10 years ago last weekend

[RustysRevenge 0]

Worthy got the sack after City had stagnated and looked like we weren''t going to be competing for promotion that season. What followed was Peter Grant, Glenn Roeder, Bryan Gunn, some of the worst football I''ve seen in my time supporting the yellows and the infamous relegation to the third tier.

Just some food for thought for those on here that have been calling for Neil''s head this season. We''re in nowhere near as bad a state as we were then and if we were to get rid anytime soon it''s not the fans that pick the manager, we could just as easily end up with Grant or Roeder mark 2.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Wouldn''t be any better if the fans did pick the manager. Or the owner. There was a clamouring for the boy mucus when he took on the binners. And I remember the likes of Paul Jewell and Mike Newell being popul;ar choices to replace Worthy. And they rhymed....

The hatred and venom Worthy put up with is by far the worst thing that happened at our club in the 50 seasons I''ve been going. What were people thinking of....

[Move Klose 303]

Mike Newell, Steve Tilson, Martin Allen.

[Norfolk Mustard 106]

I still cringe when I think of the ''Worthy Out'' campaign; walking along with my young son observing professionally-made posters strategically placed high up on lampposts so they couldn''t be removed without a ladder. It was vicious & embarrassing behaviour both in & out of the ground. Hope we never see behaviour like that again...

[im spartacus canary 0]

The worthy out campaign was a disgrace,A stain on our history ! Anyone who took part should be ashamed of themselves.

Some tw@t called Gordon seemed to be running it. Absolutely embarrassing.

[Katie Borkins 1]

Hiring St Andrews hall was of course the highlight.

[king canary 8,751]

To be fair Worthy was given far, far more time than he should have been.

[alex_ncfc 686]

Don''t make it sound like Worthy was a saint - he had a free pass in 2004-05 in the Prem when everyone basically accepted we were going to be relegated by September. Because he got us there, he thought he could live of this credit, but when the pressure really started building on him at the start of the following season, he made quite a few disparaging comments towards the fans, making out they had no idea and should not question his decisions and this is, I recall, when he lost the fans and the protesting began. No he shouldn''t have been subjected to some of the abuse received but he had a year more (maybe longer) in charge than he should have been given, and stabbing Foley in the back so he could keep his job is also a very low point of his.

All in all I''d say it all went downhill for him the moment we won the title in 03-04. He just didn''t have a clue what he was doing.

[Syteanric 1]

I agree with Alex....I''d also suggest the Worthy Out movement was to force the boards hand..They were dithering and dallying and if we hadn''t have voiced discontent in the way they did would have stuck with Worthy until he took us to league 1 himself....winning the championship wouldn''t have mattered...Disparaging comments to the fans.... getting rid of Malky and Iwan just weeks after promotion when Leadership was needed, Peter Thorne on the wing..."Dean Ashtons injured" when dropped against West Ham as he was signing a contract with them.Worthy got found out.... the board had appointed a friend and must have prayed every day he''d turn it round....I remember the Burnley game. Despite what the players said they no longer wanted to play for him, body language and performance dictated. 75% of the ground turned on Worthy that day. He''d lost everyone.

[Jacko 0]

In answer to your question Nutty, the atmosphere was indeed very poisonous and nasty. I think only the Colchester game and the Charlton game when Roeder got the sack can really rival it.

Unfortunately, I lay the responsibility for that at the feet of the board at the time. There had been quite ugly scenes at the Qpr game towards the previous season when certain sections of the crowd had even celebrated Qpr goals in the hope it would hasten Worthington''s demise. So it was obvious he had lost large sections of the fanbase in the season prior to him being sacked.

It was also evident after the September international break in 2006 that Worthington wasn''t capable of turning it around results wise. Deep down the board knew it too when they issued him with a final desperate ultimatum after the Plymouth game that results had to improve or else.

So the Burnley game always felt like it was going to be akin to a public execution. Particularly with that ultimatum and it being played on a Sunday in front of the Sky cameras.

