Nigel Worthington is the Manager of the Northern Ireland National Team and is hoping to guide them to a major tournament for the first time in many years. Worthington had a good playing career playing for several clubs including Notts County, Stoke City and Sheffield Wednesday among others and it was at Hillsborough that Worthington spent the majority of his playing career. Worthington who was a no-nonsense left-back began his managerial career as a Player-Manager with Blackpool in 1997.

Achievements

Worthington lasted two and a half years at Bloomfield Road before being sacked when the team were struggling. The next stop for Worthington was to be Carrow Road where he was appointed Assistant-Manager to Bryan Hamilton at Norwich City. When Hamilton was sacked in 2000 it was Nigel Worthington who stepped up to the hot seat and he went on to save The Canaries from relegation in his first season in charge.

Worthington would go on to have six years at Carrow Road with the highlight being promotion to the Premier League in 2004, when they won The Championship. Worthington found Premier League life difficult and they were duly relegated back to the Championship at the first time of asking but Worthington stayed at Carrow Road and vowed to get them back to the top-flight. Things didn’t go to plan for the man from Ballymena however and Worthington was sacked as Norwich City Manager in 2006.

After a brief spell as Leicester City Manager Nigel Worthington became the Manager of Northern Ireland in June 2007 initially on a short-term contract but that was extended to 2010 after he brought some good performances from the team. Northern Ireland have started the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers well but are in an extremely tight group with five teams vying for two spots.

Job Security

Nigel Worthington has done a solid job as Northern Ireland boss and he looks set to stay on until at least the end of the 2010 qualifying campaign. Northern Ireland are in with a shout of qualification but they do have some tough fixtures upcoming in what looks to be a difficult group to call with regards to qualification. Whether or not Northern Ireland qualify is likely to have a big say on Nigel Worthington staying on at Windsor Park as his contract will be up for renewal at the end of the campaign.

Watch this space.

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