Silly Season in full swing!

"The New Boys settling in before heading off to the states"

So with "Silly Season" now well and truly in full swing I thought it would be worth doing a little wrap up of everything that has happened so far and discuss what might happen next.

It's been a busy summer for us Canaries and dare I say it one of the most exciting transfer windows ever for Norwich City FC.

Let's start with a little re-cap of our movements so far:

Departures:

Firstly the club announced that 10 players had been released from the club. This is one of the biggest clearing out's we have seen in recent years. Some were to be expected, they had never really cut the mustard at Premier League level so with a heavy heart we said our goodbyes to the likes of Chris Martin and Marc Tierney. However a slightly more shocking release was that of Simeon Jackson. I have always been a fan of "Cinnamon" and it was a shame to see him leave, especially on a free. However if we look at this decision with no emotions of sentimentality you would have to agree it was the right move for both parties. He never really cut the grade in the EPL. A fantastic championship striker and a man with blistering pace but his height and lack of final ball quality always hindered him in the best league in the world. He has since found a new home in Germany and we wish him all the best.

James Vaughn was a player whom I had hoped would be given a chance to prove himself in pre-season. However the speculation surrounding his potential departure had gone on for so long that his departure was almost a certainty. He had been plagued with injury since signing for the Canaries 2 years ago and I do think we have to look at him as a missed opportunity. I feel that had his first season not been spent almost entirely on the sidelines we would be speaking about him being a great striker. He always looked to have great potential but life is cruel at times and unfortunately for him, his injuries slowed his development with our great club. On a positive note we do seem to have at least cashed in on him, a fee of around £1.5mill over a period is thought to be the money received. Given that he was surplus to requirements and hadn't exactly had a great time since joining you would have to say that's a good bit of business.

Jed Steer's move to Aston Villa was a shock to me to be honest. We all know that while Lambert was at the club he never really took much interest in the Youth Players, leaving their development to the Youth Team Managers etc. However his admiration for one Jed Steer could certainly not be questioned. In Declan Rudd and Jed Steer we had ourselves two future number 1's. Inevitably one was always go to leave in my opinion. They're both of a similar age and would both be graduating to the first team around the same time, so there was always going to be one sat on the bench. So in terms of a career move I do not begrudge Jed one bit. Declan has always been favored above him in recent years and so I suspect he saw this as an opportunity to fight for first team football elsewhere. Again we wish Jed all the best at Aston Villa and I can't wait to see him pulling on the number 1 jersey in a few years, as I proudly say "he was a product of our youth team". Additionally because the player is under 24 we will receive compensation for the move. Having talked to a few people around Aston Villa and Norwich it would appear that fee could be in the region of £2 million over a series of payments based on appearance etc.

The big man Grant Holt joined Wigan Athletic for a fee of around £1-2mill and if I'm totally honest I didn't see this one coming. I thought after signing his extension that he would finish off his career at Norwich before moving on a free to Carlisle. It was certainly sad to see the big man go and was a bitter pill to swallow but again we should not be angry with his decision. Firstly it takes him closer to his family and no man can begrudge another man for that. Secondly the big man has earned his right to play in Europe and at Wigan he will get that opportunity next year. I'm pleased Grant got his move and I'm pleased with how he handled it. I'm also pleased that in his last home and away games for City he scored on both occasions, signing off in style. Good luck Holty and score a few more past the scum for us will ya!

Leon Barnett has now been told he is free to find himself a new club. I think everyone would be lying if they said they didn't see this coming... The guy was impressive at Championship level but is nowhere near good enough for the EPL. I hope he gets his move and contrary to some fan speculation we WILL be getting a fee for him when he moves. Cardiff seem the most likely suitor although Doncaster Rovers are also said to be interested. Personally I think any championship team would be an idiot not to go for him. He is a great Championship defender and will certainly help with a push for promotion.

So we have said our goodbyes to some of Cities previous stars but we have also said "Alright Boy" to some new faces.

