The news of Joe Royle’s return has received a mixed reaction Not surprised?
While some see it as the club appointing a 65 year-old who has been there, seen it and it done it and who has come in to lend Neil Adams a much needed hand, others see it as another example of the club relying on the ‘old boys’ network to fill their back room on the cheap.
I’m in the former camp on this one. I can see little in the Royle appointment to baulk at.
One of the accusations laid at the door of David McNally, Delia Smith and co is that, in Adams, they have appointed a manager with virtually no first-team experience. Well, in Royle it looks as if they have tried to address that deficiency.
While it is far from clear what exactly the role of ‘consultant’ will entail, the man himself – in conversation with talkSPORT’s Alan Brazil – spoke enthusiastically of having already started looking at the make up of next season’s squad with Adams and McNally. He also spoke of ‘looking forward to the derby’.
That to me sounds like a man with a ‘hands on’ role as opposed to one who will be there just to offer advice and a shoulder to cry on.
Whether it will work, and what *exactly* the role entails, will become clearer over the passage of time, but at least, for a forty-something like me, it signals the end of a spell where the heart and the head offered me conflicting messages as to where Joe should sit in my affections.
As one who can recall Royle’s successful, if not brief, spell as a City player at the back end of his career, I struggled massively with the sight of him in the the opposing dugout on derby day.
As we all know, the official Football Supporter’s Handbook rule 15, sub-section 4, paragraph 5 states that ‘all supporters must possess a venomous dislike of all individuals associated with their local rivals’. As such, Joe being in charge of ‘that lot’ left me in a quandary.
He is clearly a thoroughly decent chap (although recent experience tells us that matters not one jot), he’d scored goals in the yellow and green, is widely respected in the game, yet he wore a coat which adorned ‘that’ badge. Heart, head and the rulebook all pulled me in opposite directions.
But no more. His spell on the dark side is now merely a blip in an otherwise glittering career. The natural order has been restored.
What he also brings, on top of shed loads of knowledge, experience and contacts, is an awareness of what it takes to make the Canary Nation tick. Chris Hughton didn’t get it, and was part of his downfall, but Royle I suspect does.
Whether or not that will have any bearing on how successful he is in the role of ‘consultant’ will depend on the success of his working relationship with Adams, but both will hopefully understand our desire to see attacking football that is played in the opponents half and relies on City’s players accurately passing the ball to one another.
While that may sound a tad simplistic I’m not convinced Team Hughton fully embraced any of those concepts in the way we wanted.
Like everyone else, I sincerely hope season 2014/15 sees a return to those basic footballing values and while all the noises emanating from the mouths of Adams, McNally and Royle are encouraging, all will ultimately be revealed on the green stuff in August.
In the same way Big Joe’s appointment divided opinion, so too the decision to bring Gary Holt back to the club. ‘Three Lungs’ has returned to take up a role of assistant-coach alongside Mark Robson – who retains the role he took on for the final five games of last season – as we finally get an idea of what Team Adams is to look like.
A couple of questions still remain: Will there be an assistant manager? And who will be the ‘technical director? But at least things appear to be moving at last. Heck, there is even talk of players coming in rather than just of players clamoring to get away.
Whether Sky Sports presenter, and City fan, Simon Thomas had been given a ‘nod’ by Jim White when he tweeted, “Further to the #NCFC coaching news today, I’m led to believe a bid will be going in for Jordan Rhodes shortly,” we’re unlikely to find out, but it appears moves may be afoot. Or to put it in Jim-speak: ‘a bid is being prepared’ (whatever that means).
Rumours of a transfer request from Gary Hooper, while quashed by Adams, are sure to alert one or two in the Premier League, not least dear old ‘Arry who saw his plan to take the former Celtic man gazumped by City at the eleventh hour. While I’d be happy to see Hooper stay I’d not be too surprised to see him depart for pastures new in Shepherds Bush.
As ever, time will tell but finally, like it or not, things are slowly starting to take shape.
Hi Gary, I don’t understand these “fans” complaining about anyone and everyone that is brought into the management team! Whoever comes in it will be a risk, let’s face it, we’re not going to attract Pep Guardiona, all we can do is get behind the team and give our support. I’m feeling much more confident now the backroom team is taking shape, for goodness sake support them! OTBC
How can anyone say appointing Joe Royle is doing it “on the cheap”? Surely it would be cheaper not to appoint a ‘football consultant’ at all.
