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Andy OTBC

For the Worthington supporters

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Personally, I do not understand how anyone could think that Worthington is a good manager but I would love to understand. Are Worthy supporters happy with the way the team is run and the performances, or are they unhappy but still want to keep the manager?

 

Therefore, without just saying I am fickle, disloyal or have a short memory, could you please answer the following questions and maybe give some specific qualities that you think makes Worthington a good manager.

 

1. Do you think that the managers signings this season have been successful?

 

2. Are you happy with the fact that we still have no right midfielder at the club?

 

3. Are you happy for Norwich City, a club associated with playing nice football, to continue playing route one, long ball football in the majority of games?

 

4. Do you think that Ashton is being used effectively by just sending the ball long and rarely giving him the ball at his feet (he is not Iwan Roberts), given that he scored more goals for Crewe, a side who are worse than us but who do play football on the ground?

 

5. In the premiership, were you happy with his team selection? e.g Holt over Safri (anyone who mentions injuries - Safri was on the bench for 2 months before he finally replaced Holt) or Doherty being picked as a striker(!) ahead of McKenzie.

 

6. What would be an acceptable final league position this season?

 

7. Will you still think that Worthington is the right manager for us if we finish mid-table for the next 5 years?

 

 

These questions are a few examples to illustrate the points why I think he is not a good manager. The Worthy outers are sometimes dismissed as abusive and irrational, but I don''t think there is anything of that kind in this post so I am hoping for some honest answers to these questions please.

 

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Andy, I will be very interested in proper reasoned answers to your post and all your questions, this is very good post and I can''t wait to see the answers.

 

Worthy, we need midfielders, we need a right winger and we need to start playing proper football again.   Route one to Deano or giving it to Hux with 4 men to beat is not the way to score goals.

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I''m not really a Worthington supporter or Worthy outer, just a fan of NCFC and I think you make some good points so I won''t attempt answer all your questions. I just think its worth remembering that Safri was dropped after an absolutely awful performance at Anfield and that this was a pretty unanimous position (on message boards and from people in the crowd around me). He was totally at fault for their second (I think) goal and from then on it took a couple of months before he was included in the team again and the rest as they say is history. Not simply trying to stick up for Worthington, but from what I remember the decision to drop him after this game did not seem as crazy at the time as it does in retrospect. 

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Question for you- are you not happy that we''ve won 5 of the last 6, and that our performances (Preston and 90% of the Leicester game excluded) have improved?

Our manager has been nominated for Championship manger of the month, and I personally think he should win.

I wouldn''t say his all signings have been successful, but lets judge them all when fit and playing together in a confident team shall we?

After the Derby game (our darkest hour) if I''d have offered you 5 wins over Xmas, including a demonant performance at Brammall Lane, you''d have all thought of me as crazy- but be honest you''d have snapped my hand off!

We have turned the corner, now we are going to put our foot on the gas and accelerate up the league!

On the ball City!!!!

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1. not succesfull but how can they be with so many injurys and the team changing each week.

2.imn not happy but if there is no players out there, then how can you bring in someone.

3. i dont think we play route one all through the game we have played some good football on the ground in the last 3-4 games.but if you find it hard to get pass the midfield then yes you are going to go route one not matter who you are.

4. when the ball is played to ashton 9 times out of ten he is gone wide and that leaves just mcveigh in the middle so does ashton do the right thing by going wide.

5.  safri didnt help by the poor performance against liverpool .and mckenzie was not up to the premership and the other option was docherty.

6.i would accept the play offs ,i have said from the beginning of the season it will be a struggle but we will finish in the play offs and go back up.

7. how can you say we are going to stay mid table for the next five years when worthy became manager did you think we would be playing in the premiership.

just a few questions for you.

1. who would you bring in as the next manager .

2. how can worthy buy players if there is no money

3.why did ashton sign  another contact if he is going to leave for a prem club.

4. would you rather go back how the club was run ie  mr.chase.

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[quote user="Andrew Kent"]

Question for you- are you not happy that we''ve won 5 of the last 6, and that our performances (Preston and 90% of the Leicester game excluded) have improved?

Our manager has been nominated for Championship manger of the month, and I personally think he should win.

I wouldn''t say his all signings have been successful, but lets judge them all when fit and playing together in a confident team shall we?

