Jon Otsemobor has lifted the lid on the Glenn Roeder era in a rare look back at his Norwich City stint under the manager he dubbed the most ‘disliked’ of his career.
The former Liverpool full-back was a Roeder regular for two seasons upon arriving from Crewe in 2007. But Otsemobor’s time at Carrow Road was spent fighting at the wrong end of the table in the Championship.
“I have never disliked a manager as much as I disliked him. I think it was just the way he was with players,” said the Liverpudlian. “I heard stories maybe the players up at Newcastle took the mick a bit so when he came to Norwich he wanted this persona of no one was going to take liberties, but you can see through people like that.
“He came across all wrong. He banged a suitcase down on the table and there was nothing in it. He cleaned most of the staff out when he first arrived.
“His man management was terrible. Every player is different. Some need an arm around them, some need a rollicking, he didn’t have that balance, he would either rollick everyone or praise you. Don’t get me wrong we had some good games, but I felt the majority of the lads didn’t like him. I don’t remember anything good about him.
“I can’t think of anything positive to say about the man.”
Roeder was eventually dismissed midway through a season that ended in relegation to the third tier for the first time in 49 years.
“I’ll never forget when he left we were all gathered in the canteen and maybe the chairman came down and called a meeting,” said Otsemobor, speaking on the Under The Cosh podcast hosted by former City team mate Chris Brown and another one-time forward Jon Parkin. “I don’t know if he had been speaking to others at the club but he said, ‘We know you are not happy, we have relieved Glenn of his duties and we are looking for a new manager’.
“Then he came in the canteen, saw us all, shut the door, got in his car and that was the last I saw of him.
“It wasn’t even like, ‘Sorry lads it didn’t work out. I might have done some things differently,’ he just looked in and saw the chairman speaking to us and left.
“Peter Grant signed me and Gunny was there as well in my time and they were both top lads. Paul Lambert replaced Roeder and his man management with the players were second to none.
“He was genuine. So involved with the players. It was good to see compared to Roeder.”
• Hear more from Otsemobor on who was the Daddy of the Norwich changing room and getting stick from the Snake Pit later today on these channels
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