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"Are the board immune?"

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All this talk of discontent concerning the ''current'' plight of Norwich City Football Club; at no point has any serious criticism been levelled at the board of directors or our Chairman. Scapegoats amongst the coaching and playing staff are well bandied about, but I feel the board are not immune from being somewhat responsible for the present situation the club finds itself in.

After the Dictatorship debacle of the mid-nineties, the club has progressed and we have recovered well. I praise the likes of Mr Watling, Delia and her hubby (and Worthy), for their commitment to the cause, turning it all around, then elevating this club back onto its feet. We on the supporting side, deserve a round of applause- for the loyalty we''ve shown, whether your first game was watched at the ''nest'' or as recent as the away game at Watford. But, something isn''t going right at this club, and it isn''t just on the pitch.... 

Does anyone feel that the Chairman and the board should accept some resposibility from our current plight, and that they need to start rectifying the situation before it''s too late?  I have no answer? anyone? anyone?...........eh? ;~( 

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" But, something isn''t going right at this club, and it isn''t just on the pitch.... "

What is that something then ?

Please explain

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yes they should, they should go to Colney and see what goes on for themselves...

that way they can go into Worthys office and get rid of the poster of footballing "giant" Sven Goran-Erikkson who Worthy clearly models himself on

seriously, they should start looking to bring in someone new.. then they have done something about it.. Some of the coaches have been here too long and have gone stale, lets get rid...

jas

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No I dont think the baord are immune but from what I can see they have played it right so far.

Rightly they did not sack NW after relegation as it was lawys the likely outcome. 

During the close season they have given NW a budget which has not been used given the bid for morrison (not £2m but still must have been substantial).   I would have hoped that he woul have been grilled and pushed about the fulham performance and challenged over what he had learny and how that info would be used during this season.

They have backed the manager publically(verbaly & new loan signings) but would hope that he is being put under pressure as we speak to explain why we sit where we do and what the master plan to turn it around is.  I would hope challenges around the coaching and his ability to motivate are being made.  If those sorts of questions are not being posed and mini milestones set then they will be neglecting their own roles. 

If this is not happening, our we still have NW on board by the end of Oct and are sitting in the bottom three the the board will not be doingtheir job and they will face criticism too.

At the moment they seem to be doing everything right. 

OTBC

PS - Mad Dan; so this is a club that is in perfectly rude health?

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I think the Board were right to back the manager when we got relegated, the problem is he has brought in good players this season to an already good squad but doesn''t know his best team. Tactics are poor and our set pieces are dreadful because we are quite a big side but are incapable of delivering good balls into the box. The board have given the manager the tools to do the job & up to know he''s failed. The board will come in for stick only if performances (and lets not forget reults) don''t improve & they bury their heads in the sand and do nothing. This manager has had the biggest resource the club has ever entrusted to any 1 manager & can only go by his advice & actions I don''t really know what more they could do cause they could not have predicted such a poor start to the season.

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The board have backed NW this season with a respectable budget, what more can they DO to support the manager. They have played it right and no blame thus far can be levelled at them.

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Well MadDan, do you think all is rosy in the boardroom? Do you think that the "business orientated" board members aren''t squirming uncomfortably on their padded seats- whilst witnessing poor & substandard displays of unattractive football? When fans become disillusioned and the attendances'' start dropping, and believe me they will (or should I say are!) something has got to give..... Are the current board not dissimilar to our spineless FA and loathe to change? We had a golden chance of staying in the Premier league and all that it offered! Now? we are clearly struggling- yes! it pains me to say it! we are struggling to compete in this football league!

I''m not asking for the heads of the Board, Chairman, Manager or Scapegoat Fleming. I''m demanding a solution- and not a quick fix!

I must admit, I am frustrated and annoyed with the predictable tosh that''s fed to the fan''s by the Club media to generate interest and euphoria "Ooh Deano''s signed a new contract!" That young man looks as if the whole weight of East Anglia is resting on his shoulder''s. What was all the: "We nearly signed doo dah, oh'' we just missed out on hefty bob,  It was pure ''Spin'' and "seen to be doing" that''s what it was. In a nutshell; the board, the coaching staff and the club as a whole- were ill prepared  for this forthcoming season! (although the groundstaff are exempt) and it''s starting to show! There are people who follow this club to the ends of the Earth, and pump hard earned cash into it! They''re not lemmings or sheep and certainly deserve better! To try and run a football club of this size on a fishing line is not going to work. Don''t buy a player till the end of the close-season (and we don''t have to pay his wages)......Cynical maybe, but it''s good business! Give us the beef NCFC and not the gristle, and don''t throw a stale loaf as a sweetener to us "oiks" to keep us happy. End of!  ;~( 

Is that an explanation MadDan?

 

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The board have backed Worthy to the hilt all along. When he wanted Hucks, we got Hucks, when we wanted Deano, we got Deano.  What else CAN they do? We don''t want them messing with the football side, they are there solely to provide backing and finances to the Manager, which they have done.

I am reserving my judgment until after the next two games, which will be the magic "1st Wizard" 10 games. Roll on Sunday!!

