Norwich City this afternoon found themselves looking for a new manager after Canary boss Neil Adams resigned ‘with immediate effect’.
The former City youth coach will, for now, be succeeded by Mike Phelan as the club begin the process of seeking a full-time replacement.
Given the January transfer window is now well and truly open, the onus will be on the Canaries to appoint their new man ASAP – if he is to have any opportunity to reshape the squad before the window slams shut again.
In announcing his decision, Adams gave no reason for his sudden exit. He will, however, be returning in the summer in an as-yet undefined role. Once, one presumes, he has had a chance to lick his wounds.
Adams’ pride must be hurting right now. He remains a thoroughly decent man.
“I firmly believe that we are still on course for a crack at promotion back to the Premier League. That is where this club belongs,” he told the club’s official website.
“However, I feel it is in the best interests of the team that an immediate change is made in order to ensure a positive impact on results,” he added.
The wording of his resignation is telling. He met with representatives of the Board ‘and agreed to resign’. Which can be read one of several ways.
“It goes without saying that I sincerely hope the team achieves success this season and I would like to say a huge thank you to the supporters who have backed me during my tenure as manager.”
Those that did back his short tenure at the helm were starting to dwindle in number as an ever more vocal section began to question whether seventh spot was good enough for a club boasting the kind of Championship strength in depth that Norwich offered.
Returning any club straight back to the Premier League is a particularly challenging ask; the ‘hangover’ is invariably more deep-rooted than many imagine.
However, the run through October and November – coupled to the recent, soulless defeats at Reading and Preston North End may have found Adams questioning his own ability to drive a consistent level of performance out of his players.
Attitude, not ability, has been the question mark of late.
His managerial cause has not been helped by two factors not of his own making.
The first was the declaration that Norwich had ‘scoured Europe’ in the search for a successor to Chris Hughton – a process that led, conveniently, back to City’s own back-yard at Colney and the man that had masterminded the club’s remarkable FA Youth Cup triumph.
It gave sceptical supporters a stick to beat him with once results – and home performances, in particular – started to drift in the late autumn.
The arrival of ex-Manchester United No2 Phelan also left question marks hanging over Adams’ long-term prospects.
It was wholly predictable that the supporters would see a manager in waiting in Phelan – something that, surely, would not have been lost on the original ‘Team Adams’.
There is, of course, a world of difference between managing 18-year-olds and full, professional men grown suddenly rich on Premier League wages.
Adams also discovered how tough it is to follow your natural attacking tendencies in the brutal, back street battles of the Championship.
Determined to put his best attacking foot forward in the wake of the negativity associated with the Hughton era, it remains a very fine line you have to tread between being overly gung-ho and defensively frail as a result.
Grinding out victories is not etched deep into the Adams DNA. For gnarly old warriors like Mick McCarthy at Portman Road, such niceties have long been abandoned in the face of doing whatever it takes to return to the top flight.
Whether Phelan now gets the full-time gig is just one of a number of questions for chief executive David McNally to answer over the course of the next couple of weeks.
If City return to winning ways soon enough and return to the play-off positions, then events of the last seven months will swiftly fade.
If, however, the ship continues to drift in mid-table then the wider doubts will remain. The whole Rioch, Hamilton, Grant, Roeder era ought to have given everyone a lesson in where constant managerial changes lead.
The answer being only down…
You knew it from the decision making on team selection and formation, you knew it from the game management (or lack of) you knew it from the coaching change. You knew it ultimately from the team performances.
The job is a damn sight harder than it appears from the stands or the radio studio for that matter. And ultimately too much for Team Adams.
Phelan will be a more than capable caretaker – and his decisions re. Saturday will speak volumes about whether he’s been on a wavelength with Adams over the past few weeks.
However, now is not the ideal time to recruit, espacially as West Brom just took the outstanding candidate currently not working.
I like McNally a lot, but he needs to get this call right…
P.S. Please no-one seriously contemplate Warnock.
Neil Adams has done the honourable thing and should be applauded for that. The question now is will the board make the same mistake and appoint another manager who has never managed a team before in Mike Phelan? I sincerely hope not but I fear for the worse.
From what I have seen this team is more than capable of finishing in the top two places in this mediocre division and as a season ticket holder of many years I have seen my fair share of dross so I don’t say that lightly! The fact that we aren’t in the top two speaks volumes for the lack of managerial experience in my view. I am not one of those who jumps up and down asking for changes of manager at the first sign of trouble – in fact I would have kept Hughton on until the end of the season (tin hat at the ready!) but Adams has been clearly out of his depth and follows a long line of untried managers who have failed at Norwich.
Experience please next time!! We may not be a top premiership side but we are too big a club to be gambling with unproven managers and Mike Phelan, great and experienced coach that he may be, falls into that category.
While I didn’t agree with the appointment, I see it as a sad state of affairs when a rookie manager has his team three points off he top six and receives the kind of vitriol that Adams has.
It worries me deeply that so many of our fans seem to think Adams was an out-and-out failure as a manager, no doubt linked to the view that our squad should ‘walk’ the Championship.
History says different. Of the teams relegated from the Prem in the past 20 years – many with resources as good as, or better than, ours – only one in four has gone back up at the first opportunity. Cardiff and Fulham are typical; Norwich under Neil Adams better than average.
In other words, we’re looking for a truly exceptional manager – a decent one won’t do. Adams and Phelan seemed to have settled into a successful partnership, averaging 2pts per game in December. Our new man needs to match that from Day 1, and sustain or better it from now to May. Not as easy as some seem to think. But fingers crossed. OTBC
I think Neils position became apparent with the appointment of Phelan. Would he have really come to “little Norwich” when I’m sure that he would have got treble the money at a prem side for just being a No2? Its obvious the incentive was to become manager. Poor Neil, seems like the writing was on wall already there. Tactics? questionable, knowledge? limited. Passion, desire, commitment and loyalty? In abundance!! Just sadly in this day and age that is not enough.
See you in July Neil! I’m sure I’m not the only one who will welcome you back.
Youre still a legend and thanks for trying
Just a thought, but if there was one instead of four articles on a particular subject, the comments would all be in the same place and a bit more discussion might happen.