Much has been written about geography of late. How it never works in Norwich City's favour.
How, when push comes to transfer shove, player after player casts his mind back to the six-hour coach journey he endured on his last trip to Carrow Road and thinks: 'Nah…'
And as the runners and riders for this season's Canary Manager Handicap Hurdle slowly pop out of the woodwork, so geography continues to play its part.
For somewhere at the back of Paul Jewell's mind will be the fact that the Mrs and kids are in Lancashire and that Norwich is, well, in Norfolk.
Actually word was from someone close to the former Wigan and Bradford boss that the Norwich job never even made it to the back of his mind; it never made it that far; it never crossed his mind in the first place.
But that's because Jewell views Norwich from a British perspective; from the view of someone who has already tasted life in the English Premiership and doesn't really fancy leaving it – hence the continuing speculation that Jewell will sit tight and wait for Sammy Lee to disappear and pick up a Premiership post some 30-odd miles from home.
Which, by and large, is pretty much exactly the same logic that Premiership players apply to any loan 'vacancy' at Carrow Road; albeit maybe with another little twist – that right now Norwich City sit far too near League One for their liking.
Not unreasonably, therefore, they will take their chances elsewhere, thank you very much. Even Southampton in the case of Andrew Davies.
But – and over the next few days and weeks, this could prove a very big 'but' – there are others out there who view Norwich's geography in a wholly different light; who see Norwich's position in the world as nigh-on perfect for their requirements.
As a stepping stone into the richest professional football league in the world, where Norwich City Football Club sits – even now; even in the bottom three – is just about perfect.
That's why the Canaries job will attract the interest of the likes of a Pierre Littbarski.
From within this insular little world of English football, it's probably deemed a duff job. You don't have to wander too far round the block – or on the school pick-up run – to hear people mutter: 'Why on earth would Steve Bruce want to come here..?'
Step back and step outside this little world and see the Norwich City vacancy through global eyes and all of a sudden it becomes, arguably, one of the top 24 jobs in world football right now.
Why? Because if anyone comes in here and does anything then they are slap bang in the minds of the Everton board as and when they tire of David Moyes. Or when the bubble bursts for Lawrie Sanchez at Fulham. Or when Spurs finally get shot of Martin Jol.
Particularly if you're foreign. Why? Because nigh-on every Premiership owner and board will be looking at the lessons to be had from Sven Goran Eriksson's impact at Manchester City this season.
What did he do? Together with the agent Jerome Anderson he thumbed through his international book of contacts and from three corners of the globe, slammed in three or four top six Premiership players for the price of one Darren Bent.
He got Elano and Martin Petrov for ?5 million less than Charlton tucked Tottenham up for; Petrov only cost ?1 million more than Charlton then handed Crewe for Luke Varney.
There is no value in the English player market – in that Peter Grant was spot on. And having worked that out for himself, he just didn't know what to do thereafter.
So if you're Everton, say, and you're looking for someone who is clearly at home in the English game – as you prove your worth in the back-streets of the Championship – and who then has a host of top foreign contacts to your name, then you're going to be interested.
And it's wrong, but that's why good, old fashioned, English managers – like your Jewells, your Warnocks, your Burleys even – will always miss out on the big, big jobs. They don't fit the 'global' bill that Premiership owners are increasingly looking for.
Littbarski knows that no-one in the Premiership will take a punt on him on the back of his achievements in the Far East; they'll be biting his hand off if he gets Norwich anywhere near the top half of the table in the next eight months. That's why he wants the Carrow Road gig.
And Littbarski won't be the only big name foreign manager in that hat; he's just the first one to declare his hand and get a little bit of interest in him; he also has the added ace of an I Crook up his sleeve.
You dig around that pile of CVs sat on the board's table right now and you would be amazed whose names are there. Big names on the European and world football stage. Big names with big contacts – all desperate to use Norwich City Football Club as a stepping stone into the Premiership.
None of whom will have ever have been to Turf Moor on a Tuesday night.
And that's the heart of the dilemma that will confront the Norwich City board as they prepare to make the biggest decision of their Carrow Road lives.
The likes of a Martin 'Mad Dog' Allen will probably keep you out of this division; provided he doesn't take the 'naughty chair' routine too far and switch the boys off altogether. Likewise a Micky Adams; ditto a Joe Royle.
Short-term, they'll be the safest bet; a season on and they may well get you slugging it out in the play-offs if the Turners start to grease peoples' palms and ensure that Norwich are first in the queue when the next Luke Varney comes up for grabs – that you're offering the boy five years and ?20,000 a week after one year in League One.
But the biggest challenge will always still await. Bite and scratch your way out of the Championship by biting harder and scratching deeper than Neil Warnock's Palace or Gary Megson's Leicester City and then – as if by magic – you have to go from this Championship beast to a Premiership beauty.
And all in the course of one summer. Otherwise you'll be straight back down again. Right back to where you started.
Can any one manager go from a Warnock to a Wenger in a summer? Can a Wenger be a Warnock in the Championship? Can a Wenger keep a club in the Championship? Where will a Warnock ever find the players to keep a club in the Premiership?
A short-term Championship fix or a long-term Premiership plan – it's a huge decision to which the City board will swiftly discover there is no easy answer.
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