Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
BroadstairsR

The biggest mistake by a NCFC manager.

Recommended Posts

As it is still the silly season, albeit by just six days, I feel at liberty to post the following small piece of nonsense.

 

"What was the biggest mistake ever made by a City manager?"

 

This is prompted from watching Sky this pm and hearing the revelation that Malky Mackay achieved promotion to the Premiership with three successive sides, Norwich, West Ham and Watford and then was discarded by each of them in turn, without ever playing in that elight league.

 

I therefore came to the conclusion that Worthy''s selling of Malky was possibly the biggest mistake ever by one of our managers. Not necessarily for the fact that he may have made our defensive qualities greater, but more because his leadership and ability to "pop" up with a goal or two might well have made the difference between survival or not.

 

That this is fairly recent is not a comment of my personal history re: NCFC. I  died a death at the sale of Ron Davies to Southampton , for example.

 

Some might also say that Roeder''s premature disarding of Darren Huckerby was tantamount to treason or Mike Walker''s deflection to Everton ranks up there.

 

I can''t think of any more, but there must be a lot. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

[quote user="Brighton Yellow"]Revelation? Watford kept him and they came straight back![/quote]

 

I stand corrected, but be less pedantic Mr. Brighton. The Sky commentator got it wrong or my memory failed me.

 

How many times did Malky play in the Premiership? 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I heard them say that too but I''m sure he did play for Watford in the premiership? He certainly stayed with them.

But I do agree that it was one of the biggest mistakes by a Norwich manager in recent times. I think Worthington forgot the vital ingredient that PL holds so dearly...team spirit. Malky represented everything that was great about our promotion winning season and the dressing room would have been a worse place without him.

Can you imagine Malky not turning up at that final fulham game like some of our other so called premiership stars who were already looking for a move away?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

John Bond has been quoted many times saying that he now regrets leaving Norwich and should have stayed for as long as he could have done.

Martin Peters says the same in his autobiography and, even though he was 36 when he went to Sheff Utd, he said he could have given us another season and had a coaching position at the club ultimately-I think one of the reasons he left was that there had been a bit of messing about regarding giving him one in the first place.

Some Managers have let players go who have gone onto have good careers-John Fashanu and Dion spring to mind, others failed to sign players that were as good as ours-procastinated and we lost them, Mike Walker with Jussi Jaaskelainen for example.

But hindsight is easy and applies to all of the above!

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was in a pub in Dundee, and met Jack Charlton, who i think was Middlesborough manager at the time, and he had been watching a player in Dundee that night.

Anyway, it was the day we sold Ted MacDougall, to Southampton, i believe. Ted Mac, was a 20+ goals a season player, and with his strike partner Phil Boyer, cult heroes with us fans.

I said to Jack Charlton that i was gutted we sold Mac for just £50,000, and he said that his work rate wasn''t good enough. I suppose managers look at players differently to us fans but i was gutted when Ted Mac left.

Was also a big Ron Davies fan at the time he was here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

[quote user="Brighton Yellow"]Revelation? Watford kept him and they came straight back![/quote]

 

I stand corrected, but be less pedantic Mr. Brighton. The Sky commentator got it wrong or my memory failed me.

 

How many times did Malky play in the Premiership? 

[/quote]Talking of being pedantic, the Cardiff V West Ham game was on BBC not Sky!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Worthy not building a team following our premiership relegation. It would have meant we could have kept Ashton and had a squad capable of bouncing back. But Andy F''ING Hughes, Peter Thorne, Jason Jarrett, carl robinson, I can''t remember the other 3 or four he brought in then, but it was an awful attempt that many of us fans could see. I can tell you now that still really hurts, as much as the Fulham game, it was an easier divsion to get out. But that summer was critical in the last decade.

Before then, we have good ones mentioned above. But have to say for the good worthy and the board, it was dismantled even quicker, only for the end to come under Gunn and our current surge now.

So for me what Worthy built up was quickly built up and then shattered just like that till Lambert came in.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Grant spending £600,000 on Jamie ''Barndoor'' Cureton and then playing him upfront on his own while smashing long balls at him...he is three foot tall, that is not going to work!Worthy releasing Malky.Selling - Rob Fleck, Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox...Not signing Dion Dublin when we had the chance.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

As it is still the silly season, albeit by just six days, I feel at liberty to post the following small piece of nonsense.

 

"What was the biggest mistake ever made by a City manager?"

 

I therefore came to the conclusion that Worthy''s selling of Malky was possibly the biggest mistake ever by one of our managers. Not necessarily for the fact that he may have made our defensive qualities greater, but more because his leadership and ability to "pop" up with a goal or two might well have made the difference between survival or not.[/quote]I think Malky would have been an important presence in the dressing room and in training, good for morale - seemed very harsh to cast him out.  And to then start a premiership campaign with Charlton & Fleming as first choice CBs.....Biggest mistake for me was Mike Walker going to Everton.  Buggered up his career, our season and Everton''s season.  He should have stayed and left in the summer if he was that unhappy, though who knows what went on in the Chairman''s office.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the problem Walker had with Robert Chase was his own contract and security as Manager-he''d been promoted the previous Summer from Reserve Team and had the sort of contract and salary that reflected that. He had been wanting, fairly, some improvement on those original terms, especially the contract length from towards the end of the 92/93 season and it just wasn''t happening, despite his asking Chase to improve/extend same, even as that exact thing was being done for many of the players.

