"Absolutely nothing" at all? Whilst I apppreciate you don't rate him and have some serious misgivings about his appointment and his abilities to get us out of this division, I do find you saying you've seen "absolutely nothing to suggest he knows what he's doing" a little bit extreme if I'm being honest, particularly as it wasn't until the very end of his reign that you came round to admitting Hootun wasn't the right man. It wasn't long ago at all that we were perched at the top of the league after a win at Portlaoo Road, clear title favourites with bookies and pundits after an eight-match unbeaten run - did nothing about that make you question your initial opinion and perhaps think he might do ok after all? I know this is entirely irrelevant to his abilities as a manager, but I wonder if the fact you've never listened to Canary Call may be part of the reason you have such a strong negative view of Adams and seem unable to give him more time to settle into the role and prove himself? Lots of us have listened to Canary Call for years will remember listening to Neil as the summariser and would have identified that he talked a lot of sense, came across as very knowledgeable of both the game and the club and made some very informative comments and suggestions that made him come across as very tactically astute? I totally, 100% agree that these are not neccessarily ingredients of a successful manager, but it may explain why some of us who had built up and affinity with Neil Adams are (rightly or wrongly, I accept this might well be wrongly) perhaps a bit more prepared to cut him some slack and be more patient with him than someone who hadn't enjoyed listening to his outlook on football over the years on Canary Call. Just a thought
Fair play you did but even you will have to admit it was something of a provocative back-hander which got a reaction (no doubt you weren't being deliberate nor were you looking for a reaction)
Good points raised there, Munky. I stopped listening, not because of whoever hosted the programme, but some of the pond life that used to ring in - many of whom had clearly listened on the radio or watched the scores unfold on ceefax () Biggest blow about relegation, for me, is not automatically getting decent quality streams to each game, whether in the pub or at home. No need for Canary Call if you've watched the game yourself, surely? But he was good in dealing with points raised, valid or otherwise and as such is clearly no dunce. If only he could translate those 'people' skills to the squad at his disposal we'd be onwards and upwards again pretty damned soon. Welcome aboard Mr Phelan
Hi bors, as any old countryman knows, hitching two horses to a plough calls for harmony between the horses if they are to plough a straight furrow, hopefully with the arrival of MP to assist NA we can now resume a straight course to the Premier League. The board are to be congratulated on acting to arrest our recent loss of form, they received criticism last season for failing their duty and have obviously learnt the lesson of dealing with procrastination. May I say welcome back to Carrow Road Mike, there is a lot riding on yours and NA's shoulders; hopefully normal service will resume this Saturday reinstating Fortress Carrow against the Seagulls; we have dropped far too many valuable points at home. The home fans have a valuable part to play if our season is to be a success. There is no harm in constructive criticism but far better for the team if the fans get behind them and encourage them even when their efforts are not producing the results we all crave for.
Whilst speculation is natural as to why Phelan hasn't been given a Managerial position since leaving Utd, it's not so clear cut that there aren't very good reasons for him to continue as a coach for now. Putting myself in his shoes, if I was one of the best coaches out there and wanted to take on a club on the up in the Championship or Premiership, I don't think I'd like the look of many of my choices.... Do I want to manage Palace after Pulis walked away? Do I want to manage Stoke after Pulis left them? There are not so many 'top jobs' around and the ones that do come up often tend to have fairly obvious candidates who then pick them up. In the Championship it's even more of a lottery, as most clubs finances aren't great and don't look like great bets to be anything other than a yo-yo club. So if the really good managerial jobs don't come up I would be asking myself where to go for a great Assistant's job. Trying to be objective I think Norwich have the potential to shortly establish themselves in the Premiership (I.e. 8 seasons out of 10 or something). They are also in an excellent financial position with a very realistic and supportive board. Not many of them about... The guess I would make is that Phelan is going to be a very very important figure, a whisker behind NA in many respects, but quite possibly ahead of him in others. NA for example might choose who gets on the team sheet, but MP could dictate tactics, formations etc. In many ways he could be more influential than NA. Not many of those Assistant roles about... Anyway - on a selfish level I feel very very positive again about this and upcoming seasons. Not felt like that since Hughton kept us up in his first season in charge. If nothing else it brings us all together again. Not a single fan is going to be against this appointment surely?
