Trouble in the camp - or untimely posturing by Worthy?

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

According to Worthy in the EDP he was not given ''a fair crack of the whip'' with money this year, and we have reached where we are by him ''pulling rabbits out of a hat'' - which he can''t continue to do.

The Daily Express has picked up on this with the interpretation that Worthy was complaining about being hamstrung in his efforts to keep City up because the Board have not given him more money.

Quite frankly I tend to agree with him, but I am far from sure about the timing of public comments on this matter.

I have argued a couple of times before that the Board have got the balance slightly wrong in as much as

a] There is a world of difference between the Board''s oft stated policy of ''prudence with ambition'' and the far more positive ''ambition with prudence'' which is what I have advocated as strategically and psychlogically superior.

b] It is obvious in retrospect given Doncaster''s explanation of the mechanics of the financing of the Ashton deal that this deal could have been done last August.

A policy of ''ambition with prudence'' would have in all probability have allowed the Ashton deal last summer - which I submit would have guaranteed  mid-table safety this season.

By such slender margins does our future rest!

OTBC.

P.S Worthy - if you continue to be brave we can win the war to stay up. However, I can assure you that even a shattered Ashton is far more likely to score a goal in the last 10 minutes than Svennson. When the going gets tough the tough get going - and Dean Ashton is mentally tough. 

[clacton_canary1 0]

"A policy of ''ambition with prudence'' would have in all probability have allowed the Ashton deal last summer - which I submit would have guaranteed  mid-table safety this season"......

I agree with most of what you are saying but have to diagree with this point. I dont think it would have garenteed mid-table safety as you can''t legislate for injuries etc.

Also, if Deano had''nt had the first half of the season at Crewe scoring so many goals and gaining confidence, would he have been the same player as he is now going into a Premiership season without the confiedence of an "on form" striker?

[ZLF 271]

It does seem odd that this story is running now - it stinks of both looking to pass the blame for relegation onto the board (where is the teamwork in that?) and hawking yourself for a prem job should one become available.

While I would have loved to see Ashton here from the start of the season to say he alone would have kept us up is a red herring.  Ashton has played every game since he came here and has had an impact, but even with him in the side we continued to lose games and perform poorly, despite him showing the talent he clearly has. 

However what has really kick started our revival was the introduction of Shackell, Helveg and Safri.  Had these guys been playing week in week out from the start of the season I am certain, as much as you can be with this type of hindsight analysis, that we would have already been safe from the drop.  If Worthy had gone the whole hog and recognised that player of the season candidate (still makes me laugh that one) Flem was also part of our problem we would have been very proud canaries today.  

Taking an cheap and easy shot at the board is an excellent way at deflecting the blame, and, IMO, spinning the facts that city could have done better with our start of the season squad had the manager chosen the best quality players all season rather than his teachers pets. 

 OTBC

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote]According to Worthy in the EDP he was not given ''a fair crack of the whip'' with money this year, and we have reached where we are by him ''pulling rabbits out of a hat'' - which he can''t continue to do....[/quote]

I can see what you are saying and although I don''t think mid-table was likely, I do feel that had Worthy picked the best 11 and signed Ashton in the summer, we could be safe by now.

Also, i''m not picking on you but the Svensson - Ashton last ten minutes comment.  Svensson scored the winner against Charlton in the last time minutes.  As important as any goal scored this season.

[BedsCanary 0]

88th minute vs. Charlton

Didn''t Svennson crack in the winner in a game that Ashton failed to get a single shot on target?

 

As for the criticism of the board; sure they could have brought in Ashton earlier, but at least they did cough up the £3million, which some boards wouldn''t have done at all.

[chicken 0]

I have said this before so I will say it again.

The current starting 11 have not been consistant up untill now! Before christmas and the injuries Helveg and Safri were not playing to their potential. Neither were some of the players that made the starting line up.

I truly believe that it has simply taken this long for players to settle in to this level of football end of story.

Extra players would certainly have helped when we had the injury crisis. Our squad simply is not big enough to cope with two or three injuries in the same sort of area, ie midfield.

However, I think in a way the club was right not to splash the cash emediatly. It would be spending the money before we got it and where do you stop?