After the Derby game (our darkest hour) if I''d have offered you 5 wins over Xmas, including a demonant performance at Brammall Lane, you''d have all thought of me as crazy- but be honest you''d have snapped my hand off!

We have turned the corner, now we are going to put our foot on the gas and accelerate up the league!

On the ball City!!!!

[/quote]

what is all this about a dominant performance at brammell land???  do you not get it - all 3 goals came on the break away - yes it was a decent performance but FAR FAR FAR from being dominant.

I notice not one KTFer can give an answer to ANY of the above points - I can give an answer to all of them

POOR MANAGEMENT and POOR DECISIONS

MID TABLE MEDIOCRATY NOW AVAILABLE AT CARROW ROAD

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Very good point Andrew. With relation to the original post, here are my answers from someone who thinks Worthy should stay.

1. I don''t think any of the permanent signings are above average. Marney looked a good loan signing before he was injured, and Davenport played well.

2. Marney played there before he got injured, and with time would have done well. I fully hope Worthy gets in a right Midfielder before the end of the month.

3. I don''t think the jekyll and hyde style is down to Worthy. I''m sure he doesn''t say "look lads, we played superb against Southampton, lets revert to the long ball.

4. I think Ashton has done alright in the air personally. At Crewe he was basically a goal hanger. His all-round game is being improved being at Norwich.

5. Doherty played about two games up-front, when McKenzie wasn''t scoring. Doherty plays upfront for Eire. What exactly was wrong with playing him there? Holt did a job for us in the fizzy league, and deserved a chance. I agree Worthy was too long in replacing him. Overall, based on the resources he had, I thought team selection was ok.

6. Playoffs, anything below 6th is unacceptable.

7. Bit of a silly question, so not going to bother to answer

8. Andy Gray? Crap, buts its mindless speculation. Already you are blaming Worthy for a signing he hasn''t even signed!!

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1. who would you bring in as the next manager - the problem so we wait till the summer and see how we do hoping he hasnt signed anymore donkeys

2. how can worthy buy players if there is no money - there may well be a large amount coming. also 1.5 million has been wasted on 3 below average players already

3.why did ashton sign  another contact if he is going to leave for a prem club. - we offered him one with more money on it I would sign it.

4. would you rather go back how the club was run ie  mr.chase. - nope but i wouldnt mind some of the managers we used to have and give them the cash worthy has spent

 

also your point 5) 5.  safri didnt help by the poor performance against liverpool (at anfield!!!  in a shockinbg Diamond formation that we used when struggling against a second division side earlier in the week against) - The manager sees players every day. One poor game should not affect his judgement - how many poor games did holt play??? Safri''s classs is there we can all see it why couldnt he???

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To be honest, i don''t think the siginings have been successful, otherwise we would be near the top of the league! However, who can tell if a signing is going to be a success or not?  Last season when we signed Helveg, Jonsson and Bentley i thought these would be great signings but all didn''t work out.  I think its hard to determine if a player has been successful or not and too early to judge on his recent signings. Certainly people thought Davenport was a success. Surely you should judge a managers signings over the course of the reign and on that basis its about a 70/30 success rate. Even the most successful manager is going to pick naff players -  even Alex Ferguson has signed players of the calibre(!) of Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson.

Last season Noriwch got praised in many sections of the media for playing attractive passing football and look where it got us. Surely you have to adapt your game for the division and teams that you are up against.  Unfortunately this sometimes means you have to play direct football.  I don''t think that injuries to players such as Safri and Marney and that their replacements do not have the same passing vision and technique.  In addition i thought that Marney was bought to the club to be a right winger.

Yes Worthingtons team selections and tactics have been a bit dodgy and he is loyal to certain players, however isn''t this the case for most managers?  Doherty actually played as a striker for Spurs and Ireland and had more Premiership experience than McKenzie.  If you remember it was difficult for McKenzie to get into the side in the Championship so why should Worthy have him as his main striker in the  Premiership?

I am a Worthy supporter but even i can see that unless he gets into the play offs this season then he will have to go as he has taken us as far as possible.  The last question is irrelevant anyway because even the board would sack Worthy if we finished mid-table after two years let alone 5.

Even the most hard core Worthington fan can see that the performances this season have not been up to scratch but i feel he should be given at least the season to get us back into the Premiership.  In addition the board are not going to sack him at the current time and in my opinion there is no adequate replacement anyway.

