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The Worthy out movement ?

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The thread about crap players we loved took me back to those dark dark days. I wasn''t a pink un poster at the time so i was wondering if anyone who posts on here was involved ? Did any of you go on the protest marches ? looking back do you think it was right ?     

  Personally i think it was a very black period in our history fan against fan, terrible poisonous atmospheres and a lynch mob mentality. i was very much anti the worthy out movement and think it probably prolonged his stay here and made the man himself and the board dig there heels in. OTBC

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I was 17/18 and posted a lot on the official messageboard, and it was pretty heated on there.  KTF and all that.I wanted Worthy Out, the most annoying thing was he left/got sacked the day I went to Uni so I missed it all!  I still think the board made a bad mistake by not getting rid of him sooner, but at the end of the day we''d probably not be where we are now.

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At the time... given how we''d cantered to the Championship, then ballsed up the Premier League campaign (Graham Stuart? Simon Charlton? David Bentley? Mattias Jonson?) - followed that by replacing outgoing players with absolute duffers (Jarrett, Hughes, Colin, Robinson, etc) we''d gone in 2 years from being the best we''d been in 7 years to arguably the worst. All under one manager.

I did find aspects of the WO movement more like a distasteful witch hunt; Worthy wasn''t a bad manager, he''d just found himself out of his depth in the top flight and (I assume due to financial limitations) disassembled a good squad and made it a terrible one. I remember one game where we started with Brennan, Charlton, Drury, Huckerby and Jarrett, the whole team naturally lurched to the left and the opposition just strolled through the space in the middle. It was awful.

Worthy had to go, but the atmosphere at games was dreadful. I felt sorry for him. The whole ground against him. That Burnley game... Doc getting sent off was actually really funny, it was that bad. The storm afterwards... all very symbolic. What followed with Grant and Roeder was even worse. Looking back, it was the heavens opening up as if to say to us THERE IS WORSE TO COME FOR YOU.

Looking back now, I think well of Worthington. He overachieved with an average squad and gave us that Play-Off Final. He worked the squad and got us promoted. Following the wilderness years, that was something special.

I don''t blame Worthington for refusing to walk even when things were falling apart. I do blame Neil Doncaster however, as I think he was more responsible with higher-level mismanagement.

However, as much as I wanted Worthington out, I never wore the t-shirt carrying the slogan.

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I''m still very proud that I took part in that City movement despite being spat on by some City fans at the time!................we were proved right in the end!

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What proved you right in the end Wiz?

 

Everything got worse until the owners brought in McNally and Bowkett. That rather suggests that those who vented their anger on Worthy and then Delia were wrong. The Doncaster/Munby Out Movement would have some grounds to claim they were proved right in the end. That is if there had been one of course...

 

 

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]

What proved you right in the end Wiz?

 

Everything got worse until the owners brought in McNally and Bowkett. That rather suggests that those who vented their anger on Worthy and then Delia were wrong. The Doncaster/Munby Out Movement would have some grounds to claim they were proved right in the end. That is if there had been one of course...

 

 

[/quote]

 

It started aa domino effect at the club imo Nutty.

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It was time for Worthy to go as the club needed a massive shake up, none of us realised quite how much of one and when he went it became clear how he''d been doing an impossible job well. He was a great manager for us but ultimately it was best for the club that he went.I didn''t realise how important it was that he went or how far we would fall when he went but I see that whole movement as the catalyst to the overhaul of the club.I don''t blame Worthy for staying and seeing as how far we fell afterwards I am more convinced that he was actually doing well in the circumstances.

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I felt after the 6-0 defeat his time was up but the club stuck with him and his summer signings did little to inspire. If i remember correctly that was the season we started with 3 home games in a row and failed to win any of them.

When his time came i was happy to see the back of him. He looked drained and his post match interviews showed it. I had somewhat of a hatred towards him by then as wanted him to walk along time before he was shoved. Though that wained when Roeder tore apart our club.

