Ian Russell, Capital Canaries Neil Warnock is the new boss of Crystal Palace, which means his name has been crossed off the Norwich City manager vacancy list. That's got to be something to be happy about and at the moment we need to find as many positives as we possibly can.

Ian Russell, Capital Canaries

Neil Warnock is the new boss of Crystal Palace, which means his name has been crossed off the Norwich City manager vacancy list. That's got to be something to be happy about and at the moment we need to find as many positives as we possibly can.

With Sammy Lee unsurprisingly parting ways with Bolton this week, Lincoln City sacking their manager John Schofield, Notts County dismissing Steve Thompson and Steve McClaren's post hanging on the most slender piece of thread, we find ourselves not alone during the first 'manager cull' of the season.

The board knows only too well that the next appointment has huge importance to our football club and so I was pleased to see that they have no plans to rush to a decision. The unthinkable spectre of relegation still looms and the quicker results turn the better we can all sleep at night. What that does mean is the next man must have a short term fix to the potentially perilous position he will inherit, in addition to the all important longer term goal to get Norwich City back up the league and challenging at the business end.

Regardless of press speculation and bookies' favourites, only Neil Doncaster and his closest colleagues will know which CVs are currently sitting on his in tray. I think we can be pretty certain that Paul Jewell, Glen Hoddle and Kevin Keegan's names aren't on any of them. Probably unlikely that Doncaster has the details of a currently out-of-work 'special' Portuguese coach as well.

As always of course, what we may all want and what the board actually goes for may well prove to be poles apart and so I try and remain as realistic as possible.

My gut feeling is that Jim Duffy will be given the opportunity to work some magic in the couple of games he takes charge. Duffy of course has experience from his days north of the border and I'm sure will relish the challenge should he be thrown the baton. I would guess that Ian Crook and Peter Reid are amongst the top five candidates and would both be popular choices.

Steve Bruce knows the football club and would probably be a contender if he weren't already in a job and linked with the Bolton post. He's recently made noises that his St Andrew's future is uncertain, although I doubt he will have eyes on a return to Norfolk.

We continue to 'watch this space' with interest and anticipation.