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In fairness Paul, he has received as many valid answers as Amarillo did for his post yesterday in defence of Worthington and the team he has built, seems like a draw? [;)]

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worthy has his hands tied by the prudence with ambition policy.  However, our tiny squad eats up income generated by successful outside business activities such as catering & conference revenues, sponsorships, 25,000 gate receipts, and the parachute payment. and we have a relatively small debt to manage.  in short, some of the squad are on a very good screw each week. for this amount of dosh, they have served up dross.for me, the alarm bells were ringing after our coventry performance on the opening day of the season, they were woeful, yet managed a draw.just like crystal palace, this set the tone for the opening period of the season.  The board has made funds available, and with dicko & robbo, he''s made sound purchases - make no mistake.

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[quote user="Andy OTBC"]

Personally, I do not understand how anyone could think that Worthington is a good manager but I would love to understand. Are Worthy supporters happy with the way the team is run and the performances, or are they unhappy but still want to keep the manager?

 

Therefore, without just saying I am fickle, disloyal or have a short memory, could you please answer the following questions and maybe give some specific qualities that you think makes Worthington a good manager.

 

1. Do you think that the managers signings this season have been successful?

 

2. Are you happy with the fact that we still have no right midfielder at the club?

 

3. Are you happy for Norwich City, a club associated with playing nice football, to continue playing route one, long ball football in the majority of games?

 

4. Do you think that Ashton is being used effectively by just sending the ball long and rarely giving him the ball at his feet (he is not Iwan Roberts), given that he scored more goals for Crewe, a side who are worse than us but who do play football on the ground?

 

5. In the premiership, were you happy with his team selection? e.g Holt over Safri (anyone who mentions injuries - Safri was on the bench for 2 months before he finally replaced Holt) or Doherty being picked as a striker(!) ahead of McKenzie.

 

6. What would be an acceptable final league position this season?

 

7. Will you still think that Worthington is the right manager for us if we finish mid-table for the next 5 years?

 [/quote]

 

Good job you don''t decide who is manager of the month then. Or indeed who is manager of our club. To answer your questions:

 

1. This seasons signings have largely not been successful.

2. I would love to see a good right-sided player come to the club.

3. I disagree that we play mostly route one football. I think the players play as much good football as they are capable of. How many good footballing sides have you seen at CR this season? I though the general view was that most had been pretty poor, with Preston the best so far...

4. Many of Ashton''s goals have gome from crosses. Do these count as ''in the air'' or ''on the ground''?

5. I was happy that a fit Holt was picked ahead of an injured Safri. Doherty played as a striker for Spurs as I recall, or Eire, one of the two. Did everything work out in the Prem? Clearly not. Do these few little things make the difference between staying up and going down? Probably not. Is it worth raking over these old coals AGAIN? Definately not.

6. Define ''acceptable''. It rather depends on how big a picture you look at. Given the number of clubs that have come out of the Prem and then fallen apart (i.e. most), anything better than that is doing quite well. There is always the hope that we will finish in the top 6, but I have no expectations. Anyone who has expectations in relation to sport isn''t taking into account basic sports psychology.

7. No. We have the resources, and as much chance as anyone in this division to get promotion. But this is sport, not simply business. We are not just shareholders calling for the CEO to be sacked because the share price has taken a tumble.

 

Anyway, this is all avoiding the real question you are asking: should Worthy go. The corollary to this has to be ''who could do better?''. Seriously, from this point forwards, who has the greater chance of getting us promoted...? Worthy or some other (failed elsewhere) manager? And next season? Going on track record, it''s still Worthy. I''d give him until the end of next season because even if a new manager comes in he would then have to rebuild the squad. And that takes time (even for someone like Harry).

 

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FAO Amarillo.

So who could do better? Anyone. There is not one manager in this league who I wouldn''t rather have than Worthington, apart from maybe Craig Levein. And Joe Royle, although he is a better manager.

You could be right in saying "who could do better in getting us to the playoffs?", but that is because our squad is so poor now and this is down to the terrible purchases that have been made and the players that have wrongly been released. Unfortunately, it has been left so long that a new manager would need time to assess the squad and completely rebuild it.

