Appointing Culverhouse would ensure maximum stability for the playing staff and while he may be keen

It is fair to say that for any supporter of Norwich City, the past fortnight has resembled something akin to a combination of a horror movie and the dark ages of previous reigns within our club’s chequered history. As any self-respecting canary will vouch, after arguably the greatest season in the club’s history finishing 12 th place in Paul Lambert’s Premier League debut, cheap car rental tampa Grant Holt notching an impressive fifteen league goals and John Ruddy gaining international recognition with a place in Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2012 squad for the upcoming championships – the bubble was destined to implode spectacularly over the summer months. Implode it most certainly did, with Norwich’s off-season resembling a classical Shakespearean tragedy in all but name, living up to the superstition that bad news often comes in threes.
First up, John Ruddy cruelly had his England dream shattered (literally) cheap car rental tampa when a wayward shot in his first training session amongst the national games’ elite broke a finger. Whilst for an outfield cheap car rental tampa player this would not have been considered terminal, obviously for a goalkeeper such an injury is almost certainly disabling and it came as no surprise when Roy Hodgson opted to replace Ruddy with Birmingham City’s Jack Butland.
If this disappointment wasn’t bad enough for the club and fans alike, things were set to get considerably worse. After failing to woe Ole Gunnar Solskjær to fill their managerial void, Aston Villa turned their attention to the man in the Norwich hot seat, Paul Lambert. In a move ironically similar to his acrimonious departure from Colchester United before becoming Norwich manager, the Scotsman tendered his resignation and by the 2 nd June 2012, the Villains had formally announced Paul Lambert to be their manager.
If one couples these two bombshells with our final piece of bad luck, it is fair to see why many people believe Norwich to be a club in crisis. On the back of alleged disagreements relating to an improved contract, club talisman Grant Holt had a transfer request rejected earlier in the summer and this discontent again reared his ugly head in the aftermath of the Lambert departure with the hall of famer seemingly trying his upmost to engineer a move away from Norfolk.
All in all, this summer’s events so far are hardly what CEO David McNally would have wished for at the final whistle of the final game of the 2011-2012 season (ironically, against Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa). However, one feels that the brief for the club’s new manager is clear: the club’s Premier League foundations, if handled sensibly, are sustainable and there is every reason why the Canaries should not be able to continue their rise and build upon their twelfth placed finish in the 2012-2013 campaign.
It goes without saying that appointing a successor to Paul Lambert must be the club’s short term priority in the coming weeks. Ideally, a new manager should be in place within the next week so as to allow whoever that may be valuable thinking time as to his plans before the playing staff reconvene for pre-season at the beginning of July. Many names have been touted for the role but arguably, four personalities should only be considered:
The bookmakers favourite, Birmingham City manager Chris Hughton would be the ideal fit for the club. Having guided Newcastle cheap car rental tampa United to an immediate return to the top flight in 2009-2010, it came as a surprise when they decided to part with him after a 3-1 reverse to West Brom in December of the following season. Undeterred, Hughton was appointed by Birmingham City in June 2011 where, again, he impressed cheap car rental tampa immensely, guiding them to the group stages of the Europa League and narrowly missing out to promotion via the playoffs at the hands of Blackpool.
Hughton would fit McNally’s brief of looking for an experienced, hungry manager with top-flight cheap car rental tampa experience. cheap car rental tampa With Birmingham City imploding to an even greater cheap car rental tampa extent than Norwich, the Irishman seems destined to begin next season managing elsewhere and at the time of writing, few would bet against it being in the Carrow Road dugout.
Club stalwart Ian Culverhouse joined the club as part of Paul Lambert’s backroom staff during their defection from Colchester United. Already a club legend, many saw it as a return home for the former defender who amassed 297 appearances between 1985-1994 and indeed, it is widely held that Culverhouse has been equally responsible alongside Paul Lambert for Norwich’s success over the past three seasons.
Appointing Culverhouse would ensure maximum stability for the playing staff and while he may be keen to follow cheap car rental tampa Lambert to Birmingham, this would surely be tested if he was offered the opportunity to manage a Premier League club of his own. Ultimately however, Culverhouse narrowly misses out to Chris Hughton cheap car rental tampa on our blueprint purely because of the inevitable risk element attached to appointing a manager with no first-hand experience of the role. After the failings of Bryan Gunn, it seems probable that Norwich will err with extreme caution when considering ‘club legends’ and consequently, this will significantly count against Ian Culverhouse in the selection process.
