What's people's thoughts on this one?
In my opinion, it wasn't losing Alex to Norwich that was the problem, it was the timing of the whole thing.
In our case, in the January window we lost a manager and a good player in Alex moving to Norwich. We also lost a second member of the squad, Tony moving to Norwich. I know it's all ifs and buts, but in this case we may have kept hold of Tony during the January window if there was a seperate window for managers, coaches, etc.
Another point which affected us. With Alex leaving when he did it didn't leave Martin much of a chance to bolster and already depleted squad. My suspicions are that the January signings were probably all Alex's potential signings.
My point about the window for managers is that if players can only move in a window why should the manager have the luxury of moving when it suits them.
In our case it probably has suited the club to take the money but for us as fans the January window has been a total curse.