You are also right that a majority of Ashton''s goals have come from crosses. So just think how many he would have scored if we provided him with that kind of service every week. Why did we hoof the ball up to Ashton for 90 mins against Preston and Sheff U and Leicester and Derby etc.?

You are also right that a lot of clubs have fallen out of the Prem and have not gone straight back up. But most have been left with huge debts and many have fallen into administration. We are not one of these clubs and credit must go to the board for this.

We were supposed to be following the Charlton model which means bouncing back at the first attempt. This could still happen via the playoffs but if it doesn''t, the Charlton model will have failed. Nigel Worthington will then have failed to meet his target and should leave the football club. My hope is that it will happen a lot sooner than that.

Worthy Out!

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Amarillo wrote: "I''d give him until the end of next season because even if a new manager comes in he would then have to rebuild the squad. And that takes time (even for someone like Harry).

So, if I follow your logic through to its conclusion Amarillo, if Worthy is given until the end of NEXT ( 2006-07 )season and no improvement for Norwich City materialises, then it will take a new manager yet ANOTHER full season ( 2007-08 ) to clean up the mess. Let''s see....that means it''s 2008-2009 season before we start to show real promise again. Perhaps, by then, we will have one or two players that could even have potential for the 2010 World Cup. Or perhaps we are being to ambitious....let''s put that off until 2014.

You will have to excuse or ( ignore ) the sarcasm Amarillo but your logic would have delayed D-Day until such time that Hitler got his shorts untwisted and new technology bombs in place. In other words, not a good idea when the risks are already known and in place for all to see.  

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1. This seasons signings have largely not been successful, but have also been largely below average - who scouted these players - I doubt some were even watched.

2. I would love to see worthy look to sign a right-sided player.

3. we have played fairly poorly all season with only Safri and Robinson capable of keepiing the play on the floor from central midfield

4. Worthy plays ashton as a target man.  It has been discussed to death on here.

5. Worthy has played 3 players injured this season - Robinson Ashton and Safri - all to poor effect amarillo and yes he made some poor choices in the prem.

6. Top 6.  the teams have crashed because they have HAD to sell lots of their players and the squad had changed.  we had the chance to keep the squad together bar Bently, Helveg and Francis

7. No just look down the road - take away the good players replace with below average players and see what happens.

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Cheers for the responses. In answer to some specific points.

Safri was dropped after the Liverpool game. Fair enough. But he was not the only player who played badly that day because it was a truly awful performance by most of the players. However, the point is that Holt had loads of bad perfomances after that game and Safri was not brought back in. He was injured for some of the time but, as I said, he was on the bench for 2 months before he was finally swapped for Holt. We then had a dramatic improvement in form. Whether this was down to Safri or not (I believe it was), it certainly didn''t do any harm. Does anyone really think that Holt is a better player than Safri, given that Holt was then released and is now not in the team of a league one side and Safri is by far our best midfielder?

Doherty was up front for more like 8 games (not 2) where he was pretty ineffective and he publically admitted that he didn''t want to be there. McKenzie had not started a game in the premiership so of course he was not scoring goals, despite scoring 9 in 11 starts in the previous season.

The manager of the month is decided on results and it is not surprising that he got it this month with 5 wins out of 6. The question is would anyone give him ''manager of the first half of the season''? One month of decent results does not make up for the first half of the season.

In regard to who I would replace him with. Anyone who would get the team passing the ball and who values talent over hard work. Kevin Keegan is an example but generally I don''t think we could do much worse. There are managers at lower league clubs who would surely jump at the chance of managing a club with our resources - pick a manager whose team is doing well (e.g Doncaster, Carlisle) and see what they are like. Don''t forget that before he was manager here, he was a rubbish manager at a lower league club (Blackpool), was hated by the fans (who through stuff at him from the stands) and got Blackpool relegated. I am not saying that finding a new manager is easy or that it guarantees an improvement but, in my opinion, his management couldn''t be much worse.

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Doherty was up front for 5 games, scoring on his debut at Newcastle. He followed that up with starts up front against; Arsenal, Spurs, Villa and Liverpool, in the premiership

 Worthy prefers a little and large combo up front, and with Svenny injured, Doherty was the right man to partner Hucks, given that Hucks and Leon do not perform together.

 

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[quote user="Andy OTBC"]

Cheers for the responses. In answer to some specific points.

