then released and is now not in the team of a league one side and Safri is by far our best midfielder? Doherty was up front for more like 8 games (not 2) where he was pretty ineffective and he publically admitted that he didn''t want to be there. McKenzie had not started a game in the premiership so of course he was not scoring goals, despite scoring 9 in 11 starts in the previous season. The manager of the month is decided on results and it is not surprising that he got it this month with 5 wins out of 6. The question is would anyone give him ''manager of the first half of the season''? One month of decent results does not make up for the first half of the season. In regard to who I would replace him with. Anyone who would get the team passing the ball and who values talent over hard work. Kevin Keegan is an example but generally I don''t think we could do much worse. There are managers at lower league clubs who would surely jump at the chance of managing a club with our resources - pick a manager whose team is doing well (e.g Doncaster, Carlisle) and see what they are like. Don''t forget that before he was manager here, he was a rubbish manager at a lower league club (Blackpool), was hated by the fans (who through stuff at him from the stands) and got Blackpool relegated. I am not saying that finding a new manager is easy or that it guarantees an improvement but, in my opinion, his management couldn''t be much worse.

Personally, I do not understand how anyone could think that Worthington is a good manager but I would love to understand. Are Worthy supporters happy with the way the team is run and the performances, or are they unhappy but still want to keep the manager?   Therefore, without just saying I am fickle, disloyal or have a short memory, could you please answer the following questions and maybe give some specific qualities that you think makes Worthington a good manager.   1. Do you think that the managers signings this season have been successful?   2. Are you happy with the fact that we still have no right midfielder at the club?   3. Are you happy for Norwich City, a club associated with playing nice football, to continue playing route one, long ball football in the majority of games?   4. Do you think that Ashton is being used effectively by just sending the ball long and rarely giving him the ball at his feet (he is not Iwan Roberts), given that he scored more goals for Crewe, a side who are worse than us but who do play football on the ground?   5. In the premiership, were you happy with his team selection? e.g Holt over Safri (anyone who mentions injuries - Safri was on the bench for 2 months before he finally replaced Holt) or Doherty being picked as a striker(!) ahead of McKenzie.   6. What would be an acceptable final league position this season?   7. Will you still think that Worthington is the right manager for us if we finish mid-table for the next 5 years?     These questions are a few examples to illustrate the points why I think he is not a good manager. The Worthy outers are sometimes dismissed as abusive and irrational, but I don''t think there is anything of that kind in this post so I am hoping for some honest answers to these questions please.  

Best post I''ve read in ages. Spot on. Particularly like the bit about how promotion was more to do with Hucks and co than Worthington (even if he did sign them - look at who he was trying to sign before he got them) and why he didn''t continue playing attacking football as we had so much success with it.

If Ashton does go I will have no complaints with the board as long as we get a good price. We should of course be ''unleashing hell'' on the board for sticking with Nigel ''long ball'' Worthington.

I cannot see a time when I could ever not renew my season ticket but I totally agree with everything you said there. I used to think that our board of directors were the best in football but I now believe I was wrong. They did a brilliant job turning around the clubs finances but I do worry about their grasp of the football side of things. Do they not realise that Norwich City is supposed to be a club that plays nice football and not one that plays long ball, and that the manager values hard work and effort above talent and quality? Everything is rosy when the team is doing well but they also need to make difficult decisions when things aren''t going well. Obviously they don''t think that a tough decision needs to be made but personally, I think they are very wrong. I would love to know what they see as an acceptable finishing position for this season given that the ''Charlton model'' would have us going straight back up. The whole point of going straight back up is that you can keep some of your premiership players to get you back up and you have parachute money. If you don''t go straight back up, you lose all the decent players and getting up becomes much more difficult. After we had such a poor start to the season, they should have bitten the bullet and tried to make a change that would get us promotion this year. Sadly, I think promotion is pretty unlikely now ( we have to play without a midfield until Safri comes back in February so I can''t see us getting too many points) and we will end up stuck in this division for many years to come with a squad of players nowhere near good enough to get promotion. Hope I''m wrong but I don''t think I am. It''s all very depressing.

While I don''t agree with everything 1st wizard said, I do agree that it would take a hell of a lot for ''the Smiths'' to sack him and I fully expect them to be happy with sticking with him even if we end up being a mid-table (or lower) championship club as long as they have their friend Nigel about the place. There doesn''t seem to be any accountability when it comes to the signings he''s made or our final position in the league. If we finish mid-table for the next five years, will they still think he is the man to take us up? I think they will. Don''t get me wrong, they are only doing what they believe is best for the football club but that doesn''t help if they are wrong about him.

Did you go to Sheffield United or Leicester? They were good wins but they certainly were not good performances, especially Leicester. The second half against Burnley? The fact that we got 5 wins changes nothing. We still havn''t replaced Francis, we still have no midfield with out Safri, he still picked Holt over Safri in the premiership, we still have no right midfielder, he has still made poor signings, we still play long ball football.... Shall I go on? Until he starts signing decent players to replace the ones that have left, until we start passing the ball on the ground, until he recognises that talent is more important than hard work, until he stops playing players out of position and until he starts using our promising youngsters (in their correct position), I will still want him out.

Look on the bright side. At least if there''s no money to spend, he can''t waste it.