IN fairness to Glenn Roeder he was at pains to not to point a finger at his immediate predecessor after the Canaries, finally, secured their place in the Championship next season.
He was sure, said Roeder after Saturday's 3-0 win against QPR, that Peter Grant would be delighted that City had avoided the drop.
No-one held too many grudges against Grant but when it comes to this stage of the season it is inevitable that one or two questions are asked of the man Roeder succeeded with the Norfolk club well and truly rooted to the bottom rung of the Championship.
Because decent man as he was, there is an inescapable truth that Grant simply couldn't get this management thing to work.
Good teams, even mid-table teams, have a certain chemistry at work within a dressing room that puts points on the board; even when teams aren't playing well.
And part of that chemistry comes from players believing in what you, as the manager, are doing and in those players believing in the players that you bring in.
And so as the likes of Youssef Safri and Dickson Etuhu walked out of the door, the rest of the dressing room looked for the manager to fill those gaps.
In part, he succeeded. You can put a big tick alongside the box of David Marshall, Darel Russell and Jamie Cureton.
Where it all went horribly wrong was with the likes of Julien Brellier, David Strihavka Chris Brown and Ian Murray.
Somewhere in that mix Grant needed to find both a solid defensive platform and a regular supply of goals.
He found neither; nor the kind of dressing room spirit that can paper over some of the more alarming cracks.
In the end, it got to QPR away and the whole thing was dead in the water.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man and cometh the contacts book.
In came Ched Evans from Manchester City, Ryan Bertrand from Chelsea and as faith and belief were restored, so the Canaries started to dig themselves out a hole.
Management in the Championship is basically everything.
It's not about money.
It's about what Roeder can do that Grant can't – and that's speak to Sven-Goran Eriksson on a regular basis.
And having got through to him on the phone, actually get a decent player out of Eastlands – one whose ten goals from 19 starts all but saved Norwich's bacon.
And that's the difference. Evans versus David Strihavka; Bertrand versus Murray.
It's a simple game, football. Get better players, you'll get better results. End of.
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