You know that cliche about the word legend being used and abused? Well, when it comes to Darren Huckerby, the description is as accurate as many of the howitzers that he launched in the good name of Norwich City FC.

However, legendary status pretty much guarantees only the affection and gratitude of, in this case, Canaries fans.

Football is a big, bad, unforgiving world and, once again, Huckerby appears to have felt the sharp end of that short stick.

Huckerby’s four-and-a-half-year reign, for that is what it was, as a City player was ended in brutal fashion by Glenn Roeder in May 2008 when he was not offered a new contract. There was no farewell appearance. Just a sad farewell.

Now, nine years later, Huckerby is off again, this time as a result of a shake-up in the club’s Academy set-up.

His exit will overshadow those of the other four – all will be replaced by the club, but the reason for their exits is, for now, unknown. We are not privy to the inner workings of the football club, the day-to-day activities at the Colney training centre.

What we do know is that this is another of those awful cliches... “that’s football for you”. Because it is.

When new people come in to a club, change is inevitable. Huckerby has seen managers and colleagues come and go over the years – you doubt very much if he ever believed he had a job for life or ever expected to have one.

The reaction on social media was another inevitability, but one of Huckerby’s own responses pretty much summed it all up: “I’m not dead.”

And there’s the truth – this is football, a game of ever-changing moods. Remember when Bryan Gunn was appointed manager and brought in Ian Butterworth and Ian Crook as well as John Deehan as his chief scout? Three club legends in control, but it didn’t work and it needed a Scotsman who barely knew the place to turn the club’s fortunes around.

Cliche number three: Life goes on. And it will for Darren Huckerby. His legacy is in place, so shed no tears. He’s a grown-up man who knows the game of football inside out. And knew, therefore, that this day would eventually come.