I'm sure that is the case and it's a fine idea, but for Phelan to get a shot Adams has to fail and as I say then he has failed. If adams doesn't fail, where else could he go? Poached by the big boys??? Adams is likely to be here for only a few months or years to come, I can't see Phelan having years as No2 to Adams, so how can he be a shoe in or certain if the only way the oportunity to become manager is in the event of failure? Could the board really say, and you'll definitely be our next manager within X timescale? take Christmas for example. We're languishing in 11th place and things haven't really kicked on from phelan's arrival. As a board what would you do? If you admit your mistake in appointing a man with little experience at the top leave alone as a manager, fine you and I would certaintly agree it was a mistake in the first place, but do you compound that mistake by hiring a man who's influence didn't turn things around and also has no frontline managerial experience? Or appoint someone who has done the job? I'd want to see the board do the later (Again assuming they have failed, I bloomin well hope not!) In the summer I would have said Phelan was a risk worth taking, and certainly ahead of Adams, but surely back to back inexperienced managers would be crazy. Bah!
If he has any faith in his ability then 2/3 of the championship clibs should have appealed to him, it's not only ridiculously open but also the best way of getting truely noticed. Turn around readings fortunes for example and then the next panicky PL club might come knocking. Surely any Championship managerial position except probably Leeds would be better than being a number 2 if he wants to be a number 1! He has experience at 2 in spades, so surely it's his lack of no 1 experience that precludes him from the jobs he really wants as a no 1. Best he gets that experience! All that said, again I'm very happy to have him aboard the good ship Canary and hope it kicks us on and back to the PL. Bah!
Adams seems pleased that MP is here: 'He was really keen to come in. Hopefully it will be a really successful era. In terms of the calibre of coach we`re bringing in, we`re really delighted with what we`ve got.' "The experience he has with the clubs he`s worked at, particularly his last club Manchester United - he`s seen virtually everything you need to have seen, albeit at a higher level. "He`s vastly experienced, and working with Sir Alex Ferguson for a number of years, he will have picked up countless bits of information, little titbits, that will stand him and us well ongoing. "It`s obviously a club he knows well, he was captain here for a while. It`s a great coup for us that he`s agreed to join us."
i was both pleased and surprised by our start this season. pleased because we didn’t really seem to be playing well but were still winning games and surprised because i thought we’d struggle to adapt to the championship, with two games a week for the first time in three years. however, nobody is going to tell me that there weren’t major issues during those opening weeks of the season. strange team selections, many players out of position unnecessarily, constantly falling one or even two goals behind before we began playing. our defending was naive, which i can live with if we are scoring plenty of goals (which we were), but these were issues that needed addressing and STILL haven’t been. if anything, we played in second gear for the opening 8 games and since then we’ve slipped back into neutral. we’ve got some really talented footballers here, especially at this level - we will win games and score goals regardless of who is in charge because sometimes their individual ability will come to the fore. adams has done, at best, the bare minimum required this season. that isn’t going to be good enough unless he learns and learns damn fast from his mistakes. hopefully phelan coming in will be a boost to the players and to him - experience was always going to be crucial this season and FINALLY we have some on board. it's been a big disappointment that once adams was given the role (and royle left), he was not given suitable help, so let’s see how it goes. as for your part about canary call, having a good understanding of the game does not mean he’s a good manager, or good with players or tactically astute. neither does sounding informative on the wireless mean you will be a complete disaster - as you say, its an irrelevance in this debate. graham taylor for instance is a wonderful radio pundit - bet you wouldn’t want him in charge though.
