Hughton and all that

This is in response to something Creo said below. Look, no-one anywhere thinks Chris Hughton was a great manager; it surely wouldn't have worked out had he stayed either. The fans were in open mutiny by the end of his time: which forced the board's hand.

But we were, almost to a man, guilty of underestimating the job he did for the most part. The squad he had was, for the level we were at, s**t; and much more fundamentally, had very little creative ability. So he tried to get us to play a different way: a boring way, a tedious way, which had many fans dreading matches. But up to a point, it was effective.

I reacted the way I did after the Arsenal game 2 years ago because I knew this wasn't 'us'. Norwich City can't play like a boa constrictor; it's not in our DNA, and it's the opposite of what the fans will tolerate for any decent period of time. The style was so ugly that sadly, some fans became more and more personal in their abuse of him; even now, some still blame him for practically everything, call him a "c**t", or whatever.

But it was never that simple. The board's culpability lay in neither backing nor sacking him - but hedging their bets, dithering, and getting rid when it was already too late: never mind their ridiculous choice as his replacement. That choice showed they, like us, didn't understand; they, like us, thought we could both play good football AND stabilise in the Prem. But not on our budget, we couldn't.

Hughton's culpability, meanwhile, lay in being so affected by the fans' criticism that he started trying to approach things differently. He didn't have the strength of personality to stand by his way. We ended up way too open on our travels; and started losing games instead of drawing them, as we had previously. The fans couldn't see that either, so just got angrier and angrier - but "getting our Norwich back" was never going to be the answer.

That's what I think prompted the board to give Adams the job. He's one of us, he loves the club, he understands the club and the fans - right? But it's not enough: not by a million miles. That doesn't mean it's easy - but not to have brought in an experienced manager at a time like this beggars belief. It's just so plain DUMB - and the credit the board got for presiding over 3 amazing years, then one decent one, has evaporated now. All very sad.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Nov 8, 21:49:18