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One or two of you might have been at the last shareholders meeting where a comment made by I think Doomcaster has stuck in the back of my mind and indeed throat ever since

 

Apparently we could have signed Dean Ashton last August but didn’t because at that stage we were not sure of the full extent of the TV revenues for the forthcoming season.  In essence the base guaranteed figure is X but they needed to see Y before committing to his purchase.

 

Without daring to go looking at last season’s table we missed survival by a couple of points I think.  Based on that information is it not reasonable to expect that the signature of Dean Ashton last August would have bagged us the points we needed to have survived?

 

Oh how I wish it was the AGM this week because by god the mutual appreciation society of the last couple would most certainly be a thing of the past. 

 

To conclude, the board of directors are most certainly not immune from the close scrutiny of the shareholders and they most certainly do have some robust questions to answer.

 

This forelock is most certainly not for tugging

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The board seems to be a good unit from the outside looking in without any real knowledge of their workings. We have a board member who gives us high media coverage for the size of our club.

Think they have backed the manager with money when called upon, although agree that Ashton would have been nice in August, rather than in January. Maybe Crewe would not have sold him then?

As for the current debate about the manager’s positions and the boards response, well they could sack him, but I think he still deserves the chance to make a new team and that’s what he is trying to do. It’s a dilemma how long you give him, but I think he deserves until Xmas before any action should be taken. Now that may be too late for us to make a challenge for automatic promotion, but not the play-offs. Other teams have done that before.

Did not support his original appointment, but he got us promoted and to a play-off final with teams that I did not think were that great on paper. So he has my respect for that and would like to see him given time to turn it around.

If we don’t go up then so be it. Life goes on and will my love for the club change no. Wolves, Sunderland, West Ham plus others struggled when first coming back down and Man City Wednesday and Forest got relegated. It’s a tough league and we are finding it out the hard way right now!

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On virtually every front I think it would be difficult to level any criticism at the Board.

They have engineered a massive turnaround regarding the finances of the Club. They have improved the ground beyond all recognition. They have backed the incumbent manager with the largest amount of investment that any manager has had the use of. They have forged solid links with the supporters. All of which shows that they have done a pretty good job.

However, their hardest task is now with them.

Do they stick with NW and honour his contract in the hope that he does have the ability to turn the performances around, accepting that we will not be promoted this year but simply establish a safe position? Thereafter running the Club as a solid Championship team.

Or do they bite the bullet, pay off his contract and bring someone new in and trust that they can do a "Dowie" and gain promotion this year?

If the Board''s ambition is to remain as an established Championship side then they cannot be criticised for their current laissez-faire attitude. If the Board''s ambition is to return to the Premiership than they will be criticised if we do not embark upon a successful,sustained, run over the next few weeks and they still do nothing about NW.

The answer to the question lies in the whatever the TRUE ambition of the Board is.

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" Is that an explanation MadDan? "

A long ramble about what you don''t like but nothing in the way of an explanation.

It would also help if others would reply to what I post rather than making up something then arguing against that.

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[quote]I think the Board were right to back the manager when we got relegated, the problem is he has brought in good players this season to an already good squad but doesn''t know his best team. Tactics are p...[/quote]

How can you claim Worthy doesn''t know his best team? When has he been able to field the same team for three games in a row - let alone his preferred team for that many games?

The first team has suffered injuries to players in every position this season (ironically bar centre back) meaning the manager has HAD to keep chopping and changing the line-up.

In t''promotion season we had an incredible run of being injury free and NO suspensions. Result, we got consistency due to players knowing exactly what their team mates expected from them. This, as much as anything, is to blame for the shambolic performances so far this year.

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What we have to ask is why, if we are so ambitious and anxious to get promotion, did we make a 1.5 million pound profit in the transfer market during the summer?

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From where I sit (a long way from Norwich regrettably) the Board have done everything they can to give NW the foundations on which to work. OK, there might have been some hesitancy last August over committing to buy Ashton, but they did let Nigel buy Jonsson who is actually a forward but never got played there plus the other so-called proven performers like Helveg.

They have avoided knee jerk reaction to relegation, they have made funds available for signings and loan players, they took a gamble with Hux and the loanees two seasons ago, they have not put Nigel under any public pressure. They have given us undoubted passion, a great stadium and some board room stability.

From what I can see this would be an ideal Board and probably 95% of the managers in the league would be very very pleased to work under these conditions.

That foundation and those funds (which are being made available in record amounts) are being wasted and frittered away. The question is how long do the Board wait? We would have criticised them for sacking Nigel after those first few woeful displays, but now we''ve had more and they seem to be a regular feature they surely can''t let it continue for much longer.

It''ll probably come down to money. How much would it cost to terminate Nigel''s contract? For a club our size that''s a potentially material sum, but needs to be measured against (a) the cost of failing to get promoted with a strong squad, and (b) the awful consequences of finishinh in the bottom three.

This is the biggest challenge they have faced since the dark days of Bryan Hamilton. They must move rapidly out of their comfort zone, put their hard hats on and get sticky the stick insect off that sticky bun.

