Mecagoenti is actually partly right. I don't get why he gets so much gip for pointing out

Home truths. But it's more complicated than he puts it.

One of the great intangibles at any football club is the symbiosis between the team and the fans. Under Lambert, it was perfect. Under Hughton, was it ever?

Because - hence my diatribe after Arsenal last season - Hughton isn't 'us'. His style of play will never be Norwich City. So even when we won, it felt... meh at best.

And because he was never us, the atmosphere was often lukewarm at best, very negative at worst. Especially when we fell behind towards the end of his time. Those fans with Hughton Out banners before the Fulham Cup game? Pathetic - but only reflective of a wider sense that it was never going to work out.

When clubs get out of trouble, they do so with everyone pulling in the same direction. Team, manager, board... and fans. Yet when we went behind against West Brom, what did we get instead? The crowd roaring us on, trying to help us back into the game? Nope. Instead the reaction was one of poison. Mutiny. The board suddenly had no option.

A substantial proportion amongst the fans clearly deluded themselves that Hughton was the ONLY problem: meaning that if we just returned to playing 'the Norwich way', we'd stay up. So we did - and were suddenly a softer touch than ever at the worst possible time.

Hughton's way might've ground out a backs to the wall win somewhere. It might. Replacing him with someone who has no idea - and in my judgement, no will either - how to do this could hardly have been more stupid; yet the fans wanted Hughton gone.

If we were Stoke, or Crystal Palace, or whoever, would we have been so anti Hughton for so long? I doubt it. I don't think we'd ever tolerate a Pulis, Warnock or Allardyce: they're just not us. But because of that, we make it harder for ourselves. We don't just want to win, but to play exciting football in the process. And with this squad and this wage bill, was that EVER deliverable?

This is partly why I've not been as angry towards the board as I've been in the past. I think what's happened is EVERYONE's fault. Fans of other clubs were saying to me after West Brom "the fans have got Hughton the sack". I said it wasn't as simple as that, but accepted there was something in it. Because there was, you know. There was.

But... this isn't a computer game. NCFC being what NCFC is, we have to find someone who does galvanise the support, who we can identify with. I hope Malky is that man - but based on what others have said about his style of play... It's nowhere near as easy as many think to put things right now.

Posted By: thebigfeller on May 3rd 2014 at 19:05:18

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