Safri was dropped after the Liverpool game. Fair enough. But he was not the only player who played badly that day because it was a truly awful performance by most of the players. However, the point is that Holt had loads of bad perfomances after that game and Safri was not brought back in. He was injured for some of the time but, as I said, he was on the bench for 2 months before he was finally swapped for Holt. We then had a dramatic improvement in form. Whether this was down to Safri or not (I believe it was), it certainly didn''t do any harm. Does anyone really think that Holt is a better player than Safri, given that Holt was then released and is now not in the team of a league one side and Safri is by far our best midfielder?

Doherty was up front for more like 8 games (not 2) where he was pretty ineffective and he publically admitted that he didn''t want to be there. McKenzie had not started a game in the premiership so of course he was not scoring goals, despite scoring 9 in 11 starts in the previous season.

The manager of the month is decided on results and it is not surprising that he got it this month with 5 wins out of 6. The question is would anyone give him ''manager of the first half of the season''? One month of decent results does not make up for the first half of the season.

In regard to who I would replace him with. Anyone who would get the team passing the ball and who values talent over hard work. Kevin Keegan is an example but generally I don''t think we could do much worse. There are managers at lower league clubs who would surely jump at the chance of managing a club with our resources - pick a manager whose team is doing well (e.g Doncaster, Carlisle) and see what they are like. Don''t forget that before he was manager here, he was a rubbish manager at a lower league club (Blackpool), was hated by the fans (who through stuff at him from the stands) and got Blackpool relegated. I am not saying that finding a new manager is easy or that it guarantees an improvement but, in my opinion, his management couldn''t be much worse.

[/quote]

Your questions  have been answered in the main Andy , take your pick !   I`m mainly  a  " KTFer "   , why ? well , concentrating on this season only  , we do still have a chance of the play-offs  with Nigel  , the 5 wins on a trot  was NOT accidental , it was mainly due to certain players  actually getting down to the task !  Safri making a " miraculous "recovery from his groin injury just in time to make the African games  ..... McVeigh   actually  putting himself about on a " consistant "  basis  , possibly because  he`s on the last legs of his contract ?   do you see where I`m going ?

If Nigel were to be sacked now  , who the heck would we get ? name some  half decent managers that would  come here  [ for Gods sake NOT Keegan !!!! ]     ,  IF a manager could be persuaded to come here  you can bet your arse he would be bringing in his own cronies , and demanding  cash upfront for new players ....  kiss goodbye  to ANY chance of the play-offs  this season !   Nigel will walk away with  compensation  to cover whats left of his contract , so thats goodbye to any cash available  for the new manager ..........

Despite much derision from the Worthy outers   Nigel DID get the manager of the month for the five straght wins  , during which we had on display  some very classy football !   this was NO accident !   

 

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1. Do you think that the managers signings this season have been successful?

Firstly would you rate them all as a failure then? I would say that Hughes has proved to be good at what he has been brought in for. He seems to be at least as good as Holt was and looks a little better distribution wise. Perhaps his price seems expensive when you think Holt only cost us £100k.

Colins has looked solid enough when I have seen him play - however it does seem he is still settling into the English game. For the money we paid for him he is defenitely worth it - I would say not a success as such but a good signing.

Thorne was actually quite a shrewed signing - has scored a good ten goals or so a season when he has been involved and offers some experience for the games that could use them, just a shame that he missed his chance with injury. Brought in for nothing and won''t be on huge wages either - sound squad investment.

 

People have already started to get on Etuhu''s back but are quick to forget how Worthington turned Francis into a decent enough player for the prem.

2. Are you happy with the fact that we still have no right midfielder at the club?

No but then how many good players are there out there in that position that we could sign? At least Worthington tried to address that situation at the beggining of the season by bringing in Marney. A lot of teams are struggling for decent wingers it seems at the moment. Wouldn''t mind giving Spillane a chance if he can play there. Kommons at Nott Forrest is the only player I can think of that may be worth a shot but then there are a lot of other clubs in the same position saying the same thing about him.

3. Are you happy for Norwich City, a club associated with playing nice football, to continue playing route one, long ball football in the majority of games?

