Forces2Canaries

[quote user="Smudger"] [quote user="7rew"]So far the only Person that I have seen compare Martin to Bellamy is:  you, Smudger. It is a nautral comparison to make however, since Bellamy was the last striker to from our acadamy to make it "big". 3 other sets of questions that I would like answered: Have you seen anything of Brown? In order to know that he is crap as you so elequently put it.  I have seen one match of him and he didn''t look bad, despite the red card (blackpool away). If you knew Hughes and Jarrett "were crap" after 3 games and others said give them a chance (and which although you were proved right, I feel was premature - Henry looked crap at l''arse for a whole season, Drogba for two seasons at chelsea). Where did you say this? (as you must have done to be answered).  If you said it here what screen name did you have? as the account "Smudger" joined this forum a year later. If not why is it a stick to beat others on this forum with? What have you seen of Martin? You say you have not been to see Norwich for over a year, so it is a reasonable assumption to assume this extends to reserve and youth team fixtures as well, since you do not attend so as not to support the current regieme finacially.  Logically therefore you have not seen Martin play for at least a year, which is a very long time for such a young player''s game to develop in and so opinions may have to be reconsidered. Personally I have never seen Martin play live, and only for 10 (extremely jerky) minutes against chelsea over the net, which is certainly not enough time to judge his game, even less as the opposition was much better than we face in our league. I reserve judgement on his game, but I do like the fact that he is scoring for us, and not just when we are ahead. [/quote] Take a look at the Pink Un Home page then 7REW... As for the other questions you won''t be getting answers...  You are correct I have only been posting here for about 6 months...  if you must try and pick holes in everything don''t expect me to take the time in constructing nice answers for you. I have probably seen about the same as you have of Martin and even from that he is so obviously not up to comparing with Bellamy...  my opinion... only time will tell whether I am right or wrong!!! Brown I have seen a couple of games of and like Hughes and Jarret that is more than enough!!! [/quote] Some interesting comments on here - and some quite remarkable accusations. Perhaps Smudge or one of the others that feel it is time to oust the Board could tell me how they intend to do it? Have you perhaps not thought that if Delia and the Board decide to stand down; and take with them the considerable amount of money that they have ploughed into this club, plus the revunue that is brought into the Club through the various other non-footballing activities that are hosted at the football club, then we wont have to worry about relegation or First Division football as there will be no football club. They are majority shareholders, therefore surely they have to be BOUGHT out. Do you have the millions to be able to do that, and then further millions to turn this club around to your liking? Maybe you have a rich sugar-mummy who has a couple of quid in the bank? Also, how a person can comment on the current playing staff at the club, having not watched the team live since October 2005 is laughable. Although I''m sure reading the views expressed in the EDP, or the ten minutes viewed on Anglia Football Night or The Championship is more than enough to qualify you to pass comment. Finally, I am sure that Martin would quite like to be the new Craig Bellamy - that surely is not anyone drawing any similarities - just an 18 year old putting on record that he hopes he can acheive as much as a previous product of the youth academy - but of course if we do oust the Board we wont have an Academy to worry about. Think the best thing Smudge can do on 6 March is get his backside into JJB Sports and buy a Manchester United shirt, obviously his support is far to good for little old Norwich City!

Norwich City face one of their toughest battles and most disappointing seasons for many years, with relegation to Division 1 a very likely possibility. Isn’t it about time that ALL supporters put their differences to one side and got behind their team, manager and players for the remaining games of the season.   All the in-house bickering isn’t helping our cause in anyway shape or form. Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there are already members of our support having a go at the new signings that have been brought in during the transfer window, without allowing them time to show what they can do.   I have never known Carrow Road so quiet, it was only a short while ago that the Barclay Stand would sing about anything. We have the best supporters in the Championship, and are the envy of many Premiership sides who fail drastically to take the kind of away support that we do to matches. Carrow Road is at capacity most weeks, however, in the last few months there are times when you could hear a pin drop.   Many supporters in recent times, through the sacking of Nigel Worthington and the questioning regards the ambition of the Board have constantly stated that we are the backbone and lifeblood of this Club, well its about time we got off our backsides, opened our mouths and started proving it.   Maybe for 3 months, all supporters should put their personal differences aside, accept that Peter Grant is in charge and give him chance to do his job. Be proud to support Norwich City.   It appears fairly obvious that some of our players confidence has been knocked, getting on their backs constantly during matches is going to do nothing to allow them to re-build their confidence, and play the game that we so desperately want them to play.   Look what we achieved in our promotion winning season, when the Board, Management, Players and Supporters were as one …