Knowing that we still had large amounts of debt to pay off as well as a year that we failed to make large sums of money it is the more responsible thing to do. Otherwise the club could be argued to spend next seasons money now too.

However, I think its just a sign of frustration. Yes he probably could have had more money. And he probably would have done well with it too. But he hasnt, and thats all history now.

What I will say is that it is about this time every year that he comes out and says something like this. We need better players to do better in the league. In the end they give him some cash.

But what I am interested in is where the money for Ashton came from? Was it money left over from the summer or was it more money made available to hime or both?

This is what could answer a lot of questions in my mind.

[Ayrton Twigge 0]

Guys

Haven''t you all - and Worthy too, fallen into the trap off talking with the benefit of hindsight. Hopefully we will prevail, but if we don''t we will have missed by a whisker - and that''s hard to take.

The easy thing therefore is to say that had we have spent a wee bit more, we would have been safe. Guaranteed.

That wasn''t true for West Brom who spent a hell of a lot. And Palace who have spent a similar sum to ourselves last summer and nothing at all in January perhaps have the best chance of making it.

What you need to remember is that this years premiership has undoubtedly been weaker than ever. Who would have known that last august. We did the right thing then - we spent appropriatety and decided to look at it again in January. Come January, with real experience of the first 4/5 months, we all knew that we had a realistic chance of safety and the Board backed Worthy to the hilt. Who else got as much as him?

Its quite clear to me that we defined a sensible and flexible strategy before the season kicked off and we find ourselves close to safety.

Having stated it hasn''t been lack of Board support, whilst I am a worthy fan, those elusive 2/3 points that we need, thats all it is, have gone missing because of a spate of injuries, some odd tactics and yes, the overplaying of some players. On the latter point, we don''t need hindsight to see that. We''ve been voicing the same point over and over again and its only recently that Worthy has bitten that bullet - althugh not yet regarding Fleming.

Nice try Worthy, its been a great season but you can''t blame the Board.

[Yellow Rider 0]

Zipper - totally agree with your comments re Worthy''s failure to select Shacks, Safri and Helveg much, much earlier in the season AND I might add not giving Leon a regular starting place up front. We still have posters (Chicken) who insist that Safri and Helveg either could not have been played earlier becuase of injury or had ''failed to play to potential''. Escuse me but don''t you have to be given a decent run in the starting line up to ''play to potential''. How can you do that if the manager ships you out after a couple of games!!  

As for the Ashton signing, may be Worthy did not try to sign him (or want to) in the summer? I always thought it amazing that Rivers was released on a free and we did (apparently) not try to use him as a part exchange for Ashton. Ashton would almost certainly have cost less in July than we had to fork out 6 months later.   

Re Wothy''s comments, I''m annoyed at this. Yet again he is posturing and trying to publicly ''face down the board''. One day they will be man enough to stand up to him and tell him to sling his hook. Like many managers (O''Leary is another), all Worthy thinks of is MONEY. What about developing our own young talent? We have seen what Shacks can do, this is the route that a club like NCFC must develop more. That + scouring the lower leagues for similar players to Leon and Drury. The simple fact is that we carry a debt of approx. £18MILLION!!! That may be ''controllable'' and all the other words the Board may use but IT STILL MUST BE REPAID SOONER OR LATER. We cannot go down the spiral of ever increasing wage bills and transfer bills, I thought Worthy realised this from previous comments he has made about Leeds etc. but obviously not. ''Football is going to hell in a hand cart'' - Mike Parry (Talk Sport) but most clubs are staggering on blindly ignoring the stark financial messages.

If we stay up fine splash out loads more on wages (remember Ipswich) and transfers. See where that gets us. :angryne day (soon) the football gravy train will come off the rails big time. Some of the more sensible clubs will have deliberately got off that train just in time. I want Norwich to be one of them.  

[chicken 0]

Yellow Rider

Players at this level need to be able to play full stop. If they are not in form then they cant play end of story.

A couple of seasons ago we were giving players like Llewelyn and Forbes whole seasons to get form, it never happened.

Training is where the players prove their form and their desire to play, not on the pitch at this level.

Going along that basis we should allways be picking the reserve team!

