Omens don't look good for CH Worthington lost his job against the claret and blue of Burnley, Hughton's Norwich take on the claret and blue of West Ham this weekend. That Burnley home fixture was televised live on TV, the West Ham home game is also being televised live. This weekend is round 13 of the Premier League fixtures. CH had better try not to walk under any ladders or cross McNasty on the stairs !
"if people are prepared to give mackay the time to do that but not hughton, i find that very disappointing and it does make you wonder about the sanity of some people or what their motives are for wanting hughton out because as you say, the style will be similar." As you know, Superman, I am generally very critical of CH, but I agree with you completely about this. If we do replace CH, I want it to be for someone who either offers a different style or does a similar style much much better. Otherwise, what's the point?
Excellent article here IMO http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...t-the-norwich-city-board-must-show-ambition/?
I agree with a some parts of that article, but I think CH does need to be give a few more games to prove he can implement a more attacking style of play with the new players though. I'd say DM probably going to give him three more games, it's gonna be a big ask without Tettey. I'm not sure I agree with the part about us attracting world class managers, we're only a little club.
We are NOT a little club, we are a big club but not AS big as the likes of Manure etc obviously. Peterborough, Blackpool, Notts County, Brentford etc to name but a few are LITTLE clubs. It's this 'small club' mentality by so many that is holding us back IMO. Oh, and I forgot to add Ipswich to that list of course !
In premiership terms we are a small club, I think people are being overly ambition when it comes to the kind of managers we could attract.
it is certainly one of the better articles i've read by someone who wants the manager removed. at least he hasn't spouted the usual drivel about how useless hughton is - he's actually been constructive and appreciates he is a decent manager, just perhaps not what he wants in charge. he even acknowledges that he thinks hughton will keep us in the league this season. that, to me, is perfectly fair. however, its another case of a fan who wants too much too soon in my opinion. he talks of progress. in terms of league position that may be the case after a difficult start but equally it is still early days this season and we could conceivably finish around the same position as last season under hughton, maybe even higher. this isn't a repeat of the gunn situation. he was miles out of his depth and it was very apparent. this isn't a repeat of the roeder situation. he lambasted fans and created a horrible atmosphere both inside colney and within carrow road. any negative atmosphere at this moment in time is coming from a section of the fans, not the manager. this isn't a worthington situation (or 'cityation' as he'd have said) either. worthington had been in charge for 6 years. he achieved decent success initially but then came a steady decline over a period of around three years which built to a head. i agree there is little point changing the manager for the sake of changing him. even many of the people who want rid accept that in all likelihood, he will keep us up. he mentions the 'next level'. what the **** does that even mean? did he really think we wouldn't be in any danger of relegation this season? if so, that is remarkably naive. we've not had the start we all craved but equally we are not cut adrift and all hope lost. the league table could look very different in three games time. if it doesn't then i think these discussions will deservedly hot up. but not now. the board showed ambition with hughton - he was well admired by west brom and we pinched him from them while they tried to hold firm over compensation. he's a well admired man and had a good track record as a manager and even better as a coach. i really do not see how we are going to replace him with someone better unless it is a truly staggering appointment. in my experience, teams who sit in the relegation zone normally only make staggering appointments of the shockingly bad which consign them to their doom. we are NOT a big club. we are NOT a small club, but in premier league terms we are i'm afraid. the only way we will grow bigger is to stay in this league for many years. the comment at the bottom which mentions swansea sums up the 'outers' perfectly - jealous of similar size clubs around us doing better. let's just concentrate on ourselves, eh?
isn't it the 11th game of fixtures bloody hell, chris better go to bed on friday night with red pants on and holding an 4-leaf clover
I don't subscribe to this. Do you suppose that Lambert didn't join us as a springboard to bigger and better things? (You can argue that Villa are a 'bigger' club, but that's presumably just his next 'stepping stone'?) Likewise, RvW joining. I'd suggest that Norwich is a high(er) profile shop-window from which he'd hope to land a deal with a much bigger EPL club some day. Any new manager, especially from abroad, can use (in the nicest possible way) NCFC as a means to get a foothold in top management the best league in the world. That, sadly, is where I see us in the big scheme of things, but it doesn't stop us being an attractive proposition for an ambitious manager who is 'on the up'
do we want a manager who is using us a stepping stone? do we constantly wish to be looking over our shoulder every time a job comes up like we were with lambert? how will that bring any continuity? its totally different for players because you naturally get a high turnover of players and if you puchase well you can make huge sums of money that can then be reinvested into the side to improve you, but hiring a new manager every 18 months can be terribly disruptive and i thought the whole point of hiring hughton was to bring some stability to a club which hasn't had much in over a decade! this is why i don't really get why some fans are desperate for him to go. he hasn't been here nearly long enough for him to have got anywhere near completing the job he was brought here to do. now fine, if we are in major relegation trouble after christmas then the plan may have to go out of the window and a short term fix brought in, but we aren't at that stage today.
