Norwich City - The Summer So Far

Article by Colin Rowe

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So the World Cup is over and it is now just a matter of weeks until Norwich kick-off what we hope will be a successful loan-spell in the Championship before out triumphant return to the top flight in 2015/16.

It was a relatively successful World Cup for the Canary’s involved.

Leroy Fer got a goal for The Netherlands, which will hopefully add a couple of million to his price tag if and when he chooses to leave, while Joseph Yobo was also on the scoresheet, although it was an own goal against France.

Norwich has also been quietly going about their business in the transfer market with strikers Lewis Grabben and Kyle Lafferty joining from Bournemouth and Palermo respectively.

Robert Snodgrass has unfortunately left for pastures new in Hull and while we are all disappointed to lose a player of his quality the apparent £7 million we got in exchange is certainly of some comfort.

Unfortunately, there is still no action in terms of strengthening the defence, but there is still time to fix these faults, but it is also worth noting the backline City have will probably be sufficient to deal with most Championship sides.

The major questions still hanging over Carrow Road are the futures of some existing squad members, namely Ruddy, Bassong, Hoolahan, Redmond, Hooper and van Wolfswinkel.

Neil Adams has openly admitted every player has his price and if Premiership teams come knocking sometimes it is to good an offer to turn down.

This is unfortunately the harsh reality of relegation, but hopefully the clubs healthy finances will be enough to hold on to most players and get decent prices for the ones we let go.

John Ruddy missed out on England’s World Cup squad and has already said he has no intention of leaving Norwich, although there will almost certainly be interest in him.

Arsenal is the latest team who seem to be in the hunt for a vastly over-qualified back-up keeper.

It is hard to imagine Ruddy being interested in moving just to sit on the bench or make occasional appearances in (insert appropriate sponsors name) Cup.

However, as yet there are no serious rumours so hopefully the big man will stay between the posts.

City’s World Cup hero, Leroy Fer, has made a similar claim to Ruddy, but is the subject of a lot more interest from Premiership clubs including Everton and QPR.

Although his agent claims there has been no official approach for the Dutchman it is still difficult to see a situation where he is still a City player come the start of the new season.

Sebastian Bassong is proving more problematic and appears to be something of a disruptive influence at Carrow Road, although nobody knows quite why.

He was left out of the squad for the first pre-season game and has been training with the development squad, which given some of his performances last year seems a suitable place for him.

However, a player of his undoubted quality (and high wages) should either be in the first team or sold. Having him knocking around with the youngsters seems a total waste for a player with no apparent transfer speculation.

Nathan Redmond is another player who pledged his future to Norwich and, despite occasional rumblings on the underground grapevine, there seem to be no serious offers for well-proven Championship player.

Apparently bids in the region of £3.5 million from Stoke and Southampton have been turned down, but it is hard to see City accepting such a low bid and equally unlikely teams will be willing to up their offer to the alleged asking price of £6m.

There is not a Norwich fan around who wants to see Redmond leave and he is one of the players City should be focused on keeping at the club.

Hoolahan and Hooper have been conspicuously quite this summer.

There was no hiding the fact Wes was out of favour last season, even under Neil Adams, but despite the predictable link to Aston Villa there has been nothing noteworthy.

Gary Hooper was linked with Crystal Palace and QPR earlier in the summer, but both of these pieces of gossip seem to have died a death.

For Hoolahan it is hard to know how this scenario might unfold, as it was during January, while Hooper is probably on his way with his desire to get into the England squad.

In terms of the out of sorts Ricky van Wolfswinkel, the only interesting piece of news was his losing the number 9 shirt and being relegated to squad number 20.

What this actually means nobody knows, but it at least gave the internet carte blanche to speculate that this meant he was on the way out.

Personally, I hope the Wolf stays for another season and think a year in the second tier might do him some good and help him get his confidence back, but if he wants to leave there are plenty of others who can take his place.

Martin Olsson has also been the subject of speculation, with reports linking him to West Ham.

Norwich will surely lose some players in the next few weeks, it is simply a part of getting relegated and Neil Adams’ desire to put his own mark on the side.

However, while consistency is vital in a football squad, a lot of City fans would like to see the youth players, who won the FA Cup under the current first team boss, get a chance in the side and the more players who stay, the fewer chances the likes of the Murphy’s, Loza’s and Gafaiti’s will get.

On the Ball City!

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