F.A.O The Board or anyone else

[mat gore 0]

to do with ncfc who reads these pages.

Sort it out.  This is a total fiasco.

It looks like we''ve already blown our best chance to get promoted back to the premier league.  Fans now seem to be split between the optimistic we can probably still make the playoffs camp and those worrying about whether we''re really too good to go down again.  At a time when we''re 2nd bottom despite most of our games being at home NOTHING is done to either lift morale or sort out the gaping absence of a midfield.

There is no excuse for this.  Everyone I know with 0 exceptions agrees that Nigel Worthington made an utter pig''s breakfast of last season.  ( The awful summer signings, the disposal of malky with no replacement, the lack of a midfield, the holt, doherty, edworthy selections only changed once he thought we were already down etc etc ).  Since he was the man to get us there most people felt he deserved a second chance.

It was clear as day that our midfield was our weakspot and that Damian Francis was on his wayout to make matters worse.  The only proper midfielder we have who was at the club last seaason is Youssef Safri.  We have as many goalkeepers in the squad as midfielders and started the season with an aging left back in centre midfield.  Given this the obvious answer was to try and spend 2million pounds on a mediocre premiership substitute striker.

At the start of the season we would have been a very attractive proposition to any championship player not so now.  The boat should have been pushed out to get us back up with a squad that would be the nucleus of our side when we were in the prem.  Sidwell,  Michael Brown, Michael Tonge, Robert Earnshaw even Koumas.  Youngsters like Greg Halford.  If we could afford 2 million on morrisson we could have gotr at least 2 of the above.

Why has nothing been done until now ?  We are in very serious danger of becoming a crisis club.  The good will between fans, players, management and the board so evident at the Fulham fiasco already seems to be gone.

I seriously hope that Worthy has some very exciting loan signings in the offing (and I don''t mean Ian Pearce) as this place badly badly needs a lift.  I''m not yet fully in the Worthy out brigade but I''m pretty close and I''m sad to say that unless things pick up dramatically and fast his poistion will be untenable (as I mentioned its not just the 6 games this season its also the whole of last season that has people questioning him).

The arrival of Huckerby, Crouch and Harper galvanised our season 2 years ago and gave us such a lift I fear the lack of a signing this year has had the opposite effect which even Deano''s new contract couldn''t paper over (and he''ll be off in January anyway unless we do MUCH MUCH better than this).

Please Please sort it out.

[MadDan 0]

Thank god someone has given the board some direction. I''m sure they''ve been sat there puzzling as to what action they should take.

" Sort it out "

" Yes that''s it, sort it out. Suprised we haven''t thought of that before "

Perhaps this could be the catalyst to spark a return to winning ways

[Salopian 1]

Something has to be done to make the defence watertight. This is not a new problem. Last season in many cases because of the leak at the back, our strikers were asked to score two or three goals against the best defences in England, in order to gain a win or even a draw. This seems to have carried on this season, and unforunately Mckenzie seems to have lost the plot.

The other problem was a midfield which at times went absent last year. The 6-0 defeat to a lowly lying team at the end when we needed to win for survival, when Francis and Co didn''t turn up, was the epitome! But it was not the only example.

Little has been done to redress the situation over the summer. We have lost Francis, who could be an inspiration when he tried, and have gained some fairly ordinary midfielders in return, as evidenced by the fact that the central midfield is now in charge of Safri, who can be injured, celebrate Rhamadan, and be missing during his country''s world cup games, and Marney, a young Spur''s reserve who was thought to be a winger!

Right back may be stronger, but Fleming has not been replaced and seems to be struggling as this level as he did at the higher level. There is evidence that the Manager tried to obtain a loan central defender, and if so has belatedly seen the problem that was evident to most of us last season.

On the basis of problems which were apparent to most of us last season, and which do not seem to have been addressed in a significant way, is it little wonder that many are worried about the future?

[ronbol ronbol 0]

[quote]Something has to be done to make the defence watertight. This is not a new problem. Last season in many cases because of the leak at the back, our strikers were asked to score two or three goals again...[/quote]

other than chelsea, arsenal, man u every other team in the country is looking for that solution......nice one.................

[Berks canary 2]

Matt , you are spot on with everrything you say . Unfortunately , i fear that the NCFC board have their heads buried deep in the sand and alas we are heading for Division 1 .

[Dicky 0]

[quote]Thank god someone has given the board some direction. I''m sure they''ve been sat there puzzling as to what action they should take. " Sort it out " " Yes that''s it, sort it out. Suprised we haven''t t...[/quote]

Like your style Mad Dan.

[Trevor Chilver 0]

I agree totally with every word and that of Berks canary. Worthy and the board have been negligent to the extreme and yes we are heading for the third division as it really is!

[jimbo 0]

That first post was one of the best that i have read in a long time.

It is so true that the transfer dealings this summer have been handled very badly. Thanks to our much highlighted prudence whilse in the Premiership we had an excellent opportunity this close season upon which to build a squad capable of launching a successful promotion challenge and also a squad with a decent nucleus that could hopefully compete in the Premiership. This nucleus when combined with the quality signings that we would be able to make due to Worthies hopefully generous transfer kitty coupled also with Ashtons goals would mean we would have a very good chance of staying up and becoming an established Premiership team.

But, alas the transfer in''s and out''s this summer are looking very suspect and even if we were able to win back promotion to the Premiership many of the new look squad would need replacing. THIS IS NOT FOLLOWING THE CHARLTON ROLE MODEL. IN FOLLOWING THE CHARLTON MODEL YOU SHOULD, ONCE YOU ARE RELEGATED, ADD BETTER PLAYERS TO YOUR SQUAD SO THAT YOU STAND A VERY GOOD CHANCE OF WINNING PROMOTION BACK TO THE PREMIERSHIP AND OF HOLDING YOUR OWN AND SURVIVING WHEN YOU RETURN TO THE PREMIERSHIP.

 I fear we have messed up and the failure to add the necessary quality and numbers to the squad this summer could have catatrosphic, long term implications for the clubs supposed ambition of becoming an established premiership club.

[starman 0]

mat,i have to agree with you mate.i couldnt believe we spent so much effort to finally grasp the holy grail of the premiership only to roll over and die once we were there.the signings made were on the whole a joke with worthy and the club taking a "well,were going straight back down" attitude.i didnt want us to bankrupt the club,just to have shown a little more ambition and belief that we deserved to be there.by the time we realised we could beat the likes of man u etc it was too late.he then kept faith with the same leaky defence that conceded so many.every championship team contains some quality players these days and teams are not the pushover they once might have been.