A 'cracking' day in the history of Norwich City

City chairman Roger Munby revealed that five candidates were interviewed for the job of Norwich City manager - but admitted that the 4-0 win over Barnsley convinced club officials that Bryan Gunn 'would take some beating'.

City chairman Roger Munby revealed that five candidates were interviewed for the job of Norwich City manager - but admitted that the 4-0 win over Barnsley convinced club officials that Bryan Gunn “would take some beating”.

The Canaries took just a week to name Glenn Roeder's successor as boss, a much quicker process than the previous two appointments.

In 2006, it was 12 days after Nigel Worthington's sacking that Peter Grant was announced as manager, appropriately enough on Friday 13th.

In 2007, three weeks passed between Grant's departure “by mutual consent” and Roeder's arrival.

Munby said he was pleased with the speed with which City acted this time.

He said: “Five different people were interviewed for manager, which is a decent-sized short list with precedent drawn from previous occasions in some cases.

“There were some new faces involved, both people that applied to us and who we had wanted to take a look at.

“That it was so quick is to everybody's benefit, because I think as a board we felt, as a result of everything that happened on Saturday, that Bryan would take some beating. But that he won from an objective point of view is the most important thing.

“There's an irony for boards of directors. Dismissing managers and re-appointing is not something they want to do that frequently, of course, but if they don't do it very frequently they don't build up much expertise.

“I'm very pleased with the process and I must pay enormous tribute to Neil Doncaster for having orchestrated it once again and done it so expertly.”

Munby had spoken at the weekend about local links being vital in the appointment - and in Gunn, John Deehan and Ian Crook, City have a trio with more than 1,000 first team games for the club between them.

He said: “As managers, not all of them had local links but you're not just interviewing the manager about himself, it's about the team that he proposed to put together. And it was an essential criterium that at a senior level in any of the team formations that we might have looked at there were local links, that there was recent and current Norwich City expertise involved.

“That counts for a lot. Bryan has referred to John informally as mentor and of course it was John who was assistant to Mike Walker the last time a former goalkeeper led this club and led it to its most successful ever season.

“The contacts that John Deehan brings to the job are one of the most valuable assets.”

Bright blue skies heralded Gunn's introduction as he posed for pictures at Carrow Road.

Said Munby: “It's a cracking day - a great day. Frosty, bright, clear sky and if you see a vapour trail going over it's probably got Ian Crook in front of it.”