When it comes to the wonderful world of football, most people like to pass judgement after the event.
It's easier that way.
So with that in mind, I kind of figured that after 16-odd years following this particular football club on an all-but daily basis I'd offer a judgement or two before tomorrow's events at The Valley.
That way I get to avoid the rush come Sunday night as the world and his wife start to point their fingers of blame.
No doubt those of us that didn't rush headlong into the arms of Peter Cullum will take a hit; that we didn't do enough to prise Delia and Co out of Carrow Road the instant that the Towergate billionaire popped his head above the parapet.
There, obviously, was City's salvation. In the same way that Mike Ashley was presumed to be the answer to Newcastle's prayers, these things don't always work out as well as everyone assumes. Down the road and Marcus Evans' millions have thus far yielded a mid-table finish and ten days with Roy Keane.
Again, who knows which way that particular cookie will crumble?
Should Norwich fall from Championship grace tomorrow, the board will have clearly played their part.
In particular, for appointing two, duff managers in quick succession in the shape of Peter Grant and Glenn Roeder.
Whether or not they held on to the services of Nigel Worthington too long is, some two-and-a-bit seasons later, something of an irrelevance.
Whether they did or they didn't, the fact of the matter remains that in the intervening period the club has had both the time and the money to spare themselves a trip to League One next season. Or, indeed, survival in the Championship on the basis of scoring a few more goals than Barnsley.
Besides, whilst you might need a few bob to get yourself into the position of a Birmingham or a Wolves, you don't need too much cash to get yourselves into the position of a Coventry or a Sheffield Wednesday going into the final game of the season.
You've just got to know what you're doing with it.
And the simple answer is that neither Grant nor Roeder did.
If we take the supporters' viewpoint as gospel, the fact that only one player brought to the club by either man managed to finish in the top three of this year's Player of the Season poll doesn't suggest that either spent some decent cash wisely. And a 2008-2009 player budget that tops the ?8 million mark is decent money.
Gary Doherty and Lee Croft both arrived under Worthington's tenure at the helm; Sammy Clingan was, in fairness, the high point of Roeder's transfer activity.
And if legend insists that Andy Hughes was the low point of Worthington's reign, that particular bar has been getting lower and lower ever since.
Football is a simple game – and Championship football tends to be simpler than most.
You need to be big.
Dickson Etuhu was much maligned in his spell at Norwich. But he was a big, athletic unit. He's played 20-odd games for Fulham this season in the Premiership; just as he played 20-odd games for Sunderland last. Sunderland never went down; Fulham are on the fringes of earning a place in Europe.
In my book, that makes Dickson a Premiership player. Just like Damien Francis was a Premiership player after he helped City win the title in 2004. Not as big as Dickson, Damien was arguably more athletic. Both have never been adequately replaced.
For first Grant and then Roeder entrusted part of the Etuhu/Francis role to Mark Fotheringham. Who ain't big. Nor is Wes Hoolahan. Nor, for that matter, is Darel Russell.
Or Jamie Cureton. Or Julien Brellier. Or Matty Pattison. Or Arturo Lupoli and the fortunes spent on his loan fee. David Strihavka might have had the frame, but he had the heart of a mouse. Not what you want when you shell out 750,000-odd notes on an out-of-his-depth Czech.
Any team is only ever as good as the players along the length of its spine and it is only in the last five weeks with the installation of Alan Lee at one end and the return of Jason Shackell at the other than Norwich have started to do 'big' again.
Without Dion Dublin – arguably Worthington's greatest legacy – Grant's Canaries would have beaten Roeder to the League One punch; Glenn got it right with Martin Taylor; then blew it when he fell out with Karren Brady over her price.
Luke Chadwick, lightweight. Robert Eagle, tiny. The list goes on and on. Big, solid characters get you out of this division; they also keep you in this division.
And two managers in quick succession failed to deliver in that basic regard.
Roeder got unlucky with Dejan Stefanovic; the Serb has character. You don't get to be Pompey skipper for that length of time without it. But his conviction that you could find salvation via a clutch of Premiership loan signings as opposed to digging out a Cody McDonald out of Dartford never paid off; by and large, they failed to deliver.
For me, that cash could have been better spent on digging out an ugly centre-forward of the Andy Bishop type out of the lower leagues than trying to convince everyone that Lupoli was tailor-made for the rigours of the Championship.
Either that or you start pumping money into a 16-year-old recruitment drive; getting bigger kids in at first-year Academy level and instilling a little Norfolk feeling into them early doors.
City are where they are tonight because the players haven't been good enough; all too often, they've simply been the wrong players for this division.
Which is why I'd stick with Bryan Gunn next season and, why, I don't view his appointment as being another stick to beat the board with. The arrival of Messrs Lee, Shackell and McDonald suggests that he's got more of a clue already as to what you need in this division; or if the other two knew, they did precious little to put Championship theory into practice.
Yeh, he made mistakes. He'd start Lee against Sheffield Wednesday if he had his time again; Chris Killen was a 'Ooops…' that was swiftly dealt with; he nipped the Fotheringham issue in the bud and finally gave the captaincy to someone with the heart and the character to match.
And whilst refereeing decisions will always even themselves out over the course of the season and you do make your own luck in this game, he needed just one to make tomorrow's trip to The Valley slightly more relaxing.
The Sheffield Wednesday 'goal' that never was – complete with the official's apology afterwards – was the one that he needed; he needed to be taking three points out of the Owls, not the Royals. And whilst City didn't play well on the day, had that decision gone the way it by rights should have done Norwich could have nicked a big, big result and Gunn could tonight be within sight of adding to his legendary status in these parts.
As it is, City need a minor miracle. I strongly suspect they won't get it.
Bottom line? Make two woeful managerial appointments back-to-back and you pay a hefty price. And, in many regards, it's no more complicated than that.
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