Alex Neil is out of his depth, but has no armbands

It’s a widely accepted fact outside Norfolk that Alex Neil is struggling. Fans wait with baited breath each Saturday to see what monstrosity will appear on the next team sheet. Only outside the relegation zone on goal difference, and with some fans calling for his head, things are not looking great for Neil.

It is all rather reminiscent of another Neil, isn’t it? The Neil in question, Neil Adams, the predecessor of the current Neil. A Norwich side that should’ve been walking the Championship was underperforming. One win in seven was not the form of a team chasing promotion. David McNally knew something had to be done, with a manager with little experience beginning to lose it. Sacking him wasn’t something that it seemed McNally would do, considering how long it’s taken him to sack people before. He did something logical. If you have someone with little experience, get them someone with more to help them. He employed former player and Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant, Mike Phelan. In the next seven league matches, Norwich went on to losing only twice in their next seven and had a winning Phelan (sorry). Of course, Neil Adams would go on to resign after losing to Preston, which would signal the start of the Alex Neil era.

Now, over a year on, Neil has taken us to Wembley, the Premier League and victory at Old Trafford. But the roller coaster is slowing down, with most fans going into matches expecting defeat, and victory is a happy accident. A man with his only experience of the Premier League being this season looks like he can’t save us on his own.

However, Neil doesn’t have much help. His backroom staff of Gary Holt and Frankie McAvoy isn’t exactly Pat Rice and Roberto Di Matteo. Holt has managerial experience only in the second tier of Scottish football with Falkirk, and Frankie McAvoy’s best remembered Norwich moment was shouting profanities at Jurgen Klopp.

With such poor calibre of coaches, Neil doesn’t have someone to look over his shoulder at the team sheet and say ‘Are you sure about that?’. When he is stood on the touchline, nobody can whisper in his ear ‘Don’t you think we should make some changes?’ Neil needs someone who isn’t disillusioned with the quality of Gary O’Neil, and someone who has never tried to play Steven Whittaker on the right-wing.

Norwich may not be able to sign players to save their season, but nobody said anything about coaches.