Onwards and upwards

Four months is a long time in football.

In my pervious writing, I bemoaned the lack of quality management in the decisions and change I had witnessed at Norwich City Football Club. My heart ached, as it seemed to me the club and team were circling the drain to League 1 ever quicker.

The sacking of Johannes Hoff Thorup and replacement with identikit Liam Manning made little or no sense. And then there was the recruitment that seemed to have delivered a group of players who could not play.

And could not win at home.

At all.

If you would have told me that after sacking Manning, he would be replaced with a former Rangers manager, I would have assumed with a very heavy heart that it would have been former Canary captain Russel Martin.

I have nothing against Martin, I wouldn't have thought someone so damaged by events at Ibrox then sitting in the dugout at the Carra trying to get a tune out of the squad at Manning couldn't, would have only brought relegation quicker.

But instead a Belgian rode into The Fine City on a white horse, armed with a magic wand, and soon had Norwich not losing, then winning.

At home.

Players who looked like unskilled strangers began to gel, even as injuries robbed us of first choice players, their replacements came in and did a fine job.

Even the star striker going on strike was a mere slight bump in the road, as others played upfront and scored. For fun.

What I said before about the poor management was done without seeing document evidence, and reasonable conclusions I think. But what now?

A poor decision in appointing Manning (right man at the wrong time?) was corrected, a new coach brought in, one with experience, and almost straight away began to turn things around.

Players bought in the summer began to show the potential that must have been seen. And further recruitment in January was nothing less than spectacular.

My Spurs supporting friend, peter, wails about their injury crisis. Spurs have nothing on ours, and yet City have climbed from being seven points adrift from safety at the end of October to be only nine point shy of the play offs now.

The only crisis in the future is how to put the gallon of talent in the squad into the pint of a match day squad. A problem managers and coaches like to have.

I am man enough to say that I was wrong about the management of the club. Ben Knapper has my support and admiration. Recruitment of players has been shown to be sound, and the correction of Manning's appointment carried out calmly.

I am a supporter of the club with over 52 years following the club. In my opinion, the only manager to maybe be as transformational than Philippe Clement was the man in the hotseat back in November 1972, Ron Saunders, who lead the club to the old First Division.

Wednesday night was a joy, as the team peppered the Blades' goal with shots, and Forson curled the winner in the far corner. The way the squad and coaching team celebrated in front of all four stands at the end brought tears to these old eyes.

Happy days are here again, and I am more than happy for our rise up the table to be mostly un-noticed by the rest of football.

OTBC