Canaries could be reminded of painful past
Craig Bellamy started his career at the Canaries before moving on to bigger things. Could any of the current crop of players follow in his footsteps?
Chris Sutton, Craig Bellamy and Dean Ashton. The list could go on. These are just a few of the players who have made their name at Norwich City before moving on to careers further up the rankings of English league football. Carrow Road has been the development centre for a wide range of footballing talent, but sooner or later, their calling card has come in. Despite a disastrous start to the season, the Canaries appear on cruise control to bounce back to the Championship and manager Paul Lambert has moulded a team who are playing attractive football, scoring lots of goals and most importantly, winning.
Winning is an infectious formula
Whether you’re in League One or the F.A Premier League, if you winning games consistently, then you’re going to attract interest from elsewhere…usually places that are above you. From the 20-goal-a-season striker and the crafty playmaker to the no-nonsense left back, everyone is automatically in the shop window. Norwich City have always had the few rare breeds who have always seemed likely to fly the nest. The problem for City fans is that whenever they seem to have something good going, it’s brought to an abrupt end by a big money offer prizing their crown jewel away. Unfortunately for City, it always seems to come at the worst time, but then again, is there ever a good time? Dean Ashton and Robert Earnshaw are the most recent examples of players who were on course to fire the Norfolk side back to Premiership, but who were sold on for financial gain.
Who could be next in line?
As hard as it may be for City fans to hear, if you’re offered 5 million for a youth product turned first team regular, you can’t turn it down. The question is, who will it be next? There’s been three names that have stood out most for City this season. Hoolahan, Holt and Martin. If anyone of these players were to be sold, Norwich would more than likely struggle to maintain their form coming into the ‘business’ end of the season.
Wes Hoolahan
Wes Hoolahan may have to play at a higher level if he wants to increase his prospects with the Republic of Ireland
Hoolahan has craft, intelligence and natural gift and it isn’t suprising to hear that teams in the Championship have shown interest. Although small in stature and light in weight, he does have that eye catching ability to weave in and out of players that you just can’t teach. It’s natural ability and god given talent. You watch other players of his kind who play higher up the leagues such as Andy Reid and struggle to identify how they’re better. Hoolahan has always been one of those players with a question mark over his head. Does he have as much influence on a game as his ability merits? Can flashes of brilliance be turned into outstanding performances, week in, week out. If he can turn flashes into consistency, and he wants to go, it’s very likely to happen. The main point to consider with Hoolahan is that he has more chance than most in the Canaries squad to become an international footballer. And that’s something which may lure him to try to prove himself away from Carrow Road.
Grant Holt
Grant Holt has scored goals, and lots of them. Headers, volleys, long range efforts and delicate chips. You name it, he’s scored it. Holt’s really shown a versatile range for a striker who’s appearance is incredibly deceiving. However, something tells you Norwich need not worry about Holt. Never will he be able to play in the Premiership, and he’s had his crack at some big clubs e.g. Nottingham Forest and not proven himself. Similar to the situation of Darren Huckerby, who came to Norwich and found that the love and appreciation of supporters was enough to make him want to stay for a prolonged period, Holt seems to be liking the hero status he’s recieving at Carrow Road and is probably wise to the phrase that it might not be greener on the other side.
Chris Martin
That leaves Chris Martin. He’s endeared himself to Norwich fans this season and is in great form. Strong, good technically and an astute finisher. He lacks pace, but Lambert appears to have got him playing the right way within the his system. He could be an attractive prospect to supposed ‘bigger clubs’if he continues to perform like he has been, iand especially if Norwich are promoted to the Championship. Norwich is his home and he appears to like playing for them, but it was also Chris Sutton’s boyhood home. It’s unfair on Sutton to rate Martin in the same bracket at this moment in time, because he’s quite simply not. But if the 21-year-old keeps scoring goals, people will start noticing him more. No matter what level you play at, if you score goals, you’ll get noticed. Martin is certainly the best thing to come out the academy set up in the past seven or eight years and this with him no undoubtedly recognising this, might spur him on to stay and try to become a Canary’s legend.
City held onto Huckerby didn’t they?
Darren Huckerby was given a hero status with the Canaries that couldn't have been bettered anywhere else
Huckerby has his crack at the big time. He performed especially well at Coventry in the mid 1990′s but found that as the Premier League progressed, he could no longer keep up with it. When City went in for him, he had come out of his first big break with Leeds having failed to live up to his £6 million pound price tag and his Manchester City career didn’t end on a high note either. Of course, he was a very good player, but when he came to City, being the best in the team and the pinical point of the whole club was enough to never make him want to leave. He was God. Who’d want to give that up? Huckerby was perhaps too good for the Championship, but not good enough for the Premiership and so reaching hero status at a club was a nice way of consolling himself for his career not turning out the way he would have hoped.
