Norwich City urged to avoid appointing Celtic man - it's 'definitely not the right fit' | OneFootball

Mark Fotheringham has been linked with the current vacancy at Carrow Road

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…

Norwich City are facing up to yet another crucial decision, with the Norfolk club hoping to make a swift conclusion to their latest managerial search.

Such developments follow on from the rather unsurprising developments which saw Liam Manning handed his P45 by the Canaries hierarchy on Saturday night, with a 2-1 defeat to Leicester City earlier in the day only continuing what had been a dire three months in charge for the 40-year-old.

Despite harbouring ambitions of an eventual return to the Premier League for the first time since the 2021/22 campaign, City are currently looking over their shoulders if anything, with an accumulation of just nine points across the opening 15 Championship games only increasing fears of an unwanted return to League One for the first time since 2009/10, which sparked a run of back-to-back promotions under Paul Lambert.

Despite the precarious position which the Yellows currently find themselves in, Mark Attanasio and under-fire sporting director, Ben Knapper, aren't said to be short of targets as the club hopes to have installed their latest manager or head coach ahead of the upcoming trip to Birmingham City on November 22nd.

One of those comes in the form of current Celtic coach and former Norwich midfielder, Mark Fotheringham, who is currently amongst Martin O'Neill's coaching staff at Parkhead whilst the Scottish giants conduct a long-standing managerial search of their own following Brendan Rodgers' resignation last month.

However, Football League World's Norwich City fan pundit, Zeke Downes, has made very little of the idea that the 42-year-old would be Manning's successor.

Claims that Fotheringham is in the running for the vacant post at Carrow Road came through the Scottish Sun on Monday evening, with the 42-year-old described by O'Neill as an "invaluable" member of his short-term coaching team as the Bhoys look to navigate a rather tricky period north of the border.

The Dundee native has a rather extensive CV when it comes to being a coach, having taken up such positions at Karlsruhe, Cowdenbeath, Ingolstadt and Hertha Berlin, before becoming head coach of Huddersfield Town in September 2022, with the Terriers in the Championship at the time.

However, his tenure at the Accu Stadium would be short-lived, departing in February 2023 after winning just five of his 21 games in charge before Huddersfield turned to Neil Warnock in order to stave off relegation.

Ultimately, Downes believes such links offer very little substance, with the obvious elephant in the room being that Fotheringham played 76 times for Norwich between 2007 and 2009, scoring four times.

"I think that he's only been linked because he's an ex-Norwich player, and there's no truth in these links at all," Downes told FLW.

"He's not got a very good pedigree, obviously. He's not won many games and I don't see why we'd be looking at him.

"I think it's quite lazy that people have linked him to us just because he used to play for us. But, I think this happens a lot," he added.

"Definitely not the right fit, and we won't be going down this route," Downes claimed.

Mark Fotheringham feels a very unlikely appointment for Norwich City

Aside from his playing connections, there is very little in the way of evidence that points towards Fotheringham being the next head coach of Norwich.

A dire run at Huddersfield in a relegation battle isn't confidence-filling for supporters or the hierarchy, as well as way more concrete links to other names such as Russell Martin, Gary O'Neil and Will Still.

It has also emerged that the board have held talks with former Blackburn Rovers boss, Jon Dahl Tomasson, in what would be a rather intriguing move by Attanasio and Knapper.

Regardless of who comes through the door, though, it must be viewed as a short and long-term solution at Carrow Road, or relegation could be on the cards.