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Katie Borkins

The 2014-15 Gary Doherty Memorial SOTS Trophy - Your Votes Needed

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Because I am important, and highly original, I am instituting a new trophy at the end of this season - the Gary Doherty Memorial Scapegoat of the Season award.
Much like the Barry Butler Player of the Season trophy, this will be awarded to the Norwich City FC player - or indeed manager - who has been the biggest source of blame for the collective ailings and failings of the football team each season.  Whether or not the blame is justified is, of course, a moot point - but I would suggest that in the spirit of adhering to the English language, we use a common definition as follows: and what better and more robust source than Urban Dictionary?
(n.) A scapegoat is an event person or object that is used to lay the blame on for all that goes wrong, regardless of the contributions of others. This will usually carry on until the scapegoat has gone, or has managed to successfully defend itself against the arguments presented to it. 

The word comes from Judaism. During mass reconciliation the rabbi would bring a goat to the alter. The sins of the people would be absorbed into the goat, and it would then be killed, its'' blood staining the alter until cleansed. This is what Jesus Christ reflected in his crucifixion, being a scapegoat. 
So there we have it.
A person (player) used to lay the blame on for all that goes wrong,
Leading contenders this season:
Stephen Whittaker: The Scottish international right back has apparently been to blame for all our defeats this season for various reasons including his inability to pass, shoot, track back, mark or tackle. Despite this he remains a full international and first choice for three successive managers.  Hmmm.
Bradley Johnson: Despite scoring a few goals, the midfielder has apparently not been up to scratch this season due to his alleged inability to pass to a team-mate whenever we lose a game
John Ruddy: A shot-stopper who becomes a sh*t-stopper whenever we fail to bag the three points
Neil Adams: Apparently a dreadful appointment until we were top of the league, and then a dreadful appointment again once we were in the dreadful position of 7th place
Lewis Grabban: Needs too many chances to score when we lose games, off the ball movement and running not relevant to goalscorers
Russell Martin: Should play at right back until he plays at right back, in which case he should play at centre back, in which case he should play at right back.
Your votes please, ladies and gentlemen - I will present the award myself at the Colney training ground some time before I die, possibly.

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Haha! Love it!

I''d have to go Whittaker. He was for a long time this season the go to guy for reasons we lost, even as recently as the Brentford game. He has improved massively though, seemingly since Bassong came back.

Johnson scored some crackers early on so has been mainly lauded this season so I think his mantle will go.

Grabban scored vs the scum twice so is exempt under the Matty Pattison rule.

Russell Martin, we need two of!

Adams isn''t a bad shout but I don''t think he recieved enough hate to warrant the award win. I was at Preston and even there the vitorol was nothing like it was for Hughton or Worthington for example.

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Haha cracking post, award has to go to Whitts, unless he goes and spoils it over the next few games by scoring a hat trick or something silly !! then we could start on Cuellar for his constant giving away of penalties or Lafferty for his yellow cards ?

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Brilliant Bor[Y]"...... exempt under the Matty Pattison rule." Loving this Jimmy.

Going to vote for Delia.

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I nominate Joe Royle. We''d have been promoted already if he hadn''t left us in the lurch. Absolute shambles.

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I nominate the groundsman for 3 reasons:

1. He has let bare patches appear in the goal areas since about last December. This means Ruddy can’t get a good grip with his boots during corners, leading him to slip and slide and therefore have to try and juggle the ball with one hand – usually with disastrous results (for example, Derby).

2. He insists on watering the pitch at half time. This means Redmond is always slipping and sliding about during the second half when he gets a run-out and is always loses his footing as he’s about to shoot – the ball ending up in the Upper Barclay (for example, every game in which he’s ever had a shot at goal).

3. Him and his mates keep sticking their gardening forks into the pitch and waggling them about during half time. As any fool knows, this encourages worms to come to the surface in their thousands. In turn, this makes the pitch very uneven in the second half and the ball therefore tends to bobble about a lot, usually just as Ruddy is about to make an important save (for example, against Forest) – almost invariably with disastrous results.

By my estimation, the groundsman has cost us at least 8 home points this season, maybe more. We would have been the ones to catch with 7 games to go if it hadn’t been for him.