The difference between Holt, Hoolahan and Martin is that none of them have ever reached the promised land of the Premier League and at some stage, the lure may be too great to turn down.
Topics: League One
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Let me ask you a question Alex, are you a Norwich fan? If you are not, then I will help you out by clarifying a few things, if you are then you should (and probably did) know a bit better than this.
Firstly, you give them impression that it is the players who take the carrot dangled in front of them. Chris Sutton was forced to leave the club, publicly slating Robert Chase after the move, and made it clear that he did not want to see the successful Norwich side of 92/93 broken up.
Craig Bellamy was sold for £6m, a hell of a lot of money for a player who had just returned from a career threatening cruciate ligament injury. That injury has never gone away, in fact it contributed to his other knee going, both of his knees are still knackered and consist mostly of metal pins. If in doubt, check out his average number of appearances since leaving. We sold him almost a decade ago now, £6m was a great price.
We doubled our money on Dean Ashton, West Ham are now filing a £15m lawsuit against the FA, enough said. You cannot deny that this was great business too. Earnshaw had a minimum release clause, and there was no profit from his sale, we purchase for the same price as we sold. After you include agents fees, likely to be 350k, we in fact made a loss on that deal. His departure also coincided with the end of our parachute payments. See Reading, Charlton, Southampton, and others for examples of where this always happens.
Only two of the players that you have pointed out, Bellars and Sutton, have been youth players. Only one of the three current city players that you mention, Chris Martin, is a youth product. You fail to mention that Chris Martin had just signed a three and a half year contract at the time of writing this article.
You have, in my humble opinion, taken this from entirely the wrong perspective. The club chooses whether to sell a player, a player is bound by his contract. If you really want to get into the nitty gritty, Wes Hoolohan only has one year left on his current deal after this season. If he doesnt sign a new one, we will have to sell. The others are under contract. You should be asking the question “the Norwich board have repeatedly shown a complete lack of ambition by selling their best players and replacing them with utter tosh, will they succumb to an offer this January?”
Bellamy, Ashton, Eadie, O’Neill…… these players were crocks, thats almost £20m for four players who have never been able to complete a full season after leaving. The only big time Norwich players to genuinely force a move were Robert Green (forgotten about him?), and Robert Earnshaw.
Hoolohan, Holt, Martin…… will we cash in at the end of the year? Who knows, only one of those players is proven in the championship, Gary Holt couldnt force his way into a promoted Forest team. Their is a big gulf in talent between this division and the next, who is to say that we will need them? Lambert has bought a right winger. Why would Lambert buy a right winger? Because he wants to play 4-4-2 next year? Where does Hoolohan fit into a 4-4-2? He doesnt. If he doesnt sign a new contract, then too right we should sell him……
February 3rd, 2010 @ 22:33PS. your very last line…… do you seriously believe that Grant Holt or Wes Hoolohan will ever play Premiership football? Chris Martin possibly, if he continues to develop.
Perhaps you do not quite understand the gulf between League One and the Premiership. We are in League One, a league which makes Jon Otsemober and Jamie Cureton look good….. Those three players will be lucky to be anything above average in the championship.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 22:37No I am not a Norwich City fan but I talk to a lot of people who are.
You’re telling me that you wouldn’t have rather kept Bellamy, rather than sell him onto to a bigger club. Yes you may have received a lot of money for him, but surely if the club had any ambitions of getting promoted, they would have kept hold of him. I do recall Bellamy and Roberts striking up quite useful partnership just before Bellamy was sold.
And Chris Sutton? High flying Blackburn came in for him and off he went. If you, A FAN, read Bryan Gunns autobiography you will know that it is a decision that Sutton was spending a lot of time mulling over. Norwich had just come off one of their most successful stints in the Premier League, but had to give up one of their best players.
If you’re right, you’re still subscribing to my view that Norwich could be reminded of a painful past. For whatever reason, whether it’s for funds or not, Norwich always get rid of their big players. Yes, you could say that a lot of clubs do that. But it does seem with the Canaries that it happens quite frequently. I was bringing this point up.
Please do describe the difference between youth product and youth team player…I’m incredibly confused.
February 9th, 2010 @ 03:59