It was a very sad way to end for a chap who seemed a thoroughly decent person and did much to drag this club out of the doldrums. I am 27 years old and therefore divide my time supporting the club into 2 distinct phases.

The pre 2001/2002 phase following relegation where interest in the team was modest and games were played out of in front of between 12-14,000 supporters. And the post 2002 phases where the club seems to have played in front of 25,000 plus full houses each week. Worthington did much to help that transition phase.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

makes me feel old! I had just started uni and was watching that game with a new mate who was a burnley fan. the whole bar of neutrals started chanting "worthy out" with me! looking back it was pretty funny but at the time it was a bit sad and embarrasing! we had a lot of good times under worthy, we just weren''t financially ready to sustain a stable premiership side.

[komakino 282]

Worthington brought it all on himself. Before we kicked a ball we were doomed as he had made serious errors by getting rid of Roberts and Mackay when they were exactly what we needed in the squad.

In those days footballers still frequented pubs and bars and I would often have a chat with a few of them and they all made it clear that he had lost their support - and this was quite a while before he was sacked and the board didn''t act.

As Worthington got us up he was a critical free zone as the board were concerned and that was part of his downfall.

While some of the treatment he got was harsh - he overstayed his welcome as he had a weak and indecisive board above him - and he knew it.

Sympathies? Make me laugh.

[king canary 8,751]

He was clearly an extremely nice and likeable man and I was always pleased to see him pick up a job elsewhere after he left us. The problem did seem to be he and the board had become a bit too close- Delia & Michael saw him as a friend and struggled to make the tough decision on him. I get the feeling they''ve learnt from that.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

As with everything we each choose who to blame for the disappointment of losing football matches. Focussing on the end of his tenure does not excuse the disgraceful stuff this good honest man had to put up with for a year. Pure hatred was evident and it wasn''t confined just to message boards. As was seen at that QPR game so called supporters hated Worthy so much they wanted the team lose. People made up stories that Worthy had lost the dressingroom. Total fabrication. The performances were affected by the protesting outside before games. Stoked up by the ginger whinger in his Friday evening column. The players loved Worthy and it hurt them.

Jacko calls the end right. And the board later admitted this when Roeder was swiftly axed. The atmosphere Roeder left in was a love in compared to what Worthy suffered. That can''t be right can it?

[Indy 3,471]

I had the pleasure of chatting to Worthy a few times, talked about everything other than football.....he was a gentleman and thoroughly nice bloke.

Trouble is the love in with Delia meant he was given too long which turned some of the fans to unwarranted & undeserved vitriol.

[komakino 282]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]As with everything we each choose who to blame for the disappointment of losing football matches. Focussing on the end of his tenure does not excuse the disgraceful stuff this good honest man had to put up with for a year. Pure hatred was evident and it wasn''t confined just to message boards. As was seen at that QPR game so called supporters hated Worthy so much they wanted the team lose. People made up stories that Worthy had lost the dressingroom. Total fabrication. The performances were affected by the protesting outside before games. Stoked up by the ginger whinger in his Friday evening column. The players loved Worthy and it hurt them.

Jacko calls the end right. And the board later admitted this when Roeder was swiftly axed. The atmosphere Roeder left in was a love in compared to what Worthy suffered. That can''t be right can it?[/quote]

Why would several players - including senior ones - say that he had lost the dressing room if that wasn''t the case? I''m not naming names here, but it was clear that Worthy was out of his depth in the PL.

I remember going to the QPR game and the reason that some fans wanted the team to lose is that the board were so paralysed to act that losing made it easier.

Worthy was - and I''m sure still is - a nice bloke, but that means nothing in football. He had lost the players that mattered and got his just desserts.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Well I''m not afraid to name names. Darren Huckerby is one I''ll start with and you don''t get anymore players that matter than Hucks. There''s plenty of posters on this board who were present when he said it. Who''s yours?