Looking back i still hate Roeder with a passion. Gunn and Grant were just in place at the wrong time. Not really knowing what to do. The real puppetmaster Doncaster is the one person who has escaped the radar. The managers take the brunt but he was the Messiah of bad calls. Scottish football is in disaray at the mo and with him at the helm it ain''t going to get better.

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[quote user="Wiz"][quote user="nutty nigel"]

What proved you right in the end Wiz?

 

Everything got worse until the owners brought in McNally and Bowkett. That rather suggests that those who vented their anger on Worthy and then Delia were wrong. The Doncaster/Munby Out Movement would have some grounds to claim they were proved right in the end. That is if there had been one of course...

 

 

[/quote]

 

It started aa domino effect at the club imo Nutty.

[/quote]Slowest domino effect in history!

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]

What proved you right in the end Wiz?

 

Everything got worse until the owners brought in McNally and Bowkett. That rather suggests that those who vented their anger on Worthy and then Delia were wrong. The Doncaster/Munby Out Movement would have some grounds to claim they were proved right in the end. That is if there had been one of course...

 

 

[/quote]

 

That doesn''t fit in with the little I know about this in particular, Nutty, or with the way boardrooms work in general. There was a revealing interview Michael Wynn Jones gave sometime in the mid-2000s in which he admitted it had taken some years for him and Delia to come to terms with the odd world of football, and in particular said they''d probably got through too many managers too quickly. There were four from 1996 to 2000.I think that lesson was a factor in them keeping Worthington on into the 2006-07 season. Unfortunately it was the wrong lesson to remember just then, because Worthington was shot as an NCFC manager and should have been let go in the summer.I can''t say what Munby''s attitude was. However I very strongly suspect Doncaster thought Worthington should be sacked but found his view overruled by Smith and Jones, showing that streak of sentimentality that surfaced again with the decision to keep Gunn on after relegation.

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[quote user="Wiz"]I''m still very proud that I took part in that City movement despite being spat on by some City fans at the time!................we were proved right in the end![/quote]

 

even a broken clock is right twice a day [:D]

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I was there for Burnley September 2006?

Horrible atmosphere.

Disrespect to a manager who did very well for us. How the grass was so much greener. Peter Grant, Roeder and Gunn!

However if that period of change had never occurred we may never have appointed Lambert.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="nutty nigel"]

What proved you right in the end Wiz?

 

Everything got worse until the owners brought in McNally and Bowkett. That rather suggests that those who vented their anger on Worthy and then Delia were wrong. The Doncaster/Munby Out Movement would have some grounds to claim they were proved right in the end. That is if there had been one of course...

 

 

[/quote]

 

That doesn''t fit in with the little I know about this in particular, Nutty, or with the way boardrooms work in general. There was a revealing interview Michael Wynn Jones gave sometime in the mid-2000s in which he admitted it had taken some years for him and Delia to come to terms with the odd world of football, and in particular said they''d probably got through too many managers too quickly. There were four from 1996 to 2000.

I think that lesson was a factor in them keeping Worthington on into the 2006-07 season. Unfortunately it was the wrong lesson to remember just then, because Worthington was shot as an NCFC manager and should have been let go in the summer.

I can''t say what Munby''s attitude was. However I very strongly suspect Doncaster thought Worthington should be sacked but found his view overruled by Smith and Jones, showing that streak of sentimentality that surfaced again with the decision to keep Gunn on after relegation.

[/quote]

 

You could be right Purple. It could be that everyone except the owners thought Worthy should go. However they went through 3 managers very swiftly afterwards and each of the three took the club further and further down. The replacement of Doncaster and Munby coincided with a change in fortunes. Could it have happened anyway? Your guess is as good as mine. What is always forgotten in the scapegoat hunt is that the fortunes of football clubs in general, and ours in particular, have these ups and downs throughout their histories.

 

 

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Oh how time is a great healer and also a way of not quite remembering some of what went on, I was not part of any protest I must state, but observed it over many months and matches. 