Arrivals:

We all had to take a step back in March when the club announced they had secured the signing of Dutch international Ricky Van Wolfswinkel from Sporting Lisbon. He had been a great success at the Portuguese club and in his previous spell in the Eredivisie. His goal tally speaks for itself 45 goals in 87 appearances for Sporting. That's a ratio of over 1 in 2, exactly what the club needs. At 24 he is the perfect age, he's still young and developing, he is level headed and humble and seems exactly the right type of player for our club. We have payed a reported £8.5million for him. This was paid for out of the remaining budget from the January window. When you consider that at one point Tottenham and United were looking at him you have to agree that this signing is a massive coup for The Canaries.

I would however offer some words of advice to fans, let's not put too much pressure on the guy. Yes he is the biggest signing we have made in recent history, yes he is a club record signing and yes his goal tally speaks for itself, but the dutch league to the portuguese league to the prem are very different animals. He has a big step up to make and I am more than confident he can do that, BUT I don't think it will happen over night. It will take time and we should all remain patient with him and the club during that time. It would also be silly of us to rely solely on him to provide us with all the goals, despite the fact that that is precisely what Sporting did. Chris Hughton and the board MUST make strides to bring in attacking players quickly and I have no doubt they are doing all they can to achieve that.

Leroy Fer or #TheBouncer as he is now being called by a section of the NCFC faithful is in my opinion one of the most exciting signings of the entire window. He is a dominant force in the centre of the park. As I said in my previous blog his performance against San Jose on Sunday morning was nothing short of exemplary. His skill and movement on the ball is assured and calm, his passing is full of pace and precision. He's young at 23 and has a very bright career ahead of him. You can see that Hughton is trying to work on "the spine" of the team. With Ruddy no doubt still number one choice in goal followed by Bassong at CB, Leroy Fer in the centre and RVW up front we have a very strong spine. The fee is undisclosed as always but reports suggest around £4.3mill which given that Everton had a agreed a £8.7mill deal back in January before the deal fell through it's another great bit of business by the club.

We also saw the arrival of Nathan Redmond from Birmingham for a reported £3.2mill with £2mill up front. This undoubtedly has the potential to be the buy of the decade! With people like Tom Ince being touted with £8-10mill moves and Wilfried Zaha's big money move to united. As well as the absurd £10mill price tag currently sat on Will Hughes' head, we have gotten ourselves one of the best wingers / attacking midfielders in the country. If the guy continues developing as he has in previous years there is no doubt in my mind that he could eventually be sold for in excess of £15mill, making our £3.2million investment in him a fantastic bit of business for the club. Aside from the financial gain involved in this transfer Redderz is exactly what we need. He is unbelievably quick, has an eye for goal and can play anywhere across the front line, although has been used primarily as a winger up until now. His movement on and off the ball is sublime and his pace in attack fills a massive hole that we had last year. As I've said before I would not be surprised to see him being played in a more attacking midfielder role, giving him the freedom to move around and find space. He will draw defenders off position with ease and is a great asset to have against teams adopting the offside trap. He is also great cover for the wings if Snoddy or Pilks get injured. He can also play just behind the striker like Hoolahan did last year when needs must. I would say this is the most exciting signing we have made. He has already settled in very well and in the San Jose game he looked on fire. I predict very big things for this lad and can't wait to see him in action next season.

We also completed the signing of Martin Ollson from Blackburn Rovers. His transfer didn't get quite the same fan fair but the value of this signing is no less important. We had no left back cover whatsoever after releasing Marc Tierney and signing up Javier Garrido on a new permanent contract so his signing was vital. He also provides us with another option. Garrido is a good left back but he struggles with pace. Ollson has pace in abundance and so will give us another dimension especially away from home when a counter attack is our most likely chance to score. He can also play on the left of midfield so provides good competition for Pilkington. The fee was a reported £2.5-£3.5mill which in my opinion is good business. Garrido's fee was reported to be somewhere between £2-3mill.

