Mr Carrow in the City Stand

Yes it was good to hear how well ''Ward'', our sub keeper, adapted his game to playing wide right midfield. He apparently was in the thick of it,  tracking back as well as popping up in their box several times during the first half. It was particularly pleasing that Waller had spotted this very  late team change as Nige had obviously tried to confuse Arsenal by insisting that Ward played with  ''Stuart'' on his shirt.  Nige had hinted all week at sweeping team changes - but nobody had thought he meant  the brilliant  new tactic of the ''keeper on the wing''. At half time though Nigel must have made a cheeky extra substitution making 4 in the match in total, giving up the extra goalkeeper, because Waller then called it as Stuart playing in Stuart''s shirt.   Stuart must have been sitting in Wards keepers kit all through the first half. Its a bit of luck none of the Gooners spotted this. Its great that week after week we get such state of the art Radio Norfolk commentary as this.  Next week it is rumoured that Nige will try to pass off Ruel Fox as Stuart but I''m sure it won''t fool Waller and once again we shall hear the immortal lines '' Fox scores again for Norwich.........''. I''m beginning to wonder in fact whether Stuart has played at all this season...........maybe he''s been a succession of different players impersonating him all along.

Sorry but I just do not accept that we should be bottom of the League with 20 points at this stage of the season. Relegation I  fully accept was always a possibility this season and if we had been in with a real chance of survival and failed then fair enough. But the manager and/ or Board have made decisions which have cost us dear and after the 9 year wait to get into this League we should have done better. - The defence has been woeful all season and has mainly lacked height but Mackay was sold before a ball was kicked ? - Shackell looks potentially a class act but has been brought in far too late. - Signings last summer did not include  a striker, which was the obvious need. Competitive performances early on were good but the wins didn''t come as a result. We played a centre half, Docherty, at centre forward instead of a genuine forward - embarassing and suggesting the writing was  on the wall even then. - Crouch went to Southampton for a reported £2million and looks like keeping them up at this snip of a price. We allegedly couldn''t ''afford'' him even though he was very positive about our club.   - We signed the highly promising Ashton about 20 games too late for a much higher figure than Crouch; currently Ashton is much less effective than Crouch although he may have more potential. - The manager''s record in the transfer market last summer was very weak- Helveg, Saffri, are talented players but have not been fitted in and their contributions have been minimal. Jonson the supposed international right winger has yet to cross a decent ball all season. - Worthy''s post match comments have been the same for 30 games - work rate/effort etc- but managers at WBA. Palace and Southampton have all improved the defences and performances of struggling sides. Our manager and coaching staff have made absolutely no impact on performances and goals conceded all season. if anything it''s got worse. - Huckerby/ Mckenzie/ Ashton and other forwards have no real chance when we regularly concede so many and their body language has steadily shown their realisation of the inevitable as the season has gone on. - Worthington seems to think he is immune to criticism. There is no evidence of the Board asking him any serious questions of him but the time should not be long away, particularly if we get a mediocre start next season. We should now stand by for lots of brave talk about an ''automatic'' return next season - just as the likes of Wolves, West Ham and Leicester and many others have failed to do before. Lets all hope we manage it but talk is cheap. Last time it took us 9 long years and the sort of decisions the club have made this season have been weak, almost naive,  and made us look also rans alongside the likes of WBA and Palace. This quite simply should not have happened and the management and coaching of the side has been found seriously wanting at this level.

