Jez Moxey has left his position as Chief Executive at Norwich City after just over five months at the helm.
The club issued a fairly bland statement last night in which they thanked Moxey for his work and that he had “resigned and left the club by mutual consent.”
That very much sounds like code words for “been sacked.”
The former Wolves Chief Exec joined the Canaries as David McNally`s successor but those were big shoes to fill after McNally had presided over arguably the club`s most successful period, certainly in recent times.
The signs weren`t good immediately with Wolves fans warning that he had been a disaster in the same role at Molineux for the last 16 years. There were allegations of a lack of contact, information and general interaction with the fans and various supporters` groups including The Canaries Trust, whose Chairman, Robin Sainty was very vocal on the subject and then there was THAT interview with Norwich City TV.
The Norwich City board have been accused in recent months of being indecisive and refusing to act over the team`s failing fortunes on the pitch and the demand for the removal of Alex Neil from the stands. It`s worth bearing in mind that Moxey has presided over this entire downturn in fortunes.
Charlie Wyett of The Sun has reported that Delia fell out with Moxey and that as a result, action has been taken to remove him from post. If true, that flies in the face of being indecisive, unless of course, Moxey`s actions while in the role were so unpalatable that he had to go right now. The Sun story says that Moxey was involved in the deadline day move for Yanic Wildschut but just two days later and he had been fired. I use that term because if he`d just resigned and walked away then that`s all it would`ve said in the club`s statement.
There are rumours, unsubstantiated of course, that Moxey was a strict authoritarian in the role and that this was at odds with the way the club is run generally, also that the effect had permeated right through to the coaching staff and players. I expect Alex Neil will be asked about all this at lunchtime and quite rightly, in his position, decline to comment or deny any knowledge. After all, he fronts up to the media at Colney on Friday lunchtimes to talk football, not boardroom politics.
The board will consider the situation and as Charlie Wyett pointed out on Twitter, there are plenty of options for a new Chief Exec but the bottom line is that the manager needs to be good enough to direct things on the field. Having said that, if the Chief Exec`s attitude was negative or too interfering towards the football playing staff then that could affect things. A friend had a 20 minute conversation with Moxey last year and he was very interested in my friend`s attitude to the style of football being played and whether or not the fan base would accept a more direct style of football – my friend thought that he might`ve been suggesting a new manager. My friend insisted that at Norwich, we are football fans and that we want to see good passing football, not see a game of hoof ball. He also told my friend that he had “suggested” to Alex Neil that he play Tettey and Thompson together in the centre of midfield – sounds like interfering to me.
From what I understand, the board are now looking at all options to move forward, including perhaps not going with the traditional Chief Executive role.
Time will tell.
With the transfer window out of the way and football the only thing left to concentrate on now, there are several months in which to sort this all out.
It is another crisis to lurch into but on the whole, I think the removal of Jez Moxey is a good thing for Norwich City and we`re better off without him.
OTBC
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