So we now know the nature of the club’s restructuring programme and eagerly await the first appointment, that of Sporting Director.
In case you’ve been living in a cave of late, the list of names linked with this role is long and numerous with the bottom line being, that a new Head Coach won’t be appointed until the Sporting Director is in place.
I’ve resisted the urge to bring you every single name that is linked to the Head Coach job because, well, I’ve been doing this a long time now and I know from reading between the lines, that the Head Coach (manager) won’t be announced or even thought about too much until that Sporting Director role is filled.
Celtic’s talent spotter in chief, David Moss was mooted by the Daily Record as being a Canary target last week and today, Huddersfield Town’s Head Of Football Operations, Stuart Webber has been named as City’s top target by the Press Association.
Webber has been at Huddersfield since 2015 and helped bring David Wagner in and we all know what a hit he has been.
Ed Balls reckons that Alan Irvine might be asked to take charge for a while longer yet and that the Sporting Director role may not be filled by the time the International break is over as reported by the EDP
That doesn’t exactly fill me with glee after watching ‘Irvine’s’ Norwich City at the weekend. The win over Barnsley was a dreadful game to watch and we were very lucky that the visitors forgot their shooting boots. The only good thing about it was the 3 points. I was actually bored in the first half until Jacob scored. The game improved a little in the second half but it was generally a turgid affair.
Irvine clearly intends to keep the same formation as Alex Neil and there’s hardly been a big up turn, despite four points from Irvine’s two games.
With eight games to go, there’s a tiny sliver of light in the play-off race as Sheffield Wednesday continue to stutter. If we could play all our remaining eight games at home then we might just get it done but with away games at places like Villa, Huddersfield and Leeds to come, I think you can pretty much forget it.
Having said that, a new manager, sorry, Head Coach might just give a bounce to the side and instill some belief. It seems the board won’t be rushed and that’s most likely the best policy, I suppose.
After the overall lack of success and general failure since Paul Lambert left, I’m pretty much ready to try anything new to get back on a positive track.
The next appointment(s) are massive for Norwich City and could well dictate the fortunes of the club for the next decade. City have one more year of big parachute payments to go and must have a real crack at promotion or risk mid-table mediocrity for some time to come.
I’m desperately keeping my fingers crossed that the club get this right, even though I know who’s doing the choosing…
OTBC