In fairness to City boss Glenn Roeder, he did the decent.
For as he sat there in front of the Press in the immediate aftermath of the Canaries finally securing their Championship status again for next season with victory over Queen's Park Rangers, he drew a polite veil over his predecessor's reign.
He was sure, he said, that Peter Grant would be delighted by the fact that Norwich wouldn't be following the mighty Us and Iron out of the second tier of English football; that he had heard that Grant was a decent man and he wasn't about to cast aspersions in anyone's direction. A job had been done; end of…
For those of us traditionally charged with looking back over the season that has just gone before, it is not quite so easy to draw a veil over events that led to Grant's exit on the back of that wretched 1-0 away defeat at Loftus Road; coupled with Jim Duffy's three-game reign before Roeder arrived at the helm in time for the derby clash with Ipswich Town on November 4, it would sow the seeds for all that followed.
First things first, Roeder is right. There are not too many clubs sat on nine points at three o'clock on November 24 that are still in the same division the following season.
And whilst there will be many a game that lays claim to 'the turning point', that 2-0 win against Coventry City as Roeder ripped the 'Plymouth Brethren' apart and started to fashion a Canary team into something of his own likeness remains a key point in the history of the 2007-2008 season.
Interestingly, the official in charge that day was everyone's best friend Andy D'Urso…
Read through the line-up and there was Mo Camara slammed in at left-back – neither Simon Lappin nor Ian Murray would feature again. There was Matty Pattison adding a spot of bite; there was Ched Evans sat on the bench itching for his moment to shine.
Of course, by then Martin Taylor was already in the building having hot-footed it across to Norfolk little more than 48-hours after Roeder had walked through the door.
The result that day was everything. With an awkward little trip to Blackpool to follow in mid-week and a brute of a game at Stoke City to finish the week, Norwich desperately needed some sort of momentum. Five points adrift of the relegation pack, to slip eight points off the safety mark would have been a disaster.
Indeed, as events subsequently proved one more defeat to their name would have proved fatal. All ifs, buts and maybes – of course – but Norwich survived this season by a win. On a win and a prayer; no more.
How they found themselves staring so firmly down the barrel of that League One gun is not too hard to fathom; Tony Mowbray made the most telling point on that score after his Baggies' side had all but secured promotion back to the Premiership with that 2-1 win over Norwich in the middle of April.
The gist of his comment was very simple – the more better players you have, the more chance you have of being a better team. By extension, you possess one of the best players in the division in Zoltan Gera, then the more chance you have of being the best team in the division. Phillips, Greening, Miller…. quality will, eventually, shine through.
Of course, it helps if you have the right man at the top; the man that can get that special, dressing room chemistry to work; the one that earns the respect of that same dressing room by getting an Ishmael Miller into the building; by getting a Phillips to play and score; by getting Gera to hit the high notes on such a regular basis.
And that's simple man management. Good players, well managed. Simple.
Stray away from either basic and that's when your troubles mount. Youssef Safri and Dickson Etuhu are both good players, but boy do they need to be well managed.
Lose both before a ball is ever kicked in anger and as Darren Huckerby famously pointed out, boy do you need to replace like-for-like. Throw Robert Earnshaw into that mix and there was all manner of challenges lying at Grant's feet last summer; some of which he met and mastered, others of which proved his un-doing. Some, even now, Roeder has yet to find an answer to.
His headlong dive into the Premiership loan market only ever papered over some glaring cracks. And until Norwich start to produce an Evans of their own, then 'Evan help them.
There again, this time last year they thought they did. And the boy from Beccles has got it – as he proved on the England Under-19 stage. Good players, well managed. Chrissy Martin is a nut that Roeder has still to crack. Given City's circumstances, he didn't have the time to waste on getting Martin physically and mentally right… He needed an immediate solution to Norwich's needs. A spot of luck and a whole lot of judgement brought Evans to Roeder's door and he, arguably more than anyone, was the one player that kept City in this division.
Had Karren Brady have played ball, that title could easily have gone to Martin Taylor as the on-loan Blues centre-half filled the hole that Ryan Shawcross never filled in the summer; Camara and Bertrand between them papered over the huge crack that Adam Drury's injury left at left-back – that and the whole Murray-Lappin debacle.
Julien Brellier? Who knows? David Strihavka? He looked a lost lamb on the pre-season tour to Holland and if there is one lasting image of his ill-starred spell in Norfolk, it is of the same lost lamb looking straight into the face of a snarling David Unsworth away at Burnley one night.
And that's where dressing rooms are won or lost; that's where the existing boys look at eachother and shake their heads… 'Nice lad, but nah…' and from their respect unravels very quickly.
Evans arrives; smashes two or three rockets home in training and people look at the new gaffer and say: 'Mmm, OK….' Just as they did at The Hawthorns when Miller arrived from Eastlands. 'Mmm. OK…'
They do exactly the same with a coach. No different. Take that cog out of the works and nothing quite gels. Slam in first Lee Clark and people say: 'Mmm, OK…' Add a Paul Stephenson to the brew and whilst the former Hartlepool youth coach might be initially greeted with a 'Who..?', there is at least evidence of a structure in place; a hierachy; an order; a plan…
Get to know the man and one or two other aspects fall into place. 'Ah, good cop…' The mood – from the monastic servitude under Grant-Duffy – changes. It relaxes.
And as long as you keep the better players coming in – or rather your Gibbs and your Pearces out-number the Velascos – and that faith builds; confidence slowly grows that the gaffer knows what he's doing.
It is a very fragile process and this summer sees all those relationships in danger of being shattered as Roeder reaches for the nearest sledge-hammer and takes to the walls of Colney with a vengeance.
But at the heart of City's wafer-thin success this season as opposed to that near fatal-failure, that simple mantra rules. Good players, well managed. That's what gets you up. Just ask the Baggies.
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