How many teams in the Championship can you safely say play "nice football"? Reading - ok maybe they do but look at Sheffield Utd - we didn''t beat them playing "nice football" and they certainly didn''t try to beat us playing "nice football". Infact the Sheffield Utd victory was down to clever tactics. We may not have dominated the possession but then who cares about that if they do nothing with it! Its just about keeping the ball its about how you contain the opposition when they have it too. Sure it would have been lovely for us to win by making them chase shadows but they are a good team and it was never likely to happen!

4. Do you think that Ashton is being used effectively by just sending the ball long and rarely giving him the ball at his feet (he is not Iwan Roberts), given that he scored more goals for Crewe, a side who are worse than us but who do play football on the ground?

You tell me which other striker we have at the club that is a great target man. Sure its easier to pump the ball up the park like that to him, and in recent times it reflects the desperation of the team to try and get something together. I think in a way its great respect to Ashton if the team feel they can play any sort of ball to him and he can do something with it.

5. In the premiership, were you happy with his team selection? e.g Holt over Safri (anyone who mentions injuries - Safri was on the bench for 2 months before he finally replaced Holt) or Doherty being picked as a striker(!) ahead of McKenzie.

He wasn''t on the bench for two months before being played - please do prove me wrong with actual stats if I am. I would say that at that point in time Worthington was sticking or at least trying to stick with a team that new eachother as they had played with each other for at least a season. Safri seemed to be rested over the period of fasting and also was recovering from an injury for a while. However I think you will find that Mulryne and Helveg played a couple of games in the middle as well.

6. What would be an acceptable final league position this season?

I think too many people underestimated this league when we were relegated - I would favour a team that was there or there abouts over a newly relegated team any day simply because most of the players have played in the league for at least a season and know what is needed of them - as with Norwich some of the players seemed to have forgotten or were suffering from a lack of confidence or like Colins had not played in the league before.

I said at the beggining of the season that I hoped for an automatic spot although the play-offs were acceptable. The league was for the taking but not just for us - for any team that could put together a good run at the beggining of the season - thats what it takes in this league - consistancy.

Norwich have struggled to find consistancy and that is not the managers fault - he needs players to play well week in and week out and also enough of them to actualy pick a team from.

7. Will you still think that Worthington is the right manager for us if we finish mid-table for the next 5 years?

No, but then I wouldn''t accept any manager getting us back into that position. This is not exactly a stupid question but perhaps one that could have been better. If we finnish the season outside of the play-offs by three points or less I think it would be difficult to find fault as it has been an incredibly close season so far 3rd place is still catcheable by the next 7 teams!

I don''t like to look back on things like the chase era. Would O''Neil have done better with the money Worthington had? Back then almost defenitely because it would have bought him more. Now - also a possibility but he is not available so stop dreaming. Retrospective questions like that are a complete waste of time - like the way people say we are nothing on the Milk Cup winning team.

It was a different era then. If O''Neill hadn''t had come to Norwich he wouldn''t have stood up to Chase. O''Neill was the final blow for the Chase era and his departure effectively got rid of Chase. That I respect and always will do - I still believe that something very illegal must have happened between the time we finnished 3rd and relegation. Think of all the money that the club must have generated in that time due to gates, reward money for position in the table, europe when europe still meant something, the money raised from selling off all of our class players like Sutton for £5 million.

Thats why I don''t look back. The ten years between relegation and promotion were filled by ifs and maybes. Worthington came to the club at a time and situation no better than any of the others really. He knew he was on a tight budget and spent little to begin with. How many managers knew the limitations of the club and yet still worked the bargins hard? I think only Rioch really touched on being able to put together a good squad cheaply.

I think the amount of money he has been given to spend has been reflected in the results and league standings that he has been able to get the club into. We have had the most consistancy under Worthington. I think we are yet to have a season where we finnish bellow 12th spot in the champ/leag 1 with him when many years prior to that we were flirting with relegation for long periods of times.

His consistancy has meant that the board have had more confidence in him - should that be a surprise. Even if we fail to get the play-offs I think we will come back stronger next year. It just depends on how high you had set your standards before the season and whether those standards were realistic.

Whether you like it or not after last season rebuilding the squad was a must and I think it is only half done. We had too many players the wrong side of thirty and I think the lack of pace really showed especially at right back  where Eddy (great player) and Helveg lacked in the pace to keep up with most of the nippy wide players. Holt too looked tired and slow in some matches.

I say look up and forward not down and backwards.

Worthy to stay - defenitely even if it is just for now.