Finally we have also acquired the services of ex-Stoke Goalkeeper Carlo Nash on a free transfer. Fan's had differing views on this transfer due to Nash's age. Some seemed to think he was a replacement for John Ruddy, it's fair to say that these same people were convinced Ruddy was going to Chelsea which I have said from the start was NEVER going to happen, certainly not in a World Cup Year. My personal opinion on the Nash deal is a positive one. My understanding is that Nash want's to get into coaching, and so the draw of working alongside the best GK coach in England, Dave Watson, was the immediate draw. From the clubs point of view its a smart bit of business. He will provide us with experienced, quality cover for both Bunn and Ruddy. It's also being reported that he will be working with the youth players and Dave Watson in a training capacity. So for me this was a good bit of Business and welcome to NCFC Mr Nash.

OK so that's all the confirmed business out the way now on to the fun part... SPECULATION!

"I'm hoping this isn't Hughton signing us up another striker... not sure how he's what we need!"

As I'm writing this blog I'm getting messages telling me Gary Hooper is NCFC bound, well according to ex England Cricket Skipper, Michael Vaughan. Personally this whole Hooper saga is driving me bloody nuts. I like Celtic BUT I have to say the way they have handled the whole Hooper situation is idiotic. They turned down almost £8mill for him in January, sighting that he was not going to leave Celtic. Then at the start of this window they said the same, turning down a reported £5.5mill despite the fact that Hooper has still not signed a new contract with them. Reports came out last week that Mr McNasty (David McNally) had given Celtic a deadline to either accept our offer of £4mill or we were moving on. Personally I think this was a bullshit, nothing story made up by the national press to give a non story some excitement. QPR are reportedly interested but I can't see why Hooper would chose Championship football over Premiership football in a World Cup Year, unless he is solely in it for the money and nothing else. Same goes for the reported interest from Reading, I don't know how many bloody times I have to tell Reading fans that Hooper WILL NOT JOIN READING! I'm gonna look like a total twat now if he does, but, if he does, which he won't, I will be the first to say, I'm wrong... but I won't have to! Celtic and Neil Lennon, who is really starting to rub me up the wrong way, seem to have finally come to terms with the fact that Hooper will be moving, but the question still remains WHERE?

I wouldn't be disappointed if he didn't come to Norwich but having said that I would also not be depressed if he did. I'm fairly indifferent about the player. Yes he has a great scoring record, but it's in the SPL. I see him on par with someone like Charlie Austin. My other issue is that I don't really think he offers us anything new. We require pace up front, The Wolf has some pace but not bucket loads. We need a pacey option and for me he doesn't really fit that mould, He's more like Grant Holt but with a much more clinical finish. Time will tell on this one, the minute I hear anything I will post, so keep your eyes peeled.

The obvious targets right now are Strikers, with only two in the squad Hughton and McNally are working hard on signing them. I have long been saying that I expect the arrival of at least 2 strikers. I was laughed at for having this opinion right up until the last few weeks. Now, all of a sudden, the national media seem to all be going with the line "Chris Hughton looks to bring in 2 strikers" really... I've only been saying that for 4 bloody months!!!!!

So who are we looking at? Well as always with Norwich it's hard to tell, we keep our cards so close to our chest that we never really know what's going on.

SSN have us in for ex Barcelona star Maxi Lopez from Catania. I concede that I know very little about him, his goal tally of 4 in 17 is not great reading but this was while he was on loan at Sampdoria, so can we take it at face value? Probably not. I have asked around about him and most people who do know a little about him suggest again that he doesn't have much in terms of pace but that his finishing has been fairly good in the past... Helpful!!! I personally can't see this transfer happening... for me it's another Ola Toivonen... I said from the minute that Ola was mentioned that we wouldn't sign him. I was abused left, right and centre. People were so happy, saying he was gonna be the second striker and was exactly what we needed. Right, aside from the fact that OLA TOIVONEN is NOT A BLOODY STRIKER, his attitude is the last thing we need at Norwich. To be honest the board would never agree to him joining with that type of attitude, and no this has nothing to do with him not knowing who Norwich are, it's to do with him deciding that we can wait for a few weeks while he suns himself on a beach waiting for a bigger offer... fuck off Ola hahahaha! Also his on the pitch attitude stunk, he looked like a dirty dirty player and red card waiting to happen so for at least this was a lucky bloody escape.

