So much better than I could ever have put it! Read on .......

[Meeky 0]

State of the Nation Address ahead of tonight''s meeting (Long Post!)
Right, here are my thoughts ahead of tonight’s meeting. It have not offered much in the way of comment this season, but Barry Skipper’s remarks have prompted me to have a long hard look at what is going on at Norwich City right now.

There cannot be many Directors who have walked across the pitch to a standing ovation at the end of a season that has just seen their club relegated after one of the most abject displays in its history and a 6-0 drubbing. Yet so soon after this, fans who dare to offer an opinion that conflicts with their own are smeared by the Vice Chairman as not being of sound mind, told they are not true fans and that they are frightening families. They are made to feel ungrateful for the progress this club has made when in actual fact it is the exactly that progress that they are trying to protect. And by progress I mean so much more than results. I mean the club’s relationship with its fans, togetherness, season ticket sales, income, local profile and respect.

This Board and the manager have never liked criticism, but then they have never really had to take a lot. Lashing out is not the answer. They have had the most supportive set of football fans they can ever have wished to have had and a lot of that is of course down to the huge effort they have taken to consult with and get to know their supporters and for that they should get enormous credit. As should we. They should also get praise for getting this team out of Division One and into the Premiership, but that is when this Board and the management team it employed were found wanting. The fans were not. We crippled ourselves financially last season, supported the team when it was getting outplayed and outsung everyone in the Premiership.

But in the same way the plan for England’s victories in the Rugby World Cup and The Ashes in the cricket were geared around that hitting that objective and not what happened after it, once we got up to the Premiership, the management seemed not to have the foggiest idea what to do when they got there.

That is not to say that Nigel Worthington did not have every opportunity to keep us there. We signed a Swedish international forward, the Danish international captain, one of England’s most exciting prospects and we also bought a midfielder who is now respected as one of the best players this club has. But what did the manager do with these players? He played them out of position or not at all. And then in January the Board allowed him to buy another of the country’s most promising strikers but we still went down. And we are supposed to believe that it was all that nasty Damian’s fault.

Nigel Worthington should have done better with the resources he had available to him. His tactics at times were a disgrace. We were negative, un-ambitious and pessimistic. But is this his fault? What did the Board ask of him in his role as manager of “little Norwich” in their attempt to fend of all the big nasty clubs in the Premiership? Did they have any expectation other than going straight back down again? Was there a plan to stay up?

Remember, we did not win one game away from home all last season. We got dicked by the likes of Blackburn and Charlton away from home as well as Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. There were plenty of poor sides in the Premiership last season and I for one will never accept that we should not have stayed up. We had the opportunity, the manager had the players and purely and simply he did not get the best out of them.

The reason last season’s performance is so important is that we are told we must accept that Nigel should be given more time to turn it around.

Well I think he has had enough time. It started to go wrong when we went up. We developed a losing mentality and for those defeats against the likes of Blackburn and Charlton last season, read Luton, QPR, Crystal Palace, Stoke, Derby, Reading, Preston and others this season. This has been going on for 18 months. And after each game we are wearily told by the manager that the solution is just around the corner and that we’ve had two or three results like them so far this term. Well Nigel, we’ve had a dozen or more and that is just this season. I can only recall us playing as we should be on a couple of occasions.

The momentum we built up at the end of last season never continued to this. Why? Because we brought in so many distinctly average players and a whole load of useless journeymen loan signings. If the Board want him to take the credit for getting us up there then he has to take the blame for taking us down again and keeping us down. Either that or the Board have to take the blame for sanctioning this jumble sale.

We hear a lot about togetherness at this football club. That is gone. There is little togetherness on the field of play and while the Directors and management team seem as one, so do the majority of fans who want him out. And it is a majority. For every one who is prepared to be vocal about wanting Worthy out there are dozens more who are still loyal to the tremendous progress Delia and Michael have made and are fearful of rocking the boat despite admitting privately his time is up. That revered togetherness is probably the thing those fans who Barry Skipper was so keen to criticise are most concerned about.

So, my message to Delia and Michael would be this. You once said that nobody would have the control over the football club that Robert Chase once had. However, by default, you have developed this control and rightly so for you have done wonders for this club. Please ensure your fellow Directors make no further snide remarks about the fans who clearly care as much for this club as you do despite their opinions conflicting with your own. They care about your investment and the progress you have instigated being wasted. They know you do too.

They admire you for the conviction of your belief that Nigel is still the right man for the job, but there comes a time when you have to stop clinging to the hope that everything will be alright again and start facing the inevitable process of change. The fans were right about Hamilton, they were right about Gary Holt, they are right about Nigel’s tactics, playing players out of position, away form, lack of youth development and transfer policy and they will eventually be proved right about Nigel himself. It is time for plan B, if there is one.

Life has become too comfortable at Norwich City. The manager is under no pressure to change results. Fans are frightened to criticise for fear of being smeared by the sort of remarks Barry Skipper has just made and everyone is worried that whatever happens you will lose your appetite for this wonderful football club. Please don’t do that. With your help we can be great again. We as fans are ambitious, that season in the Premiership has given us a taste for the good times and we do not believe that we should meekly accept that one season as payback for all the love, energy, financial input and passion we, like you too have bestowed upon our beloved team.

Posted By: Chalk Hill Bitter on March 2nd 2006 at 14:27:37

[sheded 0]

Passed as fit  !

[maninyellowslacks 0]

What a top post. Get that on a t-shirt

[still holding out for new heroes 0]

Meeky,

please post this to the club....

