Were we right to get rid of Worthy?

[Huddy 0]

It''s an interesting thought, where would we be now if Worthy was still in charge? We finished 9th in our 1st season back, that wasnt  enough for us fans, we expected better but in heinz sight, looking at the past 18 months, and the performances of many other similar size clubs whove dropped recently out of the Prem did we expect too much?

If i remember rightly we were ''languishing'' about 16th when Worthy was sacked, at the time i was sure it was the right decision, that we were underperforming. I had nothing agianst him, but i was sure things had gone stale and he''d taken the club as far as he could. When we were 16th did we ever fear relegation? Like we did under Grant and Now.

Or should we have expected better, is it Worthy''s fault that 18 months on we are still struggling. Did the last 12 months of his regime cause the long running problems.

Or is it the board? Does the prudence with ambition mean that no manager would have been able to get this era of NCFc challenging.  You can look at Worthy''s signings when we were relegated, at Grants Last summer, they were poor but was that becasue we could mainly afford noone else?

[Syteanric 1]

yes.. its increasingly apparent that Worthy had lost the plot... ok so the board didnt help matters but he''d of taken us down again... the players gave up in that Burnley game.

jas :)

[Paul Spector 0]

We want worthy back, sing we want Worthy back!

I''m actually a big Roeder fan, but I think the problem at the end of Nigel''s tenure was that we had too many expectations. We needed stability and to rebuild, but too much pressure was placed on him. At the time I thought we were right to sack Nigel, but in hindsight...? He actually achieved a lot while he was here. I''d welcome him back. Worthy! Worthy! Worthy!

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

Yes we were right.  Although the sacking should have occurred in the summer, not 10 games into the new season.  Hiring Peter Grant was a another terrible mistake.  Hopefully Glenn Roeder will improve us next season, assuming he doesn''t fail and get us relegated.

[blahblahblah 2]

With hindsight - I''d say that there are a couple of things that could have been done differently.  Here are my opinions with the benefit of hindsight, for what it''s worth :

Worthington went maybe a month or so too late.  We started his last season very well, and then it appears that something happened over the international break that seemed to cause the management team to lose the dressing-room.  Maybe he should have been removed then ?

Whatever happened with Grant seemed to cause a similar go-slow to that experienced by Worthington at the end.  You don''t go 10 hours without scoring a goal if you''re trying to score a goal, especially against the likes of Scunthorpe and Sheffield Wednesday.  Somethings going to go in off a knee / shoulder / bottom at some point.

The board have attempted to create independence from TV money, but have been unable to budget to meet the ambitions of fans on the pitch over the last couple of seasons as a result.  Also, championship clubs are becoming owned by richer and richer people.  That said, Norwich did spend more than most championship sides last summer, but a combination of what turned out to be poor purchases, a small initial squad, and Peter Grants'' people skills did for us early on.

The league has become more homogenous, one clubs'' squad much like any other, because of the drain on players into the Premiership.  This means that with a better start / different manager at the start of the season, we might have been pushing for play-off places.

If we had signed Chris Iwelumo on a free instead of Charlton, the partnership that worked so well for Colchester might have got us into the play-offs.  Iwelumo is Charltons top scorer on 10 goals, I''m sure he has missed his old strike partner too.  An extra goal every other game would at least have seen us safe by now.

Roeders statement that contracts will only be negotiated after we are safe in the league seems to have backfired.  I''m sure it was meant to encourage players to get this season done and dusted as soon as possible, but I wonder if some aren''t pulling their weight because they know they won''t be involved next season, in effect brinkmanship with Roeders'' own contract ?

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,797]

Your''e joking right? You can''t compare the season that we finished ninth with this one.

In that season Worthington had at his disposal the best Striker in the league in Ashton, the best keeper in Green and the player in the whole league in Huckerby but still ballsed it up !

[Croydon Canary 0]

No absolutely not.Any manager that gets rid of a comanding six foot plus centreback because he was deemed too old and too slow for the prem,then replaces him with a slightly older five foot eight Simon Charlton needed to go.

[Cottaging Canary 0]

Good post Huddy and some interesting points raised. I backed Worthy to the hilt, right up that final Burnley game. But on that day it was clear he''d lost the dressing room. A shame, as I think he was fantastic and got more stick than he deserved.

The problem came when the man they brought in was totally inept. I never liked Grant from the start, if only we''d got someone like Roeder back then.

Football is all ifs and buts I''m afraid...............

