Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Yellow Rider

That was then THIS is now!

Recommended Posts

Hard to know where to start on this thread after the storming last two seasons. Highlight for me was not actually the reality of promotion but that incredible night at the beamback, I''d not experienced anything like that since the Bayern Munich home match.

Anyway, back to the point.,

''Then'' is exactly 7 years ago when Worthy and The Cook were in charge off the field.

Lets just compare the attitude of these main protagonists with todays leaders.

Although I was never an outright Worthy fan, there is no doubt he did a great job on a shoestring budget and produced a team in that promotion season in many ways mirroring todays squad in terms of the team spirit and camaraderie. When he finally decided to adopt a more adventurous approach away from home there was a few swashbuckling performances and we went up in some style.

When it came to The Premier though Worthy was awestruck of the whole thing frequently referring to Mr. Wenger, Mr. Benitez and Mr. Jol. The away record and performances were truly shocking and I witnessed feeble attempts at Anfield, The Valley and Villa Park. There were many others.

The Boardoom was dominated by The Cook who was queen of all she surveyed. You couldn''t switch on the TV or pick up a paper without seeing or hearing her. Football club owners should keep a low profile as they are merly custodians for the real owners - the fans. Now I could tolerate the high profile and deliberate publicity seeking style of The Cook IF she had displayed the right attitude to that Premiership season. Here is the key point. She referred to the whole thing as.......''a lovely holiday'' and of course we had that dreadfully patronising ....''little Norwich'' interview on Sky after the Man Utd home win.

I never, ever heard any stirring message of ambition, determination or drive to stay in the Premiership from Worthy or The Cook or indeed anyone of note at NCFC. To be fair to Delia, her attitude was reflective of the Board as a whole. It came to a head when Yellow Rider was having difficulty with his cornflakes on the Monday after the Craven Cottage murder. Mr. Munby (lovely guy though he was) said this on Five Live...''I wanted to run on the pitch and give him a big hug. If I had my way he would have a job for life''.

Now just look at those comments again and take them in the context of that defeat and that abysmal away record. If anything confirms the completely amateurish and out of touch attitude of that Board, then those dreadful statements most certainly do.

Forget the money, if the right postive attitude had run throughout FCR in 2004-2005 season we would have had a damn sight better chance of survival!

Now to ''Today'' - what has been so notable is the almost complete lack of public exposure devoted to The Cook. No interrviews that I saw and I have just checked the EDP for last Tuesday and Wednesday and there is virtually nothing. Mr and Mrs Smith knew the wolves were closing in after relegation in 2009 and McNally was brought in to assume almost total control. PL followed and the rest is the recent fabulous history.

All we need to say about PL is encapsulated in the fact that he has won 50% (!!) of his away matches in those two seasons. Both he and DM were (within hours of Pompey) setting out clear, ambitious goals and publicly stating that ....''every waking hour would be spent on striving for Premiership survival''.

2004 was great of course but I quickly had serious worries as to what would happen. 2011? Who knows?

What we can say for 100% is thatwith PL and DM at the helm we are likley to make a much better fist of it than 7 years ago!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

V.Good post.

 

The difference is the manager.

Worthy went into game hoping to get 1 up and then hold on, Lambert goes into games expecting to get 1 up and then wants another. We will score plenty next year in sure, but conceed a fair few too!

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I disagree nana, the difference is we have a board with knowledge and ambition, we have a manager who is backed with some fantastic staff and together they make the difference. Don''t get me wrong, Lambert is a fantastic manager, but the difference has been made by a lot of people. Lamberts winning mentality is shared with everyone inside the club so it seems, it''s infectuous!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It truly is a pronominal achievement to be where we are now, no bitter 1p5wich fan, Cardiff fan or any other daft muppet who tries to be little what this club has done in this and last season can do so without looking like a total idiot.As for the future, I really have no idea what to expect, I have set no expectations for the Premiership thus far, I would love the club to aim high but you just don''t know how we will fare. Who knows, in 5 years time we could be an established Prem team playing in front of 35,000+ on a regular basis.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Whilst you point the finger of blame at Delia you miss out the fact that Doncaster was the CE responsible for day to day running (or ruining) of this club yes prudence with ambition remember it. Since Doncaster was replaced with McNally the club has moved forward in leeps and bounds Delia and her husband are still there with new board members and a totally different approach.

