Bye, Bye Neyul

A warning: this post is about football.

At about three this afternoon, Norwich announced that their manager, Neil Adams had tendered his resignation. A minor ripple in football was created, and then sport moved on. But of course for Norwich this is major news, an admission on his part, perhaps, that he could not cut it. Hindsight is always 20/20, and so in appointing him as manager last spring, first as caretaker when Chris Houghton was fired, then as full time manager in the summer. Neil had been the youth team coach, he has been involved with the club in various roles, including player since the 90s. But even with that, it was really Roy of the Rovers stuff to think a former player could return the club to the Premier League.

For the most part in football, you get what you pay for, and for decades now, Norwich have gone with the cheapest option. Ken Brown, Mike Walker, Brian Gunn, amongst others were promoted from within, and for the most part failed. Walker did take the club into Europe, which, sadly, at the same time bankrupted the club, but hey, we'll always have those memories to tide over all those grim years since.

The club has a strong enough squad for two clubs, so getting just one out of them should be straightforward, but then things are never that simple. As was stated at the start of the season, just 1 in 7 relegated teams bounce straight back, even with the financial advantage they have. City sit 7th, some ten points behind the old enemy, who finally did something sensible themselves and appointed a manger who knew what he was doing some three years ago. Patience has been rewarded as they have climbed the table. No doubt now as to which club has the upper hand.

So, the club has to make another managerial choice: do they appoint from within once again, or do they go out and find a manager that knows what they are doing, but realising what the job is they want the manager to do, and appoint someone with the skills necessary? We hope so. And yet, they already have someone they can appoint from within: Mike Phelan, ex assistant to Sir Alex at Manchester United, seasoned coach, but with zero managerial experience, so would fit in beside Neil, Brian and Peter who from the five previous managers had not done the job before, but must have sounded like they did in the interview. Of the other two, Glen Roeder was mad, and the other one was the saintly Paul Lambert who ran away to see the bright lights at Villa. He had run away from the mud bath at Colchester to our own bright lights three years previously. Lambert was only appointed because: 1. He was a friend of the chief executive, 2. he was the manager of Colchester who beat us 7-1 on the first day of that season and 3. He liked the bright lights and huge stadium we have.

Whoever takes over the hot seat will have the supporters expectations to meet, as they rose under Lambert, and were then worn down under two underwhelming seasons under Houghton. A positive atmosphere at Carrow Road will help, maybe some realism from them too: promotion is never easy, and they are going to be many bumps. And I suppose it comes to the question that fans of Newcastle battle with, winning is not enough, it is the way you win, must be entertaining, play an exciting way. A manger like Neil Warnock might get you promoted, but it won't be pretty. But then what do supporters want, success or fancy football. Both is probably the answer, but if you have to choose one, it would be successful, no matter how ugly that might be.

I have been watching City since 1972, and have seen us sell all our best players, our best managers go not always to greener pastures, but they do go, and we replace them both with bargains. Spending money is no guarantee of success of course, but appointing from within in the hope things will work out, or just because someone in an interview says the right things, sometimes it just down to experience and whether than can do, and have done that job in the past.

Most of the usual suspects have found jobs, and unless City break their habit about not approaching already-employed candidates (except Lambert of course, and look how that panned out) then it is a shortlist of Warnock. Or Phelan if you promote from within, an untried manager.