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1. you forget chicken

Hughes was a target for the boo boys at reading - and is now at norwich... and he cost half a million quid

Colins didnt cross the halfway line in his first 15 matches and is decidedly average - certainly no where near as good as Edworthy - may come good however

Thorne - no better than svensson

People have already started to get on Etuhu''s back BECAUSE he was a lazy sod during his loan spell - nuff said i think.

He was booed by the preston fans twice during the match- the number of times he touched the ball monday!!!

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I am now going to take the role of Devil''s Advocate in answering these queries :

1. Largely yes , Jarrett has struggled with injuries so we haven''t seen much of him but is doing well at Plymouth and could feature more heavily this season, Jurgen Colin is an excellent player and has settled into Championship football well , Davenport has also been a good loan signing perhaps Hughes and Etuhu need more time to settle .

2. We do ! Ian Henderson, Jim Brennan , Darren Huckerby has been known to play there and could certainly do a job but I agree we need to sign an out an out one during this month

3.I disagree with this statement completley, I think it has been a lack of route one football that has perhaps cost us points this season , I think Norwich play a really nice brand of football for this division when they aren''t knackered from fixture build up.

4. Ashton is currently one of the division''s top scorers and the vast majority of his goals have come from being scored on the ground , I think Ashton''s lack of goals lately has come because he sits too deep in an attempt to drag out those players who are man marking him

5. Worthers selection is at times bizzare , the whole city has been calling for a defence with Jason Shackell and a midfield with Rossi Jarvis but he seems to have his own perverse ideas about selection

6. In regard to those clubs that have been relegated in the past I think a playoff place is the minimum target, perhaps going up as champions is a little ambitious when all the players have to get used to the leauge again

7. no.

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Paul,

You will not let it lie about how Worthington has signed  a ''lazy player'' like Etuhu (who may yet have the technical ability to come good), but at the same time you criticise Worthington constantly for favouring ''workhorses'' that work hard over those with ability. I agree with a lot of your points but this seems like a constant contradiction, which is it to be?

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Paul,

You will not let it lie about how Worthington has signed  a ''lazy player'' like Etuhu (who may yet have the technical ability to come good), but at the same time you criticise Worthington constantly for favouring ''workhorses'' that work hard over those with ability. I agree with a lot of your points but this seems like a constant contradiction, which is it to be?

 

I have nothing against a few workhorses being in the squad - I was more worried at the half a million pounds spent on the sort of player other teams were picking up for free.  And to be honest after 23 games I still do not feel him to be worth half a million pounds, and the center midfield certainly looks a lot better with the quieter but calm Robinson involved rather than hughes chasing around like a headless chicken.

As for Etuhu, what is it that he is good at??  you tell me?? All i have seen are quiet performances bar 1 good pass at leicester and a few chances missed at crewe - thats it... and he broke someones leg with possibly his first tackle for the club.  nothing else - in 6 starts and 2 subs.

If he is willing to fork out for Etuhu now why didnt he at least enquire about koumas pre season. Koumas is ten times the player of Etuhu - he can pass, he can shoot, he can take free kicks, he can run the midfield, he can beat a man.  Its no wonder Cardiff are probably willing to sell jerome in order to keep Koumas.

Etuhu is known to have confidence issues, attitude problems and it doesnt look like he works too hard neither having siad that I will be putting my full support behind him and hope he does well for us.  Im sure he will get a couple of goals at some point.

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Yeah,

Good answer, but I honestly think (Preston game aside, when the whole team was awful) that he has looked to provide support in attack, and getting in an around the box when he hasn''t been stuck on the wing which is something that I think we were severely lacking earlier in the season when Ashton was having to set up and try to take chances on his own. Yes, I also can''t understand why we aren''t even trying to get Koumas in, would love to have him in the squad, but I think that a midfield pairing of Safri and Etuhu could be very useful, particularly if we had someone to stretch play to the right. I simply don''t thing he has been anywhere near enough time to even attempt to settle in or for anyone to even see what he might be capable of and I really don''t think we should be so quick to judge him. Anyway, point taken but I will wait to see if he can prove himself. I think a central midfield from Safri, Robinson and Etuhu shows quite a lot of potential, main problem we have at the moment IMO is through injury and absence which, I will agree, is more to do with Worthington''s lack of planning. 

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