I remember once seeing an interview with Denis Law on his time at Man Utd. When asked about former United manager Frank O’Farrell, Law paused before saying, “Well….he came and went”. O’Farrell only lasted just over a year between 1971-72. United had a honeymoon period before a major decline saw them drop into the relegation zone. After a humiliating defeat at struggling Crystal Palace, and their star player causing disruption, O’Farrell got the bullet. The following season, United went down.

Okay, it’s a tenuous link but to me there is one major connection involved. In the same way United’s boss arrived and departed, here at Norwich I’m asking, “Who was Peter Grant?”. Often on here, I’ve talked about Grant without nailing my colours to the mast. He wasn’t my choice as manager but neither was Hamilton and neither was Worthington. The former was an outright failure and the latter (initially) a big success. Based on those two appointments, Grant could have gone either way, and therefore at least until the last week, I kept an open mind.  He would either be brilliant or would sink like a stone.

In the end, Grant’s failure matched that of Hamilton’s. History will look on this twelve month period at the club as a strange footnote. Grant seemed to come from nowhere, albeit with a decent record as a coach, but was a bit of mystery nonetheless. None of my non-supporting Norwich friends knew who he was, and they know their football pretty well.   It didn’t make a lot of news in the press - not that Norwich normally do make the headlines, but even Worthington’s departure made bigger noises than Grant’s arrival. More than once did I get the response, “Peter who?” even from our own supporters.  Even his departure didn't really make waves outside Norfolk.  Its like nobody seemed to know he was here.

He made the right noises about playing attitudes and then some seriously wrong ones about the fans. The results came good in the early stages and then fell away soon after. The dead wood was cleared but replaced by more dead wood (Julian Brellier - come on down!). The crowds threatened to fall but rallied and remained the same. The board just ambled along like they always do, and bingo! One year on and we were in just the same mess as when Worthington left. October arrives with Loftus Road again, and suddenly there’s a major vacancy to fill.

Its almost as if the last year didn’t happen. We all fell asleep, waking up to find it was Groundhog Day and nothing had changed. When people look back many years from now at this odd time in our history, they’ll see this twelve month period, look slightly bewildered and say, “That was a funny year. We had some bloke called Grant in charge. Shouted a lot, didn’t do much, and left quite quickly. Never understood how we found him and never understood what he was trying to do. “

“He just sort of came and went…”.