Fortunately I'm not one of those fans that gets a massive erection at the first sign of us signing a player! I like to think I try to be analytical about it, I way up the pro's and con's I look into the player and quiz people on his style, how he plays, you know - do my research! Then and ONLY then do I form an opinion. I don't claim to be #itk and I'm certainly no expert but people seem to agree with what I say so as long as people keep agreeing or disagreeing constructively I will keep voicing my opinion.

Reports also suggest that we are in for 30 year old, out of favour Juventus striker Fabio Quagliarella. This report seems to have more traction but I would question his age. His abilities are not in question, a phenomenal pedigree and would no doubt rip up the premier league BUT at 30 you have to think about value for money. Reports suggest it would cost City around £7.5mill to secure his services, and that is a lot. There is no getting away from that fact... especially for a 30 year old! We would also be apparently looking at 40k a week wages! Personally I'm not sure, but for now at least I would put this in the maybe pile.

We are also reportedly in for Dame N'Doye from Lokomotiv, the 6ft 1in, 28 year old Senegal striker scored 79 goals in 123 appearance between 2009 and 2012 while at Copenhagen before moving to FC Lokomotiv where he has scored 11 goals in 27 appearance. He has also scored 4 goals in 13 for the national Senegal side. Lokomotive reportedly want £10mill for him which seems a little high. However I think the stumbling block will be on his wages. Russian Teams pay a lot in wages and I do mean a lot. You think the EPL is bad it's nothing compared to Russia. Unless he is willing to take a definite wage drop I can't see this happening. My favourite reporter "James 'I know nothing' Nursey" seems to be suggesting that Lokomotiv are being "difficult" with Norwich over the fee. There is no clarification as to what "difficult" means exactly and of course he offer's no source. His opinion changes daily, at one point he suggested that Norwich were intending to focus the "REMAINDER" of their budget on Gary Hooper... So clearly he knows fuck all and should probably quit and get a job that he'd be better at... like killing himself! (sorry it really is a deep hatred for this man hahaha!). Dame N'Doye for me goes in the unlikely pile unless the draw of the premier league turns his head.

Personally I would like to see us go after John Guidetti from Man City, the Swedish 21 year old has been prolific in recent years scoring 20 in 23 at Feyenoord whilst on loan. Since joining Man City in 2010 he hasn't made a single appearance for the club, instead he has spent his time on loans at Brommapojkama where he scored 3 in 8, Burnley where he scored 1 in 5 and then finally Feyenoord. He also been capped at every level of the Swedish national team U17 (8 in 11), U19 (5 in 5), U21 (4 in 10) and has had one full cap for Sweden. He is unlikely to feature for Man City next year and the possibility could be that he is loaned out once again. It is unclear at this point whether Hughton is even looking at him, although his name has been doing the rounds. I think it's fairly unlikely that Man City would want to sell him BUT a loan move might be an option. This in itself presents a problem, I can't really see Hughton going in for a loan. The only way I see Hughton bringing in a player on loan is if he secures us at least one more striker on a permanent deal.

Finally I would also like to see us go in for Alfie Finnbogason from SC Heerenveen. The 24 year old Icelandic international has again been prolific in recent years scoring 12 in 17 while on loan at Helsingbord and then 24 in 31 last term at Heerenveen. He also has a good return of 4 in 15 at international level. Aston Villa were in for him last summer before they signed Benteke and for a moment during the whole Benteke transfer saga it seemed they might make a move for him again. Now that that incident has been "resolved" hmmm... I would suspect that Aston Villa will turn their attentions to other areas, this could leave room for us to swoop in. I could see this guy being a big hit in the EPL and personally would love to see him given a chance to prove himself in the best league in the world. I suspect he would cost us around £7-9mill, I do think given his age and pedigree this is a price worth paying, at present though, there are no reports that we are in for him bar the occasional wishful remark on the fan forums.


Right, I'll leave you all to ponder... I assure you not all the posts will be this long, BUT I do have a fair bit of catching up to do.

Don't forget to leave me a comment below, let me know your thoughts... If you have any questions ask away and I will try to answer them as best I can in the next blog entry. Will try to do a Q&A blog once a week should their be a demand for it.

Make sure you follow me on twitter @chrisdeighton or #asklondoncanary for any questions...

ON THE BALL CITY!