In the second of his series of guest blogs looking at the ‘forgotten Nineties’, Martin MacBlain tackles, amongst other things, the thorny issue of the Bryan Hamilton era…
Text alert – ‘Neale Fenn’
Hmmm – that’s a tricky one, I ponder.
I’ll need to pull out the trump card for this;
Text reply – ‘Jim Whitley’
For those of you who are reading my second article, thank you for continuing with my nostalgic look at this era. For those of you who are new to my articles, thank you as well for reading. For all of you who are reading and am wondering what the hell the text alerts mean; let me explain.
Wigan away, April 2019. The Wall of Yellow. Driving up from Bristol with a few fellow South West Canaries, well Darren was driving – top Yellow that he is – on a not insubstantial journey, and the occupants of the car soon realised that I have an uncanny knack of remembering obscure Norwich players from the 1990s.
Thus followed a game over the next few weeks, where at random points, we would text each other an obscure NCFC player. The aim being to ‘out-obscure’ each other. Jim Whitley was my trump card.
Can you guess against which team he scored his only goal, for us? Answers in the comments section below, please.
I wanted this article to be staged in two parts. Firstly, how dull and stagnant the season was, begun by the ‘fantastic’ Bryan Hamilton. And secondly, whether this was the season when the seeds of recovery from the awful mid-late 1990s were actually sewn?
The 2000/01 season began, for me, with a trip up to Norwich (I was home for the summer) to watch a pre-season friendly vs SC Heerenveen. I remember very little about this game other than it rained, a lot. And that there was an away fan who wore a Viking helmet. In the South Stand. On his own.
So, another listless season appeared on the horizon. Back to Glastonbury and to my summer job, the rather insalubrious surroundings of a well-known baby food processing factory and night shift work.
For any readers who’ve done factory work as a student, there is precious little to occupy the mind. So you find yourself thinking of things to think about. Anything. And assessing Norwich’s summer signings was certainly one of them, which segues me nicely back into the relative merits of one flying midfielder – Jim Whitley.
A rather low-key signing on loan from Manchester City. Not much of a track record to shout home about, a previous loan spell at Blackpool that hadn’t worked out that well. Yet, perhaps he was the missing piece… the cog that could turn the yellow wheel; the talismanic star who could catapult us back into the big time.
And for one fleeting moment, he did. Like a salmon soaring from the water, he rose… and rose… and looped a stunning header over the keeper into the net. Two Iwan Roberts goals later and we were on our way to victory.
Now you’re probably wondering where factory work and Big Brother One come into this. Well as an exile, I didn’t actually see Whitley’s goal until the end of season review came out. But I do recall quite vividly sitting in the canteen of the aforementioned factory with a copy of the Sun newspaper – the front page adorned with tales of ‘Nasty Nick’ and ‘Craig’ (Google Big Brother One if that doesn’t ring any bells) and a tiny insert on the back page with a write up of said football match. As close to being there as an exile could get.
Could this be our season?
Sadly not. Back to uni. Back to Carrow Road. Crystal Palace 0-0. Blackpool in the cup 3-3 (and that was with Tony Cottee up top!) and we regained our usual mid to bottom place in the table. As an aside, I managed to get a hire car up to Norwich in the middle of the fuel crisis – I’ve never seen the M11 so empty.
I’ve already stated that I wanted this article to be in two parts. The first designed to convey the absolutely dire nature of this season and some of the signings. And the second… to ascertain whether this may just have been when the seeds of recovery were sewn…
It was while researching this article that a sudden thought struck me. I noticed player after player who were not only in our playoff squad but also in the league winners squad of 2003/04.
I started to join the dots and look closer at what was beginning to be assembled, slowly and gradually, by Nigel Worthington. Yes, he inherited a lot of players who either weren’t interested or weren’t good enough (Fernando Derveld and Raymond De Waard – I had the misfortune to see both play live). Yet in his squad were; Rob Green, Craig Fleming, Malky Mackay, Phil Mulryne and Iwan Roberts (albeit some of those weren’t playing).
Some astute signings in March (the true slamming shut of the transfer window for those older readers) of Gary Holt and Adam Drury (I saw both their debuts vs Grimsby) and I began to see parallels with 2001/02 and 2003/04; still two of our most successful seasons to date. And I began to wonder if this was where Worthy started to assemble the spine of his squad.
Were the shoots of recovery now starting to show through? Was this oft-forgotten season where it all started?
2000/01: Green, Drury, Mackay, Fleming, Kenton, Holt, Mulryne, McVeigh, Roberts
2001/02: Sprinkle in Easton, Rivers, Notman and Nielsen and you reach the playoffs
2003/04: Top off with Huckerby, Francis, Svensson and McKenzie and promotion awaits.
The spine of the team remained the same throughout all these seasons. I had never quite realised it before, but Worthy had the makings of an excellent team a long time before they realised their potential. Robert Green – the heir apparent to Andy Marshall. Malky Mackay – a far superior centre-back to Matt Jackson, he just had to bide his time. ‘Wee’ Paul McVeigh hiding in the wings. Once Worthy had them assembled we began to soar. And soar we did.
I’ll leave you with a ‘what if’. What if Gaetano Giallanza hadn’t suffered a season-ending injury…
Did you manage to guess who Whitley’s goal was against?
Great read Martin, a very thought-provoking blast from the past. The period under Hamilton was truly dreadful and I guess the big question was what was his overall strategy in the players that he bought? I had completely forgotten about Jeff Whitley who if memory serves me correctly scored in a cup game against somebody like Bury or Stockport? Many of the players signed by Hamilton were sent packing fairly promptly by Nigel Worthington who went out and signed Adam Drury to replace Fernando Derveld – probably one of the best £500K transfer fees ever spent!
