Whats happened to Norwich City (an outsiders request)

[thebigfeller 200]

[quote user="Saint Canary"]I agree and when talking to friends at the pub after games or at work I always point to this as being the boards biggest error.  There are a lot to choose from but I still think this was the big one.  For me this sums up perfectly a point I often make about our board sitting around on their hands watching things happen rather than making things happen.  That summer to which you refer is probably the the biggest reason we are where we find ourselves now.  The board "backed" Worthington publicly all through (and at the end of) our first season back in the Championship.  However, they clearly did not back him, it was just hot air.  Worthy wanted Howard, the board refused and we signed just 1 player, Lee Croft, before that window closed.  Later we signed Dublin and despite how it turned out, it was a desperate signing.  Now whatever Worthingtons failures were as a manager I just cannot accept that he just didn''t identify more players.  The board clearly did not trust him to spend money anymore and should of got rid of him.  I said at the time and I still believe it now, that they only kept him so long because he was acting as a shield.  Worthington was the one taking the blame and Delia et all were happy for everyone to blame him because very few were pointing the finger at the board room.  It didn''t take long after Worthington''s departure before people started to look to the board.  I think it speaks volumes about how little of a clue the board have that they went to the NIFA to talk to Worthy when Roeder was sacked because it was partly his fault we were in the poo in the first place.  More than that though (and I can''t work out if this was ignorance or just arrogance) I can''t imagine for 1 second that Worthington would have entertained the idea of coming and working for someone who had treated him so poorly.  Firstly by not buying the players he wanted and letting him take the full blame for the poor form and then the  shameful way he was publicly given 2 games to sort it out and then sacked after so quickly after the Burnley match.  I wanted the man gone but the way he was treated was disgusting.  [/quote]I couldn''t agree more with all of that, Saint - and having thought about it, concur that it was the single biggest blunder too. To my mind, the only explanation for their inertia is, with NW on a long contract, they couldn''t afford to sack him. It''d even explain the appalling two game statement you refer to too: they were trying to force him to resign, so as to reduce the size of his pay-off. An embarrassing state of affairs really. In January 2006, around the time Ashton was sold, our cashflow was in a horrific state - which means, surely, that we had to stay up in the Prem. Yet neither the club nor the manager behaved as though that was the case at all: "we''re just here to enjoy it" said NW, as though we were Watford or Barnsley rather than Norwich. Our entire approach that year was horribly flawed: unforgivably so if you consider what it led to in the years following.During Summer 2006, Delia actually whispered to some supporters that the manager was "on borrowed time". Sorry - but you either sack him, or back him 100%. There''s no in-between - especially with the final year of parachute payments coming up. The moment he left, I think the club already knew we''d run out of time: look at the difference in the calibre of signings. From Earnshaw and Croft to Fotheringham and Lappin; then to loan signings under Roeder, most of which didn''t come off. We were sinking fast; but if the board recognised this in October 2006, what on earth were they playing at throughout the year prior to that?Incidentally, at the time of the two game statement, I wrote another post which was widely linked to. It''s not just hindsight which led to me writing what I did last night: I and many others saw it coming. Why didn''t those in charge?http://www.pinkun.com/cs/forums/761363/ShowPost.aspx

[TheFineCity 0]

Some very good posts by the Big Feller and Saint Canary. Completely sums up what i''ve been thinking for the past 3 years as well, especially regarding Worthington''s sacking or lack of in summer 2006 which is what turned me against them. I remember thinking at the time when are they going to sack him and then come the last game of the season the message was pretty much ''thanks for your support'' and then nothing while they all buggered off on holiday for 2 months. I couldn''t believe at the time the level of incompetence to not get rid of a manager who was clearly failing. It was just an utter joke and was one of the major events which has lead us to where we stand today.

[TheFineCity 0]

[quote user="thebigfeller"] It''s not just hindsight which led to me writing what I did last night: I and many others saw it coming. Why didn''t those in charge?[/quote]Just to add to that, why is it some of our fans still can''t?

[canary cherub 1]

[quote user="thebigfeller"][quote user="canary cherub "]

I take your point big man - but what did you make of the palaver over signing Hucks?  The nearest thing you''ll ever get in football to a guarantee of automatic promotion and it so nearly didn''t happen.  Apparently it took Carl Moore approaching Barry Skipper (note: not the club chairman, chief exec or majority shareholders) on Christmas Eve to rescue a deal that appeared dead in the water.  If we really were pushing the boat out what was all that about, any ideas? 

In my view you don''t give Worthy enough credit for what he did with a not particularly big or expensive squad.  He may have run out of ideas by the end of 2005/6 but we still finished 9th.  Look at the record of the managers we''ve had since 1996 and his stands out a mile - 15th (caretaker season, took over when 20th), 6th (playoff final), 8th, 1st, 19th (Prem) and 9th.  A level of achievement we can barely dream of now. 

 

[/quote]

That''s a fair point. Even though there was a wholly different attitude around the club that season - look at the sheer quality of the loan signings in the first half of it - and were pushing the boat out to an extent, we weren''t going nuts. We couldn''t afford Hucks'' wages, so Carl Moore bailed us out: the board got lucky in that, but for once, their prior actions had warranted it. Had we failed in 03/4 though, I think the cuts which would''ve followed would''ve meant we jumped forward around three years to where we were at the start of last season: in big trouble on and off the pitch.

As for Worthington: I was a huge fan of his during his first three years in charge, and gave him the benefit of the doubt for 04/5. During our successful spell under him, he demonstrated a tremendous amount of practical common sense - and to some extent, was the "don''t fuck with me!" Saunders character I''d wished for for so long. But like the club, he was simply too undemanding during our year in the Prem, and completely lost it afterwards. It happens: look at Burley at Ipswich by the end. Except that Ipswich acted and got rid of him; we didn''t. There was a three game spell in which we were humiliated at Luton and QPR and lost spinelessly at home to Sheff Wed: any other club would''ve acted at that point, not least one well into its first season of parachute payments. But we didn''t, the atmosphere was poisoned, and even though we ended up 9th, it was a horrible season: one in which the fans booed even as we won games at CR!

I wonder what it was about his tactics which made our record so good at home, and so appalling away? That pattern was present even in the good years, let alone the bad ones. I agree that he was treated appallingly in the end though: the board''s behaviour was spineless and embarrassing, and just a taster of what was to follow.
[/quote]

Cheers, agree with most of that.  But if they couldn''t afford Hucks''s wages surely there were any number of corporate sponsors, box holders (of whom Carl Moore was one) who would have been willing and able to help out if asked?  But Moore had to approach the club first, and that was after he''d read in the Evening News that the deal was dead, wtf??

