Nigel Worthington

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Nigel Worthington (born November 4, 1961 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland) is a former footballer and manager. He is currently without a job after he was sacked as Norwich City manager on October 1, 2006.

As a player he was a full back, playing mainly for Sheffield Wednesday. He was a member of the Northern Ireland squad that played in the 1982 and 1986 World Cup Final tournaments. At both Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United Worthington played under Howard Wilkinson who would be a major influence on Worthington's own managerial style.

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[edit] Playing career

As a tough-tackling no-nonsense defender Worthington earned himself 66 international caps for Northern Ireland, captaining the side under manager Bryan Hamilton. His club playing career brought him to:

[edit] Managerial career

Worthington's managerial career started unspectacularly as player/manager at Blackpool at the beginning of the 1997/98 season. He soon retired from playing to take on sole managerial duties, but two and a half seasons in charge ended with his resignation following a worrying dip in form that saw the club lying in the thick of the Second Division relegation battle. He had little sympathy from the fans on his departure who accused him of adopting a long-ball game.

After briefly assisting Howard Wilkinson in the England Under-21 set-up, Worthington was brought to Carrow Road at the start of the 1999/00 season as assistant manager by then Norwich boss Bryan Hamilton. Following the resignation of Hamilton after a poor start to the following season and a run of 5 consecutive defeats, Worthington was named as caretaker manager on 4 December 2000 and then given the role full-time following an assured run of results, eventually finishing the season in the safety of 15th place.

The 2001/02 season saw Worthington unexpectedly take the Canaries to the brink of promotion to the Premiership, missing out on penalties in a closely fought First Division play-off Final against Birmingham City in Cardiff. An amazing comeback in the last 6 games of the season had seen Norwich pip Burnley for the final First Division play-off place on the last day by virtue of goal difference. An 8th-place finish the following season, just one place behind arch-rivals Ipswich, represented something of a comedown.

In 2003-04 Worthington saw the greatest managerial achievement of his career so far, winning Norwich promotion to the Premiership as First Division champions with a club-record total of 96 points (8 points clear of nearest rivals West Brom). An unremarkable and injury-plagued start to the season had led to the signing of a number of Premiership players on loan including Darren Huckerby from Manchester City and Peter Crouch from Aston Villa, leading in turn to an impressive run of results up to mid-December. However, it seemed certain that these players would depart at the end of their 3-month loan spells, but Worthington showed his remarkable persuasive powers by convincing the board to break the bank to sign Huckerby on a permanent basis. It was a very merry Christmas for fans as Norwich went top of the league with a 2-0 victory at local-rivals Ipswich and never looked back.

The 2004-05 season, his first in the Premiership, saw a steep learning-curve for Worthington as a manager. Initially sticking with his old guard despite signing some international players, he finally included then in the side towards the end of the season. Despite pulling off an impressive run of results in the final weeks (including a 2–0 win over Manchester United), Norwich were relegated with only 33 points on the last day thanks to a 6–0 defeat at the hands of Fulham combined with a 2–0 West Brom win over Portsmouth. This consigned Norwich to 19th place in the Premiership with 77 goals conceded—only five other teams have ever conceded more goals in a Premiership season.

Unsuccessful performances during the 2005–2006 season, coupled with the previous season's relegation, led to various supporters groups calling for managerial change, including the Norwich City Independent Supporters' Association (NCISA). Worthington, however, seemed to weather this storm in the best way possible after winning four games out of four during December, bringing Norwich to within three points of the play-off positions.

At the end of the January 2006 transfer window, months of speculation culminated in the sale of Dean Ashton to West Ham for a fee approaching £7.25 million. Worthington chose to spend £3.5 million of this fee on West Bromwich and Wales forward, Robert Earnshaw. Worthington also secured the loan signings of Jonatan Johannson from Charlton and Zeshan Rehman from Fulham, in addition to the purchases of Dickson Etuhu (£450,000 from Preston) and Carl Robinson (£50,000 from Sunderland), both of whom previously had been on loan at the club.

Despite these purchases, many sections of the Norwich support remained opposed to Worthington's managership as results and performances again got worse. The exact extent of this is unclear, but most online supporters' forums were almost unanimous in their opposition. Following a home defeat against local East Anglian rivals Ipswich Town, there was a small-scale demonstration against him outside the stadium.

Small-scale demonstrations occurred before matches against Stoke and Leicester, organised by the Worthy Out movement. Protests continued as a run of poor away form culminated in early April with a defeat to Preston, extinguishing any lingering hopes of snatching a play-off spot for the club. In the end Worthington's team finished 13 points off the play-offs.

The Canaries' bright start to the following season, including a 100% home record, led to an ease in tension between Worthington and the fans. A heavy away loss to Coventry and a collapse against Southend led to some fans again starting the cries of "Worthy Out", the positive performances and league position said to be down to new first team coach, Martin Hunter, rather than Worthington himself. Worthington's relationship with the fans was not helped by lack of transfer activity, and the controversial sale of Robert Green and Leon McKenzie.

On 1 October after Norwich lost 4–1 to Burnley Worthington was sacked. The defeat left the club lying in 17th, 5 points off the play-off positions.

He left saying "I am a loyal person. I have been manager of this football club for six years when it has been absolutely tremendous. But my team will live to fight another day and I intend to live to fight another day as well. We all took the plaudits when things were going well, and I'll take the bullets when it is not going well.[1] I'll miss the club, the lads, the fans and most importantly the wonderful city of Norwich. I'm leaving Norwich, but Norwich will never leave this old fool's heart."[citation needed]

[edit] References

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    Preceded by:
    Gary Megson    		 Blackpool F.C. manager
    1997-1999    		 Succeeded by:
    Steve McMahon
    Preceded by:
    Bryan Hamilton    		 Norwich City F.C. manager
    2000-2006    		 Succeeded by:
    Peter Grant
    Northern Ireland Northern Ireland squad - 1986 World Cup Northern Ireland

    1 Jennings | 2 Nicholl | 3 Donaghy | 4 O'Neill | 5 McDonald | 6 McCreery | 7 Penney | 8 McIlroy | 9 Quinn | 10 Whiteside | 11 Stewart | 12 Platt | 13 Hughes | 14 Armstrong | 15 Worthington | 16 Ramsey | 17 Clarke | 18 McClelland | 19 Hamilton | 20 McNally | 21 Campbell | 22 Caughey | Coach: Bingham
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