The only way is up

A classic sign of the times occured at the end of Saturday's game. I sat there and said to myself, "Ah well, at least we scored." Yes, after losing 3-1 at home to newly promoted Bristol City I found comfort in the fact that for the first time in over ten hours we had scored a goal. This highlights the fairly horrific state our club is in right now. And I'm not just talking about on field matters.

Not only are we languishing second from bottom of the Championship, we are without a manager, without a first team coach, without our parachute payments and we don't even have enough quality players to claim that we are 'too good to go down'. League One is looking closer than ever and we desperately need a new man to come in and shake things up. In fact, I would go as far to say the whole club needs a shake up, not only the players, if we are to move in the direction.

Let's rewind a little bit. We won the Division One title in 2004 with the successful coaching team of Nigel Worthington, Doug Livermore and Steve Foley. Since then we have got rid of all three. Peter Grant and Martin Hunter have also been and gone. During this season we had Grant and Jim Duffy dealing with first team affairs. Meaning former first team coach Hunter was never replaced. Following Grant's departure we have been left with Duffy as our manager and former Sheriff of Norwich Bryan Gunn as his assistant. It's a shambles. How has Gunn gone from 'Media man' to 'Club Liason' and to temporary 'Assistant Manager'? Just how?

I want to know who is making these decisions. Who signed John Hartson? Who decided not to replace Martin Hunter? Is it Delia? Is it Roger Munby? Is it the Turner's? Or (god forbid) is it Neil Doncaster? I have no idea and more worringly I'm not even sure who I want making these decisions about our football club.

It's not only the choices that have already been made that I am concerned about. It's the ones that need to be made in the not too distant future that really concern me. Mainly, the appointment of a new manager. Last time around we went through a process of appointing Peter Grant. That, as we know, went horribly wrong. Now just over a year later we find ourselves in the same situation again and we seem to be going through the same process again. Dave Stringer is again being consulted and I fear that someone may be able to talk themselves into the job - just like Grant did.

This certainly is a testing time for all concerned. However sometimes things do have to hit rock bottom before they can get better. That's what I'm hoping anyway. Neither the board, the coaching staff or the players can be trusted to perform at present and they owe it to the only permanent part of Norwich City Football Club - the fans - to improve things. Consistently high attendances have not been rewarded and it's now or never for that to change.

We must keep the faith though. It's a tough time for everyone connected with the club and things can't get much worse. In my opinion the appointment of a new manager is just the beginning of the changes that need to be made if we are to move forward as a football club.

City 'til I die.

Rooney.