Relegation 94/95

[The Great Mass Debater]

Listening to Bryan Gunn on Radio 4 this morning brought back memories of his injury against Nottingham Forest in 1994.

I would have been 12 or 13 at the time, with different understandings of football.

My memories are that with John Deehan as manager, we were about 6th in the league at that point, and generally carrying on as we had been under Walker (though think we'd lost Sutton and Fox by this point?)

I have always remembered Gunn's injury in that game as being the critical point in Norwich's next 10 years. We ended up with a very young and completely inexperienced Andy Marshall in goal, and very quickly we were in trouble. I remember at one point there was even talk of John Burridge (who must have been in his 40's) coming in, and we also had Simon Tracey for a bit that season as well.

My enduring memories have always been that if Gunn hadnt got injured we'd have probably held our own at about 6th in the league and would have been well positioned for when all the silly money came in. And I lamented that set of circumstances until Worthington took us back up.

Now Im older and wiser, I realise that my perception of what happened that season was probably total rubbish, and not just down to the goalie problem.

Id be grateful if people would discuss their own perceptions of why we went from UEFA cup participants to relegation so quickly, because, Im pretty sure now it wasnt all Andy Marshall's fault!

 

[Canaryboy]

Goalkeeper was part of the problem.

Robert Chase continuing his selling spree during that season was another. We sold Ekoku, Robins and Culverhouse during the season I think.

From Ekoku, Sutton and Robins to Ward, Sheron and two kids Akinbiyi and Cureton. 

Chase simply went too far in penny pinching, not just with the goalkeeper but throughout the squad. Ashley Ward was a decent striker but Mike Sheron was dreadful for us.

And with management too..... John Deehan's first managerial job, then appointing Megson as a player manager. Massive under-investment in the playing budget was to blame.

I was even younger than you though, I was about 10! Can remember the Chase out protests vividly though. 

 

[It's Character Forming]

Yeah I was a season ticket holder then and will never forget.

I think the sale of Sutton and loss of Mike Walker were the start of the problem.  I remember being told Mike Walker was the lowest paid PL manager on £50k per year which was hard to believe at the time and is incredible in retrospect.  Sutton was scoring for fun and that was a huge part of our league position.

So we were clearly going down the PL but our position at Christmas should've been enough to keep us safe.  I remember beating Newcastle 2-1 at home when Jamie Cureton scored a goal from an amazingly tight angle and we held out for the win - was New Year's day AFAIR.

But then we lost Gunn to injury and without a decent backup we just nosedived down the table... relegated just as the big money started to come through to the PL.

I still remember with irritation the "On loan to Div 1 for one season only" t-shirts which the club sold the next season... arrrrrgh.

It makes me appreciate the last 3 years in the PL all the more.

 

[Moosheep]

I was living abroad at the time, but I still vowed never to set a foot inside Carrow Road whilst Robert Chase was in charge. He might have saved the club from bankruptcy (as he made sure to mention in every interview he ever did) but his mismanagement of the club in the early 90's put us right back there. What was it Martin O'Neil said..."Robert Chase doesn't want a manager, he wants a tracksuit".

Moo

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Can remember the Chase out protests vividly though. 

I had 'Chase Out!' 'Sack the board!' written on my schoolbag in black marker pen!

As I went to school in Burton on Trent everybody just thought I was a bit weird! (which, considering I was the only kid in the school who supported Norwich, I guess I was!)

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

I still remember with irritation the "On loan to Div 1 for one season only" t-shirts 

Well this of course was all down to Chase. I remember being able to see a few games on TV in the early part of the season with Martin O'Neill in charge, and the commentators were eulogising over us, I remember one of them saying 'Norwich under O'Neill really look the business'. Remember Eadie, Keith O'Neill (perhaps wrong season) and Andy Johnson doing very well that season.

Then he resigned right before the infamous battle of the managerless teams Leicester v Norwich (think this was the same game a young Emile Heskey came on and destroyed us - think he was playing on the wing) What he did with Leicester I think he would have done with us, given proper backing by Chase. Wasnt the final nail in the coffin the proposed signing of Dean Windass (or was it Sean Devlin?) or am I completely mis-remembering this? I also remember us trying to sign Simon Howarth but him failing a medical, this might be an entirely different season though.

Think we could well have bounced back straight away with O'Neill at the helm

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Caption Competition!

 

[Canaryboy]

Yeah it was Dean Windass. 

Halfway through the season and O'Neill said get me Dean Windass for £600k and I'll win this league, and Chase refused, so he quit.

Whilst that was a lot of money back then, it was a fraction of the income from player sales in the few years prior, e.g. Fox £2.5m and Sutton £5m. 

 

[It's Character Forming]

Yeah - the Windass saga was defo what did it with ONeill.

And you look at Leicester's trophies and spell in to flight that followed and I am sure we'd have had that sort of period if he'd stsyed with us.