I remember the beginning of the following season (2001-2002) and we took a 4-0 pasting away at Millwall on the opening day of the season and thinking ‘yikes’! Neil Emblen who had signed I think from Wolves was ‘crocked’ in his first game and I don’t think ever played for us again. But I remember the first home game the following weekend against Man City. The atmosphere was brilliant and a great 2-0 win – goals from Paul McVeigh and the 11-second debut goal for Marc Libbra (that was some finishing – shame it was never really repeated) which set the tone for a great season!
Cheers, Notts Jon. You are indeed correct with one of those guesses, although it was a league game – yes, that was the quality of opposition in those bleak days!
I too remember thinking exactly the same about the Millwall game…yet we just seemed to gather a momentum from then on in. I was holidaying in the USA at the time of the Man City game (Wimbledon the week before with a late Neilsen goal) and was jumping for joy at the Libbra goal. What a result.
I’m not sure Hamilton ever had a strategy other than buy as many players as he could! Although I think he signed McVeigh, so not all bad.
Thanks for reading.
Hi Martin
During the summer gap between my A-level years I worked nights in the Proctor & Gamble factory in Chadwell Heath on the fringes of East London. The job mainly consisted of watching a Fairy Liquid bottle filling machine and taking said bottles off the conveyor belt and putting them onto a large tray.
If anything went wrong I had to press a rubberised red button which alerted a supervisor – that was the exciting part!
Gaetano Giallanza turned out to be of great use to us over 20 years after his untimely demise. He is Timm Klose’s agent, of course, and appears very respectful towards NCFC.
I had to Google the Jim Whitley goal so I won’t spoil things for the rest of us:-)
Another fine read.
It seems us UEA old boys have all done our fair stints of factory work! For me it was making shopping trolleys for Sainsburys, before moving onto a different factory and checking a conveyor belt of green beans for stalks. Exciting times.
You are indeed very correct with Gillianza! I’m glad he kept his affection for the club. If you take a look back at that season on Youtube (uploaded by Canary Archives) it’s frightening to wonder what a pairing of him and Iwan could have done…
I just about remember Jim Whitley but have no idea who he scored against.
My dad used to send me copies of the Pink Un which would arrive on a Tuesday. One of the sections contained a Q&A with a fan and one of the questions was ‘where do you see City in 5 years time?’ . About the time Miartin is writing about my answer was always ‘ stuck where we are now, forever’. Most of the respondents said much the same but some optimistic souls said ‘back in the Premier where we belong’
Although I admired them, I also pitied their lack of realism (much the same as I did at the start of last season). I was shocked and stunned when we got to the play off final in 02 (the semi final victory being a high point as a City fan living in Wolverhampton) and the subsequent 2004 promotion. I’ve never analysed how it happened but Martin’s breakdown of the evolution of the squad seems to be spot on.
Don, your comments are spot on. I don’t think anyone could have predicted the playoff season from the dismal seasons prior to that. And if you remember we only ‘snuck in’ to 6th spot, I think we took Wolves by surprise.
It really was a surprise seeing how many good players we had long before the play off and championship winning seasons.
Hi
Another good read
Worthington Managerial career started at Blackpool and in 2.5years not much to write home about resigned saying he had taken them as afar as he could and that was backwards.
Not sure on this but wasn’t he first brought to the club as a coach under Hamilton and given the caretakers job on Hamilton leaving.
A few friend that happen to be Blackpool supporters LOL when he was appointed at city expecting to see us in the same situation as them.
6 years in Charge and a promotion and relegation just maybe the promotion was his undoing ditching to many tried and trusted players that may just have kept us up and him in a job we will never know.
I once read that Hamilton was a neighbour and friend of the Smiths in Stowmarket that was home he got the job I am so pleased that they didn’t employ another friend in Hodgeson as manager after his England departure that could have turned out a disaster.
Onwards and Upwards
OTBC
Hi Alex, glad you enjoyed it. You are correct, Worthy came in on the back room staff and I’m glad Delia et al gave him the chance.
I couldn’t agree more with your comment about offloading tried and tested players. Malky and Iwan would’ve made a huge difference. Malky even went on to play in the Prem for Watford and Iwan surely deserved a chance.
Great point re Malky (who also helped West Ham to promotion) and Iwan.
I would add that imo Marc Edworthy should also have been retained.
The only thing that I still recall from Hamilton’s reign, was the Delia said he was such a nice man. I thought if that was the main criteria to become a Norwich City manager, then Alex Ferguson would not have even go to the interview stage.
The Whitley goal was against Stockport away in a 3-1 win I seem to recall.
You’re not wrong in that we did have decent players that season yet Hamilton was at a loss how to deploy them.
Back in those pre social media and basic Internet days you had no way of knowing how good or bad a foreign signing would be. I was genuinely excited when we signed De Waard et al, only to soon be disappointed. That said Hamilton did sign Nedergaard who was quality.
Spot on, Segura! It was indeed Stockport with a Iwan brace, one being a penalty.
Steeno was class and I was genuinely gutted to see him leave, but as Martin P mentions above, Edworthy was a worthy replacement.
Thanks for reading
I was at that game. I didn’t realise that history was being written!
Goal was against Stockport County. He now is a portrait artist, after a spell on stage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Whitley
Thanks for posting the link, Andrew – you are indeed correct.
Yes, I’d read that his career had taken an unusual turn.