Fitba

Just a warning for those of you who do not like football, or Norwich City in particular, should move onto the next post.

Last on Friday evening, news came that Norwich sacked their manager of some 26 months, Alex Neil. Now, this is not a surprise under the circumstances, but half past seven on Froday night, less than 24 hours before the next game in a disappointing season.

Whether this will be a good or bad thing depends on the next phase of the club's history, but for now it seems too little too late. The writing has been on the wall since November when they went pretty much the whole month without a win. Through the season there are international breaks, when a club is given an extra seven days to get in a replacement in. They decided to gamble on things improving, which they didn't, even with a better than average January. FA cup notwithstanding.

And now with seven or so games left, the stable door has been swinging open for four months, and the club acts. Too late for this season, which means those players who are attractive to other clubs will be poached over the summer, some will have their contracts paid up, and we will move on.

Trying to work out why things have been so bad this season, in the 2nd tier, whilst two years ago pretty much the same group of players and manager stormed almost into the automatic promotion spots, have failed so miserably this year is something we could discuss until the cows come home.

As happens when fortunes dip, fan have turned against fan, message boards and phone ins are filled with fans attacking each other, each decision made put under scrutiny as to why they failed.

It has been bad, I cannot deny. And it seems the manager could not work out how to fix things. And the club erred when it should have acted. So what now? A massive clear out of has beens and nearly wases, bring in some young players, some new faces, and we start again. It might be 2, 5 or ten years before we challenge again. Or things might just click.

Whether a manager or club makes a decision good or bad cannot be assessed until a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Either you get what you planned, in which case: good, or you don't: bad.

What I am sure of is that unrest in the stands manifests itself to the players, making them more prone to mistakes. Instead of complaining or worse when we go a goal down, but roar the team on, maybe that would help. Whatever happens, we fans will be there, either in body or spirit, hoping against hope that things will improve and that the players will care as much about the club and we fans as we care about them. Not too much to ask, really.