'Can only do as well as players at your disposal'

Darren Kenton playing for Norwich in 2001

Former Norwich City defender Darren Kenton believes poor recruitment over the summer is one of the chief reasons for the team's struggles this season.

Head coach Liam Manning was sacked on Saturday following a 2-1 home defeat by Leicester City - and the Canaries have failed to pick up a single point at Carrow Road this season so far.

"You can only do as well as the players you've got at your disposal," Kenton told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"If you look at the Leicester bench, they were able to bring on Bobby De Cordova-Reid and he pretty much saved the game for them.

"There was no one really on the Norwich bench that can make a difference in the game the way that he did.

"If you look back at (former sporting director) Stuart Webber's time at the club and the players they brought in for fairly low fees and sold on for a decent amount - [then] if you look at the players they've bought in the last two seasons, spending £5m, £10m, £15m, they just haven't been good enough.

"It's been poor. You go back to the previous manager [Johannes Hoff Thorup] and he couldn't do much with the players that he had. So is it the manager or the people that are bringing the players in that are doing a bad job? It's probably a touch of both and you can't put the blame solely on the manager.

"You kind of feel sorry for Liam Manning because he seems like an honest guy. He has the club in his heart... but that's the nature of the beast, that's football, if the manager doesn't get the results he's the one that gets the sack. But it's probably the higher-ups that should be worried about their jobs, rather than the manager."

Many supporters called for current sporting director Ben Knapper to leave following the game and Kenton believes the problems at the club are "deep rooted".

He added: "I don't know who has got a magic wand and is going to come in and turn the performances around."