City obviously took a hammering at the hands of local rivals Colchester 7-1 at the weekend, but bounced back in the week to thump League One Yeovil away in the Carling Cup 4-0 (both reports below)!
Not many managers have been sacked before after winning 4-0 I am guessing? Quite what is going on at Norwich is any one's guess? It has another ring of Delia-itus to it, something only she could cook up.
There are a few remarkable things to consider when talking of this sacking. Firstly Bryan Gunn is a Norwich City Legend, 20 years at the club as player and behind-the-scenes. We are talking a player who managed 477 first team appearences. A player who helped them finish third in the Premiership and beat Bayern Munich in Europe!
| Completed Tuesday, 11th May 1993 | Pld | Home | Away | Overall | Pts | GD | |||||||||||||||||
| W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | |||||||||
| 1 | Manchester United | 42 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 39 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 28 | 17 | 24 | 12 | 6 | 67 | 31 | 84 | +36 | ||||
| 2 | Aston Villa | 42 | 13 | 5 | 3 | 36 | 16 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 24 | 21 | 11 | 10 | 57 | 40 | 74 | +17 | ||||
| 3 | Norwich City | 42 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 31 | 19 | 8 | 3 | 10 | 30 | 46 | 21 | 9 | 12 | 61 | 65 | 72 | -4 | ||||
| 4 | Blackburn Rovers | 42 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 38 | 18 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 30 | 28 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 68 | 46 | 71 | +22 | ||||
| 5 | Queens Park Rangers | 42 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 41 | 32 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 22 | 23 | 17 | 12 | 13 | 63 | 55 | 63 | +8 | ||||
| 6 | Liverpool | 42 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 41 | 18 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 21 | 37 | 16 | 11 | 15 | 62 | 55 | 59 | +7 | ||||
Then you have to consider after taking over as caretaker Bryan Gunn was in-charge as Norwich were relegated from the Championship, taking over from Glen Roeder at the start of the year. The writing was probably on the wall when he took over. In May he was said to be unsure if he wanted the job full-time stating his love for the club, he wanted to stay for life. Norwich City convinced him to take the job on and take them back up to where they had just dropped.
When issuing a statement on the official website www.canaries.co.uk under the heading 'GUNN'S CONTRACT TERMINATED' City Chief Exec David McNally said:
"Bryan has worked tirelessly for this Football Club for more than two decades, not least since taking over team affairs back in January.
"However the Board met this week following Saturday's unacceptable record home defeat in our opening league game of the season.
"Our goal this season remains unchanged. We want to be promoted and the next manager of Norwich City will have that as his number one priority. The Board after lengthy consideration unanimously felt a change was in the best interests of all parties concerned, in order to give us the best possible chance of achieving our objectives.
"We'd like to thank Bryan for his honesty and passion for the Club, and for all he has done for us as manager and generally over the years. He has never given of anything other than his best for the Canaries and he will always be welcome at Norwich City.
"Ian Butterworth will take charge of the team for the game at Exeter, with the Board already working on identifying the right man to take the Club forward on a long-term basis."
The man had two games in charge this season and was seriously let down by his players on the opening day. What was he meant to do after his team decided they could walk League One, got the lesson of a lifetime in 20 mins worth of League One football, being 4 down? At 0-5 at half time that game was lost, then you look to the next game and see what reaction you get off your players. A resounding 4-0 win away at Yeovil showed the club, that all is not at sea. Yeovil were coming off the back of a good 2-0 home win against Tranmere the Saturday before, their confidence was high.
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Quite what Norwich are looking to achieve sacking a manager so soon into the season is anyone's guess. The Norwich board obviously believe this league is their's for the taking, like the players thought last Saturday Vs Colchester. Being so trigger happy after one league game and one 4-0 cup win. Surely if they were going to sack Bryan this should have been done on Monday, (as whatever happend against Yeovil it obviously wasn't going to change their minds) or after the Yeovil game, but not hours before what is a now very important game at Exeter on Saturday. This game was always a must win after the Colchester defeat, a win here and the ship was probably steadied. Now a pressure game has just been cranked up even higher, like the nation's media wasnt already on Canary watch!?
I have Norwich on my pre-season bet, but now, I'd be quite happy to lose that bet. That is not how you treat a man who has served your club with such dedication for two decades.
Of another club in League One with Premiership experience, i'd expect this sort of actions ... but not at Norwich. It's a bad pun but talk about jumping the gun!!