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Many would say otherwise, but the board are not to blame for Grant's departure…

12th October 2007 By Tom Haylett Leave a Comment

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Norwich supporters have always liked to have a little bit of a whinge, a bit of a moan. Don't get me wrong, it is all done with the right intentions and only because they love the club and after all, their loyalty cannot be questioned; if you sign up to be a Canary fan, then you have to expect a bit ? ok, a lot ? of heartache down the years, so who could blame them?

But some comments in certain quarters have wrankled with me a little after the inevitable departure of Peter Grant this week. I have seen opinion that Delia Smith and the board should 'resign immediately', that they got Grant's appointment 'shockingly wrong' and the old chestnut of not showing 'enough ambition'.

I'm not going to name names here but why the constant negativity? Why do we have to live in a blame culture and a world of constant sniping?

Yes, the whole Peter Grant experiment didn't work out. But by the same token, if Grant had gone on to emulate Nigel Worthington in gaining promotion to the Premiership, his arrival would have been a masterstroke.

Grant ticked all the boxes ? apart from experience ? and the board decided to take a gamble. In life, and in business, you have to take a gamble sometimes and unfortunately this one didn't pay off.

Sometimes it happens; sometimes it doesn't, you just dust yourself down and get on with it. I'm not going to reel off a list of managerial gambles that did pay dividends but was the appointment of Aidy Boothroyd at Watford less of a risk than Grant? No, I don't think so. That was one that most certainly did come off and there have been many, many others.

The board's supposed lack of ambition is another of the accusations that gets thrown at them from time to time but I just can't see how City fans can say this.

Take Simon Jordan for example. Now here is a man who is most certainly not short of ambition. Like him or loathe him, the Crystal Palace Chairman is a highly driven, extremely ambitious man who desperately wants to see his club return to the Premiership.

Why do you think he keeps throwing money at manager after manager? He can't be accused of not throwing a few bob in the direction of players either. Not including this past year maybe, they have always been one of the Championship's big spenders.

This week saw the arrival of the loveable Neil Warnock in SE25 ? god, that will be one to watch ? and Jordan has now employed six managers in six seasons; are they any better off than the Canaries right now? A big, fat no is the answer to that one.

But I'd like to see their accounts if Mr Jordan ever decided to jump ship. I bet they wouldn't be as 'stable' and 'manageable' as City's ? as Chief Executive Neil Doncaster put it this week.

Nor can you accuse the board of not backing the Scot in the transfer market in his year's tenure. The departures of Dickson Etuhu and Robert Earnshaw were unavoidable, but many Championship Chairmen would have banked the money and used the growing chasm between the Premier League and second tier, rising player wages and extortionate agent fees as an excuse not to spend it.

But Delia and Co provided Grant with the ammunition to bring in Scotland international keeper David Marshall, the Czech Premier League top scorer David Strihavka, last year's top Championship marksman Jamie Cureton and Stoke midfielder Darel Russell at an estimated cost of around ?3 million ? and that's just the transfer fees.

Add this to the Bosman captures of Jon Otsemobor, Julien Brellier, Ian Murray, Matty Gilks and the loan signing of Jimmy Smith, Grant was certainly given the chance to reshape his squad.

For what it's worth though, in my opinion, if the board are ever to push the boat out and prove to everyone that they do have the ambition needed to get the Canaries back to the Promised Land, then they must do it now, without delay.

The man that replaces Grant quite simply has to be the best man out there, willing to take on the undeniable challenge that Norwich City represents right now.

It has got to be someone who has been there and done it, someone who's got the promotion-winning t-shirt because if they get this one wrong, and the rest of the season is deemed a settling-in period, then I fear that Norfolk could see its beloved club slip into the third tier of English football.

Get the right man, however, and it is not too late for a surge up the table. It's only October for heaven's sake, it's been done before and it will be done again.

You see it at other clubs so why not at Norwich. A new chief goes in and they start climbing the table immediately. I know the circumstances are different, but Roy Keane is a classic example of that after masterminding Sunderland's incredible run to take them from relegation candidates to League Champions last season.

That is why the new man at the helm must be someone who can hit the ground running, someone who knows how to get results, and quickly.

Paul Jewell is the early front-runner and I think he would be an inspired selection. He's proved himself at this level with Bradford City and Wigan Athletic and would command the respect of the players having been an esteemed figure in the Premier League.

The only stumbling block would surely be the amount of money he has available for new signings and the age-old problem Norwich find themselves up against ? geography.

Scouser Jewell has always been based up in the North and it would mean a big upheaval to move to Norfolk – and with Sammy Lee wobbling near the trap-door at Bolton, Jewell may decide to hang tight in the hope of a so-called bigger job.

But there is not a bigger job, or challenge, than at Carrow Road at the moment and Jewell may just see it as one he cannot resist.


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