Thank you Nigel Worthington for your time as manager of Norwich City Football Club. Thank you for getting the team out of the mess it was in when you took over as manager and for gaining a creditable 15th place in the difficult circumstances you found yourself in and saving the club from what appeared a likely relegation that season.

Thank you Nigel Worthington for your time as manager of Norwich City Football Club.

Thank you for getting the team out of the mess it was in when you took over as manager and for gaining a creditable 15th place in the difficult circumstances you found yourself in and saving the club from what appeared a likely relegation that season.

Thank you for rebuilding the team without the availability of large finances, for the exciting run in of your first full season in charge which gave us a play-off place and those amazing matches against Wolves and a final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium only won on penalties by Birmingham.

Thank you for that wonderful 2003-04 promotion season and bringing Darren Huckerby and Peter Crouch on loan which immediately transformed expectations. Norwich fans are indebted for your persuasive powers in convincing the directors that Huckerby had to be signed permanently.

Fans will never forget the manner in which Norwich won the league, the exciting football or that parade of the city streets and the celebrations at City Hall.

Thank you for bringing Premiership football to Carrow Road. We could see for ourselves just how much the skill levels had moved on since the old 1st Division days whilst our away supporters experienced for themselves the inflation of ticket prices which symbolises the power of money at the top level of football in this country.

I had the privilege of writing the first NCISA Pink 'Un article for this season stating that the first 10 games had a significance greater than when Huckerby and Crouch appeared as loan players. Although last season NCISA called for a change of manager I do not know of anyone on the committee who did not want Worthington to pull things round. There was, with the gift of hind sight, a false dawn this September. The 10 games have indeed proved of great consequence to all concerned with Norwich City.

It is the nature of football, as Ken Brown expressed the other day, that the time comes for managers to move on although it is not easy to judge the timing when you are personally involved.

The expression of appreciation at the club's Press conference on Monday to Nigel Worthington was appropriate and will be joined by many City fans.

Now, though, the directors have the unenviable task of finding a suitable replacement, a manager who can demonstrate leadership, loyalty and vision to take City on and upwards. At 10 games and with a tight league there is everything to be gained.