I had a lot of time for Worthy but often wonder how on earth he dealt with the Craven Cottage experience, if at all.  But we went into the first season post-relegation with the smallest squad in the Champ (jointly with Leeds, and we know what happened to them).  The squad simply wasn''t big enough to sustain a promotion push over 46 games, which the fans were rightly expecting.  Were the board not willing to trust Worthy to spend money or not willing to spend it full stop?  I agree that 2005/6 was a horrible season and the board hid behind Worthy instead of either backing or sacking him as they should have done.

As for not doing the business away from home, this is my view fwiw.  Worthy''s Plan A was to keep it tight until half time and then be more adventurous in the second half if we were level at the break.  Trouble was, if we conceded before half time there wasn''t really a Plan B.  If we''d had a slightly bigger squad perhaps he could have used Hucks as a second half sub away from home, starting with someone more defensively minded, as even if we did concede in the first half Hucks had the ability to come off the bench and change it.  Goals win games but increasingly these days benches win games too, subs are part of the strategy not just there to make up the numbers in case someone gets injured. 

 

 

[concerned-scouse 0]

Hi all

I seem to have stirred up a hornets nest here, or perhaps i have just given a focus to the hornets anger.

I have read every reply to my original, terribly sad observations, big fella you have given me a huge insight in to just what can happen through a combination of negligence, complacency, bad decision making and forlorn hope.

Yes this could happen to any club, but Norwich have been cautious, not over borrowed. They have a huge and highly commendable (given the circumstances) attendance record.

The finances just dont add up.

On to the "Outsiders view"

I think Norwich are just a club that havent made enemies, tried to play "football" and shocked every "big" club at some point and won admiration. You just dont seem to have any enemies or emnity towards you in English football (except the team in blue down the road, we have one of those too) I was working in London during your european adventure, the way you played without fear, with passing fluid football won you many admirers at that time.

In my humble opinion the Huckerby era won you even more friends, the way you set the team up to let the "speedboat" tear in to oppposition defences with no defensive duties made compelling viewing for us neutrals. To paraphrase one of his previous managers "Huckerby is not a great goalscorer, but a scorer of great goals". This maverick attitude to life in the premiership earned you even more neutral fans. You did ultimatley go down, but you went down in flames with not a long ball kicked all season.

The fact that he then turned down a move to Liverpool (we would have loved him, we have a history of unpredictable left wingers) to stay with you guys in the championship is not only a mark of the guy but a mark of you as fans. I think he was just too "Norwich City" to move, he clearly responded to you guys.

Unfortunately i never saw him play in the flesh, but watching highlights on TV reminds me of my last visit to Carrow Road, i came to see the England U21s play, a certain Micheal Owen was in the team and every time he got the ball the whole stadium got to its feet in anticipation. Huckerby had the same effect, i dont think even his own team mates knew what would happen next.

How he never got an England call up defies belief bearing the problems we had on the left side.

Anyway, good luck on Sunday. Plymouth must win also. No one is even going to miss Barnsley. A passing team should simply not be in the Championship, let alone...............No lets not think about it.

Regards

A fan of football not hoofball

[thebigfeller 200]

[quote user="TheFineCity"]Just to add to that, why is it some of our fans still can''t?[/quote]Well, absolutely! Sometimes I get the impression more Ipswich fans understand what''s happened to us than Norwich fans. I cringe at some of the things which are written on here or said on Canary Call: even last night, a number of callers seemed in complete denial, and insisted we''d still stay up. It''s laughable really - and even if we did get out of it on Sunday, it''d only be a stay of execution. There''s no prospect of things changing under the current owners at all.Did you read the Man In The Stands'' piece after the Ipswich game? It was brilliant. As he said, the reception afforded to Delia at the end by our fans was positively cultish: she just cannot do any wrong in the eyes of many of our supporters. Then consider the patronising nonsense Doncaster trots out about our "fantastic supporters": he only says this in order to take the heat off himself and the board! It''s cynical and nauseating. The Man''s article went on to ask whether, to some extent at least, we get the club we deserve by being so easily pleased and reluctant to criticise. He''s absolutely right. I''ve lost count of the number of pathetic away performances I''ve seen after which the fans have applauded the players off the pitch: the Costa del Norwich is alive and well nine years after it was first pinpointed.Don''t get me wrong: the loyalty of the fans has been completely extraordinary. But Newcastle supporters'' loyalty has led to their club taking the piss out of them on a monumental scale; and the same has happened in our case. It''s what happens when you allow yourself to be taken for granted.

[Inch High aka Inchy.. 405]

Scouse I for one thank you for starting this thread. You see there are certain board members who read this forum(hey Mr Doncaster[;)] ) to see we are not getting out of hand and to send "ring me" mails to offenders. Your thread has thrown up some superb and passionate replies that I hope have been noted and are now making certain people squirm a bit.

 Lets hope that this thread and the press it is going to recieve in the local papers tomorrow serve as another nail in the coffin of our utterly useless board and our equally useless chaiman.

Thanks.

[thebigfeller 200]

[quote user="concerned-scouse"]

Hi all

I seem to have stirred up a hornets nest here, or perhaps i have just given a focus to the hornets anger.

I have read every reply to my original, terribly sad observations, big fella you have given me a huge insight in to just what can happen through a combination of negligence, complacency, bad decision making and forlorn hope.

Yes this could happen to any club, but Norwich have been cautious, not over borrowed. They have a huge and highly commendable (given the circumstances) attendance record.

The finances just dont add up.

On to the "Outsiders view"

I think Norwich are just a club that havent made enemies, tried to play "football" and shocked every "big" club at some point and won admiration. You just dont seem to have any enemies or emnity towards you in English football (except the team in blue down the road, we have one of those too) I was working in London during your european adventure, the way you played without fear, with passing fluid football won you many admirers at that time.

In my humble opinion the Huckerby era won you even more friends, the way you set the team up to let the "speedboat" tear in to oppposition defences with no defensive duties made compelling viewing for us neutrals. To paraphrase one of his previous managers "Huckerby is not a great goalscorer, but a scorer of great goals". This maverick attitude to life in the premiership earned you even more neutral fans. You did ultimatley go down, but you went down in flames with not a long ball kicked all season.

The fact that he then turned down a move to Liverpool (we would have loved him, we have a history of unpredictable left wingers) to stay with you guys in the championship is not only a mark of the guy but a mark of you as fans. I think he was just too "Norwich City" to move, he clearly responded to you guys.

Unfortunately i never saw him play in the flesh, but watching highlights on TV reminds me of my last visit to Carrow Road, i came to see the England U21s play, a certain Micheal Owen was in the team and every time he got the ball the whole stadium got to its feet in anticipation. Huckerby had the same effect, i dont think even his own team mates knew what would happen next.