Worthington was out of his depth in the Premiership, remember Helveg not fit enough to play for Norwich but fit enough to play for his country. The release of Malky and Iwan to rip the heart out of the club the signing of Simon Charlton followed a bit later by the statement we need six foot players. Remember the debacle at Fulham I can''t see Lamberts team rolling over like that.

Lets look forward to next season.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Very good post Yellow Rider!

Worthington done a good job in getting us up but his slow painful fall from grace for me started when he wrongly got rid of Iwan Roberts soon before the end of the 2004 Championship winning season!

The negative atitiude of the board and Worthy was the main reason we got relegated!

With a more positive outlook we could of finished in a top 15 position in 2004-05 and earn an extra season in the top flight than what we had which would of completely altered the subsequent years and fortune of NCFC!

This would of been achieved by giving more money to Worthy which would have enabled the squad to have been put in place before the start of the ampaign and team being more positive and generally looking to beat teams!

Mcnally and Lamberts positive football based positivity looks likely to give us a much better chance than we did in 2004--05!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thoroughly agree with the OP''s observation about the difference the ''right positive attitude'' would have made during the 2004 campaign. 

It''s so much different nowadays - just like Wenger & Mourinho we currently have a Manager who says he likes to ''get into players heads''.

In any walk of life, if you want top performance it''s no use simply relying on your people having the necessary skill set to do the job. You derive far greater benefit when individual and collective brains are programmed efficiently too. PL knows this full well - that''s why he values the advice he gets from Martin O''Neill and Ottmar Hitzfeld. Those two Managers are also recognised exponents of using ''appropriate focus''. Consistent use of this and other proven ''mind set'' techniques is a well-proven way to produce much better results!

Looking back, what has gone has gone; we should all have plenty of confidence in our leadership team now. I find it hard to think of anyone I''d rather have than PL right now. Given what we need, he''s such a good fit!...

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Good post, I agree to a point but I think it was definitely Doncaster''s misjudged belief in that we were going to emulate what Charlton had done by establishing themselves in the premier league on a (small) budget was our undoing that year, as I understand it Worthy wanted to buy Dean Ashton in the summer of 2004-05 & Doomy didn''t give him the budget to do it this coupled with getting rid of Malky & Ewan which was down to Worthy but perhaps it was a gamble on his part in trying work within his tight budget.I think people are quick to slate Delia for what happened that season & subsequently when we were relegated to league 1, personally I think both she & Wyn-Jones are passionate about our club but they were perhaps misguided by buying into Doncaster''s approach.  Clearly Doncaster was simply out of his depth, this is highlighted by the way he went about player transfers, us going into that campaign with Gary Doherty as our only signing for a central striker & always waiting until the last day of the window before trying to secure a key target, anyone remember him trying & failing to sign David Cotterill from Bristol C or Steve Howard from Luton what a joke!In my view the appointment of David McNally as CE is absolutely pivotal to what has happened to Norwich City over the last 2 seasons we have a man in charge with football experience but he had the courage to sack Brian Gunn (club legend) as manager & to appoint Paul Lambert & Co (be honest did anyone really know who he was back then?) & only after he himself had only been in the CE hot seat for a few weeks.Now can you image the uproar from the City faithful had this not have been a successful appointment!!  Lets also not forget that at this time we apparently were not far from going into administration.....the pressure would have been immense.  In my opinion Doomy would have melted in that situation!So well done to David McNally personally I think he & Michael Foulger for his financial backing of the team, has saved us from football oblivion.Obviously what Paul Lambert has achieved with his team over the last 2 seasons is beyond belief but I absolutely agree with the final sentence in the original post, I have every confidence that our club will be given the best possible chance of survival in the premier league next season with these 2 men at the helm, thanks to them its been one hell of a ride.  OTBC

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...