Robert Chase: Tributes pour in for former City chairman

Many credit the former chairman - who died on Friday, aged 84 - with securing the financial future of Norwich City and steering it through its greatest period.

Others are frustrated that his policy of selling key players meant progress at the club stalled. 

Jeremy Goss, scorer of the club's most famous goal of the Chase (or any other) era - against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup - reflected that complex legacy in his warm tribute to the former chairman.

"He was a good man - a Norfolk man who wanted Norwich City to have a very best," Mr Goss said.

"He was in charge during an extraordinary time for the club and I offer my condolences to his family.

"As a player, my memories of him are mainly of frustration. He let [manager] Mike Walker go and quite quickly lots of other players followed.

"We had something special at that time and all desperately wanted the team to stick together, Mike to stay and for that success we enjoyed to be built on, but he wanted to go in a different direction.

"The shambles around the sale of Chris Sutton was massively frustrating for me and the rest of the players.

"But that all happened almost 30 years ago and looking back, he did do a lot of good for the club.

"He was a man of money, finances and banking more than he was a man of football - he wanted to bring in players and sell them at a profit, but because he wanted to club to have a strong future.

"A lot of the investments he made helped to build some very strong foundations for Delia and Michael to build on and he definitely had his heart in the club."

Former Canaries manager Dave Stringer was given the seat in the dugout by Mr Chase in 1987, saving the club from relegation in his first season in charge.

Mr Stringer said: "Like everyone, we had our ups and downs but overall we had a good working relationship.

"From the time he appointed me through to Mike Walker taking over it was one of the most successful times on the pitch for the club - we gave the supporters a lot of excitement at the time.

"There's always going to be controversy in this kind of job in football and some of the decisions he made did feel a little harsh.

"He had his priorities and that did sometimes clash with the playing side of things.

"But you look at the training ground now and he was responsible for buying all the land for that, so the way it is now wouldn't have been possible without him."

Mr Stringer represented the club as a player between 1964 and 1976 before returning as a coach in 1980. He was promoted to first team manager two years into Mr Chase's tenure as chairman.

He added: "You can not be popular all the time, particularly not in the position he was in, but he had the club's best interest at heart.

"He used to take club members abroad and looked after them really well during the European run, he really cared about them."

Former goalkeeper Bryan Gunn represented the club hundreds of times during Mr Chase's tenure.

Posting on Twitter, he said: "Sad news over the weekend to hear our old chairman Robert Chase passed away on Friday.

"[He] Did many good things for the clubs and that is the way I'll remember him.

"He was always a hard negotiator over our bonuses but we always came out with a fair deal in the end."

In a statement, the club said it was "deeply saddened" by Mr Chase's death, adding: "All at the club would like to pass on their deepest condolences to Robert's family and friends at this sad time."