How he never got an England call up defies belief bearing the problems we had on the left side.

Anyway, good luck on Sunday. Plymouth must win also. No one is even going to miss Barnsley. A passing team should simply not be in the Championship, let alone...............No lets not think about it.

Regards

A fan of football not hoofball

[/quote]We have over-borrowed mate. Check out ''The board''s biggest cockup'' thread further down the forum: we just over-borrowed in a different way to someone like Leeds, because the new stand was securitised, instead of money going towards the team. That securitisation has locked us in and left the team neglected over a long period. Meanwhile, sure we''re admired; sure no-one has a bad word to say about us. Why would other clubs have a bad word to say about us when we fail so badly, and make their lives so much easier? That''s what I mean by selling ourselves so short: we patronise ourselves. What other club has ever done that?In life, it''s perfectly possible to be ambitious, hard nosed, yet nice at the same time. But if you''re just nice, nice, nice and nothing else, you''ll be a soft touch, and get walked on. That''s Norwich City under Delia Smith: the ultimate soft touch during a period in English football when such an approach is bound to fail.

[gazzathegreat 0]

Big Feller, your reply to Sgncfc is also spot on, with regard to our standing amongst the perceived bigger and smaller clubs.

I wonder what Mr Doncaster would say if you were to ask him why Preston and Burnley were able to do better than us, no I''ll tell you, he''ll say that they have wealthy benefactors. He''s said it to the press, to individual fans (me included). That''s right Mr Doncaster, Sir, and we also have a majority shareholder who they are often proud to quote has put £11 million into NCFC.

Now they can''t have it both ways, can they?

Thank you for being able to put all of this into such articulate and emotive prose. Hats off to you.

[. 0]

Delia Smith is all that happened. We sold our soul to a celebrity who ultimately used and abused the club to keep her mug in the limelight.

That fading star has now exploded and we are left with a black hole.... and no-one knows where that will now lead us.

[thebigfeller 200]

[quote user="Neil Cluckcaster"]

Delia Smith is all that happened. We sold our soul to a celebrity who ultimately used and abused the club to keep her mug in the limelight.

That fading star has now exploded and we are left with a black hole.... and no-one knows where that will now lead us.

[/quote]Typically stark and caustic though your view is Cluck, it''s awfully hard to disagree.

[sgncfc 1,223]

[quote user="thebigfeller"][quote user="sgncfc"]

I agree that Big Fella''s post is superb - so nice to see some intelligent, structured comment on what is usually a kiddies rant site. Just one thing omitted in my opinion and that is the effect of Sky money and player greed during the period of our demise. Very few boards or managers could have done anything vastly differently in my opinion because of this millstone.

Put simply, wealth cascades downwards. So we now have clubs like Newcastle and Middlesbro about to leave the Prem despite their wealthy backers, because most of the clubs above them have BIGGER wealthy backers. The successful Championship clubs (with one or two notable exceptions) also have wealthy backers. The reason we, Charlton and Southampton are going further down the tree is because we can no longer even compete with this level. Our backer isn''t big enough.

Look at the clubs coming up from League One. Look at the ones making moves upwards in League Two and the Conference. With almost no exceptions they have financial muscle.

When you have a player like Lee Croft supposedly after £9,000 a week it illustrates the problem. I like Crofty as a player. He works hard. But lets be honest, even if he may be the best player in the 42nd best football club in England is he really worth this kind of money? Let me re-state that - He may be the best player at the 42nd best club in England. He is in his early 20''s and he wants almost half a million pounds a year in salary. In a recession. From a club about to be in the Third Division.

What income does he generate? How many people pay to see him? Would 1200 people not go every week if he wasn''t here? Crucially - why does he think he should get this kind of reward for failure?

But he can easily get that at 20 of the 41 clubs ranked above us. Maybe more.That''s our problem.

Yes, Doncaster is an overpaid, incompetent, uncommunicative buffoon. Yes, Delia and MWJ have made mistakes. Yes, our managers have been poor. But all in all while the Liverpools and Chelseas and Man Utd''s cream the money and make everyone else sprint to keep up, those of us who can''t have no chance.

So Mr Scouser, I accept your tinted memories with the good grace they were offered - but please don''t try to pretend that you are not part of our problem. Until the FA and the Premiership sees the bigger picture and  redistributes the cash or Sky withdraws the big bucks, we and clubs like us have no chance.

[/quote]

Sure, modern football''s changed. But does that either explain or excuse the cascade (to use a word you employed) of mistakes the board have made throughout their tenure? No - no it does not. What does SKY''s hold over the EPL have to do with their inertia for a whole year when Worthington should''ve dismissed, and ridiculous appointments of Grant, Roeder and Gunn (not that the latter is to blame in any way)? Nothing. Instead, it''s given them a ready made excuse: "We can''t compete. Football isn''t fair." But that spineless attitude is a complete betrayal of the fans of this club: as I said, the board prioritise community over winning, and look where it''s got us.

The two year window of parachute payments has made it very difficult for clubs who fall out of the EPL if they don''t get back within that period - but that means the board needed to be at their most focused and on the ball between 2005 and 2007, yet they proved the exact opposite. Failing to dismiss Worthington - then hedging their bets, and refusing to back him properly in the transfer market either - was utterly disastrous. The repercussions have left us where we are today; yet the board learnt so little from the saga that, as Barry has said, they even tried to get him back a few months ago!

Meanwhile, Charlton and Southampton are in such a dire position because of boardroom incompetence worse than or at least equal to our own. Charlton spent two seasons'' worth of money in a single summer when Curbishley left and Dowie was appointed; then panicked and sacked Dowie prematurely; then appointed the ludicrous Les Reed! Relegation devastated them, because they''d overspent so catastrophically. And Saints, who already had a bloated, largely useless squad under Harry Redknapp, gave George Burley crazy amounts of money to spend when he was appointed - because their board thought a large transfusion of cash was about to come their way via external investment. But the investment didn''t happen, meaning they had one chance to gain promotion or be destroyed. When Derby knocked them out of the 2007 play-offs on penalties, the die was cast: they were *this* close to administration that very summer, and the slide has continued ever since.