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The Board are doing the right thing at present, and what most of the sensibly run ex-Premiership clubs have done in their first season back down in the Cahmpionship (or equivalent) - give the manager what can sensibly be afforded (seems ok on that front to me), give him a reasonable amount of time (late Oct-early Dec seems the norm) to see how we progress, and if poor then it''s cheerio, if not then well done for keeping the ship steady. Examples in recent years - West Ham, Wolves, Leicester (although no money there) and even the Scum.

What all this does put in context for me though is (inspite of being much maligned) it shows what a good job Gary Megson did getting a bottom of the Premiership West Brom back up at the first time of asking. 

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[quote]From where I sit (a long way from Norwich regrettably) the Board have done everything they can to give NW the foundations on which to work. OK, there might have been some hesitancy last August over co...[/quote]

I recall reading somewhere that Worthys contract was the lowest paid in the prem at around £400k pa - whether that is dependent on which league we are in I dont know but I expect it is.   

Agreeing a termination of his contract will cost a goodproportion what is left of our transfer budget and paying compensation to get a decent manager from another club a further big whack (non of the names mentioned who are not attached to clubs are worth having or are not likely to come to city)

But compared to the cost of relegation or not getting back into the prem that seems a cost worth bearing.

Why do we have to honour his whole contract if he is sacked for not performing?  Most peoples expectations at the start of the season was automatic promotion was performing exceptionally, play off good, top have OK and below unacceptable.  Surely sitting in 21st and looking worse game by game is not doing the job description and worthy (sic) of dismissal as most employees in other companies would?

No wonder football is in a state - we reward people even when they do not do their job to a satisfactory level.  

OTBC

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[quote]What we have to ask is why, if we are so ambitious and anxious to get promotion, did we make a 1.5 million pound profit in the transfer market during the summer?[/quote]

The only reason we made a profit was because it took until late-on to sort a deal to shift Francis and we couldn''t persuade anybody to come to Norfolk once we knew what funds were available. The Morrison deal at least showed an attempt to spend the money, even if it surprised a few people.
I posted at the time, that I was sure attempts were being made to sign players, we just don''t have the info on whom all the players were that we were after. It is a sign of NCFC''s business integrity that we don''t ''go public'' unless a deal is agreed, or the other club leaks it (like with Morrison). Neil Doncaster said (and I believe this board of directors) that they had several transfer targets where the other club, or player, couldn''t be persuaded to do a deal. I don''t think you can point the finger at them over the ''profit'' they made.

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[quote]" Is that an explanation MadDan? " A long ramble about what you don''t like but nothing in the way of an explanation. It would also help if others would reply to what I post rather than making up so...[/quote]

My sincerest of apologies MadDan. Unfortunately, my "Worzel Gummidge" rambling head was attached onto my broad shoulders at that moment in time, and I had too many glasses of sugarbeet gin, (and I was also reading Ian Fleming''s "Thunderball").

I will take note of your fair criticism, and try and fathom out what the hell I was talking about. ;~)

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ZLF - interesting points effectively saying why dont the NCFC board have performance related contracts with Worthy.

There was an interesting column in the Guardian I think last week, with Simon Jordan (Palace Chairman though I''m sure you know!) bemoaning the fact that because no other clubs follow standard business practice such as performance related contracts, he couldn''t entice a manager to the club and enforce such targets. Why would a manager sign up for them at Palace, when he could go elsewhere and not suffer the consequences of such clauses? He wanted to structure the contract around position at Christmas and end of season, with poor performance based on league position resulting in contract termination.

So if NCFC don''t have such contract clauses, which seems likely, no other club do either.

Football may be run more ''as a business'' these days, but only in so far as profit/loss needs to be taken into account. Few other business best practices are ever seen.

Charlie''s Dad - You might have a point, certainly the Jonson deal seems to have more to do with finances than football (surely a step down in League would have enabled Jonson to shine). However, I believe that Worthy just couldn''t spend the money although I''m sure he tried hard. However much we love Norfolk, it won''t appeal to many especially the young types with loads of spare cash - they will prefer the big cities. Its also a pain to get in and out of by car. If I was a young man I wouldn''t want to move to Norwich, I would prefer London.

I think the board have done a fantastic job for our club. Its not their fault if the funds they made available weren''t utilised. The board are responsible to the shareholders so not immune, but surely people aren''t thinking of trying to vote them out? That WOULD be madness.

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"The board are responsible to the shareholders so not immune, but surely people aren''t thinking of trying to vote them out? That WOULD be madness."

Just a point Putney, the majority shareholders, and effective owners of the Club, are Delia and Michael who are also directors, so it could be argued that the usual safeguard of accountability by a board to the shareholders doesn''t come into play at Carrow Road.

Consequently what happens at Carrow Road comes down to what these two want. If they have been led to believe that we cannot realistically expect to be any more that an upper echelon Championship side then they will not "spend" the money in any event to get rid of Worthington. If on the other hand they believe that we could be a Premiership side then they will eventually have to face up to whether to sack W and suffer the financial consequences for the possible betterment that such an action could bring - not a straight forward business decision as it can only be based on supposition.

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