As the originator of the original post I am absolutely delighted with the outcome of all this. Dean Ashton for £3million plus is more than we could have ever dreamed of. Congratulations to the Board and to Sir Nigel, wily old fox that he is. Here''s to seeing Dean become the 20 goal striker we have all been wanting. But as to whether any words have to be eaten ? Well not really. The reference to ''Are Worthy and the Board having a laugh'' was when all the comments and smoke signals from Carrow Road were pleading poverty, £1.2 million max available for transfers, and saying we might not be able to sign anybody at all. Now that would have been to sell the club short and many of us were then posting encouraging the Board to show more ambition and give it a real go. It also seemed Nigel was becoming frustrated by the limits and saying he couldn''t get the quality he felt was needed at that price. The fact that the Board has now done exactly what many of us wanted and showed real ambition by signing Dean doesn''t alter the fact that a couple of weeks ago the vibes from them were much less positive. Hence the posts at the time, including this thread, complaining that £1.2 mil alone or no signings would be ''having a laugh''. Now we all realise that some of this is a transfer smokescreen by the club but we needed them to know that, for many of us, doing nothing wasn''t an option. To be fair I think they got that message in many different ways, including most importantly from Sir Nigel himself, and needed to get it. Like everybody else I am laughing now and will be all the more when I see Dean Ashton run out in the yellow and green. Just great news. And again congratulations to the Board and Nigel for what I thik is a real step forward.

Well Aubrey I think we are agreed on the Happy New Year ! Maybe not so much on the wait and see. ......................... Following Greeno''s comments that it would be ''farcical'' for the Board not to allow funds to strengthen and Worthy''s comments today that he wants Ashton the best thing would be for Delia, Michael and Roger Munby to go and camp outside Gresty Road over the week end, sweet talk Dario,  and not come back to East Anglia without Dean Ashton in the boot of the car !! Cheers for 2005 and lets hope for continued progress for this great club of ours.

I would dearly like to think its a bluff and that in a week or so we are smiling as a couple of decent signings appear.........but I''m not so sure. I understand Worthy did not sign a striker in the summer because he could not get anybody  who he felt would be that much better than we had, for the cash he had available. I guess he was thinking (hoping ?) that come January the funds might have been better. It seems to me Worthy is saying to the Board we need quality and quality costs. So there''s no point just spending the £1.2m as that won''t do it. Its his way of forcing the  real issue into the open. Greeno''s comments today are also very interesting. Greeno has said it would be ''farcical'' if the Board did not allow some strengthening at this time even if his sale has to fund it. Good on him !! Coming from a player this seems to me to be very significant and indicates that the players know what is needed and are finding it hard to grasp where the Board is coming from. Basically do the Board want to stay up or not ? After all this if there is not some action in the transfer window I think the Board will begin to lose some credibility, particularly if we then go down.

Have I got this right ? We wait 9 very long years to get into the Premier League but then in the summer and January transfer windows we won''t be able to get a half decent striker to give us a chance of staying up ?? If that really is the message coming out of the club''s spin today then they need to know that it''s weak and unacceptable. Why don''t they just fly a white flag over Carrow Road now ? The Board are in danger of being far too timid for us to live in this League. - We couldn''t get a striker in summer 2003 or 2004. Why not ? Why was £750k wasted instead on Gary Docherty ? - Huckerby was only signed last Christmas after a lot of anguish but  has repaid this bit of ambition in full. Why can''t we try to do the same this year ? -  Harry Redknapp knows a bit about survival and Southampton are selling Beattie to fund new signings. We could also wheel and deal with Green in the January window or even invest in a player or two now, keep him and be ready to sell him in the summer if we go down. Where''s the problem in unloading a prime talent like Greeno or Francis then if we need to ?    - Why is it better this season for the Board to spend £3million on a corner infill than on a striker or two to keep us in the League ?  The preference for bricks and mortar over players was Robert Chase''s undoing, inevitably led to relegation, and it took us 9 years to get back. - The fans donated £1.2 million. Not many thought that the entire transfer kitty was down to them alone. If the fans had given nothing does that mean the manager would have had zilch ? If so he would be the only one in the League in this position. - Mackay was unloaded for £350k. What has happened to that money ? Please will the Board spare us the continued sob stories of ''we can''t afford this and we can''t afford that''. Instead can Doncaster and others take the time to  remind themselves and  everyone else that we have just had a £20 million windfall from promotion and the club owes the supporters a fair crack at staying there. Nobody expects them to be foolish and put the club at risk, but football has to involve SOME risk and ambition or whats the point of  competing at all  ? If we  genuinely try to stay up and and fail so be it. But  not to really give it a real go by some decent strengthening of the team is unforgivable. The support for the team has been brilliant all season and that won''t change, no matter what, but it is desperate to see the players trying to compete when everyone can see the team needs  the injection of  extra quality up front Worthy is talking about. Anybody who was at Middlesbrough could see the urgent need to give the team a boost so lets stop whining about it and for once just do it.  

