Run through the list of tonight's runners and riders for the Carrow Road managerial vacancy and one thing immediately stands out.
The odds have been put together by someone looking at a PC in West London somewhere; you doubt whether they have ever been to the far end of the A11, let alone walked across Carrow Bridge on a match-day.
For of the 22 names offered by SkyBet this evening, you could probably take three – perhaps four – seriously.
Aidy Boothroyd is the bookies clear favourite – and not without good reason. Got Norwich links; got a promotion on his cv and also, per chance, happened to be at Carrow Road just taking in a game some ten days after he lost his job at Vicarage Road.
With one link in the national newspapers already to his credit, the one-time assistant Academy coach has pretty much marked everyone's card that he's available. And if he comes with a certain Malky Mackay at his side, so much the better.
For all the character and charisma that Malky would bring to the party, he hasn't as yet got as many coaching medals as Peter Grant plopped onto the table in that poisoned autumn of 2006.
Ironically given the two are big, Bhoys pals, it is probably exactly that 'Grant effect' that will rule out Malky from being given his first stab at management with the Canaries; right now, they can't afford to do rookies.
Whether in the need to keep the punters onside and on-song, they can afford to do someone who got Watford promoted by going direct and long is, probably, the prinicpal chink in Boothroyd's armour.
Particularly given that he's going to be inheriting a side whose average height is five-foot seven on a good day – five-foot eight for however long Carl Cort stays on the pitch. Boothroyd will be close; from an outsider looking in, he makes sense.
Mark Robins is interesting; I would never, ever have him down as inspirational managerial material given the way he was as a player when at City. He clearly has hidden depths – or has just got lucky at Rotherham. People doing well in jobs can also prove tricky to dig out overnight.
Unless you're Leeds and you do a Grayson on Blackpool. Trouble is, neither Neil Doncaster nor Michael Wynn Jones is a Ken Bates. Whatever happens over the next 48 hours will be done by the book.
The other point is that right now Norwich don't need someone who can win them promotion; they need someone who can save them from relegation – the two are not as alike as you might imagine. Anyone (almost) can manage a team doing well; it picks itself. You just tweak here and there and let the boys do the rest.
A team as hapless as Norwich are right now need a whole different set of managerial skills; in fairness, the same skills that Roeder himself displayed this time last year – a shed-load of top flight contacts and little or no qualms about reaching for the nearest axe as and when the Plymouth Brethren troop into your office.
So I'm not sure having a promotion on your cv is the be all and end all. Paul Jewell has performed minor miracles at the wrong end of a table before now; he's also performed on his club car bonnet – something that doesn't quite sit with Norwich's family image. Besides, he gave them the runaround last time. Nope.
Graeme Souness? No. Hoddle? No. Dowie? No. He seems to be staying at too many clubs for too short a time for it to be wholly coincidental.
Paul Ince? He's one where you'd look for the relegation scraps, not the promotion walks. Gary McAllister always struck me as a thoroughly decent man; suspect his spell working with Uncle Ken at Elland Road will leave him in no great hurry to throw himself back into the managerial mix.
O'Leary? No. Robson? Please, though you suspect his cv was faxed across within the hour. Joe Royle appears to have settled for the sun in Majorca and the odd stint on a TV mike; he's also had innumerable knee ops and is not quite as light on his toes as he once was.
Alan Curbishley deserves to be better than 50s; he's the sort of man that Delia and Michael would do business with. Having been chewed up and spat out by the great Premiership machine, perhaps he might fancy a nice, little club in the country. Or maybe he's simply tired of the whole managerial game.
Dion Dublin has all the charisma in the world; just none of the coaching badges to match. He'll fly as a TV pundit. Back on the school run with the kids in leafy Stratford-upon-Avon, does he need the headache of a Championship relegation fight? Nah.
One other big point needs to be borne in mind tonight. Time.
As in not having any. With little more than a fortnight to go before the January transfer window slams shut, City cannot afford to embark on the kind of lengthy and exhaustive interview and selection process that characterised their last two appointments.
And, I would imagine, any lingering confidence in that particular process is likely to have long been shattered by events of the last few months; that having done everything in their power to institute a thorough and meticulous selection procedure, they produced P Grant and G Roeder. One of whom lasted a year; the other 14 months; both of whom left the club nearer League One than the Premiership.
Which is why you strongly suspect that this appointment will be swift; their man targetted, it'll be bang… in, sorted, job done.
They will be a known quantity; no hidden character flaws; no skeleton in the closet. All those will have been discovered before.
The board will know what they're getting; as may the supporters. Above all, the next Norwich manager will have long 'got' Norfolk; long understood what makes its supporters tick; who – and what – they respect; who – and what – they tend to want playing-wise.
Though that point can be over-played; first and foremost, supporters want to win the occasional away game. And the majority of home games. Passion can cover a multitude of style doubts; passion, pride and points. And then go out and play.
Put all of the above together and who do you get? You might get Boothroyd; his name will be in the hat – particularly if his ticket has Malky's name on it.
But I wouldn't rule out either of the two, still-local ex-managers either – in fact, I might slip them ahead of our Aidy. Worthington in North Norfolk; Rioch on the Broads. One, at least, could add D Huckerby to his ticket. Both, you suspect, might find room for a C Fleming. Even an I Crook.
That's where my money would head. For the little that it may ever be worth.
Latest SkyBet odds – Aidy Boothroyd 11/10; Paul Ince 5/1; Mark Robins 9/1; Iain Dowie 10/1; Steve Cotterill 10/1; Alan Pardew 10/1; Paul Jewell 10/1; Ian Holloway 11/1; Malky Mackay 11/1; Lawrie Sanchez 12/1; Gary McAllister 16/1; David O'Leary 20/1; Dion Dublin 20/1; Glenn Hoddle 20/1; Dean Saunders 25/1; Colin Calderwood 33/1; Bryan Robson 33/1; Joe Royle 33/1; Graeme Souness 33/1; Alan Curbishley 50/1
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