Now I have no real issue with the fact that a group of supporters got together to protest due to their disatisfaction with what was happening, BUT...in truth there were unfortunately many so called "supporters" who were a disgrace during the "Worthy out" time and some of these also came to the surface during Roeder''s "tenure". The behaviour of some of these so called fans actually created a poisonous atmosphere around the club and ground on match days which contributed significantly towards the poor performances of the team, nothing at all to be proud of.

As for whether this particular event is what triggered the overhaul or whatever you call it of our club, I can''t agree, as there have been many key events since that you could also say this for....................certainly I can now for example see, what several people were telling me at the time, that our ultimate relegation to League One was THE turning point as it put the club into a make or break situation.

Just to add something into the mix, the one Manager who I actually feel escapes very lightly, probably because he decided to walk himself apparently, is Peter Grant........for me when looking back he was responsible for bringing in a significant number of very average players for a lot of money at that time, left an almost impossible situation to recover from that any successor would have struggled with.

Now I am not making excuses for Roeder, because he really didnt do himself any favours now did he, particularly on the PR front. But he certainly took on a real mess, and I believe had no choice regarding the loan policy he had to follow which was clearly as a direct result of PG pissing our finances away on a bunch of very poor players.At the end of the day it also wasnt Roeder who took us down, but again the poison and evil from a few came out and again, in my humble opinion, cost us valuable points. 

I am expecting similar to happen again if CH has a bad run that means we are struggling in the relegation zone, as unfortunately there really are some within our supporter base, I guess like at many other clubs, who are simply "not fit to wear the shirt"...........but of course nobody who contributes to this message board :-)

 

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Chelmsford Canary is dead right. The atmosphere at the Burnley game was poisonous and appalling treatment of a good man who had been an excellent manager for us. I thought Worthington showed a dignity throughout the whole episode that contrasts greatly with many of those who abused him.

As CC pointed out, it is not as if things got better with the appointment of new managers!

The truth of the matter was quite simple we were relatively short of money and to remain in the Premier league/ gain instant promotion after relegation was always going to be a challenge. In my opinion, whilst the fans ambition and frustration at not seeing these things achieved was understandable, their (over)reaction to it contributed to the decline.

We forget that footballers/ managers/ directors are human beings just like the rest of us (although much better paid) and extreme stress weakens performance. Paul Mcveigh is very interesting upon this issue and the need for greater use of psychologists in football.

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it was shameful to treat Worthington in the way we did but acceptable for Robert chase?

I was a Worthy Outer, No apologies for it. The main crux of the argument was that Worthington was clearly the boards "Darling"

Unless the fans forced the issue nothing would have been done.

worthington''s fate was sealed 12 months earlier when during a post match interview after losing to Sheffield Wednesday he stated "I don''t care what the fans think, I''m in charge!" the team had been booed off after losing to the bottom side. Peter Thorne was played on the right wing and the whole side looked disjointed.

The games where clearly the tactics had gone wrong, Worthy never held his hands up or stated it, his interviews were almost word for word identical.

He tried to defend his case by saying how he would carry on and the fact he was a "fighter"... I personally feel he would have taken us down again and there would have been no way back for him.

the Burnley game, not only had he lost the fans, I have a feeling he had lost most of the dressing room (earnshaw and Hucks apart) as well.

worthy should have fallen on his sword, left after relegation to the premier league and we would have given him all our blessings. instead he started a rot that wasn''t stopped until McNally walked into carrow road.

blame the board somewhat, Delia and MWJ had "their man" and possibly a friendship with him as well. it must have broken their hearts to sack him but in the end even they saw the club was heading backwards.

I dont mean to be critical but Delia and MWJ, for all their love of the club, never really had any idea what they were doing... neither did Mumbles and Doomy... the right people have now come in and we are better for it.

still, to the future now!

