The Promotion Race (Updated after Ipswich)

I think she's clearing her throat.

 

Well NCFC will be 'rolling in the deep' (brown stuff) if our dithering and spineless board don't take steps to sort things out by next season - too late, now, this one's gone - but will they learn anything from their dumbass repeated mistakes?

 

They are too busy deciding on what colours our 3 (three) kits will be next season .
Promotion promotion promotion .

 

Errrm - how many years have you supported NCFC????

 

They´re no more dithering and spineless than the players, who after all, play far more of a part in bringing success to the club than the board do. In fact, compared to the players, I´d say the board come across as being resilient, determined and purposeful - and if the players only managed to pick up on one of those, we´d all be a lot better off.

 

The problem is that no-one appears accountable.

We've lost two CEO's in a year, Stephen Fry quit the Board (not sure what he ever brought to the Board anyway), Ed the Prancer has come in at Chairman and young Tom is safely ensconced. Hardly a catalogue of inspiration that.

On the field the players are well rewarded come what may - we've had a handful of good performances this season (Brentford, Derby, Florists away and home, dogged determination against the Nukes last week) but there has been far more mediocre, lacklustre and downright poor performances and that sums up the predicament we are in. Our results against the top sides have been lacking but so have those away games at the bottom sides (defeats at Burton and Rotherham, draw at Wigan) - we seem to do ok against the mid table sides who have chuff all to play for (even at this stage of the season) but against teams who need to dig in and fight to get a result we almost always come up short which to me either smacks of lack of application or just being "too comfortable or too well rewarded" to battle it out with the teams that really have something to play for.

Oh well, hoping for 7 points against the Bin Dippers on Sunday .....

 

And I think, ocf, as Neil touched on after Saturday, too arrogant. There have been far too many times this season when we seem to expect to win, just by turning up.

 

We may need 11 points against the Ipswich to sneak into the play offs at this rate.
I think you may be right about players being too well rewarded for mediocrity they seem more interested in their hairdos than competing for every ball.
The home fans booing the side off appears to have made the team put in a shift at home but on the road they seem to just coast through games then send out Martin or Whittaker with a sad face for the inevitable post match loss interview.

 

It's no good AN moaning that the players are too arrogant. If that is the problem, which I doubt, it's his job to sort it out, not moan about it. Maybe someone needs to explain to AN just what his job is.

 

To return to your ´dithering and spineless´ accusation, I´d say to call them dithering is nonsense, and to call them spineless is an insult.

Just because they don´t make the same decisions as you, and/or others think they should make, doesn´t make them dithering. As far as I can see, the board, and Delia in particular, have had a clear plan for ages now, which they´re now putting into action, and that plan revolves entirely around Alex Neil. When Delia, many months ago now, said that she would like to have a manager stay for 10 years, I don´t think she was joking, she meant every word. She´s now finally found the manager that she wants, and she´s prepared to stick with him, (´course I could be entirely wrong, and after we´ve lost 2 - 0 to Ipswich on Sunday , she´ll sack him Monday morning, just can´t see it though) and I think she will give him time to build up his own squad with new, young players, and see where it takes us. We as fans, will have to like it or lump it. Speaking for myself, I like it, we have far too many older players who´re running the clock down , far too many who are picking up sizeable wages only to put their feet up, it´s time we had a complete clear out. It was right to keep them for this one year, to see if they could send us straight back up, but sadly, so far, they´ve come up lacking. Where is the future in players like Martin, Whittaker, Bassong, Tettey, Mulumbu, Jarvis, Jerome, and yes, even Hoolahan - all in their twilight years.

As regards spineless, just the fact that Delia and the board stood up to fan power and went against fans´ wishes to sack Neil ( and themselves actually) shows that that is just about as far from the truth as one can get. Anyone who takes their seat in the stands each week, under those sort of conditions, and every other week gets however many thousands jeering at them, at the slightest hiccup, is not spineless. Spineless is staying at home, hiding under the bedclothes. In my opinion, Delia´s got more guts and fighting spirit than the whole team put together.

