It is, quite clearly, a summer of huge change at Colney.
Irrespective of the goings player-wise – and the only, real burning issue there is the whole Darren Huckerby debate – amongst the back-room staff at the club's training HQ, there is a bloody revolution afoot. And for some, the news has not been good.
And, you strongly suspect, there is more pain to come; that the village drums will not be too far out when they suggest that there will be at least another two departures over and above the five already confirmed. Long-serving kit man Terry Postle was tonight, officially, the fifth to go.
Spare the rod and spoil the child; you can't make a decent omlette without cracking a few eggs… all the same, old phrases will be trotted out as Glenn Roeder embarks on a root-and-branch reform of all that he sees and hears; on and off the pitch, the new Canary boss has now long proved that he is not one to be trifled with.
More importantly, that he is a man on a mission and has no time for those who may – through accident or design – be about to slow his progress.
For those that get caught up in his path, this is not a pleasant time. Economically, it is not the best of times to be seeking a new employer – particularly when the nearest professional football club is almost an hour distant. Nor, clearly, is it the best time to be trying to sell your house if a potential new employer lies on the other side of the country.
And for those with children approaching school age, the upheaval and the upset is ten times worse.
It's a nasty time. End of. People's lives are being played with.
But – and here's the big 'but' – that's football.
Football is nasty and brutal; it's an unforgiving, meat-market, brute of a game in which people get trampled under-foot. And as the stakes – and the rewards – get ever higher, so the game gets ever less forgiving; ever less pleasant to the taste; people will sup and dance with the devil, if that's what it takes.
Take Joey Barton.
To say he's got 'previous' is something of an understatement; when Sam Allardyce whisked him off Manchester City's hands for the not inconsiderable sum of ?5.8 million, he already had the whole Ousmane Dabo incident hanging over his head as the Frenchman threatened to haul Barton into court for his part in their training ground bust-up; let alone the infamous, cigar-stubbed-out-in-the-eye-of-a-City-youngster routine that didn't bode well for his future conduct.
When Big Sam came to call, City had just suspended him on the back of that Dabo incident; he was damaged goods at Eastlands. Stuart Pearce wanted rid.
But just as much as he'd always had talent, so he'd also long had an agent called Willie Mackay. With whom Mr Allardyce had done business before – as, of course, had the Shepherd clan, then still in charge at St James' Park.
The fact that he would then add to his 'reputation' by beating someone up after an altercation outside a late-night takeaway wasn't exactly a bolt from the blue.
For all the anger management courses, all Kevin Keegan's efforts to tame that famed Barton temper, he merely continued to confirm everyone's worst suspicions – that there was something in the Barton DNA that would reach for the self-destruct button as and when certain situations arose.
But football found a home for him; as football – you suspect – will continue to find a home.
The Newcastle Evening Chronicle's report of this week's six-month sentencing made for interesting reading – it's when you put the last two sentences together that you get the real whiff; the real sense of just how much the professional game stinks when you catch the wind blowing in a certain direction.
“The attacks took place as the player was awaiting trial for two other offences: alleged criminal damage of a taxi and the alleged assault of former Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo, 31, at City's training ground complex in Carrington, South Manchester, on May 1 last year,” the Chronicle reported.
“That charge carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in jail if he is found guilty. The player was suspended by Manchester City after the incident, and sold by the club to Newcastle last June in a deal worth ?5.8 million…”
That despite having a potential, five-year sentence hanging over his head – and there are, surely, few judges and juries in this land who would deem the 25-year-old as someone 'of previous good character…', Newcastle still opted to take a ?5.8 million punt on him. And pay him the wages to match.
Why? Cos the lad can play. Big, strong, athletic, midfield power-house – he is the real, Premiership package. The rules of the game that apply to the rest of us, don't apply to football. It is a law unto itself. Barton gets another chance; Mackay gets another move, another percentage.
It's ugly; it's brutal; you do what it takes to get a result. As in, whatever it takes to get a result.
Get enough results and, as a manager, you get to keep your job. Because Roeder, Clark and Co know the rules – after all, it was the same Freddy Shepherd that sanctioned that Barton move that taught Roeder the current set of 'rules'; that gave the new City chief a lesson in boardroom brutality – the same kind of lesson that the punters at West Ham dished out to their ex-manager on the back of relegation and his brain tumour scare.
It's not nice; it's probably not the Norwich way of doing things. But, as Mike Walker suggested the other day, something has to change. The table doesn't lie. Not year after year after year.
Certainly, the one word that you wouldn't use to describe Colney is 'cosy'. Not right now. It's brutal.
What was interesting was Malcolm Macdonald's thoughts on how the whole Barton saga would now play out at St James' – he still, of course, has Mr Dabo wanting his day in court. And Barton now has 'previous'.
“The club have to be brave here and look at the future,” 'SuperMac' told the Chronicle.
“They have to find an honest and decent solution to the situation and set the right example to the fans, and especially younger fans, who pay money and follow the club around the country. There are a lot of moral questions to be asked now, and the answers may lead to only one conclusion…”
I wouldn't hold your breath. This is football. The usual rules don't apply.
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