No thanks. Hopeless. Get Rid. The Raymond De Waard of commentators when our club and fans deserve quality. Come to think of it Helsinki might be a very suitable job for him. Long way away, which is very good. Is there a local radio station wanting commentary on ........well.....almost anything but football ??

We heard a lot from Neil Doncaster over the summer about the Board''s approach to the Premier League being one of ''Prudent Ambition''. We don''t hear so much at all from him at the moment as he''s suddenly become so low profile as to be almost invisible. I wonder how ''prudent'' or ''ambitious'' the club has been since those great promotion days 6 short months ago. Prudent ? Not really. A lot of the signings over the summer have been worse than playes they were supposed to replace. How many of us would think Helveg or Docherty have been more of an asset this season than Malky might have been ? Or have Bentley or Safri been any better than Mulryne ? Or is Jonson even any better than a frozen out Rivers? At least I can remember Rivers running down the right wing, I can''t remember Jonson doing it once yet.  One thing we can be sure of is that all the new players are costing plenty more than those who played last year. Can''t see its prudent to be paying big bucks for these players to hang around on the fringes of the squad and not have improved the team in the first third of the season. Ambitious ? Hardly. Real ambition to stay up would have seen the signing of a half decent  goalscorer in August to strengthen the front line. Instead we say ''bye to Iwan Roberts and don''t strengthen the one area of the team where we needed it. Over the second summer running there was name after name of possible ''strikers'' but no real action. We couldn''t even ''afford'' Peter Crouch at £2million, who had made it clear he would have walked to Carrow Road if he could. We now hear that Nigel is looking at the January transfer window but this is far too late. So I don''t see much prudent ambition in the management of the club, more an over caution that has rooted us at the bottom. Its disappointing to say the least,  after 9 years waiting to be promoted, to think we may not even be equipped to put up a real fight to come 17th. Most of us would have settled for that but not a season when our ''no win'' after 13 games is now in danger of becoming embarrasssing.  Are you still there Mr Doncaster ? And can you let us all know real soon if it''s still turning out as prudent and ambitious as you and the Board planned for us ?

But it would get us a much better messenger and less of a time server.

Thanks for that totally irrelevant  and illogical offer but the key point (which you might just have missed) is that he''s passing himself off as a paid commentator and I''m not.  By the way I find I am also able to criticise poor service on buses and trains without planning to become the driver, and in restaurants without wanting to be a cook. Its easy when you know how.  A few more years at Brum Uni and you will grasp these things but don''t ever criticise any of lecturers unless you can do it better eh ?

No this is long overdue I''m afraid. Waller is at best a very poor commentator and at worst an embarrassment. You are more likely to hear about blankets, cups of tea and sandwiches than the tactics of the team and the play. This is second rate coverage not Premier league.  Today was just about was the last straw. At one point he was discussing with Neil Adams whether Mckenzie should be subbed......problem was we already had 3 subs on the field ! At another point he seriously asked Adams when we were 4-0 down and bottom of the league WHETHER THIS WAS SERIOUS ?  The post match interviews are almost laughable. Lots of questions need to be asked of Worthy and the club but Waller will never ask them. It''s all the old pals act and he is far too concerned about keeping ''in'' with the club. He needs to know we pay for the wages of everybody at the club and we pay his wages too through licence fees for the BBC. Loser ? Its not the people starting the petition its the Radio Norfolk commentary and coverage with this man week after week.

Couldn''t agree more. Worthy''s team selections are unimaginative to say the least. Same old faces and same old formation. As weeks go by the players belief begins to take knock after knock and we need it freshened up with some other players getting a chance. I didn''t expect us to do anything more than struggle this year but I don''t want our team to become a joke in this league. Work ethic and team spirit isn''t good enough itself. We need more imaginative team selections and tactics, not just more and more of the same week after week.

