Football: Megson ready to return to Norwich

Gary Megson has been offered the chance by Norwich City to complete a First Division managerial merry-go-round.

On a day when the former Canaries manager, Martin O'Neill, took up the reins at Leicester City and Lennie Lawrence took charge at Luton Town - moves which left Mike Walker out in the cold - Megson confirmed that he was ready to take up an offer to return to the Carrow Road job which he failed to secure last summer.

Megson, who was recently appointed assistant manager to Chris Kamara, Lawrence's successor at Bradford City, was in charge of Norwich in a caretaker capacity at the end of last season but was unable to save them from relegation to the First Division. Now, though, he is to fill the vacancy created by O'Neill's resignation on Sunday.

"I leave Bradford with some regret, but Norwich made me an offer I could not refuse," Megson said. "It is a chance to get into management and I know the club well."

O'Neill, who left Norwich after only six months in charge, spoke of loyalty at Leicester, where Brian Little and Mark McGhee have walked out within the past year. "I can understand Leicester fans being worried about loyalty," he said. "But I have no intention of using Leicester as a stepping stone. There's no way I'll be leaving at my behest."

Leicester's chairman, Martin George, has insisted on a clause in O'Neill's two-and-a-half-year contract preventing a repeat of the Little-McGhee situation. The coaches Steve Walford and Paul Franklin, who were with O'Neill at Wycombe, are expected to follow him from Carrow Road to Filbert Street.

At Luton, Lawrence succeeds Terry Westley, who left the club last weekend. "We need to win at least 10 games to stay up and I think it's possible," Lawrence, the former Charlton manager, said. "I have experience of relegation battles, so I'm the right peg in the right hole."

All this activity left Walker, the former Norwich and Everton manager, confused and dispirited. He believed he was in line for the Leicester job, kept Luton waiting while Leicester deliberated, and ended up with neither.

"The whole managerial merry-go-round is a disgrace," Walker complained. "I'm not disappointed - I'm very annoyed. It appears I have been led up the garden path. I spoke to Leicester three times and I was under the impression I had got the job. When you get treated like this it leaves a sour taste in the mouth."