 

Oh I´m sure he knows that by now , but you seem to know as much about it as any so why don´t you?

 

Just to try and bring this thread round a bit to the OP.

We are in the same place now as the PL season when we down to the Championship. We are relying on others being worse than us to achieve our objective.

I would be flabbergasted if either of the teams above us mess this up to the point where we can catch them. After all they are not NCFC. NO one else fails like us.

This season has been a shambles to be quite honest, how can you be serious about promotion and lose to teams like Rotherham and Burton Albion? It's an embarrassment. We have been giving our out of favour players to Rotherham on loan! Then we go there an get beat. Incredible.

I'm not after the managers head really. I think the problems are deeper than that, the club is being miss-managed at board level and since McNally walked out we have been a laughing stock.

It's the players, manager, board and lack of leadership that are costing us. All of them should apologise to the fans for being so completely useless.

 

Not for the first time recently RBF I disagree, they have most certainly dithered over sacking Neil. 10 year plan or not, I refuse to believe that there was no questioning of his position in the board room. If there wasn't then they are truely incompetent and lets add negligent. Maybe its the large pay out required to sack him that has left them dithering and spineless over the obviously required sacking decision? It doesn't take a spine to sit in their ivory tower away from any of the more vocal and passionate fans. It takes criminal stupidity to have spouted her nonsense in 'that' interview. It also doesn't require much spine to sit silently back whilst the club is in chaos. Like or loath Moxey but that whole episode along with the loss of Bowcett and McNally do not point to any sort of competence at ownership level.
I do agree with you that Delia wasn't joking about having a manager in place for 10 years, but it needs to be the right one, only someone truely pigheaded (add that to your Delia insult pipe and smoke it) and spineless cannot admit to their mistakes. Maybe the next one will be worth 10 years? The only reason any manager would stay at NCFC afterall would be if they are simply not competent enough to land a bigger job............maybe Neil is our man!
Whilst in ernest I agree with you about the general retention of players to have a go this season, we have failed in part because we failed to trim even a modicum of the deadwood. we need to keep the best senior players not the worst. I know easier said then done, but that will apply going forward too. On the other hand we may all love this notion of a youthful team come through the ranks firing us to the PL. but as I have said a number of times, it can't and won't happen. The best will leave us, cherry picked. a number will leave out of frustration at not getting to play, and the the majority will be bang average and leave us languishing in midtable or worse! Delia's masterplan?
Does she have more guts than the team? maybe, but thats a pretty low bar!

Bah!

 

I think we are going off topic because Norwich featuring in a thread entitled "The promotion race" would seem fairly off topic already!

Bah!

 

Nothing in your post alters the validity of RBF's post, you just view it in an antagonistic way rather than calm and collected!

It's probably an age thing, people of RBF's and my age group are not given to knee-jerk reactions!

 

Whatever!!!!
IMO, both posts are touching on quite valid points as to why we're not in the play-off places as a minimum and I'm certain a less ARROGANT manager would have had the decency to have walked away when we were on such an abysmal losing streak!!

 

QUOTE="JM Fan, post: 10263396, member: 1016291"]Whatever!!!!
IMO, both posts are touching on quite valid points as to why we're not in the play-off places as a minimum and I'm certain a less ARROGANT manager would have had the decency to have walked away when we were on such an abysmal losing streak!! [/QUOTE]

Not sure why he would JMF ?

If he is in a very well paid job and has been given cast iron assurances by the owner that his job is safe as long as he keeps us out of League One then why would he walk ? I wouldn't in his situation and no amount of vitriol aimed at him on a Saturday afternoon or in the press each day or on Social Media 24 hours a day will force him to quit when he has a mortgage to pay and mouths to feed.

 

Great comments, General and OCF
Those comments about a hierarchy in place for "10 years"?
Mistimed, for sure, as after an exciting initial six months, all Neil has brought is relegation followed by mid-table obscurity. Does anyone, board members included, have that as their preferred ideology?

 

Well it might be more appropriate if our chairman or maybe our CEO (whoever that might be this week ) made it clear what is expected of our manager.