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The first 100 days in office comes and goes. What do we know about President Glenn?

20th February 2008 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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It appears to be a bigger thing over there than it is here, but no doubt that will change. We appear to import most things American over the course of time and I suspect using '100 days' as a barometer of how a newly-elected president is faring in office will be no different.

Indeed, slap the phrase '100 days president' in a Google search box and you can find the term applied to presidents the world over; that first 100 days in office is clearly becoming something of a global benchmark as to how any new, in-coming administration has bedded into their new surroundings and tasks.

For the record, by my rough reckoning, the Glenn Roeder regime is now into its 112th day so. Not for the first time nor last my time-keeping has left something to be desired.

Nevertheless, now might be an appropriate moment to look back on his first three months in charge as the Canaries season sits at something of a crossroads.

Or rather a fork in the road. To the one side lies a slightly rocky road that leads to a 10th place finish in a couple of months time; to the other is this gold-trimmed, flower-bedecked highway to play-off heaven that – even on the back of last weekend's 4-0 defeat at Leicester – you wouldn't altogether rule out.

The fact that we sit here now, in the middle of February, and see two such paths lying before us is, of course, the biggest testament of all to Roeder's remarkable success in his first 100 days at the helm.

For while this forthcoming glut of suspensions might cause the new City chief a short-term headache or two, you can't see Norwich slipping back into the relegation mire. Not when someone like, say Southampton, appear hell-bent on following Leeds into never-never land next August.

That's why, for me, the road ahead is more a fork than a cross-roads; there isn't a third way – it'll either be spectacular or it'll be solid.

To have even got that club to that position in the first place is management of the highest order. Whatever follows can almost be seen as the icing on the cake.

So by that most important of measures – league position – Roeder's first 100 days have to be seen as an unqualified success.

Has it come at a price? Yes. But if you look at the deals that never happened in the January transfer window – the ?1 million plus for Martin Taylor and the similar kind of sums that might have followed both Paterson and Rasiak about, then it is clear that Roeder has got Norwich to where there are in the table with further cash to burn in the summer. He could have spent some bigger bucks and still have no more to show for it.

Yes, the recent loans will all have come at a price; with fixer's fees, loan fees and all sorts attached. But, in every likelihood, that may have already been off-set in an early up-surge in season ticket sales compared to the take-up rate had the Canaries been still sat around the bottom six. There is hope in the punters' hearts. And with that comes sales.

The other expense will, of course, have come in the players that were shipped out in January; contracts terminated; exit deals done. Again, given the largely unexpected windfalls that the ?400,000 sales of Chris Brown and Joe Lewis netted, Roeder will head into that summer break with his existing pot of cash still to spend. That's no mean feat, either.

And when it comes to prising further cash out of the board, taking the club from the very bottom of the pile to the middle and beyond in three short months merely strengthens his hand again. All of a sudden it gets the board wondering just what this man might be able to do if we ever gave him some semi-serious money to spend…

Roeder does the full 'Give me the tools, and I'll do you the job….' speech and on the back of a wave of popular support, the board will find it increasingly hard to resist any calls for extra cash.

To find himself in that position of strength 112 days in is, likewise, not to be sniffed at.

But the idea of a president's first 100 days is interesting in another way – one that touches on more of the hows, than the whats.

What he's done is obvious – saved Norwich from League One football next season. How he has done that is the really interesting bit; that's where he gets all presidential.

Because from day one, he's removed himself from the daily fray; he's put himself above it; he observes games from on high – literally, in the fact that until things start to go pear-shaped, he's in the directors' box.

The 'executive', that's his two chief lieutenants – Lee Clark and Paul Stephenson. They are his front-of-house managers; they are the ones that are out there on the front-line. It was an interesting remark that Roeder delivered on Clark's arrival – that he would be great at 'getting in amongst the players'.

And that, as far as anyone can tell, is what both men have done brilliantly; they get in among the players; find out which buttons need pushing and when – and then relay that information up to the president sat alone and almost aloof in his office.

It's very clever. He's not one of them; Clark and Stephenson are. Roeder remains detached; distant; difficult to get either a handle or a grip on; all concerned – other than Messrs Clark and Stephenson – find him a difficult book to read and it's that that keeps them on their toes. The uncertainty.

I would suspect that very few of the existing staff at Carrow Road would – 100 days in – claim to 'know' Glenn Roeder. Not in the way that an Arsene Wenger would know Glenn Roeder.

Martin O'Neill had that. Few in that City dressing room ever 'got' what Martin was all about; he was certainly never one of the lads. His two gate-keepers were John Robertson and Steve Walford. They still are. They are the ones that get in amongst the players; O'Neill operates on a different level; he's detached; diffident; difficult to read.

And, for me, Roeder is out of the same stable. Same modus operandi; same way of working.

Same results? Who knows? But if the next 100 days come anywhere near to equalling the achievements of the first 100 days, we're all in for a fascinating ride.


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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