Brown told Gunn not to take job

Ken Brown admitted last night he was 'stunned' by Bryan Gunn's swift exit - but revealed he had advised the City stalwart not to take the manager's job.

Brown survived seven years in the Carrow Road hotseat but the Scot has been cut adrift barely seven months into his tenure after the club's 7-1 opening day League One humbling against Colchester.

Assistant manager Ian Butterworth has been placed in temporary charge - starting with today's League One test at Exeter.

“If it is just on the basis of the Colchester result then I think it's very short sighted,” said Brown. “To have just one league game and then to go away and win by four in the cup makes no sense. How you can do that two games into the season beggars belief. It doesn't seem right, unless he has done something drastically wrong we don't know about. I can't make head nor tail of it and until we get the full story then it's hard to comment but I'm just absolutely surprised by it all.

“We have to wait for some proper statements from the hierarchy because we're all in the dark. I know they've put out an initial statement but it doesn't give any reason. Nothing will ever surprise me in football but this one has certainly stunned me. I am just gob smacked.”

Brown enticed Gunn south of the border in the mid-1980s and the Carrow Road hall of famer sounded out his former mentor before agreeing to succeed Glenn Roeder on a permanent basis last season.

“He is such a Norwich man that this will be tough for him to take,” said Brown. “The only thing I said to him before he took the job was, 'look, you are so well liked about the club and this area that if you're happy doing what you have been doing in and around the club then don't take the manager's job. Somewhere along the line managers always get sacked.' I told him that was the only thing I would have against it, but that it was entirely his decision and he chose to take it.”

The 75-year-old questioned the timing of City's latest managerial casualty after Gunn had overhauled the first team squad during the close season alongside fellow Brown signings Ian Butterworth and Ian Crook.

“It seems strange how quick this has been done,” he said. “He had free rein to go out in the summer to bring in his own staff and players and now doesn't get a chance to work with them. I've signed all three of those boys so one can only imagine how Ian feels about

this now, having to take the team after what has happened to the guy who brought him in.

“I thought the club had done well to decide to keep Bryan after going down. Everybody backed him to go out and get a load of new players in and they'd had a great pre-season. Then the team misfires on the opening day, badly it has to be said, but they responded in the right way three days later and then he gets the sack. If you put that in a storyline no one would believe it.”

Brown admits City's long suffering support must brace themselves for another inevitable period of uncertainty as the board hunt for Gunn's successor.

“You feel for the fans,” he said. “They've turned up again on the first day in huge numbers and now it's going to be topsy turvy once more. As a fan you just keep going over things. They haven't got any money to spend but what will it cost to bring in a new man and if they do that, will he want a completely new staff? Or do they say, 'no, let Ian do it.'

“If they do have someone already lined up then they are taking one hell of a gamble that the fella in question is going to want the same staff and the same players. It doesn't sit right that that is the case for me. Whether they might have said Bryan is not the man for the job full stop and perhaps let's give Ian a go as he is now in temporary charge. It's a complete mystery.”