What the parachute payments system has done is separate the wheat from the chaff: the well, ruthlessly run clubs from the lazy, ineptly run ones. For a club our size to be relegated from this league, you have to be run with the most staggering level of incompetence: that certainly applied to Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United, Queens Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City when they went down; it applies to Charlton, Southampton and Norwich now. But it doesn''t apply to West Brom, Birmingham, Reading, or at a more moderate level Crystal Palace; and it certainly doesn''t to Stoke, Hull, Preston or Burnley. All smaller clubs than ourselves; all doing very nicely thankyou. Good grief: Blackpool have stayed up for a second straight season, Doncaster have survived as well - how can they do it, but not us? Answer: our board.
[/quote]

 

I am not excusing the board''s mistakes, but all of the clubs you mention, except perhaps Doncaster, have very wealthy backers. And they won''t survive long in the Championship without one. We could have had one too if our board had been more open and honest about things last summer.

[thebigfeller 200]

[quote user="sgncfc"]

I am not excusing the board''s mistakes, but all of the clubs you mention, except perhaps Doncaster, have very wealthy backers. And they won''t survive long in the Championship without one. We could have had one too if our board had been more open and honest about things last summer.

[/quote]Simon Jordan, Crystal Palace''s "wealthy backer", hasn''t to my knowledge put any more money into the playing side than their natural means as a club allows. Nor has David Sullivan at Birmingham. Even Wolves - with a very wealthy owner in Steve Morgan - by and large haven''t! Meanwhile, when Norwich turned things around under Nigel Worthington, I always felt we were using West Brom as a template. The Baggies escaped relegation to the third flight on the final day of 1999/2000; then improved remarkably and reached the the top 6 the following year despite not spending much; then went up automatically, before becoming a yo-yo club. We caught and overtook them in 2003/4, and should''ve stayed ahead the next season, but blew it. At no point have they ever over-spent: they''ve simply made mostly good managerial appointments (with the exception of Bryan Robson, who kept them up in any case), and spent their parachute payments wisely. They''re the model here: if they could do it, why couldn''t we?

[ron obvious 1,501]

[quote user="thebigfeller"]Sure, modern football''s changed. But does that either explain or excuse the cascade (to use a word you employed) of mistakes the board have made throughout their tenure? No - no it does not. What does SKY''s hold over the EPL have to do with their inertia for a whole year when Worthington should''ve dismissed, and ridiculous appointments of Grant, Roeder and Gunn (not that the latter is to blame in any way)? Nothing. Instead, it''s given them a ready made excuse: "We can''t compete. Football isn''t fair." But that spineless attitude is a complete betrayal of the fans of this club: as I said, the board prioritise community over winning, and look where it''s got us.The two year window of parachute payments has made it very difficult for clubs who fall out of the EPL if they don''t get back within that period - but that means the board needed to be at their most focused and on the ball between 2005 and 2007, yet they proved the exact opposite. Failing to dismiss Worthington - then hedging their bets, and refusing to back him properly in the transfer market either - was utterly disastrous. The repercussions have left us where we are today; yet the board learnt so little from the saga that, as Barry has said, they even tried to get him back a few months ago! Meanwhile, Charlton and Southampton are in such a dire position because of boardroom incompetence worse than or at least equal to our own. Charlton spent two seasons'' worth of money in a single summer when Curbishley left and Dowie was appointed; then panicked and sacked Dowie prematurely; then appointed the ludicrous Les Reed! Relegation devastated them, because they''d overspent so catastrophically. And Saints, who already had a bloated, largely useless squad under Harry Redknapp, gave George Burley crazy amounts of money to spend when he was appointed - because their board thought a large transfusion of cash was about to come their way via external investment. But the investment didn''t happen, meaning they had one chance to gain promotion or be destroyed. When Derby knocked them out of the 2007 play-offs on penalties, the die was cast: they were *this* close to administration that very summer, and the slide has continued ever since.What the parachute payments system has done is separate the wheat from the chaff: the well, ruthlessly run clubs from the lazy, ineptly run ones. For a club our size to be relegated from this league, you have to be run with the most staggering level of incompetence: that certainly applied to Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United, Queens Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City when they went down; it applies to Charlton, Southampton and Norwich now. But it doesn''t apply to West Brom, Birmingham, Reading, or at a more moderate level Crystal Palace; and it certainly doesn''t to Stoke, Hull, Preston or Burnley. All smaller clubs than ourselves; all doing very nicely thankyou. Good grief: Blackpool have stayed up for a second straight season, Doncaster have survived as well - how can they do it, but not us? Answer: our board.[/quote]

That''s a lot of clubs run with a staggering level of incompetence. I wonder about the big clubs when I were a lad - I seem to remember Oldham, Bradford, Burnley being at or near the top, Fulham virtually disappearing & Liverpool being in the old 2nd division. What happened there?I am not excusing the Boards decision making or lack of competence, burt it takes a preposterous amount of money to finance a Prem. squad; Liverpool paid £77.5m in player wages last year, So I would imagine your going to be the wrong side of £20m for anything half decent.I''ve said before that I suspect promotion was the worst thing that could have happened; Norwich went up with 3 Prem. quality players, how much to buy the other dozen or so necessary for survival? How much for wages?And if it all goes wrong & relegation ensues anyway?The Board are incompetent. Unfortunately having the competence to - consistently - successfully run a football club is a very rare talent & one that additionally requires huge financial reserves.Benitez buys a Lemon, the Board shrug & write it off. NCFC buy a duff one for acouple of million ..... goodbye transfer budget.

[Robert Ketts Yellow Army 15]

[quote user="thebigfeller"]Hi concerned-scouse,

First, thankyou for a wonderful, heartwarming post. It''s gratifying to know there are people out there who still remember what this club once stood for. I''m going to answer your question in as complete a way as possible: hopefully it''ll trigger debate, if nothing else!

So, what went wrong? Here''s a potted modern history of Norwich City Football Club, with the most important mistakes emboldened.

1. Failure to quickly remove John Deehan as manager when it was clear he was floundering. That win in front of the Spion Kop occurred under him - yet having inherited the greatest side in our history, he won just two games out of 19 over the rest of 1993/4. Victory at Anfield was like a tribute to the European heroes of six months earlier - but it already felt like a distant dream. The club went into decline the moment Mike Walker departed for Everton, and Ruel Fox and Chris Sutton left soon afterwards.

2. Failure to back him properly, especially in terms of strikers - and Deehan''s failure to adequately replace Bryan Gunn when, on one of the most pivotal days in our entire history, he broke his leg in a 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in late December 1994. Open, passing sides need a great goalkeeper. We''d already been winging it for much of that season; in his absence, we suddenly had no protection. Cue one of the worst second half of the season collapses in EPL history, and relegation right at the moment when big money was starting to come into the game - but wiser fans had seen it coming.

