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Picking the next City manager is only ever as complicated as you decide to make it…

16th January 2009 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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If the next two weeks spin out in anything like the fashion that the last 72 hours have, it could be a highly entertaining ride.

Or, at least, for those of us charged with trying to keep tabs on where, exactly, the great Norwich City managerial hunt may be off to next.

This afternoon, City chief executive Neil Doncaster briefed reporters as to the next stage of the 'selection' process – working, presumeably, on the basis that City legend Bryan Gunn wasn't likely to be the answer to their long-term prayers.

In fairness to the club's 'player recruitment officer', he was instantly at home in front of the media at Colney this morning; he might not have half Glenn Roeder's coaching badges, but his gentle ease and manner with the Press was a breath of fresh air.

So, an interview and selection process begins in earnest on Monday morning; ideally, with a home win against Barnsley tomorrow affording everyone ten days breathing space out of the bottom three before Southampton head for Carrow Road a week on Tuesday for another mother of all relegation tussles.

And thanks to events of the last 48 hours, not on that short-list is ex-boss Nigel Worthington, whose name has come to dominate the headlines in Week One.

Not that City every made a 'formal' approach to the Northern Ireland FA. As if. Though they did have an informal conversation. Whatever…

There was – and remains – a reasonable logic to getting someone local inside the building to do a job whilst yet another trawl through the usual range of usual suspects begins in earnest.

The fact that Worthington came with all too much baggage for some was clearly going to be an issue, but you can always sweeten the pill with a few choice provisos and a few choice appointments.

'It's only whilst we get a full-time manager in… and, look, here's Craig Fleming to help out with the Ressies… he and Nige are both going to have a word with Darren Huckerby to see if there's any way at all we can get him back for the second-half of the season…'

As a short-term 'fix' while you work out where on earth you go next after delivering up Messrs Grant and Roeder in the last two years, that – to me – is 'sell-able'.

Not great; not ideal. But, you know what? Who is?

Every candidate out there will come with a messageboard community that will give it 'Uuuughhh, not him…' You will not find a candidate that pleases each and every one of your supporters.

And whilst, clearly, they are in some desperate need of TLC after the mountains of misery that they have had to put up with over the last four years, the people who need looking after the most are the players. They are the ones who are going to dig you out of this hole; no-one else.

Particularly given the fact that there is next to no-one out there to bring in anyway; chances are that you are probably going to have to go with what you've got between now and the end of the season. You've got no cash; it's loans and maybe the odd, ?100,000 here or there.

So, who works for them?

Sit down with the players who care, who have a lengthy list of mates in the game and have been around the English football block a few years – ie/eg Gary Doherty, Adam Drury, Dejan Stefanovic, etc – and say: 'Right, who've you heard that's any good… Was the buzz on Dowie? How did Aidy react under pressure?'

Pick the right players and they'll tell you straight; cos they care. Pick one or two ex-players and they'll tell you straight – because they still care.

They should be your opinion formers; the people who – in reality – are going to be the ones that make this appointment work.

The punters, when all is said and done, just want someone who delivers winning football on a consistent basis. And for all that's said about 'Playing the Norwich way…' you can get too wrapped up in that. Right now, it's about winning games. In this division in particular, it's not about winning games with bright, little footballers playing tippy-toe football around the box.

Phil Mulryne was the one 'footballer' in that title-winning side; the blue-print for Championship success that the Canaries forget at their peril. And he barely started.

There were at least three 'lumps' in Mackay, Roberts and Crouch. And plenty of muscular aggression from five-foot ten types in Francis, Fleming, Holt, Edworthy, etc. Huckerby merely added the icing. The cake was strong, rugged individuals.

That's how you get out of this division; that's how Norwich will probably need to get out of trouble – by getting as close as they can to a straight-forward 4-4-2, manned by as many rugged individuals as they can find. And that, for me, still includes the Luton Two. And Carl Cort. Even if half-fit. Besides, he'll only ever get fit by playing.

Because the bottom line to football club management is very, very simple. The boys have to like you.

And that's pretty much it.

You can spend every hour under the sun re-reading and re-reading computer print outs as to what a PC says makes this man tick; you can sit in a hotel room for hours on end as all ten of you on the interview chew over this point and that…. 'Didn't he do his homework well? Have you seen the contacts he's got…'

You can do all that; do it all again over the next two weeks. But that bottom line will remain the same. Do the boys like the manager? And, you're quite right, not everyone liked Martin O'Neill, but they loved Steve Walford and John Robertson.

And what's the genius of Martin? It is that he knows that; he doesn't want to be their best pal. He leaves that to Wally and Robbo.

But you're not going to get another O'Neill. He's a one-off. What you need is someone the boys like; someone they want to do well for.

And that's why Worthington wasn't a bad shout. Because you actually ask a Huckerby, a Drury or a Fleming and they'll all say the same. They liked him as a man. The pressure told towards the end; chinks started to show. But he was 'decent', would be the dressing room verdict.

As others would say about Bruce Rioch. And wouldn't about his side-kick.

Football is a simple game. And picking a football manager is often only as complicated as you decide to make it.

And right now you don't have time to do complicated.


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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