Ex-Norwich Players As Managers

Someone made a call for Bobby Robson with a younger coach being groomed underneath him earlier today-Ian Crook?-and I have to say that I really like that idea.

Its easy to call for the return of the Canary legends when things go wrong-we?ve seen that it doesn?t always work, witness Mike Walker?s second spell, although, to be fair, and in relation to Worthington, he was a success!-on the playing side as well, returning favourites have not always had the same impact second time around-Robert Fleck comes to mind, although, for us old farts, both Graham Paddon and Martin O?Neill were decent players still the second time around.

With that in mind, the call is often, and, justifiably, that we cannot take the risk of getting someone in who is young and inexperienced, and that it is ill advised to expect big things of an old favourite. However, I?m now thinking that maybe it wouldn?t be such a bad idea to bring in an old player or two, if anything, their appreciation of the fabled ?Norwich way? of playing (last seen many years ago-it amuses me that people on TV still say that ?Norwich are a good footballing side?, what planet are they living on?) might mean that we make progress in that way as well, and, at the very least, have a side that is entertaining to watch. Any further progress and success would surely come as a result of that?

Someone posted a comment a few days ago saying that it was bad enough that we were so dreadful this season, but what made it worse is that we were predictable dreadful, route one dreadful, BORING dreadful. I concur. We are!

Maybe someone who KNOWS that Norwich are, by tradition, a side that plays a quick, passing game might see that as being a requirement of any manager here, and it would be something that they would bring to the club?

We sure as hell aren?t going to get it under the current regime-I keep thinking back to the last time we won a game when we actually looked good, was it the home win against Wigan (2-0) at about Easter 2004? I bet Matty Svensson got a rollicking from Worthy for putting that goal away; skill and class sublime, no wonder we got shot of him and got Thorne in, he?d never try anything like that?

?but I digress. The point I?d like to make is yes, it is easy to look through rose tinted spectacles and think how marvellous it would be to have some of the old crowd back, and that everything would immediately improve-it might, it might not. But I?d take trying to play ?proper? football again as a starting point anytime, and I think that, under a manager like Crook, like Bowen, we might just get that. Things are so dire at the moment, that even that would be progress and something to build on.

The irony of course is that we had a great squad, relative success, and good football under Dave Stringer-who was part of the Ron Saunders "work rate and effort" regime!

Posted By: Martin Peters, Dec 5, 11:42:43