My mail to Neil Doncaster (warning: ridiculously long).

Dear Mr. Doncaster,

This is the first time I have ever emailed anyone at the club but as a supporter since the reign of Dave Stringer, this is the first time I have felt the need to do so.

I grew up with Robert Chase ? both the golden age of the club under Stringer and Mike Walker and its darkest days in 1995-1996 ? and then watched for several years as the club strove, unsuccessfully, to escape the First Division on a very tight budget. There were highlights to those years, both the genuinely brilliant players who lit up what was often a very average side, and the surprisingly good results occasionally achieved in the League, but they were not exciting times to support Norwich City and I, like many other fans, found watching the side immensely frustrating for the most part.

When Nigel Worthington was appointed, I did not see any reason for improvement. I was wrong. Nigel very quickly filled the problem position of left-back, immediately began bringing the best of several players who had stagnated at the club and made some very shrewd signings, as well as shifting many players who clearly had little left to offer the club. Above all, Worthington got the side playing with a real passion that, before his appointment, I had long felt the side lacked.

The 2001-2002 season made me feel excited about supporting Norwich City again. From the introduction of Marc Libbra onwards, it was a thrilling campaign, and the trip to Cardiff was something I will never forget. The side that Worthington put together that season was often (mostly at Carrow Road) a joy to watch. The 2002-2003 season was perhaps disappointing, but the 2003-2004 was breathtaking. The ambition of the board in bringing in Darren Huckerby and Peter Crouch, and Worthington?s intelligent captures of Marc Edworthy, Kevin Harper, Leon McKenzie, Mathias Svensson and Damien Francis gave us the most enjoyable season in a decade (and a double over Ipswich), and should ensure Nigel?s place in the history of the club.

However, the approach taken to the Premiership campaign was often too negative. The signings of Mattias Jonson, David Bentley and (particularly) Thomas Helveg aside, I felt that we had brought in players for a promotion campaign, rather than a serious stab at the Premiership. I remember Nigel being asked in an interview for The Guardian about what he would need to keep Norwich City up, and he ?joked?, ?About ?35 million?. ?Joke? or not, this is very telling. The club had just run away with the First Division title, and had every right to be in the Premiership ? there was no luck involved; why make a ?joke? that implies a lack of belief in the players who got us there?

There are other examples. The negative tactics after we took the lead against Crystal Palace on the opening day. The interview after the Everton game, when Nigel said that at 2-2, he expected us to lose. There are numerous gripes about individual games, tactics and transfers, all of which have been well documented elsewhere ? I am sure the Board cares about what the fans think and that you do look at the websites (or someone does so on your behalf) so I won?t make a lengthy list of ?the fans?? grievances about the Premiership campaign here.

There were highlights, of course. The last-gasp wins over Bolton, Newcastle and Charlton were thrilling, as were the draws with Newcastle and Middlesbrough. The win over Manchester United is second only to Bayern Munich, for me, as the most enjoyable game in all the time I have followed the club. The climax of the season was exhilarating.

Exposed to increased media coverage during the Premiership season, I felt Nigel, for the most part, came across very well. There were none of the furious rants about refereeing decisions (particularly penalties) that could be heard coming from our relegation rivals, impressive considering how many dubious decisions we endured. Blackburn aside, there were no broadsides aimed at rival clubs. Even if he was not the most colourful manager in the division, Nigel conducted himself with dignity and, I think, was not disliked by opposing fans, something that, I think, fostered a lot of good will when the club rescued what could have been a tremendously embarrassing season and came very, very close to surviving.

Given his track record at the club, his amiability (I genuinely believe Nigel to be a likeable, honest man) and the (eventual) good performances in the Premiership, I was happy for Nigel to manage us for another season, although I am increasingly thinking that he should have resigned after the debacle at Fulham, and left with his dignity intact.

I have already stated my opinions on the signings made in the summer of 2004, but I did not believe they were actually Bad Signings, merely a touch un-ambitious. This summer, however, I was seriously confused by the quality (as I and many others saw it) of the players being brought in to Carrow Road. Not just the quality, but also the type of player, and the signals they sent out. Rightly or wrongly (and often it is wrongly) Norwich City have long had a reputation for playing ?good? football, and rightly or wrongly, that is what the fans have come to demand, and expect, from their club. Most of the summer signings did not look as if they were going to fit into a side that played attractive football, and I am still baffled by Nigel?s claim in August that the club had ?a wealth of midfielders?, given the extent to which this part of the squad has been neglected.

I understand that the Board like Nigel a lot, on a personal level. That is understandable ? I think fans often forget that football players and managers are real people, with relationships and emotions and financial concerns just like anyone else. I like Nigel, from what I know of him. But a professional decision needs to be made somewhere. Inexcusably poor signings have been made this summer ? both potentially good signings that have not worked out, and signings that seemed a bad idea from the start ? and the tactics employed in most of our matches have been ill-judged, as has often been the team selection.

The players look like they lack belief in the manager and each other, they look frustrated, and they look like they expect to lose, no matter who form the opposition.

Nigel has blamed the players, the referees, bad luck and, on occasion, the fans, but rarely himself. However, his blinkered parochialism in the transfer market, tactical inflexibility and inability to mould the (decent) players at his disposal into a coherent unit cannot be blamed on anyone else. He has lost the support of the fans (who have, I feel, actually been remarkably patient with him over the last season and a half) and, it appears to me, the players.

This is inexcusable. With intelligent, adventurous signings over the summer, the club really should have been in a position to mount a genuine play-off challenge, at least through the play-offs. As it stands, we are looking at a second successive relegation battle, as we were in 1995-1996, when we were also favourites to go straight back up. At best, we will finish mid-table and lose our star players ? players who have become very close to the hearts of the supporters. Which will mean another long spell of mediocrity at this level, something that the fans thought the club had definitively escaped.

The personal loyalty shown by the Board to Nigel is commendable. Of course it is. Any criticism of the Board aired by the fans is borne out of frustration about the series of embarrassing surrenders taking place on the pitch ? any Norwich City fan, in the cold light of day, will happily concede that the Board have run the club with the highest degree of intelligence for many years now. But there are one or two legitimate criticisms.

The club?s recent broadside about ?rumours? on message-boards, I felt, was ill advised ? all it did was publicise those rumours (most, if not all, were spread either by children, rival supporters trying to make trouble or by idiots disliked by the vast majority of Internet-using Canaries), and detract from the issues that we all know need addressing ? those on the pitch. These sorts of rumours persisted before the Internet, and can be found on any similar forum regarding any club, be it Arsenal or Aldershot. The most dignified thing to do, in my opinion, would have been to ignore them.

Perhaps I over-estimate this, though. What I do not over-estimate, however, is the level of frustration felt by the fans about the results, and the poor performances. Nigel is a good, honest, dignified man who has achieved a lot at this club. However, it is abundantly clear that he is incapable of achieving any more, and is now taking the club backwards, very quickly. He is in danger of losing that dignity and of souring his previous achievements with Norwich City, as well as his ability to find another job when he does depart. And the Board are in danger of alienating the people who give life to the club.

I hate to write to you asking that Nigel Worthington no longer manages my football club, but such as the circumstances. I have enjoyed his tenure ? it has been invigorating and infuriating, exhilarating and frustrating, brilliant and abysmal, but never boring. Until now. Nigel has given me several wonderful years as a football fan, but those years are over. Please don?t let those years become tainted memories for us. I think there is a solution that can suit Mr. Worthington, the Board and the fans; the cruellest solution, I believe, would also be the kindest. Please find the answer.

Posted By: Ottosson Foxtrot, Dec 6, 11:41:51