I would like to, if I may, take you back in excess of 13 years to the 21 August 2003, our third from last visit to Elland Road. Under the management of Mike Walker, Norwich travelled to Yorkshire having finished 3rd in The Premiership the season before, the highest position that Norwich have attained in top flight football.   Because of their finishing position in the inaugural season of The Premiership, Norwich for the first time in their history, were to experience competitive European football at Carrow Road, which was to see the likes of Van der Gouw, Vermeulen, Cocu, Ziege, Nerlinger, Zenga, Bergkamp and Sosa on the hallowed turf.   However, on the balmy summer day in August, Norwich had not yet kicked a ball in European anger. The team travelled to Elland Road with a team of players that had pushed hard not to drop out of the top three of the Premiership the season before, a feat achieved by playing confident, attractive football – being led by a manger that had a deep sense of honesty and who stated the facts to the media as he saw them, not buttering them up to make himself and the team look better.   The team consisted of players that had been brought to the club on a budget, however the manager pooled them together as one and they displayed passion and a get up and go that made a Norwich fan proud to follow his team. Many outside Norwich had never heard of the players that were proud to don the yellow and green of Norwich City, however within two months of the performance at Elland Road, many of the players in the Norwich side were to become household names after their heroic antics in the Olympic Stadium by becoming the first and still the only British side to beat Bayern Munich on their home ground.   Back at Elland Road, and City took to the park, with Mike Walker fielding players whose names now figure in Norwich history, with Bryan Gunn in goal, Ian Culverhouse and Mark Bowen in defence, Jerry Goss, Ian Crook and Rob Newman in midfield with Mark Robins, Ruel Fox and Chris Sutton figuring up front. It was a match that was to emphasise the passing and dedicated football that Mike Walker had ensconced in the team. In front of a crowd of just over 32000 supporters, Norwich beat Leeds 4-0 with two goals from Ruel Fox, and goals from Chris Sutton and Jerry Goss, showing the distinction that made Norwich City the team that the BBC chose to follow in their coverage of the UEFA Cup.   Mike Walker had joined Norwich as Manager, working his way up through the management structure with Norwich, having joined the youth team setup after managing and being knocked back by Colchester United. His style of football was honest and brought out the best in the City team. Players were encouraged to run at the opposition, play the ball on the floor and pass intelligently leaving attacking players to make forward runs. The team were able to hold their heads high, even after losing during the season to such opposition as Manchester United, Arsenal, Oldham and QPR, knowing that they would get the encouragement from Mr Walker and his sidekick, John Deehan. Fans could relish entertaining, constructive football, played with a zest for the game, even in defeat City supporters could walk tall, knowing their team had been committed to the game.   You may wonder where all this is leading? You may think that I wish to see the return of Mike Walker at Carrow Road. Fortunately, you couldn’t be any further from the mark. What I am trying to iterate is what Norwich City can achieve when they have an honest manager in charge, who wants his team to play smart, passionate football.   The current league position that Norwich find themselves in is not the point in question. Norwich have not played football this season, we have always been second best in the 2005-06 season, being slow to start and our style of play is more at home on a rugby pitch than on a football pitch, with Eddie Wearing’s commentary of ‘Up and Under’ being more relevant than that of Roy Waller’s. We have no passion, no confidence, no panache and no morale. We could go on and win every game between now and the end of the season, but if the below standard style of play continues then I will persist in the call for Mr Worthington to go.   Our management team reached its sell by date during September of last year, and they have now well exceeded their use by date. We need fresh ideas, passionate thoughts and a manager who is not afraid to try new ideas, not keep continuing to drive a square peg into a round hole.   However, whilst I will continue to call for the removal of Mr Worthington, I will not lower my standards and wish that the team I have supported for the best part of thirty years will lose just to fulfil my needs and those of the other fans that wish Mr Worthington to go.   I am a Norwich City supporter and I am proud. I want to see my team play well and win well. I will continue to support my team vocally, alongside those who wish to keep Mr Worthington in a job for the foreseeable future. For me, as I have said before, the results are not the issue; the league position is not a problem.   The problem is that the current management team under the direction of Mr Worthington has killed what Norwich were good at, We were renowned for our passing, ball on the ground style of play, a style of play that has seen the ’59 FA Cup run, the ’71-’72 Promotion, the ’85 Milk Cup Final, the ’92-’93 UEFA Cup run and the ’03-’04 Championship, a style of play that is no longer in existence within Norwich City.   Our passion, confidence, panache and moral have been decimated in just short of 18 months, and enough is enough. It is time for a change before things get even worse.

