Are We Done Yet? I’m…Exhausted.

This chap likes a challenge.

It’s been a very tough 2 weeks for all Norwich City fans and quite frankly I have avoided hastily scribbling on here.  Unlike Norwich City FC I have resisted the urge to indulge in knee-jerk reactions. Over the last week our new Chairman and Chief executive fired our manager after a 4-0 victory away from home and hired the manager who oversaw the start of this mess, Colchester’s Paul Lambert.

Since Gunn’s dismissal the team have dropped 2 points at Exeter and they lost last night at Brentford. In fact we have taken just 1 point from our first 9 in League One.

So, Paul Lambert, who is he? Did the board act in the correct manner in regards to the way they fired club legend Bryan Gunn? Do I wake up in the middle of the night sweating? Answers to these questions after clicking the ’read more’ button, down there to the right.

Everyone had just put the 7-1 Colchester drubbing to bed, Gunn had made some significant changes to the side and the team had won 4-0 away to Yeovil. Whether or not Gunn was the right choice for manager was actually irrelevant at this point. Delia Smith, her husband Michael Wynn Jones and director ( and now deputy chairman) Michael Foulger had hired him after relegation and backed him during the summer. Yes there have been board room changes since then and yes we were all grateful for a new Chief Executive and one with new ideas, BUT…

Gunn had the job, it was his. After Yeovil, the wound of Colchester had begun healing and all City supporters recognized that we had put that to bed. We looked forward to another good performance against Exeter and the mood had changed. Twenty four hours before the game Gunn was fired, the action of new Chairman Alan Bowkett and new Chief Executive David McNally. Who fires a manager after a 4-0 win? After he clearly saw what needed fixing and picked a winning side? Who does that? Has a manager ever been fired after a 4-0 victory? I very much doubt it. Since Gunn’s sacking Norwich pissed away 2 points at Exeter and gave up 2 soft goals in a pathetic second half last night at Brentford. BRENTFORD, a team that just came up from League two. If we lost with balls, with maximum effort, It would be understandable! But we didn’t, we were pathetic.

Whether Gunn was right for the job is irrelevant, I said it again. I am positive that after Yeovil, he would have carried on the effort to Exeter and Brentford. Instead we had no manager and threw away valuable points. Points that are so valuable to our new Chief Exec, McNally, that he used the lack of points gained against Colchester as his excuse to fire Bryan Gunn. Claiming that 2 percent of the season had passed and we had no points and needed to act. Well now 6% has gone and we have 1 point from 3 league games. McNally’s main reason for the sacking was that Gunn’s performance over the 7 months he had the job was not good enough. He is right. I would hardly call relegation ‘good enough’ but we all recognized the task in hand when he took over from Roeder, recognized what he was left with. Good enough still? No. But he was given the job full time, and allowed to build a team.

Right man or wrong man, Gunn was treated badly.

That is what makes his sacking unacceptable. If it wasn’t good enough then why hire him? Before the board changes, the 3 board members believed in him and gave him the reigns. To take that away after an undefeated pre-season and a 1-1 competitive record this season was a s**tty thing to do. McNally and Bowkett may have wanted their own guy in and they may have been right with that decision down the line, but the timing of their move stunk and it was the wrong thing to do. He wasn’t given the time to build on the 4-0 win and that cost us points during our last two games for sure. Football is a business as McNally keeps telling us, but a club like Norwich and it’s supporters work to a different ethic, and humiliating a club legend isn’t part of that.

We are aware it’s a business but we also know it’s one that doesn’t make money. We have always been a proud club, one build on passionate supporters and honest football. A family club that people respected. Last Friday I felt ashamed for how we had behaved.

Quite frankly it was a low move, one that allowed McNally and Bowkett to show that they were now in charge of the board, that Delia was not out in front of football decisions. This was how they asserted their authority. I am not against a tough Chief Executive making tough decisions, firing managers that are failing and rocking the boat,  but not after one game and not after a 4-0 win and NOTafter he was handed the reigns with all parties aware that it was regardless of last seasons relegation.  Lose to Exeter and Brentford and ok, maybe Gunn isn’t right for the job, but to go into those games without a manager after a knee jerk reaction to one result is criminal. I wonder how Delia feels about the treatment of her appointment, I think her disappearing act over the last week says it all really. Some Norwich fans will disagree and that is their right, but I lost count of how many neutrals texted and emailed me to express disgust at how the former keeper had been treated. I believe they were right and that’s how I feel about it, along with many City fans.

Winning attitude, he will need it.

Now, that aside, McNally may be on my s**t list for his antics last week, but this week he gets some credit for appointing Paul Lambert on Monday. Other names doing the rumor rounds included Nigel Adkins of Sc**thorpe, Sean O’Driscoll of Doncaster, Exeter’s Paul Tisdale and Steve Tilson of Southend. But McNally wanted Lambert and went after him aggresively. The others on that list were linked because they had brought success to their clubs. While Tisdale, Tilson and Adkins had all bagged promotion twice, they had not been at big clubs or achieved those feats at more that one club. Hiring them would have been a gamble, especially coming into a club where there is absolutely no time for a slow build. Promotion this season is expected. Lambert, while not delivering promotion hasshown at Wycombe and at Colchester that he can come in and get a poor team winning. He took Wycombe to the semi-finals of the League Cup and to the play-offs.

At Colchester he took over a losing side two months into last season and had them 13 points from the play-offs. His win percentage at Wycombe was 40% while he won 44% of his matches at Colchester. That’s play-off stuff once you sling in a few draws, and I will be hoping he will be able to do better at Norwich than he has elsewhere. He has inherited a pretty decent squad but  one that is seriously underachieving. Before the season began there was not one Norwich fan who thought this side didn’t looked good on paper or thought we wouldn’t get off to a flier. Even the bookies recognized how strong we looked, by making us promotion favorites.

Lambert certainly has a winning mentality and will not be fazed by 25,000 fans or the pressure of expectation. This club is in free-fall and he has to stop the rot and get us winning immediately. His years captaining Celtic under Martin O’Neil point to the right motives and attitude. One thing is for sure, he has some HUGE decisions to make over the next few days. One such decision will be deciding if Gill and Owain Tudur-Jones can play together in midfield. Reports from last night suggest not.

While he ponders the team selection and looks at the quality available to him, he can be assured of one thing. This team has no confidence and no leaders. How a team missing those attributes will gain promotion from this division is any ones guess but 3 points are expected this Saturday. Good luck Mr. Lambert!

While Many fans will agree with what I have written and many won’t, none will deny that the disappointment and failure of the last 3 years has divided opinions right down the middle on every appointment, issue, signing, performance and result. One thing we can all agree on is that the season starts this Saturday at home to Wycombe and that we all deserve better than we’ve had.