Norwich City: The laughing stock of the football league!

Bryan Gunn was sacked as manager of Norwich City football club today. Just one league game into the season, the Norwich board have decided to disgracefully axe the club legend.With huge debts, practically a new team of players and no manager it is not a great time to be a Norwich City fan.

Where on earth has it all gone wrong for Norwich City? Fifteen years ago ‘the canaries’ were flying high in Europe, smashing Bayern Munich along the way and still the only British club to have beaten Bayern in Munich.

Today Norwich are languishing in the third tier of English football, their first game of this season was a humiliating 7-1 defeat at home to of all clubs Colchester. With the summer transfer window drawing to a close and virtually no transfer funds, even a new manager will not be able to improve or transform his squad.

How can you appoint a manager like Gunn who had no previous experience and then give him the job personally after getting the club relegated? And furthermore how can you appoint a manager and then sack him after one league game at the start of the season? It is crazy.

But Norwich fans will not be surprised, the club has been a shambles for years. Nothing makes sense about the way the board approaches running the club, there have been some horrific manager choices recently including serial failure Glen Roeder and unexperienced former player Peter Grant, all with disasterous consequences ultimately ending in relegation last season.

So to the sacking of Gunn. Once he had been given the job despite fans uproar and huge disagreement, you would expect the board to give him a chance. The 7-1 loss on Saturday was a sham but the fact is it was the first game of the season, there are bound to be a few rusty players and it is tough for a manager to know his best eleven on the first day given the amount of changes there were in the squad. Also, Gunn turned it around on Tuesday night by changing a few players, with Norwich acheiving a very respectable 4-0 away win at Yeovil. Over at the other side of the country Yeovil is certainly not an easy place to win at. Given City’s dreadful cup record it was a fantastic result for the club. So the manager has lost his job on the back of a 4-0 win, how ironic it is then that he was given the job after a 4-0 win earlier in the year.

Hardly surprising though given how poorly the club is run. The owner is a TV chef who is better known for her drunken half time ‘let’s be ‘avin ya’ rants than her boardroom knowledge. Perhaps it really is time for Delia Smith to go before she causes anymore damage, surely it could not get any worse. Yes, Delia has put a lot of money into the club but this does not justify some dreadful decisions and playing in the third tier of English football. Aside from Leeds United, Norwich City are the biggest club in League One and should on this merit run away with it this season. Not many fans believe that is likely to happen.

The only possible salvation would be a big takeover and a decent investment of cash but as always a lot of talk about such things has merely been rubbish in recent months. Another way the club may restore some dignity is if they appoint a great manager to take the reigns and shake up the club, but who in their right mind will want this job now. Anyone who is worthy of a good manager job would not take it and that just leaves Norwich City with the scraps and unsuccessful managers to choose from.

Possible candidates to take over are current caretaker Ian Butterworth, who will be blighted by being part of the Gunn regime, Mark Robins, a former player who has had some success in managing at this level, and the man most City fans would love to have in charge, Aidy Bothroyd. Bothroyd a former academy boss has the skill and the nous to lead a promotion charge but even if he gets the job he will not be able to bring in many players and is pretty much stuck with the current untested City squad.

This is all very worrying for Norwich City and rather than harbouring promotion ambitions, most fans have already given up hope, mid-table may be the best city can get this season, the board needs to rectify this situation quickly or they will have a City riot on their hands.

Classy Norwich Stun Rivals

A wonderstrike from Lee Croft and a two-yard tap in for Matty Pattison gave Norwich City a 2-0 win in Sunday’s East Anglian derby against Ipswich Town. The Carrow Road faithful were rewarded for their patience with a terrific performance by the Canaries.

The pressure was on Norwich and their boss Glenn Roeder as the side were hovering very close to the relegation zone.  Before the kick off some fans were calling the biggest game of Roeder’s reign and certianly the season but this only seemed to spur the side on as they won comfortably.

Norwich City dominated the match and fully deserved to go ahead midway through the second half when Lee Croft’s run and shot from the edge of the area curled majestically into the top corner of the net. One of the strikes of the season and probably the best goal of Croft’s career both in terms of importance and class. Roeder looked like a giddy school girl as he celebrated his relief was plain to see.

Norwich Fans were probably expecting City to defend their lead as they often tend to do but they kept pushing forward and a testing snap-shot from Leroy Lita was well saved by Richard Wright. Ipswich could not hold the Canaries out for long though as after a freekick was crossed into the box it fell perfectly for Matty Pattison who rifled the ball home from around two yards. The shot hit the underside of the bar and almost missed but nobody in the ground cared as Norwich had all but killed off the game and won when they needed to. There was controversy because Ipswich defender Gareth McAuley was off the field at the time of the goal.  Lita had highlighted to the referree that McAuley’s head was bleeding and as is the law in these circumstances he had to leave the field, much to the disgruntelment of the Ipswich player.

Ipswich looked out of sorts all afternoon and never really got anything going. Any chances they did have were thwarted by another brilliant goalkeeping performance by City’s keeper David Marshall. Marshall almost ruined his day however when he brought down Danny Haynes in the area but the penalty was not given a decision that summed up Town’s day.

This win was certainly vital for a Norwich side that has struggled in the league this season. If they continue to play in this form they should move up to the top half of the Championship. The problem is that consistancy has been sadly lacking this season and the mid-week game at Watford will be a real test of just how good this side is and whether or not Norwich just upped their performance for a derby match.

As for Ipswich they still have play-off aspirations but that looks a distant dream after a drab performance. They will need to bounce back quickly.