There was a cruel irony about Saturday.

On the day Norwich City's relegation was effectively all but confirmed, Middlesbrough were celebrating their return to the Premier League, almost 12 months on from suffering heartbreak at Wembley.

A £170 million pay-out and a place in the richest league the world next season. They may not have had their glorious day under the famous arch, but it feels like Aitor Karanka's side have just had the last laugh.

Norwich's mantra after confirming promotion was that they were going to get their business done early. By the time the transfer window closed, Boro had bolstered their squad with 10 signings that amounted to around £15 million, including £5.5m on Stewart Downing.

City chased marquee signing Robbie Brady for weeks, made Graham Dorrans' signing permanent, bought Jake Kean and acquired Youssouf Mulumbu on a free transfer and Dieumerci Mbokani and Matt Jarvis on loan. Anyone could have been forgiven for double-checking which team had been the play-off victors.

It is that failure to acquire players needed to improve the squad in the summer that has ultimately cost us. People may point to the fact that results in the first half of the season were better than post-January, but we've had no strength in depth when players performing so well in the early stages of this season faltered.

In other words, we haven't been good enough. It's that simple fact that was again the underlying factor behind Saturday's narrow defeat to the weakest Manchester United team to visit Carrow Road in years.

In a game we had to get something from, Alex Neil started with Cameron Jerome on his own up front. None of us know the intricacies of the manager's team selection but I'd like to hope that decision wasn't based solely on the fact Jerome scored at Old Trafford in December.

Norwich haven't celebrated a goal since the dramatic win over Newcastle, Jerome hasn't scored in 2016 and his lack of belief was painfully obvious in each attack, with a first-half header that instead of being put away barely tested the reflexes of David de Gea.

Jerome typifies what has been Norwich's downfall this season. Excellent in the Championship but out of his depth in the Premier League – his record didn't suggest anything otherwise before August.

At 0-0, Neil brought on Mbokani but sacrificed a more creative midfielder in Brady and left two sitting midfielders on the pitch. The introduction of Patrick Bamford was Norwich's attempt to throw the kitchen sink at a weary United. Turning to a striker who hasn't scored a goal in any competition for more than 12 months, and not once in the Premier League, is a sad reflection of how desperate we have become for an unlikely hero in recent weeks.

At the back, Sebastien Bassong's misjudged header that allowed Rooney to burst into the penalty area and provide an assist was just another in a long line of errors that have underpinned City's season in the top flight.

The blame for so many individual errors can't be put on the manager, but he must take his share of responsibility for Norwich's pending relegation.

It's an overused and cliched phrase, but putting round pegs in square holes springs to mind when it comes to summing up some of Neil's key decisions this season. Playing Robbie Brady at left back for most of the season, deploying Jonny Howson and Wes Hoolahan out wide at times and spending £8.5m on Steven Naismith when it was a striker we were crying out for, not a number 10.

It's now six hours without a goal since Martin Olsson's winner against the Magpies last month. A result that should have been the catalyst for back-to-back results against two of our relegation rivals now seems to have been nothing more than a false dawn, a little like our day in the sunshine last May perhaps.