3. Failure to come straight back up. Chairman Robert Chase appointed Martin O''Neill on the proviso he would be given ample funds that weren''t there. When O''Neill realised this, it was only a matter of time before he left; when he did, the atmosphere around the club quickly turned poisonous, and the team started to slide. As soon as it became clear we weren''t going to achieve promotion, the banks called in their debts - and suddenly we faced a battle for the club''s entire survival. Thanks to the late, great Geoffrey Watling, who to my mind did more for NCFC than anyone else in our history, Chase was forced out - but having started 1995/6 confidently expected by pundits up and down the land to swiftly return to the top flight, we ended it severely diminished, and effectively back at square one.

4. Our financial position meant many years would have to be spent fighting our debt, meaning little or nothing was made available either to the returning Mike Walker or his successor, Bruce Rioch. Appallingly, and to their eternal shame, Delia Smith''s new board sacked Walker - who against his better judgement, had effectively ridden to our rescue in Summer 1996 - prematurely; then treated Rioch quite disgracefully, hanging him out to dry, describing him as a "square peg in a round hole", and conniving with Director of Football Bryan Hamilton, who effectively stabbed Rioch in the back. Hamilton, despite a managerial CV which made Alan Ball look like Bill Shankly, was immediately appointed, with catastrophic effect - and by Xmas 2000, Norwich were staring at the abyss of the old Third Division.

5. Now, more by luck than judgement, the board finally got something right. Hamilton was replaced with his assistant Nigel Worthington, and relegation avoided. With the board under mounting pressure because of their poor record and Ipswich''s success around that time, Worthington was able to face them down and demand real funds, which he spent wisely. ITV Digital''s deal with the Football League had enabled us to push the boat out a bit; but when it collapsed, it effectively forced us into gambling on promotion. Spending money we hadn''t yet received meant we could only recoup it through a return to the EPL, and failure could''ve left us in an even worse position than we are now. Darren Huckerby''s permanent signing later, as well as those of Leon McKenzie, Matthias Svensson, and the loan signings of Peter Crouch and Kevin Harper, helped us sail to the title in 2004.

6. But here, the mistakes started again, and have never stopped since. Worthington''s decision to release talismanic captain Malky Mackay left the side short of leadership and spirit in the top flight; the board''s failure to sign Dean Ashton in Summer 2004 rather than January 2005 left us short of goals. Even then, the appalling lack of quality within the bottom four that season left us with every chance of survival - but Worthington had never figured out how to win on the road (if you look at his record with Northern Ireland, he still hasn''t!), and leads in crunch games were thrown away like confetti. Norwich were relegated thanks to a humiliating 6-0 clobbering at Fulham: a defeat which has cast a pall over the club ever since, and we''ve never recovered from.

7. Back in the Championship, we were again expected to challenge - but something within the team was wrong. Very wrong, in fact. The manager''s new signings flopped badly, and we spent much of the first half of the campaign in or near the relegation zone. Nigel was clearly past his sell by date, as happens to all except the most exceptional managers eventually; but rather than quietly take him to one side in late Autumn 2005, thank him for the memories and send him on his way, the club staggeringly failed to act. Worthington was allowed to flounder on amid a divisive atmosphere, our crucial parachute payments over halfway to being exhausted.

8. When he finally left in October 2006, time had already almost run out. Into our second and final season of parachute payments, the club needed to appoint a proven manager with a decent track record: some sort of equivalent of Tony Mowbray, if you like. Instead, we plumped for completely unproven Peter Grant. Grant certainly loved the club, and did his very best - but his utterly non-existent man-management skills, appalling signings and tendency to be a one man slag it off if it moves brigade led morale in the dressing room to collapse, and Norwich to slump to bottom of the table - now minus parachute payments - just after his departure in October 2007.

9. Our fast deteriorating financial position meant the idea of any return to the Premier League was now risible. Making matters still  worse was the club''s decision to build the new Jarrold Stand in 2003, and securitise it against future season ticket sales. This increased capacity - but also meant a large proportion of the extra revenue brought in must now necessarily go towards interest on and paying off the loan taken at the time. Other investments in property around the stadium by the board proved wildly optimistic too.

10. Caught between a rock and a hard place, instead of appointing the equivalent of, say, Neil Warnock, who knows his way around this league and even this year, has kept Crystal Palace in a comfortable position while Norwich and Southampton, relegated with Palace in 2005, have plunged towards League 1, the board yet again got it wrong by appointing Glenn Roeder. To be fair to him, Roeder inspired a revival at first; but the signs were bad even by the end of last season, with his and the club''s disgraceful treatment of Darren Huckerby a sign of how out of touch and arrogant he and they were becoming. This season, it became far worse: Roeder''s obsession with loan signings destroying any cohesion or continuity within the team; his contemptuous dismissal of paying supporters who dared question his judgement - and were horribly aware of his dire CV in management - threatening to destroy the one positive remaining at the club: the bond between it and its public.

11. The board had already openly acknowledged it had run out of ideas, and made a complete mess of the approach of wealthy businessman Peter Cullum last summer, as well as losing an anticipated £2m of investment through the abrupt departure of Andrew and Sharon Turner. Just how hard they sought new investment is open to question: many believe Delia''s insistence on only a bona fide Norwich fan being suitable effectively made it close to impossible, and her board''s apparent over-pricing of the club did the rest. With City again in serious relegation trouble, surely this time they''d look for a proven manager? Someone like Aidy Boothroyd, with prior connections to and genuine affection for Norwich, say? But no. Instead, in an utterly reckless gamble, they gave the job to club legend Bryan Gunn - with no prior managerial experience whatever - on the strength of one single game as caretaker.

12. What has followed since has hardly been Gunny''s fault: we all love him, and he stepped up to the plate in extremis. But he should never have been put in such a position in the first place: our predicament demanded wisdom on the part of the board, and they failed utterly. It''s not working for Alan Shearer at Newcastle; it hasn''t worked for Bryan Gunn at Norwich.

Relegation - barring a wholly undeserved get out of jail free card being brandished on Sunday - hasn''t come out of the blue. In truth, there''s been a smell of death about Norwich City FC for at least four years now. You may have noticed the lack of "whatever happened to Norwich City?" articles in the press, in contrast to pieces looking at Charlton, Southampton, or before them, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday or Leeds. There aren''t any because the club sells itself so chronically short. Despite almost 25000 fans continuing to turn up to watch utter dross for four straight seasons, despite being the only club in an entire county, despite the entrepreneurs who''ve moved to Norwich in order to travel into London over the past decade (I appreciate the credit crunch has put the kybosh on this now, but it hardly did so during ten years or so in which the rich got richer and football clubs grew out of all recognition), the club styles itself as "little Norwich", unable to compete, and unwilling to either behave ruthlessly or what it myopically perceives as sell its soul in order to succeed.