@Superman No, I don't want that and nor do I think it's in the club's best interests. I was merely responding to Fenland who suggested we may be a shade "ambitious" in the calibre of manager we are trying to attract. The alternative is to appoint somebody whose star is waning having been rejected by or chosen to leave their former club - as in Pulis or Holloway. Of those two options, I know which side my bread is buttered
well i think fenland is right - and actually, the alternative is to keep hughton, not replace him with someone worse. if there is someone better then, as with players, upgrade. i don't think that option is available to us right now. if it is, i don't know who that man is. i think far too many fans have had their head turned by what has happened at southampton and to a lesser degree swansea. lets take saints first of all. the owner had been a big fan of pochettino for some time and had been planning to bring him to the club for a very long time. it took a long while to persuade him to join in the first place but when he finally agreed he then had time to scan over what was needed. they could then pick and choose the right time for him to take over. as it happened they did it while they had some momentum behind them which made the sacking of adkins seem bizarre. any new incumbent we bring in would not have that luxury. he also had, in my opinion, a better squad to build on, though that is just my opinion. he spent massively on three players right down the spine of the team. we tried to do this but deals for alderweireld and toivonen never came to fruition. he also tore up no trees in his first five months in charge. in fact his premier league record was closely matched to the outgoing adkins last year, however, they've kicked on brilliantly this season. but this was a man very well known to the owner. in many ways, pochettino is saints very own lambert appointment. we can't do that now - we've already done that - bringing in someone very well known to mcnally! any new manager will be more unknown to everyone at the club and if its someone from abroad its incredibly risky without enormous research. now swansea, who unlike us, have had stability over a lengthy period of time in terms of playing style. they have been able to hire managers who fit into their ethos which makes any transition that much easier. they've had a high turnover of managers but each appointment 'makes sense'. we never really had an ethos when hughton took over. we leapt from league one so quickly that we never really had time to 'find ourselves' and create a style that could allow us to do a similar thing to the swans. we achieved great things through blood and sweat but that only takes you so far in this league. the point of bringing hughton in was to stabalise the club over a longer period of time, allowing us to stay in the league whilst improving year in, year out, whilst also creating the foundations both in the first team and at youth level for hughton and future managers to build on. its a decent plan, maybe not as inspiring or as quick as saints or as glamorous as swansea's to some, but it would still reap the same rewards in the long term. unfortunately we were slightly hampered by paying off our debts over the past three years - others have not had that worry. but even taking that into account, and i know i keep saying this, but we have to be far more patient! its a slow process for most teams from this point. have fulham ever really moved up the table? they've been in the league for more than a decade! they've had their adventures though. west brom are singing from the same hymn sheet as we are. building slowly over a longer period of time. made some good and clever managerial appointments and made canny signings. in terms of stature i'd say they are our closest match.
Yes, I agree with this. Swansea have benefited from continuity of playing style, instigated by Martinez, and continued - with a little fine tuning and changes of personnel by both Rodgers and Laudrup. We've not had that 'luxury' - Lambert was always going to be a difficult act to follow (still is in many fans eyes) so Hughton's remit was survival, essential to ensure our obligations to pay off creditors was met. This was achieved, mercifully with a bit of daylight to spare thanks to our last two results of last season. Having achieved that, however, I think many people expected to see (and are seeing, barring the last two outings) a slightly more attacking, pressing style from us, especially given the increased firepower at our disposal thanks to some astute transfer business in the summer. And I'm sorry, but this *patience* alert, of which you occasionally speak - well, were over 25% of the way through our fixtures for the season and bottom three and firing blanks was jot many peoples perception of where we'd be (or needed to be.) Given that our last four games are likely to yield boogie all, you can see why a growing number of supporters are getting very twitchy?
I agree with Supers about the need for patience, but I can also see that fans need some positives soon after 4 of the last 5 games against CL sides. This is particularly cruel because after the away win at Stoke, it looked like the new players were settling in at last. The injury to RvW and later that to Tettey were both cruel blows, then Snods and Redmond were lost as well. Hopefully 3 of those 4 will be available against West Ham. Add to that West Ham have only one CB fit with both Reid and Collins confirmed to be out, as is Carroll. This is the ideal time to turn things around, though, if patience isn't to run out.