[nutty nigel 7,902]

That is said Worthy hadn''t lost the dressingroom and that the players found it really difficult with the atmosphere before games.

[king canary 8,751]

I met him once when he was manager- I was only young at this point and I saw him outside the London Eye of all places. He was happy to talk to a young fan despite being out with his kids and was nothing but a credit to himself and the club.

I wanted him gone the season after we were relegated when it became clear we weren''t going to challenge for promotion but as Nutty says the abuse of a good man was pretty shameful at times. For what it''s worth though I think he was let down by the board who refused to make the tough decision and left him to take all the flack.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

yes, the subsequent managerial appointments of Grant and Roeder and Gunn were of varying degrees of disastrous but surely nobody can be suggesting that Worthington could have stayed?.

The aforementioned Burnley game....after the games leading up to it rendered him unteneble.

Managed to dismantle a decent side in fairly quick time by replacing good players with particularly ordinary ones.

The "holy trinity" of Jason Jarrett,Peter Thorne and Matthieu Louis-Jean in the summer following relegation.....closely followed by everybody''s favourite, Andy Hughes were just a sign of things to come over the following 18 months.

I''m afraid he lost his way ...and in my opinion hung on far too long after he knew his time was up in not offering his resignation, and one can only assume he had his own personal financial interests in mind in knowing that a dismissal would carry a richer reward.

[Felixfan 53]

Wortington legacy set the club back years. He should have been sacked sooner.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Should he have sacked himself? Or should the disgraceful hate been dished out to those that didn''t sack him? It makes no sense. Especially as he was one of the most popular men that Colney has ever seen. Why make stuff up? The whole episode stunk. And for those who still excuse it...

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

....of course the board should have sacked him far earlier than they did......but I suspect they wanted him to resign, whilst at the same time he wanted them to sack him......whilst during this time results were getting worse and worse and the club as a whole was suffering.

For all of Peter Grant''s many faults, he''ll always be held in some regard in recognising his time was up and walking away.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Peter Grant is a good man too. I''ll wager Worthy is loved that little bit more though. 

That''s what I don''t get about this. People have to make stuff up even now. Why couldn''t Worthy have just been a good honest man honouring his contract?

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

....I don''t believe his heart was in the job toward the end as he knew his time was long since up....he was going through the motions waiting for the sack and the remuneration that went with it, rather than walking......and all of the time as this went on , it further damaged the club.

Yes, the blame lays squarely at the board in not acting far quicker than they did.....but please don''t tell me he was hanging around in order to "honour his contract"

[nutty nigel 7,902]

[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]....I don''t believe his heart was in the job toward the end as he knew his time was long since up....he was going through the motions waiting for the sack and the remuneration that went with it, rather than walking......and all of the time as this went on , it further damaged the club.

Yes, the blame lays squarely at the board in not acting far quicker than they did.....but please don''t tell me he was hanging around in order to "honour his contract"[/quote]

That view isn''t borne out by the people at the club at the time.

You are right that the board shouldn''t have hung about after Worthy had so obviously lost the fans. They''re an honest bunch and admitted it later when Roeder was sacked with speed. I believe it was Munby who said they''d learned their lesson over that at the time.

I think making stuff up to discredit Worthy just makes folk feel a bit better about the nastiness and vitriol they spewed at the time.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

he also had a whole bunch of his better players sold when we came down which didn''t help matters.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

[quote user="Tetteys Jig"]he also had a whole bunch of his better players sold when we came down which didn''t help matters.[/quote]

I dont think thats true??......the only player we really lost in that summer that we would probably have wanted to keep was Damian Francis.

Worthington had , for the first half of the following season at least until Ashton left, Green,Ashton,Huckerby,McKenzie,Safri,Drury a talented defender in Davenport a basis of a squad that should have been more than capable of a promotion challenge.....yet wan''t able to motivate them into looking like a side that could bounce straight back....