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[quote user="mrdi"]At the time... given how we''d cantered to the Championship, then ballsed up the Premier League campaign (Graham Stuart? Simon Charlton? David Bentley? Mattias Jonson?) - followed that by replacing outgoing players with absolute duffers (Jarrett, Hughes, Colin, Robinson, etc) we''d gone in 2 years from being the best we''d been in 7 years to arguably the worst. All under one manager. I did find aspects of the WO movement more like a distasteful witch hunt; Worthy wasn''t a bad manager, he''d just found himself out of his depth in the top flight and (I assume due to financial limitations) disassembled a good squad and made it a terrible one. I remember one game where we started with Brennan, Charlton, Drury, Huckerby and Jarrett, the whole team naturally lurched to the left and the opposition just strolled through the space in the middle. It was awful. Worthy had to go, but the atmosphere at games was dreadful. I felt sorry for him. The whole ground against him. That Burnley game... Doc getting sent off was actually really funny, it was that bad. The storm afterwards... all very symbolic. What followed with Grant and Roeder was even worse. Looking back, it was the heavens opening up as if to say to us THERE IS WORSE TO COME FOR YOU. Looking back now, I think well of Worthington. He overachieved with an average squad and gave us that Play-Off Final. He worked the squad and got us promoted. Following the wilderness years, that was something special. I don''t blame Worthington for refusing to walk even when things were falling apart. I do blame Neil Doncaster however, as I think he was more responsible with higher-level mismanagement. However, as much as I wanted Worthington out, I never wore the t-shirt carrying the slogan.[/quote]

 

That is a spot on post, apart from it was Huckerby who got us promoted, Not Worthy!!

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[quote user="im spartacus"]

We haven''t had any former activists come forward apart from wiz, I wonder if looking back some of them feel a hint of shame ? It was all way OTT and an awful way to treat a fellow human being.

[/quote]
Shame for what?  No NCFC management was physically hurt.  
Besides from what I remember.  There were by far more fans who wanted Worthington to go than who actively protested.  There was certainly a air of Britishness about it, plenty of grumbling and not many doing anything about it.
Anyway it''s in the past, and nothing can change what''s happened.  That''s all I''m saying on it, as the thread has a potential to descend into a pointless argument. 

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I always felt that Worthy worked with one hand tied behind his back in that he operated under a very different financial regime where prudence outweighed ambition. My ire at the time was never directed towards Worthy but towards those in charge of the club, under Worthy we reached a play off final and won The Championship with a season in the Prem, not a bad record when compared to what had gone befor (the Blarneymeister Hamilton etc). I am with Nutty in that circumstances would suggest that the advent of McNally and co has seen an rapid upturn in our fortunes.....

 

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[quote user="Sons of Boadicea"]

I always felt that Worthy worked with one hand tied behind his back in that he operated under a very different financial regime where prudence outweighed ambition. My ire at the time was never directed towards Worthy but towards those in charge of the club, under Worthy we reached a play off final and won The Championship with a season in the Prem, not a bad record when compared to what had gone befor (the Blarneymeister Hamilton etc). I am with Nutty in that circumstances would suggest that the advent of McNally and co has seen an rapid upturn in our fortunes.....

 

[/quote]

 

The board making the triple loan signing of Harper, Crouch and Huckerby and then following that with permanent deals for Huckerby, Svensson and  Mackenzie when we were already in the promotion places was not ambitious?

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Well said Jas.There was a game, maybe very early on in the 06/07 season, or late in 05/06, I can''t remember, where we went 3 down or something along those lines and a vocal minority of the ground were cheering each goal that went in...only for us to come back and draw or win the game - I can''t remember which.  If we''d have lost that day he''d have been sacked IMO.

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Just an aside but does anyone think we would have ended up in League One had we stuck with Worthington?

 

Of course what transpired after our relegation is the stuff of legend and we''re all happy bunnies now, but that wasn''t so when we got relegated. Would Worthy have taken us to Division 3?

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Sons of Boadicea"]

I always felt that Worthy worked with one hand tied behind his back in that he operated under a very different financial regime where prudence outweighed ambition. My ire at the time was never directed towards Worthy but towards those in charge of the club, under Worthy we reached a play off final and won The Championship with a season in the Prem, not a bad record when compared to what had gone befor (the Blarneymeister Hamilton etc). I am with Nutty in that circumstances would suggest that the advent of McNally and co has seen an rapid upturn in our fortunes.....