For Delia Smith''s board, community comes first every time; winning a poor second. Preposterously, this led them to term our relegation season of 2004/5 a "success"; it''s also led them to place an impossibly high bar on securing new investment and, indeed, to think it''d be alright on the night if we appointed a "Norwich man" as manager. Abundantly clear throughout has been the chronic lack of real footballing expertise within the board, and more latterly, a complete lack of vision or any plan for the future. Smith''s strategy failed when we came down in 2005 and failed to go back up by 2007: she may even have been disillusioned by what modern football seems to have become. But rather than throw the kitchen sink at courting a new buyer, she just became more stubborn than ever: spurning Cullum''s advances as the board muddled on to nowhere fast.

Some observers admire this club for its refusal to bend to the realities of modern football, and maintenance of high principles. But while it''s all very well having a Unique Selling Point, it''s another thing entirely when that refusal to change just results in ever more precipitous decline. Within the last week, Ipswich Town demonstrated their very obvious ambition by appointing Roy Keane as manager, and promising him substantial money to spend on players. Ipswich were taken over last season by someone who is considered good enough as a donor by the Liberal Democrats, but wouldn''t have passed Delia''s fit and proper person test in a million years. Their future is risky, hard to predict in the longer term, but bright; ours - the fabled community club - is all set to be at our lowest level in almost 50 years. The contrast could not be more stark: and if one group of people are to blame above all else for the decline of this football club, it''s Delia Smith and her board. And - perhaps worst of all - I don''t think they''ve learned a thing throughout the entire journey.
[/quote]

Says it all.

[thebigfeller 200]

[quote user="ron obvious"]That''s a lot of clubs run with a staggering level of incompetence. I wonder about the big clubs when I were a lad - I seem to remember Oldham, Bradford, Burnley being at or near the top, Fulham virtually disappearing & Liverpool being in the old 2nd division. What happened there?I am not excusing the Boards decision making or lack of competence, burt it takes a preposterous amount of money to finance a Prem. squad; Liverpool paid £77.5m in player wages last year, So I would imagine your going to be the wrong side of £20m for anything half decent.I''ve said before that I suspect promotion was the worst thing that could have happened; Norwich went up with 3 Prem. quality players, how much to buy the other dozen or so necessary for survival? How much for wages?And if it all goes wrong & relegation ensues anyway?The Board are incompetent. Unfortunately having the competence to - consistently - successfully run a football club is a very rare talent & one that additionally requires huge financial reserves.Benitez buys a Lemon, the Board shrug & write it off. NCFC buy a duff one for acouple of million ..... goodbye transfer budget.

[/quote]There are a lot of incompetent people in football, unfortunately - but it hardly excuses it when it happens at one club over and over again! Benitez was employed by Liverpool because he was already a top, top manager commensurate with their standing as a club: and having the sense to sack Houllier despite them finishing 4th in 2003/4 didn''t detract in any way from said standing. West Brom appointed Mowbray because his track record was good; Palace appointed Warnock for the same reason; Wolves appointed McCarthy, etc etc. We appointed first someone with no experience in management, then someone with a CV which beggared belief in its awfulness, then someone with no experience not just in management, but coaching as well! It''s not rocket science man - and did they learn from their mistakes and appoint people to the board of real footballing expertise? Nope. Just as they got rid of Martin Armstrong and brought in their mate - a sodding grocer.

[ron obvious 1,501]

I agree it''s not rocket science - it''s not any kind of science at all! You cite McCarthy, but his career has not been unblemished. Steve Coppell, who I greatly admire, left Crystal Palace under strange circunstances as I recall.Every body was certain that Paul Jewell could only bring success. Ian Dowie was rated by many. A list of failed (or only temporarily triumphant) managers would be a long one indeed.I suspect there is still, at bottom, a sort of amateurism in our approach to football which would not br tolerated in any normal business.But then, football is really a part of the entertainment industry, so perhaps we should expect a fair degree of irrationality. Let''s be honest, a totally rational entertainment would be totally boring!

[yellow hammer 0]

[quote user="Barry Brockes"]Spot on again bigfeller.  I''m just a simple Norfolk soul who doesn''t pretend to understand many of the detailed financial discussions which take place on this forum but what I do know is that we have received significant parachute payments, have one of the top three home crowds in this division and over the last few years have sold a number of players for profits running into millions of pounds. A number of clubs who, the odds are, unlike us, will be in this league next season have no more a wealthy benefactor than we do, have not received parachute payments, have derisory home gates and have not sold any million pound plus players. Rather points the fickle finger in the direction of the board room doesn''t it. [/quote]

 

Which is exactly the point Mr. Carrow has been making very lucidly for the past few seasons.

[Tim Allman 1]

A brilliant piece by Shaun. Looks like it has made it into the EDP almost unedited.

 

[Bury Green 0]

One point I would add to thebigfellars otherwise inch perfect post is the spin machine created by the current junta throughout their tenure.

 

Their single biggest achievement has been the careful manipulation and control of the majority of fans expectations, you only have to read through year’s worth of posts by various board apologists to realise this.

 

Pretty much every week we are spoon fed safe amounts of Doomcasters gloom ridden spin in the local press, just enough to not get peoples hopes up and just enough to make sure people renew their season tickets and yet for many years since becoming a PLC we have been furnished with a set of accounts tat has told a different tale and yet people have still believed it all.

 

Lets look at some of the real gems we have been fed

 

 “I’m only a small millionaire”

 

“We are following the Charlton model”

 

 “We can be the best small club in the country”

 

 “Prudence with ambition”

 

“We were not in the position to sign Dean Ashton until the full extent of the Sky TV money became known”

 

“There was no offer from peter Cullum”

 

The list goes on and on and now when it all too late are the apologists waking us to the reality of having been spoon fed levels of spin even Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of.

[Punting Canary 0]

Back to Scousers original post.  I was lucky enough to be standing on the Kop the last day it was open and was right behind Goss'' screamer.  I will never forget getting off the coach at 1pm think we have got ages to get to the ground only to hear singing already from across Stanley Park.  An incredible atmosphere and it must have been something special on those European nights.  One day we will be back.  In the meantime whatever everyones thoughts on the politics of the club, the numbers that turn out home and away to support the club, whatever division we are in, makes to you proud to come from this fine County.  And Ipswich and Wolves fans aside there will be a number of other fans clubs around the country quietly cheering us on at the weekend I think.

[Barclay_Boy 0]

agreed Bury Green. I copied and pasted the original post into an email to Mr Doncaster, I know a few others have done it as well (I would suggest everybody does it) and added a few choice comments of my own, and have received a couple of replies with the usual spin and "phone me would love to have a chat about your views" am expecting the next one to conain an invite to "do lunch".