Whilst appointing the assistant manager of Tottenham Hotspur to the managerial role of a fellow Premier League club may not be ordinarily cheap car rental tampa considered cheap car rental tampa a good move, the personal connection that the Bond family has with Norwich City would arguably make this appointment perfectly cheap car rental tampa sensible. Another past player, Bond Jr represented the Canaries between cheap car rental tampa 1974-1981, registering 142 appearances and 12 goals under the management of his father, John – considered cheap car rental tampa by many as one of the club’s greatest managers after guiding cheap car rental tampa them to the old Second Division title in 1975 and five continuous years of top-division cheap car rental tampa football before leaving to manage Manchester City in 1980.
Fast-forward thirty years and there is no reason why, at least on paper, Kevin cannot continue his father’s legacy at Carrow Road. Working alongside Harry Redknapp since 2008 at Spurs, Bond has experience of working within a Champions League team and will inevitably have developed contacts and opinions during this time which would prove invaluable if it was possible to tempt him to branch out on his own this summer. Again however, Bond misses out on the blueprint to Hughton primarily due to the risks arising from lack of top-flight managerial experience. cheap car rental tampa Minus two years at Bournemouth cheap car rental tampa between 2006-2008, Bond’s experience is limited to backroom roles – implying that, like Culverhouse, there would be a significant risk element attached to appointing him as manager.
The final possibility on the blueprint adopts a whole different approach to the other three candidates mentioned. Rather than specifically looking for an individual, David McNally may feel that a better fit would be to source a personality matching the ambitions of the club over the next decade. Whilst appointing an unproven manager would represent a significant leap of faith for all involved, if successful the rewards for the club could potentially be huge. Any appointment in this category would need time, resources and patience. If granted, a young manager would be able to harness the untapped potential of a club like Norwich and turn them into a sustained Premier League player for the foreseeable future – much like David Moyes has achieved at financially-troubled Everton during cheap car rental tampa his reign.
cheap car rental tampa Two outstanding candidates in this category deserve attention, the first being Eddie Howe of Burnley. At age 34, highly photogenic and equally ambitious, Howe would seize the opportunity to continue his managerial progression at a top-division club. After great success at Bournemouth, he has been able to continue this at Burnley where, although a mid-table finish is nothing to write home about, a win rate of 40.54% from his 74 games in charge, if continued at Norwich, would almost certainly maintain our top-division status year after year.
The second possibility could be Crystal Palace legend Dougie Freedman. Fresh from guiding the Eagles to a highly cheap car rental tampa impressive mid-table finish considering their financial limitations, Freedman’s win percentage of 32% is not quite as impressive as that of Howe but still commands significant respect within the profession. If Freedman was able to demonstrate that he was capable of maintaining Premier League football at Norwich for two seasons, we might see the best of him when he has had the opportunity to mature and develop into the role of a top division manager. Whilst all the other potential candidates on the blueprint are relatively cheap car rental tampa short term, appointing Freedman would require the club to adopt a highly long-term ideology at the top, forgoing short-term results for the bigger end-result two or perhaps even three years further on. Whether the Norwich cheap car rental tampa Board and CEO are willing to do this is unlikely at this current stage in the club’s development.
For the first time in our history, Paul Lambert’s shrewd transfer dealings over the past three seasons have ensured that the Norwich City squad is in the rudest of health. Stocked with young, hungry players (all now with Premier League experience), working and developing these players to their next level will be an attractive cheap car rental tampa proposition to any future manager.
Now the retained player list for 2012-2013 has been submitted, the only outstanding issue for a new manager to address is the future of Grant Holt and it is submitted that this will be a huge test for a new manager to overcome and will invariably set the tone for the rest of his reign at the club. The arguments for and against keeping Grant at the club are equally compelling: cheap car rental tampa on one hand we have a Norwich stalwart at the top of his game who, after scoring 14 league goals last season in his debut season, will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace. Therefore, it may make sense for a new manager to negotiate a compromise between Grant Holt and the Board of Directors to ensure that Norwich continue to profit from Grant Holt’s