TAKE: The Search for the Truth | OneFootball

Well.

47 games – 14 wins, 14 draws, 19 losses – and done. From an opening 2-0 defeat at Oxford United from which they never really recovered, the Danish duo of Johannes Hoff Thorup and Glen Riddersholm have been unceremoniously chased out of Norfolk.

An open and shut case? With one win in ten (and six losses), this was clearly a sackable run of form that has left us all rather thankful there’s not an additional five games to the season. No manager would recover from that. Right?

Well. There are still lots of unanswered questions. Oh, yes, there are many.

Shall we look try and find some in this select committee, mister congressman? Shall we cross examine? Drink driving arrests? Downing tools? Fines for being late? Gunnersaurus on the grassy knoll? Unexpectedly bailing on long term projects?

Buckle in everyone, for the search for answers will be difficult. These are questions we may never really know the final answers, questions that might make us fall down the path of exposing Oliver Stone-ian levels of conspiracy, questions that require long paragraphs of text with desperately few full stops.

Let’s roll back the tape.

Question One – Was the sacking justified on form or style of football?

Norwich City have been on a horrific run of form. Since beating Stoke on 22 February in a comfortable and dominant victory that hinted at something to potentially come, if the final pieces of the puzzle clicked into place, the Championship instead chewed us up and spat us out. The away losses, in particular, coupled with a nasty combination of dreadful defending and a collective shrug from some players (more on that in a minute) laid waste to an already fragile play-off push. Comparatively, this was no more exceptional run of poor form causing managers to lose their jobs than practically all others: Tony Mowbray was sacked after five wins in his 18 games. JHT: four in 18 from the day Mowbray was rehired.

In the “this is a transitional season” stakes, where style tends to be more important than substance, things were a smidge better. Good attacking football sometimes appeared in fits and starts, namely in the aforementioned Stoke game, but defending and playing out from the back caused more problems than benefits it brought. – and that has been a problem since the very start of the season, and not just the recent run of results.

So, on paper at least, this looks like a slam dunk. A clearly justified sacking in the world of modern football. Well, it would be if it wasn’t for the next question…

Question Two – This was a “project” wasn’t it? Surely JHT had more time?

Everyone, well practically everyone if you exclude that shouty bloke who sits near you in the River End, had bought into the idea of the project. The blueprint, after all, had already been proven. Obscure manager hired from trendy football nation, strange season as everything gets shaken up, get rid of dead wood, bring in obscure German second division players, profit.

So it is here where the main surprise for Norwich fans comes from. Notwithstanding we have never really been a firing club until things get really hot, we all also knew that a play-off shot was going to come down to luck and a fully fit squad this year unless JHT really got things to click. No matter. The test is next season.

Except it now never will be.

Picking back through communications from the club about whether or not this was indeed a Farkeber-style “five year plan” is an arduous task that I frankly can’t be bothered to do, but it seems that everyone assumed this was the case – except for the board. JHT has subsequently said that he never really thought the play offs were a target, which is baffling when in any business you’d expect your short term objectives to be relayed to the most important people at managerial level. This is something of a worry when, also JHT clearly caught out when questioned on Zoe Webber’s programme notes regarding the play-offs by Chris Goreham. Make no mistake. Such lapses away from consistent PR messaging are extremely rare at modern football clubs (and indeed all modern organisations), and it paints a slightly worrying picture of disjointedness or breakdown of communication between him and the board.

Far be it from me to pass judgement on those who are clearly the among the most skilled in their professional field, but if I were on a basic salary of £1.5m p/a plus extravagant bonuses I’d like to think I’d try and justify that remuneration and repay the faith in those giving it to me. On top of that, I’d like to think it’d turn up to work on time if my employer still gave me a chance after I was found guilty for drink driving and lost my license. But there we are.

Question Three – Is Wilshere a shoo-in?

There is definitely something distasteful about becoming “Jack Wilshere’s Norwich City”. Something that we already seem to had become before he took his seat in the dugout for the first time. In fact, the more you think about it, this sobriquet is nothing so extreme as to be outright repulsive. The idea that a bunch of distinguished players, whose careers were at clubs that have nothing to do with the clubs that they are managing, suddenly make the national media sit up and take notice of the “lower divisions” for the first time ages always sticks in the craw. It is a fate that we have, fortunately, and despite a dogged Frank Lampard giving us the old palm reading routine a few years ago, dodged such a tag so far in our history.

But here we are, bookies favourite, JHT’s favourite and Ben Knapper’s mate. The job is his isn’t it?

Question Four – Did the (senior) players force the sacking?

This is the biggest question of the lot. We will never know the full answer – unless Onel gets out his little half-moon reading glasses, notebook and fountain pen and writes a tell-all memoir.

The way some of the players have played since that Stoke game has been utter shit. Not just in a “well what about the players” reactionary way, but in a properly awful way that makes you wonder if a toddler has picked up the PlayStation controller to play FIFA.

Say what you want about Grant Hanley, but at least he had standards.

It is, of course, part of the manager’s job to man-manage. It is probably the second most important thing about being a football manager after pinning the teamsheet to the noticeboard. But, and far be it from me to pass judgement on those who are clearly the among the most skilled in their professional field, but I’d like to think I’d try and repay the faith in those giving it to me despite what I thought of my manager. On top of that, I’d like to think I’d turn up to work on time if my employer still gave me a chance after I was found guilty of drink driving and lost my license. But there we are.

Once more, we head into the unknown.