Ladies and gentlemen of the jury....

[Dionysus 0]

I would like to summarise the evidence presented to you in support of the dismissal of Nigel Worthington.

The team are severely underachieving in the league. Tactics are generally quite negative and some players do not appear to be motivated. Even in the promotion-winning season the team frequently sat back and defended a lead. Unfortunately, this season they do not often get into the lead and, when they do, the defence is not as strong and well-organised as in those days. Norwich seems to be losing its tradition as a passing club. Substitutions are generally not used effectively and set pieces are appalling. Certain players are persisted with despite a prolonged lack of performance.

Signings made over the past 18 months have, on the whole, been disappointing. Players bought in have either been bought too late, bought for the wrong positions or simply not been good enough. Considerable effort was made in the summer to obtain a particular midfielder and good money was paid for him despite sources from within his ex-club declaring that he would not meet the standards required at Norwich City. The good signings that have been made appear to have become worse players since their time at Norwich City.

The squad is small, unbalanced and contains limited skill. For this reason, players often need to be played out of their favourable position. Experience is preferred to youth in virutally all circumstances. The club''s Academy does not appear to be churning out young talent at the rate that supporters were lead to believe from all the hype at the time of its creation.

Virtually the same speech is given after every poor performance. Nothing appears to be done about the "situation" at the club to make "where we''re at" into where we want to be.

The prosecution rests its case. Over to the defence.... 

 

[Saint Canary 0]

I am far from being the defence, everyone on this forum knows my views on Worthington and that he should leave but I think some of that critisism is unfair.

Transfers are not as bad as people would have us all beleive.  I recall that before the season started I and a few others questioned the quality if the signings but we were told that this squad was better than the one that we had in the Premier League???  The majority of posters on this board were happy with the signings.  For me I would have been happy with all the summer signings had they been sqaud players.

As for the signings in the Premier, they were all the right players, they were merely not deployed enough or used in the wrong way.  Be honest, who amongst us was not excited when we signed Helveg, Jonson and Bentley.  They were good signings!  Lets not confuse Worthington not utilising players to their full potential with him being bad in the transfer market. 

Another point I want to contend is about that of the academy.  Do we really expect the academy to be "churning" out young talent all the the time?  If we do then we are all letting ourselves in for a huge disappointment and it''s not fair that you use that as being a reason Worthy should go.  Worthington does not train the youngsters and it''s not his fault if young potential does not mature, all he can do is make sure that if it does he makes best use of it.  You can''t make a silk purse out of a cows ear as they say.

I think Worthington should go but not fabricated reasons.