This is the time to make our CEO and owners know that we would like them to pass control to people who know what they''re doing.

[Budapest Canary 152]

[quote user="Barclay_Boy"]

agreed Bury Green. I copied and pasted the original post into an email to Mr Doncaster, I know a few others have done it as well (I would suggest everybody does it) and added a few choice comments of my own, and have received a couple of replies with the usual spin and "phone me would love to have a chat about your views" am expecting the next one to conain an invite to "do lunch".

This is the time to make our CEO and owners know that we would like them to pass control to people who know what they''re doing.

[/quote]

I wonder whether Delia would allow any of his restaurants be managed in the same manner she does NCFC. Would she appoint a loyal waiter as head chef? Probably no. 

[Punting Canary 0]

Much of the demise has been presided over under the watchful eye of Mr Doncaster himself.  There is definitely a strong argument for the board considering his position.....

[Mr.Carrow 376]

[quote user="Budapest Canary"][quote user="Barclay_Boy"]

agreed Bury Green. I copied and pasted the original post into an email to Mr Doncaster, I know a few others have done it as well (I would suggest everybody does it) and added a few choice comments of my own, and have received a couple of replies with the usual spin and "phone me would love to have a chat about your views" am expecting the next one to conain an invite to "do lunch".

This is the time to make our CEO and owners know that we would like them to pass control to people who know what they''re doing.

[/quote]

I wonder whether Delia would allow any of his restaurants be managed in the same manner she does NCFC. Would she appoint a loyal waiter as head chef? Probably no. 

[/quote]

Good point [Y].

[Syteanric 1]

Mr Lawsons post is spot on and has made the front page of this very site....basically its the article Archant want but are too scarfed to say themselves for fear of a Colney/Carrow road ban id expect.

Well done Shaun! never a truer word spoken sir!

jas :)

[Joanna Grey 0]

[quote user="jas the barclay king"]

Mr Lawsons post is spot on and has made the front page of this very site....basically its the article Archant want but are too scarfed to say themselves for fear of a Colney/Carrow road ban id expect.

Well done Shaun! never a truer word spoken sir!

jas :)

[/quote]

If you ignore the hearsay and rumour parts of it then, yes.

[canary cherub 1]

[quote user="Mustachio Furioso"][quote user="jas the barclay king"]

Mr Lawsons post is spot on and has made the front page of this very site....basically its the article Archant want but are too scarfed to say themselves for fear of a Colney/Carrow road ban id expect.

Well done Shaun! never a truer word spoken sir!

jas :)

[/quote]

If you ignore the hearsay and rumour parts of it then, yes.

[/quote]

Same old crap different username - "Topic has 1 Replies" or "Delia S Tickers"

I don''t know why you bother

 

[ca 1]

[quote user="thebigfeller"]Hi concerned-scouse,

First, thankyou for a wonderful, heartwarming post. It''s gratifying to know there are people out there who still remember what this club once stood for. I''m going to answer your question in as complete a way as possible: hopefully it''ll trigger debate, if nothing else!

So, what went wrong? Here''s a potted modern history of Norwich City Football Club, with the most important mistakes emboldened.

1. Failure to quickly remove John Deehan as manager when it was clear he was floundering. That win in front of the Spion Kop occurred under him - yet having inherited the greatest side in our history, he won just two games out of 19 over the rest of 1993/4. Victory at Anfield was like a tribute to the European heroes of six months earlier - but it already felt like a distant dream. The club went into decline the moment Mike Walker departed for Everton, and Ruel Fox and Chris Sutton left soon afterwards.

2. Failure to back him properly, especially in terms of strikers - and Deehan''s failure to adequately replace Bryan Gunn when, on one of the most pivotal days in our entire history, he broke his leg in a 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in late December 1994. Open, passing sides need a great goalkeeper. We''d already been winging it for much of that season; in his absence, we suddenly had no protection. Cue one of the worst second half of the season collapses in EPL history, and relegation right at the moment when big money was starting to come into the game - but wiser fans had seen it coming.

3. Failure to come straight back up. Chairman Robert Chase appointed Martin O''Neill on the proviso he would be given ample funds that weren''t there. When O''Neill realised this, it was only a matter of time before he left; when he did, the atmosphere around the club quickly turned poisonous, and the team started to slide. As soon as it became clear we weren''t going to achieve promotion, the banks called in their debts - and suddenly we faced a battle for the club''s entire survival. Thanks to the late, great Geoffrey Watling, who to my mind did more for NCFC than anyone else in our history, Chase was forced out - but having started 1995/6 confidently expected by pundits up and down the land to swiftly return to the top flight, we ended it severely diminished, and effectively back at square one.

4. Our financial position meant many years would have to be spent fighting our debt, meaning little or nothing was made available either to the returning Mike Walker or his successor, Bruce Rioch. Appallingly, and to their eternal shame, Delia Smith''s new board sacked Walker - who against his better judgement, had effectively ridden to our rescue in Summer 1996 - prematurely; then treated Rioch quite disgracefully, hanging him out to dry, describing him as a "square peg in a round hole", and conniving with Director of Football Bryan Hamilton, who effectively stabbed Rioch in the back. Hamilton, despite a managerial CV which made Alan Ball look like Bill Shankly, was immediately appointed, with catastrophic effect - and by Xmas 2000, Norwich were staring at the abyss of the old Third Division.

5. Now, more by luck than judgement, the board finally got something right. Hamilton was replaced with his assistant Nigel Worthington, and relegation avoided. With the board under mounting pressure because of their poor record and Ipswich''s success around that time, Worthington was able to face them down and demand real funds, which he spent wisely. ITV Digital''s deal with the Football League had enabled us to push the boat out a bit; but when it collapsed, it effectively forced us into gambling on promotion. Spending money we hadn''t yet received meant we could only recoup it through a return to the EPL, and failure could''ve left us in an even worse position than we are now. Darren Huckerby''s permanent signing later, as well as those of Leon McKenzie, Matthias Svensson, and the loan signings of Peter Crouch and Kevin Harper, helped us sail to the title in 2004.

6. But here, the mistakes started again, and have never stopped since. Worthington''s decision to release talismanic captain Malky Mackay left the side short of leadership and spirit in the top flight; the board''s failure to sign Dean Ashton in Summer 2004 rather than January 2005 left us short of goals. Even then, the appalling lack of quality within the bottom four that season left us with every chance of survival - but Worthington had never figured out how to win on the road (if you look at his record with Northern Ireland, he still hasn''t!), and leads in crunch games were thrown away like confetti. Norwich were relegated thanks to a humiliating 6-0 clobbering at Fulham: a defeat which has cast a pall over the club ever since, and we''ve never recovered from.

