AIDY Boothroyd is being tipped to become the next Norwich City manager after Bryan Gunn was sacked last night.

Derek Davis

By Derek Davis

AIDY Boothroyd is being tipped to become the next Norwich City manager after Bryan Gunn was sacked last night.

Less than a week into the league One season, after being relegated from the Championship last season, Gunn was told to leave following The Canaries humiliating 7-1 defeat at home to Colchester in their opening fixture last Saturday.

A 4-0 midweek Carling Cup win at Yeovil in midweek could not save Gunn, a legendary figure at Carrow Road from his days as a goalkeeper, and assistant manager Ian Butterworth has been placed in temporary charge for tomorrow's trip to Exeter.

But sources in Norfolk are convinced that former Watford boss Boothroyd, who was overlooked when the last appointment was made following when Peter Grant's dismissal, is hot favourite to get the job this time.

Boothroyd is the former academy director at Carrow Road and took Watford to the Premier League before they too were relegated the season before last and he was sacked last year.

Gunn, a former Scotland international who made 477 appearances for Norwich between 1986 and 1998 and then held various roles behind the scenes, took over as caretaker boss in January following Glenn Roeder's sacking.

Despite a 4-0 win over Barnsley in his first game in charge, results soon dipped and City were relegated on the final day of the season.

Nonetheless, the 45-year-old was appointed permanent boss in May, only for the Canaries board to lose patience following Saturday's drubbing, during which Gunn was confronted by two angry supporters on the pitch.

Chief executive David McNally told the club's official website: “Bryan has worked tirelessly for this football club for more than two decades, not least since taking over team affairs in January.

"However, the board met this week following Saturday's unacceptable record home defeat in our opening game of the season.

"The board, after lengthy consideration, unanimously felt a change was in the best interests of all parties concerned, in order to give us the best possible chance of achieving our objectives."

Ipswich Town boss Roy Keane had earlier in the day backed Gunn to get over the disappointment of the 7-1 loss.

Keane was the manager of Sunderland when they got stuffed by the same scoreline at Everton but the Black Cats recovered and went on to survive their first season back in the Premier League.

So he understood how Gunn felt but is confident he will recover.

Keane said: “I have not spoken to Bryan. You have days like that as a manager. I lost 7-1 at Sunderland and I was happy with seven because it could have been 12.

“It happens to great managers too. The Alex Fergusons etc, have set backs and the good thing for Norwich is they can bounce back in the right way with a victory.

“You will get set back and some times it is a 7-1, that's football, but I focus on my own team and not worry about Colchester or Norwich.”