Someone like Helveg knows what its about, hes a travelled and experienced player. You have to have some form to be picked just like WLY. He could have been great this season.

Form isnt something that just happens after a couple of games, its something the player needs to gain through work rate and belief.

Both Helveg and Jonson were away training with their international sides at the beggining of the season and so didnt have much time to get to grips with the league and team around them. That delayed their progress.

Helveg was then injured for a while along with Safri.

And I will say it again. Look at the first third or so games of the season and I dont think anyone can say we did that bad other than the opening match against Crystal Palace where the nerves were perhaps running the minds.

Drawing with Tottenham, Villa and Newcastle were all good results considering what they are capable of. Especially when you think Newcastle had a better line up at that time and were playing at home.

The results really did dip when the amount of choice for positions was reduced by injury.

[kdncfc 0]

Have to say I''m with Worthy on this one, the manager is the one who pays the price if he doesn''t get results and Worthy has been working with his hands tied. I was disappointed that he wasn''t given more money in the summer and whether we like it or not the teams who spend the most money are often the most likely to achieve some level of success. There are exceptions like Bolton who probably spend very little in terms of fees but pick up older players and pay more in wages. West Brom spent a few bob but didn''t have a manager who spent wisely and have ended up with players like Kanu who is obviously only there for the money. It is virtually impossible to breed enough home grown talent to compete in any league let alone the prem and if we are to have any chance of survival at this level then sooner or later we will have to get use to spending large sums of money on a fairly regular basis,without risking the clubs existence obviously.

[3pmkickoff 0]

Should we stay up I think it''s obvious we will need to spend more in order to maintain our status again. I''d like to see money spent on some good young english players. Having said that I also wouldn''t be 100% confident in giving Worthy a lot of cash as the majority of his signings haven''t worked out. Even if we went down the same would still apply. West Brom came straight back up but still spent a good amount last season

[Mook 0]

Yellow Rider, does it not seem strange that although Spurs wanted to sign Ashton, we still got him?

Yes, THIS is why Rivers went to Crewe for free in the summer - to give us first refusal. And refuse we did not.

As for Worthy - spineless comments by someone who''s personality has ruled the selection of the squad and led him to make some very strange decisions.

As for not playing Leon enough, well he played a good few games from November to January and couldn''t stay onside, couldn''t control the ball, couldn''t pass and couldn''t score. IMO he got far too many games up front on his own when he was clearly not up to it.

Now though, I must admit Leon looks the part. But Worthy does not.

[Darlo dumplin’ 0]

Totally agree with zippersleftfoot and chicken and a few others on this one. Trouble is if worthy had waited and kept picking Helveg etc what would everyone have said when they weren''t performing?  and then we had that awful run of injuries to the point where when I went to the ''Boro game after Christmas I was in the car listening on radio 5 on the way thinking who the devil is going to be in the line up?

Point I suppose is that even if the current line up could get us to mid table, what would you do when someone was injured. To some extent I guess Worthy is putting down a marker that you need a bit of quality in the first choice team and some strength in depth as well. Spending big transfer fees of course guarantees nothing - look at what WBA spent compared to us last summer.

Maybe its about stiffening backbones too, for when the bids come in, you have to keep what you''ve got as much as add to it. Just think that in Jan. I was gutted that Bellamy didn''t come on loan, but would you swap Ashton for him now?

Was anyone else worried when worthy said he was in the Kevin Keegan camp? Most Newcastle fans I know say that  even when they were 2 or 3 goals up they never knew what the final result would be when Keegan was there, bit like his England spell too. Does that strike a chord? Although in fairness last season wasn''t really like that.

[LinkNR9 0]

Even though he didn''t have much money to spend, Worthy didn''t spend that wisely. You can''t tell me, despite all of their efforts, Jonson and the Doc have turned out to be good investments. What about Gallagher, he''s not exactly been pushing Wardy, let alone Robert Green. Of the reasonably good players he did sign Bents, Saf and Helveg have been unlucky with injury, I accept that. Signing Deano wasn''t rocket science, everyone likes a banker! However, I would worry that Worthy would not select good players to come in, even if he had £10m to spend.