Seems to me the new setup is designed to give the main man, Adams, as much help and support as he needs. As long as there is clear delineation between roles, and everyone understands Adams IS the main man, it’s a positive step.
I’m also happy to see Gary Holt in there. No doubt he’ll really get that squad working, won’t take any whatsit, and won’t be afraid to kick some whatsit.
If ever a squad needed a kick up the whatsit it’s this one.
As for players leaving, I trust Adams’ judgement. To me Hooper stopped trying long before season’s end. If he wants to leave, let him. If we can keep hold of Snod, JR, Redders, and especially Olsson, that would be a real statement of intent.
If we want experience why didnt we just appoint an experienced manager in the first place .
This summer is fast going from bad dream to nightmare .
Potentially an excellent blend of a backroom team. Let’s hope this translates into a much better balanced team and playing style! NA has my 100% support! OTBC!
Dream team or the stuff of nightmares? The former I hope – it’s only natural to surround yourself with familiar faces but isn’t always a recipe for success – what did Ian Culverhouse get the unceremonious push for at Villa?
Joe Royle – great playing career and worked wonders at unfashionable Oldham but that was in the mists of time. Presumably he’ll bring nous and know-how but wasn’t that what Joe Kinnear got employed for by the Toon? I see he’s available for the director of football job!
I’m consistently becoming more confused at the whole situation.
If someone had said at the start of last season that we’d be going into the summer with a youth team coach as manager, backed up by a Scottish Championship level staff and a ‘consultant’ (not football director) who has mostly been out of the game for a decade, I’d imagine most people would have laughed.
But here we are.
Yes they know the club. Isn’t that in the realm of ‘yes he’s a nice man’?
I also don’t understand why a “consultant” is talking to the press where a Manager should be. I don’t know too many companies who allow consultants to speak for them.
“I’m told that right to the last whistle of the last game he was doing his best to win a game for Norwich. He’s the type you want around.”…JR
Not paying too close attention to Norwich, obviously Joe 😉
I hope this is one of those times where things just click, but I can’t say I don’t have my doubts.
It’s well known in Liverpool that Martinez wanted Royle at Everton next season for a similar role, but Royle chose Norwich to work with Adams. Royle is hugely respected in football and it’s a canny move to get him in. Plus he really likes Neil Adams. So it’s not all bad, eh?
Well, we have a classic difference of opinion. Joe Royle is either a laughable appointment, “a ‘consultant’ who has mostly been out of the game for a decade” (Dave B) or an outstanding adviser “who can help make average players good and good ones even better” (Sir Alex Ferguson).
Hmm – tough call.
Dave B, I’d like you provide a realistic list of names for a managerial team which would guarantee promotion for Norwich next season. Of course you can’t do that, so why not give this one a chance?
Every manager or coach has to start somewhere. Mourinho was famously Bobby Robson’s interpreter, for example. Wenger was in the ‘J’ League. Every successful manager needed someone to take a chance on them when they started out.
Think about it. If everyone only employed coaches and managers who had already enjoyed success in a top league, no one would ever get a job.
As owners, chairmen, chief execs, joint majority shareholders, and, especially fans, all we can do for these unproven but exciting talents is give them what they need to best fulfill their potential. Most critically, patience and encouragement.
Let’s at least TRY!
@8 Stewart
I did not call him ‘laughable’. He’s had a very good career. But..
1) Everyone keeps saying he knows the club, yet doesn’t seem to have followed them enough to know anything about Snodgrass and..
2) Has not been heavily involved in the game for nearly a lifetime in footballing terms (OGS and Roy Keane were still playing for Man U when he finished at Ipswich) and..
3) my point about why a consultant is talking to the media is perfectly sound. Is he a consultant or is he far more? Consultants do not speak to media. Therefore he is more and are we indirectly creating a Director of Football position that we said we’d avoid?
We also had a large amount of people completely discredit Lennon because the “Scottish Prem is a lower standard than the Championship”. Yet we welcome Gary with open arms someone arms from a lower league because he once played for our club.
Do we have double standards here?
And I’m not saying they can’t do the job, or that I won’t cheer on the team with the rest of you. What I’m saying is are we making decisions based on the BEST people for the job? Or those least likely to upset the apple cart (see Chris Hughton). And IF we are making the same mistakes as before I’m not sure McNally can weather that storm.
I also don’t believe in not looking at decisions critically and just cheering on any scrap of good news. That’s what got us relegated.
Dave B (10): True – no-one could ever accuse you of cheering on any scrap of good news.