How many players have at some time or another been ''frozen'' out by Worthington ?  Although club discipline is obviously important is this always the best way to go about it ? The Bentley ''fallout'' story today seems childish in the extreme and would almost be a joke if most grown up businesses operated that way with their employees. Just a few names come to mind as to players who really never got a look in after some alleged falling out with the manager; Libbra, Anselin, Jackson, Kenton, Briggs, Emblem, Rivers,  Easton, all fell out of favour for one reason or another and left. Several were brought to the club by Worthy in the first place but none except maybe Kenton improved under him. Mackay gave good service but suddenly his face didn''t fit too and he left under a cloud in a deal done when he was away from the club on International duty. Some current players seem maybe to be slowly but surely going the same way - -  Bentley, Docherty,  Brennan, Mulryne, Jarvis, Helveg, Gallagher, Saffri can''t get a kick at present. For some their careers seem to be going backwards and they''re very lucky if they get picked to sit on the bench for a team second bottom. Young players like Shackell and Jarvis get painfully few selections in the team or even the squad and limited opportunities to progress here at present and yet the youth programme should be the ong term future of the club. They ought to be more regularly involved now at their ages surely ? All in all it makes me wonder about some aspects of man management, selection and coaching. I can see Nigel is probably a strong disciplinarian but he sometimes looks very inflexible and stubborn with some players at times. It seems to me we are a club who have to try to get the best out of every player in a small squad. Is this really happening at present  or are some rapidly becoming the forgotten men of Colney ?

It is clear from this message board that feelings are running high after the Blackburn game and rightly so. Like many others I left the ground very disappointed and almost in disbelief at the complete naivety of the tactics and substitutions. it was like men against boys as far as the two managers were concerned. Hughes is very streetwise tactically, Worthy isn''t and muddles through.  On the car radio caller after caller raised important  points about tactics and substitutions on the Neil Adams phone in. But then I could not believe what I heard when the feebleness that is Roy Waller finally got to interview Worthy. - No questioning of the substitutions at all. - No questioning of tactics or why we were under the cosh for the last half hour without them being changed. - No question as to why Helveg or Mulryne didn''t figure at all in the game to maybe help us keep the ball better. - No question as to why most of the players signed in the summer don''t now get a game. Instead all Waller could offer was ''a bit disappointing in the second half Nigel eh ?''. ''you must have thought you''d won it ?''.   Get a grip Waller. There were about 23000 home fans spitting blood after that game and you are supposed to ask the questions everybody else wanted answering afterwards. As it is the manager knows interviews with Radio Norfolk are a complete joke and he is never held accountable for his decisions on team selection or tactics on the field. Why not ?  If Waller can''t do it in case he upsets his pal ''Nigel''  can''t Radio Norfolk try  handing the microphone on to somebody who has got a spine. Somehow the club needs to get asked whats going on ......and fast.

Spot on. No amount of ''support the club'', ''keep the faith'' posts elsewhere on this message board can hide the reality. Of course we all support the club but the harsh truth is that we are being frustrated week in and week out by a lack of strengthening in the summer. As you say this is a result of signing players who didn''t improve us and not replacing those like Iwan who left. The Board were also over cautious in the extreme and did not give the manager a chance to buy the quality required. They  hoped to get by till at least January but we could have a mountain to climb by then. Add to that mix a manager who is stubborn in his treatment of certain players and who is at times tactically naive and you can see why some player frustration is creeping in. Against Everton Duncan Ferguson comes on and wins the game because we could not deal with that tactical change. Against Blackburn they had us under the cosh for 20 minutes before they scored and Worthy''s substitutions were the problem not the solution. As for the January transfer window what is going on ? Why is Worthy talking about Darren Bent if he does not have that sort of cash ? Does he know what''s available for him ? If not the Board should be telling him so that plans can be made. Putting names like Bent around just builds the frustration if we then only have £1.5m available.