[Huddy 0]

[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]

Your''e joking right? You can''t compare the season that we finished ninth with this one.

In that season Worthington had at his disposal the best Striker in the league in Ashton, the best keeper in Green and the player in the whole league in Huckerby but still ballsed it up !

[/quote]

so then perhaps it is the boards fault for the mess we''rein if you look at it that way. They shouldnt have let us lose good players and leave us with inept, cheap replacements. I havent got a real, certain opinion, i''m just creating discussion!

[king of latvia 0]

we should of stuck with worthy i was behind him also even now i feel we let worthy down for what he did for us.

i would welcome him back tomorrow with open arms .

and to replace him with pg tips what a joke.

hopefully glenn roeder will bring back the good old days and we will be fighting for promotion next season.

[James Kent 0]

It was right to sack Worthy.  When Worthy first came in we were in a somewhat similar position to we are now and his task was to keep us in the league like Roeder task is this year.  The next year we finished sixth, but only due to the triple loan signing and getting Hucks full time.  The season after that we finished 8th and the folllowing season we won the league.  So it take him 3 and a bit years to get us up, yet we are making a comparsion with Roeder.  Lets remember this is not Roeder''s squad. 

[Mook 0]

[quote user="Croydon Canary"]No absolutely not.Any manager that gets rid of a comanding six foot plus centreback because he was deemed too old and too slow for the prem,then replaces him with a slightly older five foot eight Simon Charlton needed to go.[/quote]

Why does this matter?

Malky was s***te in the Premiership too you know.

[Jim Smith 2,339]

In my honest opinion Worthington should have been sacked at Christmas in the premiership season or even before when it became abundently clear he was out of his depth. I canb however understand why we did not. He should then however definitely have gone at Christmas the following season when it was clear we were not going to get back up and that he had aquired a load of utter cr*p. That summer after relegation from the premiership was disastrous as was the following summer when we shipped out lots of capable players, filled some of the gaps with players that weren''t up to it and in some cases simply left glaring gaps in the squad that were obvious for the fans to see yet the management were apparently happy with. I still shudder at the thought of that day when we unveiled Louis Jean, Peter Thorne and Andy Hughes as out major triple swoop ahead of the new campaign. The lieks of Jonson and Svensson would have been excellent in the champ yet they were shown the door. The transfer policy that he and certain others appeared to apply (nobody does business until later in the summer as they are all on holiday) meant we missed out on a number of players and invariably went into the first few weeks of the season with a completely unsettled team/squad still being patched up. We have never quite recovered from those 2 summers of ineptitude. In fact we managed to go one better and appoint a manager who was even more clueless!

If backed by the board I have much more faith in Roeder to get the right players in this summer than I ever did in the previous 2. Worthy could sign a decent player given £3m to spend but he also signed a lot of duds. Having said that Roeder does need to cut out the stupid team selections next season!

[First Wizard 0]

Good God Yes.

[missing in action? 0]

[quote user="WeWantWorthyBack"]

We want worthy back, sing we want Worthy back!

I''m actually a big Roeder fan, but I think the problem at the end of Nigel''s tenure was that we had too many expectations. We needed stability and to rebuild, but too much pressure was placed on him. At the time I thought we were right to sack Nigel, but in hindsight...? He actually achieved a lot while he was here. I''d welcome him back. Worthy! Worthy! Worthy!

[/quote]isnt that the problem now as well????????

[NegativeVibes 0]

Worthy is a great manager. He''s the one laughing now he''s an established international manager.

[Syteanric 1]

[quote user="NegativeVibes"]Worthy is a great manager. He''s the one laughing now he''s an established international manager.[/quote]

yes.. and it isnt it even funnier that he tooka  country on the verge of their first tournament in over 20 years to a disorganised rabble?

worthy threw it away for N I.. but dont worry.. "he cant fault his players for their passion commitment and work rate"

jas :)

[Jim Smith 2,339]

Being manager of Northern Ireland is about equivalent to managing Hartlepool.

[scott 0]

Yes we were and Worthy knew it as well when he stood on the touchline at that horrible Sunday mauling at Carrow Road against Burnley. In hindsight it should have been done a year earlier. In fact if he''d of left immediately after our relegation then things would have been better but the board or no one else for that mater would of thought sacking him then and he would never of fell on his sword!

 

The board got a lot of critiscism at the time for hanging on too long with Worthy, but it was a difficult decision to make when looking at his overall track record for us which was very good up until the Premiership season when he made too many bad signings and got rid of guys like Malky and Iwan too soon!

