My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis
Norwich City – news, comment and analysis
If you had told Glenn Roeder at the start of the current season that he would be installed as City boss in late October, and if you'd have asked him right there and then to pick the opposition for his first game in charge of the Canaries, I'd wager a pound to a penny that he'd have chosen Ipswich at home.
They don't get any bigger than the local derby, and considering that players will normally find that ten per cent extra whenever a new boss arrives on the scene …
The last glow of the autumn sun finally fades behind the mountains. The lemon groves in the valley disappear from view and the still of the evening is broken only by the soft chirruping of cicadas.
Hang on, that's not the cicadas, that's my phone.
Oh s***, we're two down already?
Yes, it was only those pesky text messages from Burnley that disturbed what was otherwise a very peaceful and relaxing break in Majorca last week.
(I wondered at …
In the last 40 years, some illustrious and highly respected managers have given Norwich City a wonderful profile.
Ron Saunders took them to football's promised land for the first time, and the likes of John Bond, Ken Brown, Dave Stringer, Mike Walker and Nigel Worthington enjoyed varying degrees of success in keeping the green flag flying high.
If Martin O'Neill had been given his head and allowed to develop what was clearly a potentially outstanding managerial …
The board of Norwich City certainly took their time. Far too long, in fact.
But in terms of finding a man who can get the team out of the terrible position they find themselves in, Roeder is a good choice.
When things start hotting up down at the bottom come March and April, I genuinely believe Norwich will not be among those clubs staring League One down the barrel.
It's pretty obvious there were not too many options in terms of bringing a new man in.<br …
Not for one minute do I think that any of us will underestimate the magnitude of the announcement of Glenn Roeder as the new Norwich manager at around half-past nine this morning.
Because as we all know only too well, he has arguably the biggest task ever handed to a Canaries boss in recent history – and that is to prevent Norwich City Football Club from sinking into the third tier of English football.
Performances so far this season have been absolutely dire – there's …
For anyone seeking a reference point re Glenn Roeder, you could do a lot worse than think a younger Bruce Rioch.
Two people drew that comparison this morning – both of whom knew the ex-Canary boss inside out.
And now having met him for the first time at Carrow Road this morning, you can see the similarities.
Upright, decent, solid individuals, Roeder and Rioch are probably exactly the kind of steady hands at the tiller that the Canaries need right now.
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Stanley would be lying if he was to say that he was 'over the moon' at the news of Glenn Roeder's appointment as the new City manager.
Frankly, Stanley can't, at the moment, escape a deep sense of foreboding at the news that Roeder is the man in whose hands the immediate, and quite probably long-term future of the club, lie.
However whether Stanley, you or any of the other 23,000 City faithful who will turn up this Sunday, like it or not we all need Roeder …
And so on to find the next two pieces in the jig-saw – who may yet form 'Team Glenn' ahead of the derby game on Sunday.
The new gaffer was giving no clues – other than to say that he had already ear-marked a No2 and a coach; that both were young; both currently in work; but both would view a switch to Norfolk as ?a promotion?.
The obvious one was Nigel Pearson, but that seemed to be a no-no.
So ferret around Roeder's previous clubs – be it Newcastle …
At some stage in the next 48 hours, the phone will ring. And we will all troop off down to Carrow Road to meet the new man in charge.
There will be the traditional bun-fight over who 'broke' the story first; in reality, the name of Peter Grant's successor will have crossed most people's lips already. He will, in every likelihood, be one of the dozen or so names that have done the rounds in the last three weeks.
Each and everyone of us will, therefore, claim …
And so the desperate, unending nightmare that everyone of a green and yellow hue is locked in goes on?. and on ??.. and on.
Just a glimmer that we may emerge from this hideous predicament would be something. Instead, once more, we lifelessly and listlessly played out 90-odd minutes of drivel whilst the opposition, the Baggies on this particular occasion, took pity, lowered their game slightly and toyed with us like a fat ginger tom patting a pitiful dying song bird.
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I've said it before, but when a team finds itself in a situation similar to that of the Canaries this season ? ie struggling beyond all recognition ? it takes big hearts and minds as much as anything else in order for the balance to begin tipping back in its favour.
Sure, quality passing football, positive attacking play, resolute defending and an ability for a side to effectively maintain its shape and discipline will certainly get the job done.
But without the …
It's coming to that stage of the season whereby unless the Canaries can pull their fingers out and start to deliver a couple of decent results then they'll soon be in big trouble.
It's hardly as through City are riding high in the table at present of course, and sitting second from bottom on the same amount of points as the team sat immediately below you is trouble enough alright – no matter how many games of the campaign have elapsed.
But a point has now been …
A quick call to pals in the Potteries was in order this morning – that and a quick glance at the back page of the Sentinel.
Where Tony Pulis' little pal Mark O'Connor appeared to be doing his best to dampen down all the 'Tony's on his way…' talk.
The Potters boss himself – a bit like Dowie at Coventry City – has opted to stay tight-lipped and gob shut as one man and his wife continue to suggest that Rusty's old manager is Norfolk-bound.
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Some time over the next 48 hours or so, there is every chance that the board of Norwich City Football Club will make the decision of their lives and appoint Peter Grant's successor.
He – and unless Hope Powell has thrown her hat into the ring, it will be a 'he' – may not be officially unveiled until some stage next week, but over the next couple of days the short list will get ever shorter and someone, somewhere, will emerge as their No1 choice.
I suspect that …
Stan couldn't make it to Burnley. Instead, he got a few beers in, made Mrs Stan a curry, put Arsenal on the TV with the sound off, and settled down to listen to Radio Norfolk, hoping against hope that the patterns of play at the Emirates would somehow be virtually replicated by the Canaries at Turf Moor.
Four minutes in and Stan switched the radio off, drank his beer far too quickly, and drifted off into a kind of 'Life on Mars' reverie: old City players drifted …
There was a good case for arguing that had certain decisions been different, the Canaries might easily have won the game against Bristol City on Saturday.
Of course, they would have done so anyway if the batch of goal-scoring chances that were created during the opening 20 minutes or so of excellent attacking football had been converted rather than squandered, but looking at things purely from a tactical point of view, City's line-up wasn't conducive to them operating to …
Some time over the next 48 hours or so, there is every chance that the board of Norwich City Football Club will make the decision of their lives and appoint Peter Grant's successor.
He – and unless Hope Powell has thrown her hat into the ring, it will be a 'he' – may not be officially unveiled until some stage next week, but over the next couple of days the short list will get ever shorter and someone, somewhere, will emerge as their No1 choice.
I suspect that …
Bit by bit, name by name those lining up for an interview start to emerge.
Simon Grayson's name popped up today; he fits certain bills – in that he's bright, young and hungry for success.
And he has a promotion to his name.
Geraint Williams doesn't have a promotion to his name, but he has a tenth place finish in his first season in charge at Layer Road and the Us already look a fair bet for another season of mid-table safety – not something that you …
There's a reason for every decision that is made.
To the untrained or inexperienced eye, it might not seem obvious and it might indeed seem puzzling to say the least, but there will be some logic involved somewhere.
However, playing Darren Huckerby on the right side of midfield when he's clearly happier and better suited on the left, and when you've got a more than adequate alternative for that particular position ? and one of the few performers actually able …
It's probably safe to say that the short list for the 'hot seat' at Carrow Road got shortened by one after this defeat.
The same failings of the Grant era were visible, questionable tactics and a real sense of a team without a heart.
A lot of hope for our chances of climbing out of the mess we find ourselves in was pinned upon the belief that we do actually have a half decent team, it was just that they were being stifled from playing to their full potential by …