Alex Neil: bringer of hope (latest blog)

[Daniel Brigham 0]

The search for a new manager has become the highlight of the season

for most teams. Norwich''s bold decision to go with a young, ambitious

manager over a safe pair of hands suggests there are more highs to come.

By Daniel BrighamI’m not sure when it happened, but it seems Wikipedia has become man’s new best friend. Sorry

dogs. You might have cute puppy eyes and cause amusement when you bark

at your own farts, but when it comes to imparting knowledge about

prospective Norwich City managers you are next to useless. And

so it came to pass on January 7th that we took to our faithful Wikipedia

and typed ‘Alex Neil’ into its search. Of course, unlike dogs,

Wikipedia isn’t always trustworthy. Six in 10 entries contain incorrect

information. The site once accused American talkshow host Conan O’Brien

of assaulting sea turtles while canoeing. It also claimed that Alan

Titchmarsh released his very own version of the Kama Sutra (disturbingly

believable).The bio on Neil was minimal but apparently

trustworthy. Hamilton Academical manager. Got them promoted. Played a

bit in England. Young. It was only a molehill of information but

throughout the day facts, quotes, stats, first- and second-hand accounts

were uncovered and shared like a joint at a stoner party. Before long

that molehill had risen to become a pyramid and within hours we had come

to know all about a man most of us won’t even have heard of at the

start of the day. Norfolk buzzed with gossip, assessment and

snap judgements. The forums, often ghost towns on weekday afternoons,

were teeming with life. Radio Norfolk hosted a special Canary Call.

Twitter turned into a cattle market of opinions about Neil, ranging from

soggy to half-baked to fully-formed. Even the win over Ipswich

in August didn’t garner this much attention and interaction. Nor did

losing 4-0 to Middlesbrough, or Neil Adams resigning. Which perhaps

means that, with so much information readily available and the means to

exchange opinions so immediate, the announcement of a new manager has

become, for most teams in the football league, the highlight of a

season. Unless you support Chelsea or either of the Manchester

sides, we all know that most seasons end in disappointment, the nine

months of toil occasionally punctuated by little white highs. Most fans

have accepted this, and learn to cherish such rare moments (while

simultaneously spending most of every season moaning, despite knowing

the reality. The joy of football has always relied on the suspension of

common sense).Like the January transfer window, the

ever-increasing managerial turnover isn’t something football should be

proud of, but it does at least provide a break from the norm. There is

something new to talk about, something to argue over, something that

demands Strong Opinions. If your team is destined for mid-table or a

relegation scrap then the search for a new manager provides a jolt that

awakens fans from their slumbers, going through the Saturday-to-Saturday

motions of watching your side scrape to wins, draws and defeats. A

new manager also brings the allure of the unknown. Like a first date,

we have no way of telling how it’s going to go. Actually, that’s not

necessarily true. We all know it will, at some point, come to an end.

But, before it does, we don’t know if the relationship will be one of

montages of riding tandem bicycles and skipping along beaches (Paul

Lambert) or one of crying, moaning and being forced to watch Strictly

Come Dancing (Glenn Roeder). In rare cases, it doesn’t end

badly. Neil left Hamilton with the blessing of its board, its players

and its fans. It was genuinely uplifting to see the reaction to his

departure north of the border, where he was cast as a Braveheart heading

off in search of new battles.  Now Norwich have the chance to

get to know Neil the way Hamilton did. As with Lambert, we have an

opportunity to embrace a recently-discovered manager, to create a

mentality throughout the club that we’re at the start of something

special, led by someone below the national media’s radar – someone who

can become one of our own. Although we had this to some degree with Neil

Adams, he always felt more like a kindly old uncle who’d been living in

an annex for most of the last decade until someone let him take control

of the main house. Neil feels like an entirely fresh start. This

sense of a heady new beginning wouldn’t have been attainable with the

likes of Neil Warnock or Mick McCarthy. Many Norwich fans wanted an

experienced manager, one with a record of getting sides promoted from

the Championship. There’s a strong logic to that, but for these

meat-and-potato managers, legacy no longer belongs in their thinking –

they are short-term, short-sighted fixes.This doesn’t

necessarily mean that Warnock wouldn’t have got Norwich promoted; there

are no right or wrong answers when it comes to management – after all,

the young, ambitious Eddie Howe and the safe-pair-of-hands McCarthy are

both doing equally excellent jobs at their clubs at the top of the

table. But credit has to be given to the Norwich board – or, as seems

more likely, David McNally – for thinking long-term when the temptation

must have been to go for a quick fix. Choosing a young, progressive

manager is a far healthier approach than standing beside the managerial

merry-go-round and picking up the latest old-stager to fall off it,

dusting him off and making him go again.It is important now that

the buzz isn’t allowed to dissipate, to become a fuzzy memory of the

day when swapping one Neil for another promised so much. The trick for

Alex Neil now is to make sure that the days that followed his

appointment don’t remain the highlight of Norwich’s season. After all, come the end of May, wouldn’t it be nice for Neil’s Wikipedia page to include promotion to the Premier League? Daniel Brigham is a freelance sports journalist and editor. He tweets at @dan_brigham

[im spartacus canary 0]

as always a well written peice DB, No other replies ? which is a bit odd when you see some of the drivel filled threads which go on for several pages [:D]

[Bill 1,788]

but he hasn''t mentioned anything about how many players should go on top, (or down the side and even round the back)where is the attack on the club because Pig Breeders weekly sports columnist has claimed that we are selling Hooper to Crystal Palace ?or sky football''s claim that Chris Barton is set to rejoin Norwich County after newly appointed manager Alexander''O''Neil has made an offer to Derby N''Joan Country?and if you can write all that stuff without a single mention of Hughton or Lambert either, then you cannot wonder why no one on here has repliedknow your audience

[(Northern) Irish Canary 48]

Thanks, enjoyed that.

I''m with the gang in thinking this is a "long-term appointment", yet Neil is only on a one-year rolling contract. Is that standard practice when appointing a manager that is hoped to be for the long-haul?

[Monty13 2,796]

Good read as usual Daniel.

[Dubai Mark 0]

I enjoyed that, thanks for again taking the time to write

[im spartacus canary 0]

[quote user="City1st"]but he hasn''t mentioned anything about how many players should go on top, (or down the side and even round the back)where is the attack on the club because Pig Breeders weekly sports columnist has claimed that we are selling Hooper to Crystal Palace ?or sky football''s claim that Chris Barton is set to rejoin Norwich County after newly appointed manager Alexander''O''Neil has made an offer to Derby N''Joan Country?and if you can write all that stuff without a single mention of Hughton or Lambert either, then you cannot wonder why no one on here has repliedknow your audience

[/quote][:D]