Reality bites at Carrow Road

When this blog last reported on events at Norwich City, Canary fans were enjoying a rare bout of optimism. Peter Grant's tough, relentlessly positive approach to his new job was exactly what City supporters everywhere had been calling for: his openness and honesty being the very opposite of the tired, tactically inept, cliche ridden nonsense for which his once-successful predecessor had become notorious. Grant even presided over a clean sheet and away win in his first match in charge, leaving Norwich fans wondering whether maybe, just maybe, the last year had all just been a bad dream; and that a mere change at the top could have us surging back into contention for a return to the land of milk and honey.

Of course, unless your club happens to be Crystal Palace and Iain Dowie has just taken charge, life is rarely so simple. For subsequent events have illustrated the immensity of the task facing the new manager, as well as once more underlining the incompetence of the Canary board ever since Norwich were relegated. Fiddling while Rome burned, that they could find themselves presiding over a situation whereby, only nineteen months since the club beat Manchester United and embarked on a late, gallant attempt to avoid the drop, and with it still enjoying the privilege of parachute payments, the first team squad is so pathetically thin is an appalling indictment, both of Nigel Worthington's transfer policy and of Delia, Michael and co for sanctioning it seemingly without a second thought.

For while City's first choice XI is top six material at the very least, the lack of depth in the squad is frightening to behold. The season may still be relatively early, but statistics already tell a very clear story. Norwich were able to deploy an unchanged side which virtually picked itself in our first five league matches, and ten points were accrued; but as soon as injuries occurred to players like Darren Huckerby, Carl Robinson and Adam Drury, the team plummeted down the table, leaking a disgraceful 17 goals in six league games.

Grant was fortunate enough to have a full-strength side to select in his first two games in charge against Birmingham and Cardiff, and six points out of six immediately followed - but without Lee Croft last night, his side failed to beat Colchester in the kind of game which represents a routine home victory for any team harbouring even the slightest aspirations of challenging for promotion; and in the absence of Huckerby, Robert Earnshaw and Youssef Safri - arguably his three most important players - at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday, City collapsed to their heaviest defeat in the second flight since that day of ignominy at Portman Road in February 1998.

The facts may be simple, but they bear reiterating. When able to field our first choice side, Norwich have taken an excellent sixteen points from seven games, and conceded just four goals; but when affected by any absences at all (taking, for the sake of the argument, Huckerby's fourth-minute injury at Coventry as a game in the second category, and bearing in mind that it is as yet unclear who Grant considers to be his preferred goalkeeper), the result has been a shocking three points from eight games, and an unbelievable 23 goals lost: relegation form by any definition.

If it wasn't for the fact that, by all reports of his interviews for the job, Grant was astonishingly well-briefed on the team's strengths and weaknesses, he would surely be stupefied that a club so recently in the Premiership (and one which, remember, supposedly budgeted that year to finish bottom), could find itself in such a state: and it would be outrageous to attach any responsibility to him for it. Instead, real and searching questions need to be asked of a board who, with a spineless combination of myopia and inertia, have imperilled City's Championship future were the kind of injury crisis which bedevils many clubs each season to strike; all Grant can do is keep fingers, toes and everything else crossed that one does not.

That said though, there are a few small criticisms which can be made of his stewardship at this very early stage. The first is to remind him that, while his breathtakingly honest comments on a number of players' performances following the defeat of Cardiff were admirable, and in many ways exactly what the doctor ordered, it is still a highly risky strategy to publicly criticise individuals before he can be confident that he has them onside. When such an approach backfires, it is often more because of the attitude of a player rather than anything his manager might have done; but this observer cannot be the only Canary supporter who remembers rumours of many players celebrating when Martin O'Neill departed on that dark December morning eleven years ago. Given all that O'Neill has gone on to achieve, the joke, ultimately, was on them; but it would be a terrible pity were Grant's eventual exit to provoke a similar response.

Secondly, there may be a danger that the manager is expecting his charges to run before they can walk. At Stoke, not only was he forced by circumstances beyond his control into playing square pegs in round holes, but to judge by his thoughts afterwards, he is already demanding an ambitious combination of creative football and quickness of thought: even when considerably understrength, and adopting an alien 4-1-4-1 system with Gary Doherty in a wholly unfamiliar role shielding the back four. If he is ultimately to develop a side capable of not just getting back to the Premiership, but staying and establishing itself there, such an approach will certainly be necessary - but given the severe limitations of his current squad, shouldn't he be focusing on getting the basics right first before attempting anything more challenging?

My final point, though, is really just a nagging doubt which has peristed in my mind ever since Grant's appointment was announced. During his brief playing spell at Carrow Road, he talked a very good game: pointing, gesticulating and geeing up his colleagues on the park, and speaking confidently of his ambitions for the club off it; but in truth, even as part of a desperately poor City side, he too often completely failed to live up to his words, and few supporters were sorry to see him depart Norfolk in Summer 1998. One can only hope this does not prove an omen for his spell in the hot seat - and although it is very early days at this point, given the stark gap between publicly making immense physical and mental demands of his players, and overseeing a humiliating defeat last weekend, there are already superficial comparisons which can plainly be drawn.

Essentially, Grant is on a learning curve: which is of course inevitable, given his lack of managerial experience before taking over. What has been most encouraging has been the palpable sense that, while learning the ropes at Bournemouth and West Ham, he was literally grooming himself for this position: not least because it represents far and away his best opportunity of one day walking through the Parkhead doors in his dream job as manager of Celtic. In his highly refreshing approach thus far, he has already demonstrated that he will leave no stone unturned in his quest to lead the club back to success, and it will be fascinating to see how he gets on - but the reality is that, given the paucity of resources he has to play with, he is in much the same position as Worthington was on his appointment almost six years ago.

Barring a miracle occurring between now and May, at least two out of three of Huckerby, Earnshaw and Safri will surely depart by the summer; and with the parachute payments running out, Grant will be forced to totally rebuild the side. In truth, given all we've seen so far this season, this is really no bad thing: but the club finds itself back at square one, and it will take some considerable time, and require a great deal of patience and frustration on the part of the supporters, for it to begin to contend once more.