Adams on Robson's departure (briefly) and Phelan's appointment: https://audioboom.com/boos/2668560-neil-adams-on-robson-and-phelan
I didn't hear you making such criticisms of us under Hootun though, despite them being prevalent for much of his reign - and back then we most definitely weren't scoring goals. I appreciate our squad is much stronger in relation to our opposition this season, however Adams has only had a few months in charge and your Hootun mantra of "patience" appears to have gone out the window. You say he isn't learning, but did Hootun? He persisted in playing inverted wingers which made us the most predictable team to play against in the league - as results ultimately showed - but I don't recall you criticising him for it or saying that he wasn't learning from mistakes. And as for your final paragraph, I never once suggested that being a good pundit or knowledgeable of the game makes a good manager because that's clearly no guarantee at all. My point was merely suggesting that perhaps the reason so many of us are prepared to be patient and cut him some slack is because we'd built up an affinity with him as a pundit, found him incredibly likeable which may well have skewed our judgement of his actual abilities. I admitted the fault in this is likely to be with those of us who fall under that description, and we should all be judging him on results and performances rather than any pre-conceived opinion
you allude to it above, but the enormous gulf in what is realistic between last season and this prevails here. we may have no right to be promoted this season, but we damn well SHOULD be promoted with the players we have and the quality in depth. at the start of last season i felt we'd be in a relegation battle and would be one of the weakest five teams in the league - much as i said the previous two seasons, though expectations on my behalf were exceeded. survival would be a massive success. so it bore out that we were relegated. early last season it appeared he had adjusted his style and ours, though this proved to be a fleeting glimpse of 'what could have been' due to injuries and mistakes from the former newcastle boss. our continued dismal ineffectiveness led myself, and i'm sure just about every norwich fan to call for hughton's head last christmas. i most certainly did critique the inverted wingers, though i also balanced that by saying calls for snodgrass to be switched wing were pointless as he plays his best football as an inverted winger and as far as i'm concerned, despite being frustrating, he was our best player last season. none of which is relevant to the adams debate. this league is a different beast. this season failing is not really an option - promotion is the be-all, end-all unless we want to lose a raft of players and more importantly, miss out on the best chance we'll ever have of reestablishing ourselves quickly as a premier league club, combined with a sound financial footing. we have, in my eyes and those of most people, one of, if not the best squad this division has to offer. we are however hampered, severely, by our choice of management team. whether phelan can make an impact remains to be seen but at least its a step in the right direction in terms of adding experience to the backroom staff. apologies for misunderstanding your final point. perhaps you have a point, but why should being 'likeable' have any impact on how we judge him? wasn't that what everyone was moaning about with hughton. nice bloke and all that, but... i'm more annoyed at the board for taking this gamble at a time the club is in a position of strength. it was unnecessary and has put us in an inferior position to where we should be. adams has no time to learn the ropes, but time is exactly what he'll need if he's to have any chance of being a manager. so why put him in this position? it baffles me. it was the wrong time to give him a try. i said at the time, had we been relegated three years ago and failed to bounce back then by all means, lets see what he can do. but we are in serious danger of blowing this season and therefore undo much of the hard work put in place. relegation, as it always is, was a blow, but could have been a stepping stone to better things. we've taken some of the stones away, making it more difficult to cross.
There's no FA Youth Cup on there though.... Phelan's appointment has come from 1 of 2 sources for me. Either Adams felt his coaching team needed a shake-up and went and got the best man he could, or McNally felt things weren't up to scratch. It's highly unlikely Robson has left for his own benefit. Whether it's Adams trying to be better, or McNally trying to force him to be, at least the club aren't being complacent. I think Phelan's a great appointment, he brings bags of experience and if he can influence Ferguson's thinking, he should have no problem getting Adams to take things on board. Equally Adams has the respect of Gary Holt, who was a manager in his own right before rejoining us (granted not a massive career), so working with Phelan hopefully isn't a recipe for disaster. As Supers mentioned briefly, I think this is a significant move in terms of getting managerial continuity at the club, something McNally mentioned when Adams took over. McNally is clearly dissatisfied with the situation most clubs have where teams lurch between playing styles, with often significant turnover of players, every time the manager changes. He'd rather we had an identity as a club and brought players through the academy to fit that ethos, with any managerial changes chosen in keeping with that, and an internal candidate fits that well. Adams started that off from the youth team, and is now trying to shape the first team in the same manner. Unfortunately I think part of our current issues are because his U18's playing style works well when you're the underdog, less well when you're expected to dominate games. That said, I think Phelan dovetails quite well with that. "His" United made heavy use of wingers like Adam's U18's, but equally they had to break down stubborn opposition frequently. Hopefully this'll lead to improvements anyway. If personalities don't clash, who could argue replacing Robson with Phelan is anything but a positive move?
A rather amusing clip of Phelan during his time in the dug-out with Fergie, maybe this is what NA and the team need http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/spor...dugout_presence_neil_adams_is_after_1_3855799
I remember the keen disappointment when el mustachio Phelan was lured to Man Utd and how gutted I was as a lad. I'm equally very pleased that he's back. He was steel in the middle of the park and got us ticking. When he left, there was not the same desire in the centre of the park. Hoping he brings the fibre back to the backbone. I'm not bothered by how his relationship wi NA will work out as long as it brings a bit more balls on the pitch. OTCB and welcome back
