This is the letter i sent off with my season ticket renewal....

Dear Neil and members of the Norwich City Board of Directors

I have renewed my season ticket along with this letter and feel the need, as I am sure do thousands of others to voice my concerns to you all with regard to the current plight of Norwich City Football Club.

I have renewed my season ticket in the hope that next season we will be lead by a different management team. I will not bore you with the reasons that I feel Nigel Worthington should be replaced as manager of our club as I am sure the reasons have been pointed out to you by countless other fans.

The one thing I will say though is that the saddest thing to happen amongst the poor performances and defeats during this wretched season is the loss of the feel good factor around our football club.

I have been attending games on a regular basis since Bruce Riochs reign as manager. During such time I witnessed the awful Brian Hamilton era and then to be followed by the bright new dawn under Nigel Worthington. Since around 2002 there came a feeling around the club that we were in the ascendancy and that we were going places, I often used to remark to friends back in 2002/03 that Norwich would be in the Premiership within the next few seasons and I was right.

However, this season that feel good factor, the feeling that the club was going in the right direction has been replaced with a mood of the exact opposite. I, and the vast majority of fans feel we are heading back into the Championship abyss that will swallow us up for another 10 years unless we take action and replace the current management team.

?Replacing the manager does not guarantee results and success? I can hear you
thinking to yourselves.

Yes, your right it does not guarantee success, but I tell you one thing that I and countless other fans are sure of and that is if Nigel Worthington remains manager of this club for next season then we will almost certainly fail.

I would rather the board took the gamble of replacing the manager for next season and failed rather than sticking with Nigel Worthington and failing. The stick you and the board would get from fans would also be far greater if you stuck with NW and we failed rather than if you took action, brought in a new management team and failed.

So please, for the sake of the fans reignite the flames of optimism and hope for next season by bringing in a new management team, however painful it may be for you to sack Nigel Worthington and his assistants. You and the board must act like a jury in a criminal case and base your decision on the facts and not let emotion cloud your judgement.

In terms of who I would like to see at the helm of the team for next season I would like to make a few points.

Many fans want to see a return to the attractive, free flowing, attacking football that Norwich used to play. One of the biggest criticisms of NW is that he favours a long ball game, that he prefers hard working grafters over players with technical ability and flair. He also possesses a defensive mindset. It is very important that any new manager appointed is the opposite to Nigel Worthington, in that he will get the team playing free flowing attacking football with the players passing the ball in an attractive way on the floor.

My own personal preference for our next manager is Mike Newell the current manager of Luton Town. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, the most important, as I have stressed above is that he has an attacking mindset when it comes to football. He took over at Luton and has them playing attractive, passing football with the emphasis on attack. Mike would get the Norwich team playing this way and that in itself, would make his appointment in many fans eyes a success regardless of whether we were promoted or not.

It is important that next season we go all out to try and get promoted what with the parachute payments running out at the end of the season. A good start to the campaign is essential. Under Newell Luton won League 1 last season. They started the season very well coming out of the traps really quickly and winning 9 and drawing 1 of their first 10 games. This then gave them the momentum and confidence that took them through to the end of the season and saw them ultimately go up as champions. If Norwich are to be promoted next season it is very important that we come out at the start of the season with all guns blazing, and I feel that Newell will achieve this.

There are two more reasons for my support of Mike Newell. He is it would seem judging from his recent comments about football agents and bungs a very honest man, a quality that I am sure that you as a board would greatly appreciate.

Now the prudence with ambition part. Mike Newell is CURRENTLY only contracted at Luton until June 2007 meaning that in terms of paying off a new managers existing contract he is likely to be one of the cheaper options available. I say currently as I believe that the Luton board are currently preparing to offer him a new contract and if he signs this it will make paying off his new contract a lot more expensive. In light of this may I suggest Neil that the club deploy a discreet ?tapping up? of Mike Newell to hopefully delay him signing a new contract.

I hope that you will read this letter, take in what I have said and above all make the right decision for NCFC. An acknowledgement of this letter would be greatly appreciated.

Posted By: The Duke of Norfolk, Feb 26, 21:05:35