So I nominate Mr Whatsisname.

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[quote user="Bor Bor Bor"]Because I am important, and highly original, I am instituting a new trophy at the end of this season - the Gary Doherty Memorial Scapegoat of the Season award.
Much like the Barry Butler Player of the Season trophy, this will be awarded to the Norwich City FC player - or indeed manager - who has been the biggest source of blame for the collective ailings and failings of the football team each season.  Whether or not the blame is justified is, of course, a moot point - but I would suggest that in the spirit of adhering to the English language, we use a common definition as follows: and what better and more robust source than Urban Dictionary?
(n.) A scapegoat is an event person or object that is used to lay the blame on for all that goes wrong, regardless of the contributions of others. This will usually carry on until the scapegoat has gone, or has managed to successfully defend itself against the arguments presented to it. 

The word comes from Judaism. During mass reconciliation the rabbi would bring a goat to the alter. The sins of the people would be absorbed into the goat, and it would then be killed, its'' blood staining the alter until cleansed. This is what Jesus Christ reflected in his crucifixion, being a scapegoat. 
So there we have it.
A person (player) used to lay the blame on for all that goes wrong,
Leading contenders this season:
Stephen Whittaker: The Scottish international right back has apparently been to blame for all our defeats this season for various reasons including his inability to pass, shoot, track back, mark or tackle. Despite this he remains a full international and first choice for three successive managers.  Hmmm.
Bradley Johnson: Despite scoring a few goals, the midfielder has apparently not been up to scratch this season due to his alleged inability to pass to a team-mate whenever we lose a game
John Ruddy: A shot-stopper who becomes a sh*t-stopper whenever we fail to bag the three points
Neil Adams: Apparently a dreadful appointment until we were top of the league, and then a dreadful appointment again once we were in the dreadful position of 7th place
Lewis Grabban: Needs too many chances to score when we lose games, off the ball movement and running not relevant to goalscorers
Russell Martin: Should play at right back until he plays at right back, in which case he should play at centre back, in which case he should play at right back.
Your votes please, ladies and gentlemen - I will present the award myself at the Colney training ground some time before I die, possibly.
[/quote]

Whilst you are correct in stating that the term scapegoat is inextricably linked to Judaism you are incorrect in claiming that the goat was sacrificed. The ritual you allude to in fact required two goats, one of whom was chosen by the casting of lots and then sacrificed. The second goat was presented alive before the Lord, where it symbolically took on the sins of Israel and was then released into the wilderness. It was this second goat that was known as the scapegoat. So now you know.

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The idea that Whittaker is seen to have improved massively since results picked up rather suggests to me that he will regress massively should we have another bad run. I think that makes the title his[:)]

 

Can anyone tell me in what way Whittaker has improved massively?

 

 

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"The second goat was presented alive before the Lord, where it symbolically took on the sins of Israel and was then released into he wilderness."

Hmmmn...this bit could sound like a loan move to St Etienne. Except RVW doesn''t really qualify zin the scapegoat category as he is just sh1te.

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Whittaker has improved massively because we are not leaving him as exposed as we were before Alex Neil took charge. Whittaker isn''t the quickest of full backs and previously I can count plenty of wingers that tore him to bits. Ibe, Adomah, Kyel Reid to name a few.

Now our team covers him more and he has the more mobile Russell Martin next to him along with the likes of Tettey and Howson able to help him out defensively.

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So Whittaker hadn''t improved massively the team have. All this goes to prove he was being scapegoated for poorer team performances. He wins this award by a mile.

The player who has improved in recent weeks is Olsson. Up to a few weeks ago Whitts was comfortably our best full back. But that''s not the case lately where Olsson has at least been his equal.

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No way will it be given to John Ruddy, he will just drop it, think that if we don''t get promotion it should go to Dorrans for agreeing to come here on loan

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I would like to nominate Fulham FC for this award. Every problem this club has ever faced has been directly caused by losing at Fulham.

Our U18s lost their the other night and now our academy is falling apart. Must be Peter Grant and Mark Fotheringham working their magic down there

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[quote user="Gainer the Gopher"]Memorial? Is Doherty dead?[/quote]

My thoughts exactly GtG. His passing must be of the Mark Twain variety.