[Trevor Chilver 0]

Superb Post

I agree with every word

I just hope and wish that Delia and Co will respond; however I doubt it!

Definately back to the Robert Chase era where the directors believe they are bigger than the club!

Pride and ignorance becomes before a fall!!

[silver fox 0]

I don''t mind reading long posts like that because it sums up what a lot of true supporters really feel.  Well done Meeky

[lucky green trainers 0]

agree skipper has done nothing but fan the flames since making his comments.  can''t believe the city pr machine sanctioned him as a front man. lots of people at the meeting tonight were not happy with his comments - blower even said he probably swelled the attendence figure.

[Bill 1,788]

Full of contradictions and muddled thinking I''m afraid.

The management are accused of not having the foggiest idea of what to do in the Premiership apart from signing players who were capable of keeping us there.

The club is likewise questioned about whether they had a plan to stay up whilst also being commended for providing the players to keep us up.

Fans shouting abuse are praised for being in support of the club whereas directors replying to that abuse are deemed to be making snide remarks. Though curiously strong wiled fans convinced of their views (those not of the silent 90%) are supposed to be fearful that a withering remark in response might scare them away.

Predictably this ''tears before bedtime'' type grizzle is eventually forced into invention to pad out the bellyache. And so we are informed that the manager has little or nothing to play for. ''Life is too easy'' it is claimed. That would presume no wages cut in half for relegation, no loss of win bonus, no loss of league position payments and no door to be shown if certain aims aren''t achieved.

Of course that all makes sense if you sit in the stands and have convinced yourself that, like our neighbours, you support a special club. A club so special that the normal rigours and disappointments of football are immunised from your weekly experience. A club so special that the normal everyday financial and contractual constraints don''t exist.

Nope, in the dream world you exist in Auntie Delia will soon come along and kiss it better by conjuring up a new manager. Everything will then again be alright with fluffy bunnies hopping over daisy strewn meadows. Yep all this will happen as long as you scweam and scweam until you are sick. Just as long as the naughty director chap (boo hiss) doesn''t get jolly cross with you.

Yours is the easy option - that''s the luxury of being a fan An easy position that allows you to simplify things to a level where the board and management are all baddies and are hell bent on conspiring to deliberately thwart your dreams.

But then it is far better to cling on to that comfort blanket of self delusion than ever it is to face the grim reality that faces almost every other supporter and club board.

Because that reality would mean becoming a supporter - not a fan.

[sussexcanary 0]

City 1st - that is the biggest load of twaddle i think ive ever read.

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

[quote user="City1st"]Full of contradictions and muddled thinking I''m afraid. The management are accused of not having the foggiest idea of what to do in the Premiership apart from signing players who were capable of keeping us there. The club is likewise questioned about whether they had a plan to stay up whilst also being commended for providing the players to keep us up. Fans shouting abuse are praised for being in support of the club whereas directors replying to that abuse are deemed to be making snide remarks. Though curiously strong wiled fans convinced of their views (those not of the silent 90%) are supposed to be fearful that a withering remark in response might scare them away. Predictably this ''tears before bedtime'' type grizzle is eventually forced into invention to pad out the bellyache. And so we are informed that the manager has little or nothing to play for. ''Life is too easy'' it is claimed. That would presume no wages cut in half for relegation, no loss of win bonus, no loss of league position payments and no door to be shown if certain aims aren''t achieved. Of course that all makes sense if you sit in the stands and have convinced yourself that, like our neighbours, you support a special club. A club so special that the normal rigours and disappointments of football are immunised from your weekly experience. A club so special that the normal everyday financial and contractual constraints don''t exist. Nope, in the dream world you exist in Auntie Delia will soon come along and kiss it better by conjuring up a new manager. Everything will then again be alright with fluffy bunnies hopping over daisy strewn meadows. Yep all this will happen as long as you scweam and scweam until you are sick. Just as long as the naughty director chap (boo hiss) doesn''t get jolly cross with you. Yours is the easy option - that''s the luxury of being a fan An easy position that allows you to simplify things to a level where the board and management are all baddies and are hell bent on conspiring to deliberately thwart your dreams. But then it is far better to cling on to that comfort blanket of self delusion than ever it is to face the grim reality that faces almost every other supporter and club board. Because that reality would mean becoming a supporter - not a fan.[/quote]

Anybody who couldnt see how naive and inept Nigel''s management was in the premiership probably didnt go to the matches.  He will NEVER manage in the premiership EVER again. Anmd if he did somehow he would get relegated again.

He played Edworthy Holt and Doherty over Shackell, Safri and Helveg until the man utd match when he stated: "I didnt want anyone to think they werent given a chance" and bang we win some games and almost stay up....  The last person in the ground to realise the problem was the manager.

What happens to the 3 undroppables, Eddy and Holt are shipped out and the doc is ordered to lose weight or ship out...

INEPT

[Syteanric 1]

1st canary... 20 wins in nearing 85 matches.... enough said! Worthington Out!

jas :)

[Bill 1,788]

Try reading the post. Where do I say that Worthington should not be sacked ? My commemts were aimed at the muddled headed thinking that was in the post.

Posting up ridiculous claims doesn''t help the argument either way. Defending silly posts just because they fit in with your believes doesn''t help either.

[ncfc0405 0]

City1st: excellent post, some home truths for once on this board, and articulated so eloquently to boot!

[gazban 0]

Sorry City 1st but IMO Meeky has got it spot on. How can u explain Worthys decisions last season and this?