 

[/quote]

 

The board making the triple loan signing of Harper, Crouch and Huckerby and then following that with permanent deals for Huckerby, Svensson and  Mackenzie when we were already in the promotion places was not ambitious?

[/quote]I''ve always felt that fans forget that because the next season we made the error of not signing Ashton until January.  That''s when ''prudence with ambition'' really kicked in and got us relegated in a league which, lets be honest, was very poor that season.

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[quote user="ncfcstar"]Well said Jas.

There was a game, maybe very early on in the 06/07 season, or late in 05/06, I can''t remember, where we went 3 down or something along those lines and a vocal minority of the ground were cheering each goal that went in...only for us to come back and draw or win the game - I can''t remember which.  If we''d have lost that day he''d have been sacked IMO.
[/quote]

 

It was against QPR, we won and anybody that cheered our opposition scoring is a fricking disgrace and should forever be ashamed. There is NO excuse for that.

 

 

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[quote user="ncfcstar"][quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Sons of Boadicea"]

I always felt that Worthy worked with one hand tied behind his back in that he operated under a very different financial regime where prudence outweighed ambition. My ire at the time was never directed towards Worthy but towards those in charge of the club, under Worthy we reached a play off final and won The Championship with a season in the Prem, not a bad record when compared to what had gone befor (the Blarneymeister Hamilton etc). I am with Nutty in that circumstances would suggest that the advent of McNally and co has seen an rapid upturn in our fortunes.....

 

[/quote]

 

The board making the triple loan signing of Harper, Crouch and Huckerby and then following that with permanent deals for Huckerby, Svensson and  Mackenzie when we were already in the promotion places was not ambitious?

[/quote]I''ve always felt that fans forget that because the next season we made the error of not signing Ashton until January.  That''s when ''prudence with ambition'' really kicked in and got us relegated in a league which, lets be honest, was very poor that season.[/quote]

 

Indeed, but did we have the money to sign Ashton in the summer or had it already been spent on Huckerby, Svensson and Mackenzie? We might well have been able to afford Ashton straight away if we hadn''t splashed out the winter before, but then without splashing out then would we have still got promoted? There was not a bottomless pit of money that kept renewing itself every summer, and we had to hold some over for the winter. As Lambert did and as Hughton has done.

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I actually stopped posting here for a few years, it got so ridiculous on here during the Worthy out era.

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[quote user="Wiz"]I''m still very proud that I took part in that City movement despite being spat on by some City fans at the time!................we were proved right in the end![/quote]

We have to presume this is the same wiz that was trampled under foot by horses outside Carrow Road in the mid 90''s, yet apparently hasn''t a clue what the ground is like inside.But fear not, our hero was back again a decade of so later only this time to be spat on by fellow City fans (so we are told). Perhaps they foresaw his infamous wish to ''hawk on the wall'' in 2012.So who is this scarlet pimpernel of the City protest movement ?The one above - or this ''other'' one who loudly proclaimed his devotion and support for Nigel Worthington

Why Worthy is slowly winning me round.

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[quote user="City1st"][quote user="Wiz"]I''m still very proud that I took part in that City movement despite being spat on by some City fans at the time!................we were proved right in the end![/quote]



We have to presume this is the same wiz that was trampled under foot by horses outside Carrow Road in the mid 90''s, yet apparently hasn''t a clue what the ground is like inside.

But fear not, our hero was back again a decade of so later only this time to be spat on by fellow City fans (so we are told). Perhaps they foresaw his infamous wish to ''hawk on the wall'' in 2012.

So who is this scarlet pimpernel of the City protest movement ?

The one above - or this ''other'' one who loudly proclaimed his devotion and support for Nigel Worthington

Why Worthy is slowly winning me round.


[/quote]

 

And I still stand by my actions, the man, after intially doing well became arrogant, believing his own press so I still say he had to go.

 

So no remorse here.

 

 

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