Walker felt he wasn''t being taken seriously and, despite what he and the team had achieved, there was little demonstrable faith being shown in him to carry things forward, hence his upping and leaving when a very good offer was made for him from Everton.

We could have built on the success and potential he had started by getting in another Manager from outside, someone with some know how and experience, enouggh to pull the team together and push it onto the next level, but the safe and cheap decision was made to appoint Dixie in his place, likewise Megson after him.

Eventually the mould was broken and O''Neill was appointed, but he was certainly not the choice of one individual who found himself outnumbered and outvoted on that one.

Lambert talks of being frightened to lose-I think, back then, elements at the club seemed frightened of winning?

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Malky definitely played in the Elite league! He played a total of 14 top flight games for Watford.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
This in the modern era is straightforward to me

- It''s Bryan Gunn signing a form which took him from respected City Icon to NCFC manager

A legend in terms of appearances , loyalty and respect - not many to match him

His mistake, taking on a job too big for him , albeit in my opinion to try to save the club from instant relegation, was disaster

He is still hated by many but , to me , putting pen to paper was the biggest mistake of any NCFC manager

All the best Bryn, in the Chester area

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It has to be Glenn Roeder''s general attitude towards the job and his ''no one is bigger than me'' stance, what a complete error of judgement.

And the cherry on the icing? Getting rid of Huckerby, the guy still had at least 2 season in him...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="southstand"]This in the modern era is straightforward to me

- It''s Bryan Gunn signing a form which took him from respected City Icon to NCFC manager[/quote]Agree with this.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
not signing a keeper to cover for gunns injury; marshall started well but we got relegated from a strong position as a result

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My top 3 from last 20 years or so: in reverse order

1. Not replacing Gunn with an experienced goalie- I agree with Zip that this cost us relegation.

2. Roeder ditching Huckerby, massive PR disaster, removed the only genuinely creative option we had and set in train a downward spiral of journeymen loanees and ultimately the failed gamble of appointing Gunn to stave off relegation.

3. Worthy letting both Iwan and Malky go at the same time. I think this was headless chicken time- Worthy failed to appreciate the need for leaders in the squad and ripped the heart from that promotion team which gave us a slow start in the Prem from which we didn''t recover.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Although Huckerby leaving was obviously upsetting for the fans - especially the manner in which it was handled - it did allow us to sign Hoolahan who has been fairly important the last couple of season.

 

Also, speaking to a friend who covers MLS football he said Huckerby had 6 good months in America and then was scuppered by injuries. So the decision not to renew his contract may have been the correct one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

For me, its not taking Chris Woods on from Wednesday when Gunn got injured. Well past his best, but still good enough to keep us in the premier league, and well worth the £1m.  It was that decision that cost us our PL status.  All for the sake of £1m. Still, we got 2 great keepers out of that - I can''t see us having been able to develop either Marshall or Rob Green in the PL.I don''t begrudge Walker his trip to Everton, or O''Neill to Leicester. We all know what the real problem was there - a chairman who was totally dependant on over-drafts, and hadn''t caught up with the need for long term structured funding to be in place - borrow to grow the club, the revenues will come in, rather than borrow short term on demand, and wait for your creditors to close you down.I still think we screwed up letting Cureton go first time round.  He very clearly had the eye for goal, but in his latter years, his legs let him down, and he didn''t have the bulk or presence of Fleck or Roberts to let his experience and muscle show through, and support him in his latter years.  If I recall, we didn''t get much for him.  Or Ashley Ward.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Worthy getting rid of Malky .Then bringing in players that were near the end of their playing career and didn''t have the same passion for the club .

The board employing Peter Grant ,when there was ( I am led to Believe ) more high calibre candidates in the frame .

I listened to Peter Grant being interviewed on 5 live a couple of years back when he was no2 at WBA ,at the end of the interview he blamed the club for his failing as its manager .

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Roeder thinking Darel Russell was a centre forward, perhaps.

Turned out well in the end, mind!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]1] Rodent getting rid of Hucks

2] walker selling Sutton[/quote]Mike Walker didnt sell Chris Sutton.. Robert Chase did.. John Deehan was manager at the time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Getting rid of Malky was not the problem. He would have been massively out of his depth in the Prem, as two subsequent managers agreed. His legendary status on here is largely because, unlike Gary Holt and Flem, he was not exposed in the Premier League. In my humble opinion.

The problem was not replacing him.

Can''t see why anyone thinks Walker leaving for Everton was a mistake. He had every right to test himself at a bigger club. His biggest mistake was signing a black player. Proved in one fell swoop that he ''wasn''t an Evertonian'', as he admitted in his first interview, if I recall.

Agree that the both Gunn debacles (not replacing him as a keeper and him agreeing to take the manager''s job) are right up there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
"Grant spending £600,000 on Jamie ''Barndoor'' Cureton and then playing him upfront on his own while smashing long balls at him...he is three foot tall, that is not going to work!

Worthy releasing Malky.

Selling - Rob Fleck, Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox..."

The accounts seem to show that the figure quoted for Cureton was the sum total of his conttract rather than any fee.

Sutton and Fox both had release clauses, so it''s not really up to the manager, not sure about Fleck.

Walker''s move was fairly astute, looking back. Perhaps he was aware of his own limitations and decided to take a hefty payday when it came. Both he and the poisoned dwarf had been in talks with Everton and Leicester way before they left.

Oddly enough the swapping of Mike Sheron for one of O''Neills old players keith Scott is never quoted. A true donkey of heroic proportions.

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...