 

Hindsights a wonderful thing cause its way easier to look back and spot problem areas than what it is at the time!

 

Peter Grant with his good playing career, previous association at NCFC, enthusiasm, ambition and good coaching spell at West Ham appeared to be a good candidate for the job!

- If we''d of known about his managerial ineptitudes, lack of decent contacts and poor man management skills then he''d of never been considered! - Though I''ll always give Grant credit for doing the right thing and getting out when he knew it wasn''t going to happen for him at NCFC rather than hang on grimly like Worthy did!

[Ivana_rubyatitz 6]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]Being manager of Northern Ireland is about equivalent to managing Hartlepool.[/quote]

Hey, what has Hartlepool done to you!

[ricky knight 0]

I will say now Worthy will turn out more succsessful than Roeder, Worthy should have gone after Fulham but i really dont understand the hate for the guy on here.

[GJP 79]

It was time for him to go, things needed freshening up. Although maybe things would have been different if he''d been given the £££ to get his top transfer targets.

I''ll always remember him for the good times and success he brought to the club. He was a very good manager for Norwich, no doubt.

[norfolkchance1 0]

Yes, I think he should have gone after the 1-1 draw at Hull the season before he was sacked. It was a desperate poor performance only masked by a last minute own goal by the home side. I think we wasted a whole season or more because of him having the whole of the pre season and the start of that season. The rot set in and there was no return after that ghastly performance against Burnley.

Please understand what is written above doesn''t mean I didn''t like the bloke or dismiss what he helped us achieve I am very grateful for the playoff final charge and the championship winning season, neither of which I believe would have happened under Brian Hamilton. But I do believe that every cycle reaches a conclusion and it is up to the people involved to make sure the break is made at the correct time -this is where the failiure happened, and damaged Worthingtons legacyin some peoples eyes.

Had he still been in charge for any longer we would have been good candidates for relegation much in the same postition we are in this season.

[Unlucky Fried Kitten 0]

Worthy had been a very good manager up to the Premiership season, but then he started to make too many mistakes. As others have said he might have taken us down a division if he had been allowed to carry on in charge. He should have been sacked before the 2005/6 season began.

[Graham Humphrey 13]

[quote user="GJP"]

It was time for him to go, things needed freshening up. Although maybe things would have been different if he''d been given the £££ to get his top transfer targets.

I''ll always remember him for the good times and success he brought to the club. He was a very good manager for Norwich, no doubt.

[/quote]

Agree completely. He may have run out of ideas towards the end but he''s been our most successful manager in recent years (not that there''s much competition).

[jetstream 0]

Jim Smith sums it up for me - he should have gone before the January transfer window of the Premiership season when we struggled to win a game for so long and his team selections bordered on the bizarre.

(and it''s all very well calling it ''hindsight'' but there were some of us saying it at the time)

After that, he stayed too long and should have (being as positive as I can) gone in the summer before he did.

Leaving it until October was a terrible error by the board, basically the new guy has no chance to change things until January - a pattern repeated with PG and GR.

[Smudger 0]

[quote user="ricky knight"]I will say now Worthy will turn out more succsessful than Roeder, Worthy should have gone after Fulham but i really dont understand the hate for the guy on here.[/quote]

Agreed...

Roeder is still crap in my opinion and he will be gone by Christmas...

Everybody that was claiming he was the new messiah seems to have forgotten that results have been poor of late and that we are still in a relegation dogfight.

Has everybody forgotten that we went on a great run when Grant took charge... we went from flirting with relegation to safe by mid March.

Let us not forget that Roeder could still take us down if we lose on Saturday.

[Show Me What You Gooot! 0]

Worthy was a good manager overall (a playoff final and a promotion to his name) but he just lost it in the end and his time was up.

Replacing him with Grant, in hindsight, was a mistake, so to get rid of Worthy for him was stupid and pointless.

Worthy vs Roeder - Hard to call until Roeders had about 4/5 years here (if hes here that long). Thats what Worthy got.

[O.T.B.C 0]

Yes we did get rid of him at the right time, some of his choices were wrong likewise his buys. Yes, we all know what he done for us, but we had to look onwards and upwards. Well that was the plan. I will always be thankful for what he done and will always hold him in high esteem.

[Show Me What You Gooot! 0]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]Being manager of Northern Ireland is about equivalent to managing Hartlepool.[/quote]

Not if you''re Northern Irish. I bet it meants alot to him to manage his country''s national team.