So Ms Smith and Mr Wynn Jones have this week published a statement, to share their thoughts with us, in relation to the current unrest at Carrow Road.   Much has been made of the Boards actions, or lack of actions, in the call for the removal of Nigel Worthington. With many supporters interests being demeaned or belittled, regards the current managerial regime, it is only right and proper that our two majority shareholders are able to put forward their views.   How refreshing it is that they have, unlike other board members, seen fit to condone the recent actions of supporters in the call for the removal of Mr Worthington.   However, I still think that their statement falls short of actually addressing the problems at Carrow Road. We, as supporters, are only too well aware that you cannot experience success all the time, many of us have followed Norwich in excess of 10 years, and are fully up to speed with the ups and downs and the rollercoaster ride that is football.   However fickle you may believe us to be, Norwich Supporters are by reputation and fact, some of the most ardent, vocal and loyal supporters in the Country. We have a home support that even with our ‘smaller’ capacity ground cannot be replicated in the Championship and we have a travelling support that many of the Premiership clubs would give their right arm to have. We also allow the executives and management at our football club the time to achieve. Only last night, after Liverpool’s demise from European football, were scousers already calling for the head of Benitez.   At this moment in time, we sit tenth in the Championship, and that in regard to what has been achieved in the past five years is a step backwards. Not only that, and the point that many of the KTF brigade seem to have alluded to, is that so far this season we have played with a complete lack of flair and creativity; attributes that the current management have failed to nurture.   Our passion and commitment is in abundance from all corners of Carrow Road, but very much lacking from the management team.   As supporters we want to see our team play football with panache, elegance, confidence and style, and if we are able to produce a win then that is a bonus. The current tactic employed at Carrow Road is to ‘hoof’ the ball forward, and play the ball in the air. Norwich City FC has never played ‘hoofball’ and has never been an aerial side.   We play passing football, keeping the ball on the ground - that way the likes of our recent £3 million acquisition from WBA, will have the opportunity to run at defences and get his name on the score sheet, as opposed to trying to win balls in the air – something that he is never going to do in a month of Sundays.   Darren Huckerby has been at the club on a permanent contract for just over two years, he was brought here for his defence splitting runs, his skills with the ball and his ability to leave the opposition dead in their tracks. Yet, the very man on whose recommendation he was brought here is now ridiculing the player for his ‘Roy of the Rovers’ style of play. Well, I want ‘Roy of the Rovers’, I want to see Mr Huckerby skin players alive, showing his ball skill and making the opposition look like second rate amateurs. I would very much appreciate it if Mr Earnshaw was allowed to do the same – that’s what we the fans hoped that he was brought here for.   There have been, in my opinion, only two teams that have visited Carrow Road this season that have been better than us. In seasons gone by we would have relished their presence on the park and gone out and played football, not rolled over and given them the opportunity to walk all over us. Of the other 19 teams that have visited Carrow Road, none have been a threat to us, and had we had the ardour and self-belief that we had in our Championship winning season, we wouldn’t have looked back after the first goal had gone in.   In retrospect, even games against Derby and Plymouth at home, who where absolutely diabolical, they were played with such apathy that it was only by the fact that we played in yellow and green that the fans were able to identify the home team.   So Ms Smith and Mr Wynn Jones, thank you for your statement, but where has the passion, the flair, the confidence and the moral of our team gone? Yes, I want wins, success and more than tenth place in this division, but I want also want to watch a team with guts, who don’t defend so deep that any chance of a counter attack is mission impossible. I want ‘heads up’, and most of all I want players to go out and win the ball and play football like they mean it!   That’s all I want back, and like so many other supporters I don’t think that the man you continue to retain to achieve this is able to do so anymore.   For the fans that are happy to keep Mr Worthington in employment for the foreseeable future at Carrow Road and continue to watching lacklustre performances each week, that is your opinion to which you are entitled. I will quite happily ‘discuss’ with you at any time the differences of our opinions. I do not take kindly to me, my friends or our children being branded as ‘Scum’ just because our opinion differs to yours.

Statement by Forces2Canaries   Forces2Canaries has backed the current management team during its current tenure at Club. However, we believe the time has come where changes need to be made and we urge the board of directors at Carrow Road to reconsider its position of retaining Mr Worthington as Norwich City manager.   We are now over two thirds of the way through this season, and feel that the current management team needs to be replaced. Nigel Worthington has served the club with distinction, the promotion season of 2003-2004 will be remembered for a long time.   We feel that Mr Worthington has taken the club as far as he can, and his continued stay at the club is affecting the moral and confidence of the players. We feel that if Mr Worthington is not replaced immediately then this situation will get worse and the good work that has been achieved in the past 10 years will all have been for nothing.   The management team needs to be replaced now, so that Mr Worthington’s replacement has time to assess his current stock and a valued and measured decision can be made prior to the close season regarding the current band of players.   We urge the board of directors to reconsider their position and look around for a replacement manager who is capable of taking us back into the Premiership. Forces2Canaries