7. Back in the Championship, we were again expected to challenge - but something within the team was wrong. Very wrong, in fact. The manager''s new signings flopped badly, and we spent much of the first half of the campaign in or near the relegation zone. Nigel was clearly past his sell by date, as happens to all except the most exceptional managers eventually; but rather than quietly take him to one side in late Autumn 2005, thank him for the memories and send him on his way, the club staggeringly failed to act. Worthington was allowed to flounder on amid a divisive atmosphere, our crucial parachute payments over halfway to being exhausted.

8. When he finally left in October 2006, time had already almost run out. Into our second and final season of parachute payments, the club needed to appoint a proven manager with a decent track record: some sort of equivalent of Tony Mowbray, if you like. Instead, we plumped for completely unproven Peter Grant. Grant certainly loved the club, and did his very best - but his utterly non-existent man-management skills, appalling signings and tendency to be a one man slag it off if it moves brigade led morale in the dressing room to collapse, and Norwich to slump to bottom of the table - now minus parachute payments - just after his departure in October 2007.

9. Our fast deteriorating financial position meant the idea of any return to the Premier League was now risible. Making matters still  worse was the club''s decision to build the new Jarrold Stand in 2003, and securitise it against future season ticket sales. This increased capacity - but also meant a large proportion of the extra revenue brought in must now necessarily go towards interest on and paying off the loan taken at the time. Other investments in property around the stadium by the board proved wildly optimistic too.

10. Caught between a rock and a hard place, instead of appointing the equivalent of, say, Neil Warnock, who knows his way around this league and even this year, has kept Crystal Palace in a comfortable position while Norwich and Southampton, relegated with Palace in 2005, have plunged towards League 1, the board yet again got it wrong by appointing Glenn Roeder. To be fair to him, Roeder inspired a revival at first; but the signs were bad even by the end of last season, with his and the club''s disgraceful treatment of Darren Huckerby a sign of how out of touch and arrogant he and they were becoming. This season, it became far worse: Roeder''s obsession with loan signings destroying any cohesion or continuity within the team; his contemptuous dismissal of paying supporters who dared question his judgement - and were horribly aware of his dire CV in management - threatening to destroy the one positive remaining at the club: the bond between it and its public.

11. The board had already openly acknowledged it had run out of ideas, and made a complete mess of the approach of wealthy businessman Peter Cullum last summer, as well as losing an anticipated £2m of investment through the abrupt departure of Andrew and Sharon Turner. Just how hard they sought new investment is open to question: many believe Delia''s insistence on only a bona fide Norwich fan being suitable effectively made it close to impossible, and her board''s apparent over-pricing of the club did the rest. With City again in serious relegation trouble, surely this time they''d look for a proven manager? Someone like Aidy Boothroyd, with prior connections to and genuine affection for Norwich, say? But no. Instead, in an utterly reckless gamble, they gave the job to club legend Bryan Gunn - with no prior managerial experience whatever - on the strength of one single game as caretaker.

12. What has followed since has hardly been Gunny''s fault: we all love him, and he stepped up to the plate in extremis. But he should never have been put in such a position in the first place: our predicament demanded wisdom on the part of the board, and they failed utterly. It''s not working for Alan Shearer at Newcastle; it hasn''t worked for Bryan Gunn at Norwich.

Relegation - barring a wholly undeserved get out of jail free card being brandished on Sunday - hasn''t come out of the blue. In truth, there''s been a smell of death about Norwich City FC for at least four years now. You may have noticed the lack of "whatever happened to Norwich City?" articles in the press, in contrast to pieces looking at Charlton, Southampton, or before them, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday or Leeds. There aren''t any because the club sells itself so chronically short. Despite almost 25000 fans continuing to turn up to watch utter dross for four straight seasons, despite being the only club in an entire county, despite the entrepreneurs who''ve moved to Norwich in order to travel into London over the past decade (I appreciate the credit crunch has put the kybosh on this now, but it hardly did so during ten years or so in which the rich got richer and football clubs grew out of all recognition), the club styles itself as "little Norwich", unable to compete, and unwilling to either behave ruthlessly or what it myopically perceives as sell its soul in order to succeed.

For Delia Smith''s board, community comes first every time; winning a poor second. Preposterously, this led them to term our relegation season of 2004/5 a "success"; it''s also led them to place an impossibly high bar on securing new investment and, indeed, to think it''d be alright on the night if we appointed a "Norwich man" as manager. Abundantly clear throughout has been the chronic lack of real footballing expertise within the board, and more latterly, a complete lack of vision or any plan for the future. Smith''s strategy failed when we came down in 2005 and failed to go back up by 2007: she may even have been disillusioned by what modern football seems to have become. But rather than throw the kitchen sink at courting a new buyer, she just became more stubborn than ever: spurning Cullum''s advances as the board muddled on to nowhere fast.

Some observers admire this club for its refusal to bend to the realities of modern football, and maintenance of high principles. But while it''s all very well having a Unique Selling Point, it''s another thing entirely when that refusal to change just results in ever more precipitous decline. Within the last week, Ipswich Town demonstrated their very obvious ambition by appointing Roy Keane as manager, and promising him substantial money to spend on players. Ipswich were taken over last season by someone who is considered good enough as a donor by the Liberal Democrats, but wouldn''t have passed Delia''s fit and proper person test in a million years. Their future is risky, hard to predict in the longer term, but bright; ours - the fabled community club - is all set to be at our lowest level in almost 50 years. The contrast could not be more stark: and if one group of people are to blame above all else for the decline of this football club, it''s Delia Smith and her board. And - perhaps worst of all - I don''t think they''ve learned a thing throughout the entire journey.
[/quote]

 

Well done , this made the front page of the pinkun, although have they got the author right, they give the crdedit to Shaun Lawson and not Big Fella??

[Bury Green 0]

[quote user="Mustachio Furioso"][quote user="jas the barclay king"]

Mr Lawsons post is spot on and has made the front page of this very site....basically its the article Archant want but are too scarfed to say themselves for fear of a Colney/Carrow road ban id expect.

Well done Shaun! never a truer word spoken sir!

jas :)

[/quote]

If you ignore the hearsay and rumour parts of it then, yes.

[/quote]

Hi Neil,

So by your reckoning if the content of post in question is incorrect then it would be tantamount to libel?

So how, given the raft of evidence in the public domain that suggests otherwise would the Club or joint majority shareholders go about making such a case stick?

The reality is they couldn’t and moreover myself and many others would welcome this to once and for all expose them for what we have known them to be for a long time.