Some people still don't get it. There are still some City fans who do not comprehend the gravity of the desperately chronic situation.
There are people saying: “The best we can hope for now is mid-table mediocrity.” Mid-table? Mediocrity?
How I wish Norwich could harbour such lofty aspirations.
Let's all be clear about this. If Norwich can end this season in 21st place then we should hire an open-topped bus for a triumphant tour, use John Hartson's old shorts as a marquee and have the biggest party Norfolk has ever seen.
If Glenn Roeder can haul this ragbag team to safety, then I think it will be the most astonishing managerial achievement of all the years during which I have cared (too much) about the great club from the Fine City.
Norwich are not bottom by accident, or because of a few dodgy refereeing decisions, or because of bad luck or injuries. They are not bottom because of any factors other than one: they have a very poor team.
And here is the really bad news: if we go down without a wholesale change of personnel, then don't kid yourself that we might “do a Leeds”.
We are much more likely to do a Bradford. They were in the Premiership seven seasons ago. Now they are fighting to remain in League Two.
Most of the teams in League One would beat the current Norwich side. I've seen enough football in that division to know that, just like the Championship, the first attribute you need ? before worrying about the quality of your passing or anything else ? is athleticism.
You need mobile players who can get about the pitch at speed. We don't have enough of those for the Championship, and the fear that keeps me awake at night is that in nine months' time we will discover that we do not have sufficient for League One.
The lack of athleticism is central, fatal frailty in the current Norwich squad.
It was exposed again by Watford. When they attacked, they did so in numbers that always threatened to overwhelm us. On the few occasions when we attacked, we did so with lone, kamikaze runs from a single player with, at most, two colleagues panting to get up in support.
The good news is that Roeder is trying to overhaul the personnel and has already discarded the player who best personified the lumbering immobility of too many of the class of 07-08 – Big John.
I've appeared on TV with Mr Hartson. He's an affable bloke who is good company. Likes a beer. Knows his football, because he's been about a bit. Unfortunately, he cannot get about at all now. Oh, and he cost the club a fortune, by the way.
Who on earth thought he was the answer to our problems? And if he was the answer, then what was the question? Was it: “What can we use as a sight screen”?
Whoever was responsible for signing him ? and I assume that the deal was set up by Peter Grant and carried on by Jim Duffy ? John Hartson's short stay summed up why Norwich City are in a spiral of decline.
The board backed the judgment of the football management, but that judgment was horrifically mistaken.
The board should not be criticised for that. But they will be, I have no doubt, because those of us who love Norwich City are hurting so much at the moment that we want the catharsis of blaming someone. The board are the obvious target.
They have been lambasted for taking so long to appoint Roeder. But imagine the stick they would have got if they'd appointed him in a couple of days.
Then the complaint would have been that it was a rushed job, caused by panic.
Because of the imminent peril of relegation to a division Norwich City have not visited since 1960, the appointment of the club's 37th manager was possibly the most important decision this present board have had, or will have, to make.
Thank Heavens that they took their time, talked to people about some of the candidates and interviewed the short-listed few more than once. To do anything else ? anything quicker ? would have been a dereliction of duty.
I was tangentially involved. A leading, much respected football figure told me he would like to help and I put him in touch with key personnel at the club. I believe he was able to mark their card about one of the candidates with a fondness for alcohol.
Then a journalist rang me on behalf of a candidate who wanted to know the answer to two questions. One: is Delia about to quit? Two: are Norwich still a good club run by good people?
The questions were related, of course. I answered truthfully. Q1: No. Q2 Yes.
I honestly do not know whether the candidate concerned was Roeder, but they were the sort of questions he would ask because he is a thoroughly decent man who would prefer to work with similarly decent folk.
Let me quash some of the tosh talked about Roeder having a poor CV.
He became player-manager at Gillingham when they were in desperate trouble but managed to avoid relegation with a win in the penultimate game of the season (an experience which might prove relevant in his current job).
At Watford he very nearly took them to the play-offs but was sacked early the following season. As assistant manager of Burnley, he helped stave off relegation with a victory on the final day of the campaign (more relevant experience!).
At West Ham, he followed Harry Redknapp ? and it is this episode of his life which has been subject to an almost Stalinist revision by biased critics. West Ham fans have persuaded themselves that Roeder blew Redknapp's legacy and took a good team down from the Premiership.
It was not like that at all. Redknapp had filled the club with renegades and rebels, as he often does. There was also a sprinkling of expensive mistakes on the books and the graph of West Ham's performances was on a downward slope when Redknapp was sacked. In his last season, they finished 15th in the Premiership.
Roeder took over, had some battles with Paulo Di Canio and others, and finished seventh.
The following year, the West Ham board refused to invest as much in new players as Roeder told them was necessary. Goalkeeper David James missed a couple of months though injury and West Ham struggled.
In the spring, Roeder suffered a brain aneurysm. He was still recovering from the surgery which saved his life when West Ham were relegated with 42 points (a total which would have been sufficient for safety every subsequent season).
The board sold several players in the summer. Roeder bravely returned to work for pre-season training but was sacked three games into the season.
In his first season at Newcastle he enjoyed spectacular early success but, encumbered by players who were signed by his chairman, eventually succumbed to that club's belief that they “deserve” to be in the Champions League.
Any fair assessment would be that Roeder has a good CV. I am told that he is a workaholic. He has already signed the good centre-back we've needed for three years.
But keeping this City team in the Championship might be impossible.
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