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]So Whittaker hadn''t improved massively the team have. All this goes to prove he was being scapegoated for poorer team performances. He wins this award by a mile.

The player who has improved in recent weeks is Olsson. Up to a few weeks ago Whitts was comfortably our best full back. But that''s not the case lately where Olsson has at least been his equal.[/quote]

Sort of but it was his own weaknesses that was losing us points, we are now set up to cope better with that. Every team even Barca have weaknesses, it''s about managing them well.

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Wes Hoolahan.

Blamed by some for our losses ''for always giving the ball away''. Many others in the team are equally poor but they get away with it.

Gets injured. City go on a poor run during his absence.

In excellent form in the last couple of months, yet still deemed ''not good enough'' by some (not even joking).

Actually spoke to a fellow fan at Charlton who blamed our entire Premier League relegation on him. "Most of the goals conceded were from him giving the ball away on the edge of our box".

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Awesome thread.

Can I still vote for Snodgrass?

If he hadn''t of stoolen that pelanty off of Wolfswinkel, he''d have got thirty ghouls last season and we wouldn''t even be in the championship this season so whatever happen it''s Snodgrasses fault.

And he can''t beat the first man at a corner.

And he wave.

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I vote for Chris Hughton, I''m pretty sure people will still be blaming him for all our ills for many years to come.

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A scapegoat is someone who is unfairly blamed,  criticised when criticism is unfair..  

 

I agree with most of the nominations by the OP but the most ludicrous is Lewis Grabban.   He went through a dry spell when inappropriately used.

 

I cant agree with BJs nomination,  he has rightly been lauded for a strong season (and likely to get POTS) and the criticism (poor passing) is factual,  with him remaining the worst midfielder at the club for completion rate (more than 1 in 4 not finding ayellow shirt) and 24th out of the 30 city players used in the champs this season

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Zipper,

Whilst I agree with your stats, I think BJ attempts more audacious/ambitious pases than the rest of the team, which when they come of are brilliant, although by definition they are less likely to be sucessful, hence a lower pass completeion %. Also agree probably POTS, still enough games to go though for someone else to step up, let''s hope so anyway, it means we''re going from strngth to strength.

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Hi Ray

Yes - there is an element of that, and we have occassionaly seen a gem from him,   but its not what is expected of him, nor what he mainly tries,  nor the reason for this being the 4th consecutive season below 75% (in the lowest quartile of performers).  With low chance creation, low number of assists (which would support such audacity/ambition) & consistent general misplaced passes we have to accept that passing is simply not one of his strengths.    

 

As a side issues its is interesting that you are prepared to excuse persistent continuous losses of possession yet Wes (who has a far better pass rate, genuinely does attempt a high percent of audacious creative passing backed up with the leagues best assist per appearance rate) gets criticised (not by you I hasten to add) for repeatedly carelessly giving away possession,  when in fact he does it far less. 

 

This season BJ has made up for that with greatly improved shooting,   great energy, drive & committment & superb aerial dominance in the centre of the park (here is where I feel he is the leagues best central midfielder - and truly what we miss when he does not play) which will win him the POTS award.  

 

Even POTS are allowed areas of their game that still need improving... and my point is that BJ has not been and should not be in the scape goat category this season

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Hi Zipper,

I think you''re right, when he''s full of confidence they are gems, yet when he''s not sometimes you get the feeling he couldn''t hit a barn door from 5 yards, but that does appear to more a thing of the past. Not sure I said I was, "prepared to excuse" but the more ambitious he is the lower the % will be, or if it wasn''t he''d be playing for Barcelona! I agree we can all improve all the time.

I think with Wes he tends to lose the ball with it at his feet or very nearby, whereas with BJ it tends to be a longer hit pass, which is probably why some people get more uptight about Wes. Again he is playing with confidence, something to do with the manager and winning I guess?

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How about Leroy Fer, in his opinion he left us to go and establish himself as a PL star with a squad much better equipped to survive in the top flight, think he should be in nominations, 2 successive PL relegations (none of which would be in anyway to do with him) this after appearing in the world cup finals, give him the recognition he deserves..........................

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