"Definitely" - Norwich City backed to appoint ex-Wolves manager | OneFootball

FLW's Norwich City fan pundit has been speaking on whether Gary O'Neil could be viable option to replace Johannes Hoff Thorup.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Norwich City are on the hunt for a new manager after the recent sacking of Johannes Hoff Thorup.

The 36-year-old Dane was relieved of his duties as Canaries boss on 22 April following his side's 3-1 defeat away at Millwall the day before.

As a result, Thorup's assistant coach, Jack Wilshere, was named as interim boss for the remainder of the season, giving time for Norwich to conduct a thorough search for their next permanent manager heading into the summer.

"Would be up there" - Norwich City backed to appoint Gary O'Neil as new boss

We asked our Norwich City fan pundit, Zeke Downes: 'Is Gary O'Neil someone that should be considered by Norwich City in your eyes, given his availability?'

Downes said: "I think that Gary O'Neil would be up there with my personal favourites.

"He's also obviously got a link to Norwich as well, and he did a good enough job in the Premier League. I would definitely have him. It just depends on whether he would want to now drop down after he's had that time in the Premier League.

"But, with his links to Norwich, it might help him, and it might mean that he wants to join. But, I don't know, I feel like we'd be getting in someone that's another relative unknown if it's not Wilshere.

"It seems like he's sort of being tapped up a bit to take the job, especially because Ben Knapper (Norwich sporting director) knows him quite well from their Arsenal days.

"But, I would imagine it's a bit too soon for Wilshere to take over a club. He's not really had much experience yet. So, it will be interesting to see how that pans out."

Gary O'Neil would surely be seen as a significant coup for Norwich City

O'Neil would surely tick a lot of boxes for Norwich City.

At 41, he's still very much in the infancy of his managerial career, and as such, there is still surely plenty of room for him to grow and develop as a coach.

He knows the club, having spent two seasons at Carrow Road as a player between 2014-2016, and was part of the Norwich team that won promotion to the Premier League in the 2014/15 season.

As a manager, he's exclusively managed in the Premier League so far - which is a rare achievement for such a young and relatively inexperienced coach - having taken charge of both Bournemouth and most recently, Wolves.

In his one season with the Cherries, and in his first as a manager, he was able to consolidate their place in the top flight with a 15th-placed finish, with the club having been newly promoted from the Championship at the time.

O'Neil achieved a solid 14th-placed finish in his first and only full season as Wolves boss last term, before being relieved of his duties at Molineux in December last year with the club sitting second bottom at the time.

Therefore, there are a number of reasons as to why Norwich City, a current mid-table Championship club with ambitions of Premier League promotion, should see O'Neil as being a real coup if he is to be the man to replace Thorup.