I wasn’t in favour of Gunn’s appointment in the first place, but to sack him now having just assembled his own squad, and with every other decent manager in employment, is rather strange. Especially on the eve of the first away league game of the season.

The board have been decisive, but perhaps too decisive, too early. Considering the shambolic defending and midfield display of Saturday I’m surprised the entire coaching staff have remained if the manager has been fired. Obviously someone is required to prepare the team for tomorrows game, but I’d be pretty worried if I were Messrs Butterworth and Crook. Unless the board plan on offering them the position full time…

Attracting a replacement may prove difficult with such mayhem off the field and the board seemingly having an itchy trigger finger, so I would imagine they have a name or have made contact with someone regarding taking over prior to pulling the trigger on Gunn.

Whaley (right) is a 24 year old winger signed from Preston no doubt under the obligatory ‘undisclosed fee’ price tag. He’s been a good player at Championship level for several seasons and I am pleased to see him join the ranks here at Norwich. He’s pacy, direct and knows the way to goal so good things are expected. and Stephen Hughes is a 26 year old creative midfielder and with his contract at Motherwell having expired no transfer fee is payable. He played 89 games for Rangers scoring 7 goals, before a move to Leicester where he played 100 games hitting the back of the net on eight occasions. Mark McGhee took him back north of the border to Fir Park where he appeared in 73 Motherwell matches only scoring on three occasions. So having played at the top level in Scotland and experience in England for the Foxes I think we have a good quality player, however I hope he isn’t coming here just for the bumper pay packet. Having taken several days to make up his mind over the move to the Fine City and with other offers on the table there were obviously some doubts. I’m sure he won’t emulate the last Hughes we had at Carrow Road and turn out to be a complete donkey though.

Manager Bryan Gunn explained the clubs decision for appealing: “We’ve looked at it over the weekend on replays, ITV’s The Championship and our footage. We certainly see Gary Doherty playing the ball before anything else and we are appealing on that basis.”

Hopefully the behind closed doors panel will overturn the card when they sit tomorrow in Soho Square, London.

On his return to City, Crichton said: “I am delighted to be coming back to Carrow Road. I had three great years here, ending in the Championship winning season. I didn’t play many games, but I just wanted to return – it’s a great place. The club is in a false position at present, and if I can help support the gaffer, support the goalkeepers, support the club as a whole, then I want to do so. I want the club to be back where it belongs.”

Brighton boss Micky Adams had this to say about Crichton: “I am very disappointed to lose Paul. He was a hard-working and highly-valued member of the backroom staff and he has done a fantastic job with all the goalkeepers at the club. I have no doubt he is going to be one of the top goalkeeping coaches in years to come but, after he expressed a desire to go back to Norwich for both footballing and family reasons, it was not right for us to stand in his way.

The 25 year old was signed by Roeder in July from Luton for around £600k despite being unfit with an ankle injury. City beat off competition from Wolves, Coventry and Sheffield Utd to sign one of Luton’s shining lights but he has found opportunities to showcase his skills at Carrow Road limited to just 20 appearances following his rehabilitation. Indeed he looked a quality player, making a real difference on his debut with excellent delivery of balls into the box and many would have rather seen him preferred over Lee Croft down the right.

Stories surfaced of Coventry’s interest in December, with Roeder claiming the club were trying to turn his head and unsettle him, which seems to be true. Being born in Northampton he was pleased to make his name at Rushden before a move to Luton in January 2006. Indeed perhaps until Northampton or Rushden and Diamonds are promoted into the top flight he may not settle.

He leaves with the Clubs best wishes having jumped at the chance to leave for Coventry once their bid was confirmed. I certainly hope we made a profit on him, although I won’t be holding my breath. I’m obviously disappointed as I was looking forward to Belly becoming a City hero, partially filling the void left since Huckerby’s departure. This is football though, and I guess an unhappy player in the fragile dressing room wouldn’t be the best trump to have in a relegation fight.

Obviously money now needs spending on at least one target man and a mobile tall centre half.

At last, in a superb second half performance, we had our boys back playing as we know they can in a cohesive confident team, having been released from the shackles of fear. Not since 9 April ‘05 whilst beating Man. Utd 2-0 have I felt so positively emotionally connected to the team.

