Liam Manning situation - "how football is nowadays" casts Norwich City future into doubt | OneFootball

Liam Manning's reign at Norwich City has been a slow burner thus far

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Liam Manning's tenure as Norwich City head coach has got off to an extremely sluggish start, with pressure already coming the 39-year-old's way.

The Canaries' boss was handed a four-year contract after taking the reins of his hometown club back in June, with the hope that he could translate his prior form in charge of Championship rivals Bristol City into further success at Carrow Road.

Norwich have developed a reputation for being a side expected to challenge at the very top of the second tier in recent times, given their previous two title-winning seasons in the past six years and the expectation that comes with being former Premier League regulars.

However, Manning is yet to showcase such promises in the opening two months of his reign in East Anglia, with City among a cluster of sides sitting above Sheffield United in the bottom six places of the second tier, albeit the overall standings remain very congested at present.

Norwich's recent woes, particularly on home turf, were only added to on Wednesday night as they fell to a 1-0 defeat against West Bromwich Albion at Carrow Road courtesy of Josh Maja's 20th-minute strike.

Therefore, with the homegrown boss still winless and pointless in Norfolk, ahead of Sunday's hotly-anticipated East Anglian derby against Ipswich Town at Portman Road, Football League World asked our Norwich fan pundit, Zeke Downes, whether Manning is the right man to take the Canaries forward or not.

Despite being well aware of his team's struggles in the opening eight games, with their two victories against Portsmouth and Blackburn Rovers coming away from home, Downes has urged the hierarchy to allow Manning the time to turn the club's fortunes around, whilst also questioning the players' approach to games.

"This is a difficult one to answer, because, with how football is nowadays, something can change instantly," Downes stated. "There's not as much patience in the modern game. You could have one bad result and lose your job or the fans start to call for the sack.

"But, it can also happen the other way. If we beat Ipswich at the weekend - which is obviously unlikely - then that could be what kickstarts Manning's career at Norwich. And then, all the fans would look at it in a slightly different way.

"It's all about perspective," he added. "There's a lack of patience in modern football, which is down to a number of things. But, I don't know whether Manning is the man or if he isn't. It's quite hard to judge at this point.

"I know the players aren't doing enough," Downes claimed. "But, I think there's enough quality there do be doing better than we are, and I want to see a little bit more.

"I don't know whether that's completely down to the players, the manager or whether (Ben) Knapper has made the wrong choice in Manning or the players (we've signed).

"It's a difficult stage at this point. I know there's a lot of apathy in the fanbase, and we expect to be doing a lot better than we are. That might still happen under Manning.

"We could look back at this in a month and go: 'we had nothing to worry about', or we could still be looking at it in the same way of: 'we need to make another change'.

"This whole squad has been built for Manning," our fan pundit explained. "There's been a lot of change, a lot of money being spent and it does take time. Nothing in this sport is instant.

"It's quite hard - as a fan - to take that. But, sometimes you've just got to wait. It's impossible to know if Manning's the right man or not."

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Whilst supporters and clubs continue to call for patience, the 'results business' nature of modern football means that owners are less likely to hand managers and head coaches the ample time to turn the tide.

As our fan pundit highlighted, there has been plenty of change at Norwich in terms of the playing squad in Manning's first pre-season, although he was able to retain the services of American forward, Josh Sargent, who has already scored half of the club's 10 goals thus far.

After the recent home defeat to Wrexham, some sections of supporters placed the main portion of blame on Knapper's shoulders rather than Manning, but the previously highly-rated head coach has since borne the brunt of further frustrations.

The Canaries may be just two points above the relegation zone heading into this weekend's round of fixtures, yet they are only five points behind the play-off places at such an early stage of the season, meaning two or three positive results give a whole new perspective on developments.

After only showing flashes of what can be possible this season, Manning will hope to enter the international break on a high by continuing City's unbeaten run against the Tractor Boys, which stretches back 14 encounters from November 2010 onwards.