FAO Kabbadi Holt (and anyone else who cares) - my feelings on Worthington

Broadly speaking, I think he has done a reasonable job. Reaching the play-offs in 2001-2002 was a commendable achievement, and moved the club further forward in nine months than it had in six years.

Yes, he had more money to spend than Hamilton and Rioch, getting the proceeds from the sale of Craig Bellamy and benefitting from several years of financial prudence by the board. However, the board would not have trusted him with that money if he hadn't pulled us away from trouble in 2000-1 by signing Gary Holt and Adam Drury very cheaply.

In addition, Worthington cleared out the masses of dead wood in that squad very quickly. De Waard, Derveld, Walsh, Cottee, Forbes, Coote, Andy & Lee Marshall, de Blasiis, Dalglish and Jackson were all dispensed with, leaving us with a more manageable squad with a lower wage bill, which helped him get new players in.

2001-2: I condede that our away form was always immensely frustrating, largely because Worthy didn't (and still hasn't), with a few exceptions, work out how to approach away matches.

However, our home form was brilliant, and he made supporting Norwich City more exciting, and more rewarding, than any time since the European campaign.

As for his signings - Easton and Rivers made a passable contribution, providing far better competition for places than the players they replaced, and David Nielsen and Marc Libbra, although inconsistent (and I really feel that Worthington didn't come close to getting the best out of Libbra), did enough alongside Iwan Roberts up front.

Crichton - sub keeper, fair game, and Emblen was extremely unlucky - a combination of injury and Holt's amazing form meant that didn't work out. The pressure he provided on Holt was also useful, though.

His loanees - Benjamin and Andy Roberts - were utter toss.

What he did do, though (besides finally dropping Sutch) was to get an awful lot of players who'd been around for a while without doing anything - particularly Kenton, Nedergaard, Mulryne and McVeigh.

He put together a midfield which, while not brilliant, had two players that could defend very well, two that were useful going forward, with one that could tackle (Holt), one who could cross (Nedergaard), one that could pass (Mulryne) and one that could break into the box (McVeigh). Which, at that level, at that time, was good enough.

Then there were the tactical errors in the play-off final, which, IMO, he *still* hasn't learned from.

2002-3 was very frustrating. Clearly, though, the board didn't give him any money to improve the side, and even then we really weren't too far off another play-off campaign. Again, though, his inability to recognise that the attack wouldn't score if the midfield didn't feed it and his inept command of substitutions let us down - that dismal Reading game being the season's nadir.

2003-4: Worthington's transfer dealings were, generally, brilliant. Francis for ?260,000 was a real coup. Persuading Huckerby and Crouch to come on loan - and revealing them on the same day - was a masterstroke. Brennan for free was good business - he did his bit. Edworthy for nothing was also an intelligent move, while Cooper and Harper were very successful loan signings. Only Hammond was disappointing, and in the end it meant nothing.

McKenzie and Svensson, like Nielsen and Libbra, weren't (to my mind) absolutely amazing but, in tandem with Iwan and Hucks, helped us score more goals than we conceded, week in, week out. Worthington made us the best side in the division and we deserved to win it.

2004-5: This has already gone on too long, and this could go on all day. So:

GOOD THINGS: Man Utd. Safri, once he started picking him. Persuading Thomas Helveg to sign. The tactics employed for the Bolton game. Ashton.

BAD THINGS: Gary Doherty. Graham Stuart. Numerous ineffectual substitutions. The diamond. The defending at corners. Gary Holt. Never dropping Fleming. The astonishingly poor handling of Thomas Helveg.

Insisting that Mattias Jonson was a winger, and never trying him up front. The 'mind games' ahead of the Blackburn match. Playing a full-strength side in the FA Cup. Constantly playing people out of position. Not signing a right-sided midfielder.

Uninspiring post-match interviews, which continually apologised for below-par performances. Fulham, from start to finish.

And 2005-6? The signings he's made look very uninspiring, although I feel Jurgen Colin might become a decent player given time. His failure to understand the importance of midfield is baffling, and he *still* cannot do substitutions. He looks like he's run out of ideas, and that he's taken us as far as he can.

So - if Worthington leaves, I'd like to see him stand down gracefully, perhaps helping to choose his successor. Sacking him would only be warranted if we finished this season in the bottom half, but I'd not be too sorry to see him go before - to be honest, if I was Worthy, I'd have resigned after Fulham, which wasn't acceptable.

And I would like to see him stand down. The last five years have been enjoyable and infuriating in equal measure, but never once have they been dull. Nonetheless, I think his time has been and gone.

And that's it in a nutshell!

Posted By: Ottosson Foxtrot on August 29th 2005 at 17:09:37

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