Mike Phelan was obvious choice over Alex Neil for Norwich job

Norwich City have taken a huge risk in appointing Alex Neil as their manager and it’s a risk I hope pays off.

But I can’t shake the feeling that by snubbing Mike Phelan for the role, they might end up kicking themselves. For me, Phelan was the obvious choice in every respect.

He was already first-team coach at Carrow Road, a role that saw him develop a close working relationship with the entire squad.

But when you look at the depth of his experience, it becomes obvious just how well-suited to the job he is.

Okay, he might not have managed before, strictly speaking, but you don’t spend five years as Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United without picking a few things up along the way.

The decisions he must have been involved in at Old Trafford would have been enormous the kind that make the Norwich City job look like a walk in the park.

But instead of going with the obvious, the Norwich Board have thrown everyone a curve ball, and there is still no telling where it’s going to end up.

I accept that probably sounds like I’m having a pop at Alex Neil, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I wish him all the very best. The job he has done at Hamilton Accies is nothing short of spectacular.

To take a club with rock-bottom gates and limited cash from the SPFL Championship into the Premiership then to mount the unlikeliest of title challenges is absolutely stunning.

To do so with a cast of kids and an unbreakable commitment to playing attractive, attacking football is even more worthy of praise. And he has done it all in less than two years as a manager. You can’t knock that.

Going further back, I understand Neil was the guy former Accies boss Billy Reid tasked with looking after James McArthur and James McCarthy when they were breaking into the first team at New Douglas Park.

That speaks volumes about his character and in deciding to keep Phelan at Carrow Road, he has also proved his shrewdness.

But the Championship is a notoriously cut-throat league, the kind that can devour naive managers.

I just hope that come May, Alex hasn’t been chewed up and spat out.