Trawling back - a blog entry from May '06

Just to remind myself how much I f**king hated him...

Monday, May 01, 2006
Divide and rule the Worthington way

And so the season ends much as it began; with a limp Carrow Road display, dropped points and real concerns for the short term future of Norwich City Football Club. Let's make no bones about it; this was an utterly appalling campaign from start to finish, littered with unforgiveable performances from players who appeared to be either uninterested or, frankly, incapable.

Supporters have become progressively more disillusioned; upset by the lack of quality, bewildered by tactics, but above all - and this is the issue that causes the greatest concern - infuriated by a lack of honesty and accountability from the Management. The atmosphere at Carrow Road has ranged from anaesthetised to downright angry, supporters are divided and protests have been rife both inside and outside the stadium. Not a great year!

And so, with such a backdrop, what else would you expect from the Manager than the latest, predictably needly utterance from his consistently ill-judged repertoire? You may hope that Nigel Worthington might consider picking his words carefully. Wounds are raw and relations are damaged. Would a few concilliatory words not go amiss? Something to start repairing the damage? How about (at the very least) an acknowledgement that he understands why supporters might be angry? An olive branch? Some humility? Anything? Please? No chance. None whatsoever. Not Worthington.

Instead, a Manager - who is fast becoming one of the most unloved in the club's long history - wheels out one of the oldest and hoariest of chestnuts. A comment designed not to unite but to divide and to entrench. A comment that could only ever infuriate those who oppose him while massaging the egos of those who don't.

"On the lap after the game I thought the true supporters were there and showed that exceptionally well, and great credit to them. They are the ones who are there through thick and thin."

Yep, it's that curious and utterly unsustainable definition of the 'true fan'. Not, in the eyes of Worthington and his acolytes, the supporter who pays huge amounts of money to watch unutterable rubbish for nine straight months and actually believes that this possibly earns him or her the right to express frustration. Oh No. Not the supporter who at the end of an execrable campaign chooses to depart rather than applaud a Manager and a team who really deserve an Italia-style reception of rotten tomatoes.

In Worthington's eyes, these are the enemy, the turncoats, the miseries, the people who compromise his comfortable and unthreatened existence. No olive-branch for them. And let's not pretend for one second that this was off-the-cuff stuff. This was a simple, wilful and calculated attempt to ensure that those who oppose are undermined and dismissed. These are not 'true fans' according to Worthington. They are fickle, unworthy and not to be trusted. True fans (it appears) are the supporters who put up with any old cr*p, who never moan and are always content no matter how bad the football gets.

Now it isn't for me to even hope to define such a subjective and unquantifiable term as a 'true fan'. Suffice it to say that supporters come in all shapes and sizes from the uncommited and unaffected to the quasi-religious. But what you can say with some degree of certainty about EVERY supporter is that they want the very best for the Club. They may go to one game a year, they may have been to every match since 1978, but all of them wish good fortune for the team they love. And a very great many of these believe that their dreams will never be realised with Nigel Worthington in charge.

Fans have protested, chanted, written letters, held meetings, put up posters, phoned radio shows, and so much more. Not because they want the worst to happen but because they want the best. They do it out of love, they do it as fans and they do it because it comes from the heart and from the gut.

Worthington continues to insult these supporters with his comments. He insults their intelligence and their love for Norwich City by seeking to present them as agents who oppose the Club. It is the mean and unreasonable stance of a twitchy and thin-skinned man whose legacy becomes evermore tainted. Divide and rule? Worthington to a tee. He must go. It is as simple as that.

Posted By: The Judge on January 15th 2009 at 21:38:05

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