Talk following the game centred around what a magnificent performance the players gave and who would be filling the managerial vacancy full time. Bryan Gunn’s name was mentioned in passing but the general consensus was that nobody wanted to put him up on the pedestal where he could fail and incur negative feelings from the City that loves him.

Then Wednesday morning a press conference is called confirming Bryan Gunn as manager at City until the end of the season, with Ian Crook joining him as coach and John Deehan taking over as Chief Scout and having an input on coaching as and when required.

I was surprised. Shocked even. We were meant to be having a new manager. Someone off the bookies list. Boothroyd, Robins, Ince, Calderwood, Hareide, I knew how I felt about each candidate. If the right one was appointed then praise the board, if a poor appointment was made then it was another stick to beat them with. But this? I initially felt cheated.

On reflection, it is an exciting time to be a Norwich City fan. Gunny has done what was needed a long time ago and put an arm around the whole squad, replacing doubt with confidence and smiles. The desire to play for the shirt and team mates is coming back. Looking forward to match days must surely return for players and fans alike.

The new management team played over 1000 games for City between them, add in potential assistant manager Ian Butterworth’s and that’s 1387 appearances for this club by four guys entrusted with saving and rebuilding it. They were playing, or assistant manager in Dixie’s case, when the Club arguably achieved it’s best success; in the inaugural Premier League season and then the following seasons UEFA Cup run. Plus it represents a player in each area of the pitch; goal, defence, midfield and up front.

Looking at the way the players’ reacted to Gunny on Saturday they approve of his appointment too. He brought a real togetherness to the dugout. Most fans seem to be concerned about the possibility of this appointment not working because Gunny is Mr Norwich City and failure is a horrendous thought. We’ve become used to abject failure and disappointment over the past three years. We now have someone in charge who knows the fans and what the Club is all about. Sure there are plenty of side issues to sort out, but we have a good enough squad to survive this season, and that’s the current requirement. So well done Norwich City board. Things have started looking up at the club since the day Jamie Cureton was recalled from loan.

There’s plenty of water to flow yet, but the bridges are being built and in Gunny, Chippy and Dixie theirs is made from solid gold.

I am sickened and I am devastated. How can something with a reasonable platform be turned around, to this kind of maelstrom in such a short period? I remember the Premier League year, ok it was criminal in a way to lose 6-0 to Fulham on the last day of the season when all that was needed was a point to stay up. However, I shall always treasure the game at Carrow Road where Man Utd lost 2-0 and Ferguson, enraged and embarrassed, locked his players in the dressing room. That was a great day. Back to reality boys!

We lost 3-0 to Plymouth. Plymouth, as my dad sarcastically joked, are a team no one like Norwich can expect to beat. They have a crazy egotistical chariman that simply throws money at the team. Ho ho, their record signing is £450,000. Much, much less than Norwich’s spending over the years.

Alienation really takes over. Glenn is supposed to be using his ‘contacts’ to bring players in to help the club. Ameobi was cited as a glorious example but I had a feeling that was always just a PR soundbite to hide behind temporarily. And so the rumour seems to have been quashed by Allardyce.

Glenn now says “he knows the kind of job it is”. For a while he can hide behind this, but most people would have known how dire things are at this club. I hope Roeder is shown some support from a board that failed to face up to the facts soon enough. Many clubs this season have seen the writing on the wall and acted far sooner than Norwich did. Burnley sacked Steve Cotterill when in 15th position. I am not advocating sacking Steve Cotterill, to us looking at tables it seems harsh, rather unfair. But there is a training ground, inter-player and manager reality to those statistics that needs to be faced. The writing was on the wall with Peter Grant long before he was sacked. The board must have known about the atmosphere at the training ground. It was stunningly obvious to all of us it was not working out, and that Peter Grant was losing the confidence of the players. His PR and people-management skills were amateurish. First he attacked the fans for booing (a scandalous episode), then Jamie Cureton for being selfish (then top scorer) and Huckerby for not defending (a match winner). All madness and general gibberish from the shining genius of Peter Grant.

I feel great sympathy for the fans that want to disrupt Peter Grant’s quiet drink in his local with all his buddies that ruined Norwich. How deep are their sorrows, and how can they ever drown them?