Yep. He’s been impressive in his first few games, as has Adams who we signed from Derby for £500k, giving some aggression to our midfield.
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Not a bad window for Norwich. Two or three promising young players with plenty of potential at reasonable prices and Sam Field on loan from QPR to cover for the injured and much missed Mattsson. Provided he doesn’t go beyond £3m Knapper seems to do a decent job.
Now waiting to see if Toronto match our valuation for Sargent as their window closes on the 26th March.
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We somehow managed to do more business than the whole of the Premier League in terms of overall numbers. Vyner effectively replaces the awful and lacking in self awareness Coady but he’ll most likely act as cover for young Max at right full back.
Not sure about Cadamerteri. Have seen him play against us several times, most recently Saturday, and he’s never really made an impression.
Keillor-Dunne coming back has been rumoured for some time now and many of us thought it might have happened last season. The 5 games he played for us all those years ago before dramatically leaving for the then L2 Oldham left a permanent impression. Not least his goal against Bromley which effectively stopped us doing a Stockport, Scunthorpe et al and slipping into the National League North on points per game during Covid. Genuinely surprised no other Championship clubs ever came in for him. The kid is a player. I suspect he won’t be bench warming for too long. Very pleased to have him back.
The players shipped out - Mendy, Faal, Lee and Ashfield and Hardie are a mixed bag.
Hardie - inevitable. Made close to zero impression on the pitch and carried himself poorly off it. Bolton might be gutted to have missed out but I’m sure he’ll have another chance to go there as he won’t be coming back to us.
Lee - the euphemism is “needs games” after injury. It’s very true but he was a spent force in L1 so, unlike Cannon’s loan to Burton where you think there’s every chance he’ll be back and in with a shot next season, we won’t see Lee again. Produced real magic in the NL but despite a bright start goals wise in L2 it was obvious then his days were numbered.
Faal - there’s a player in there somewhere of Makama standard and arguably more but he was a strange signing and we won’t be seeing him again.
Mendy - very sad to see him go. If he can get those hamstrings fixed he’s very much in the mould of Sorba Thomas. The moment we saw the latter playing for Boreham Wood you knew you were seeing a player. Mendy is also a Championship level player but the loss of confidence with his injuries left him unwilling to take players on. Hope he gets that back with Posh because he might well come again. Weird they described him as a defender though.
Ashfield - interesting one. He’ll definitely be back. Club and fans think we have a second young local player who could do great things. I remain to be convinced. His positional sense is superb. His first and second touch? Not so much. This move will make or break him.
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Saints have shipped out their top scorer this season, Adam Armstrong, to Wolves who appear to be preparing for Championship life.
We have signed Cyle Larin, I think on loan, Canada’s second highest ever scorer. The idea seems to be that we will have a big man for the our wingers to aim at.
I’m covering our home game against Leicester in the FA Cup on St Valentine’s Day. Will aim my cameras at Cyle!
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I gather we were in the mix for him but I dare not mention it on here 
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Armstrong’s an interesting player. Obviously there have been times for us when he has been excellent. I’m not sure that he is a great fit for us now, now that we have decided we want to play with wingers.
As you know, I don’t have any great understanding of the game. I doubt many other Saints fans would agree with what I have said about Armstrong’s fit into our style. They will just see the loss of our top scorer. But I’m travelling hopefully, and Larin’s signing at least strikes me as coherent thinking. The latter a quality that has been somewhat missing for a while, on this part of the south coast.
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We have poor history with players called Armstrong. Chris Armstrong went onto far greater things before pretty much ending his career with us very badly. Now a major league weed addict.
Our attempt to sign Luke Armstrong from Carlisle always looked a bit odd but foundered on deadline day when the paper work wasn’t completed in time. Poor bloke was so psychologically damaged he barely played or scored for a season but Sparky seems to be slowly bringing him out of his shell.
It could have only ended badly for Adam with us…
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Armstrong is a product of the Newcastle United Academy. He was a kid when he played for us and was not strong enough, nor big enough, for the Premier League. The Championship is probably his level, which is where he will inevitably end up. I wish him well.
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Don’t do your self a disservice Chris. You have a very measured tone and clear-headed insights. It’s more than most of us manage.
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Ha! Thanks Mike!
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I see that Luton have cleared out some more of our ‘rejects’ to Championship clubs - not sure that Sheff Weds is the safest of destinations though 
@Christopher_M now you have Jacob Brown to add to Alli - hopefully both should be good additions (especially seeing that Alli is starting to score!).
@PaulM - think you mean me rather that @Christopher_M as Jacob Brown has come to Pompey (on loan) rather than the Saints. We certainly need a back-up centre forward, especially as Bishop is now out for 3 or 4 weeks. If Brown is as effective as Alli, I’ll be pleased.
Absolutely, thanks for the correction!…..I was far too keen
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Interesting times. Having been to Wednesday last weekend I don’t think anyone will be too surprised when I say there are ongoing concerns re: the legitimacy of buyers, that they are a club who are effectively dead behind the eyes from management down to fans and that they’re not preparing for L1. They are resigned very much to a battle to stay in L2 the season after next barring something dramatic happening.
Guess I’d be pleased if I was a Norwich fan as the 6 point deduction for Leicester is likely to suck them irretrievably into the bottom 3, again barring something dramatic happening.
Putting it on record now, if you don’t hear from me tomorrow it’s because… Millwall at home.
It’s also more likely because I’m ambitiously attempting the post match 4 train version of my journey home to be where I need to be for 19:06 so Mrs. H. can pick me up and get me to our local indie cinema for Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. synced to R.E.M.
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I’d be confident of our continuing rise up the table if it wasn’t for the problem we have with hamstring injuries. When they revamped the training facilities they must have done something to the grass!
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Well, how long before Toure goes on strike, demanding a transfer……..or tweeks his hamstring?
He can’t, after today he’s the last one left. Makama injury did not look good as he limped off. We must be cursed. Time to replace the Mayor with the Bishop.
At the end of the day a good win against an organised and determined Blackburn side.
Toure scoring on his debut and demonstrating that although a bit raw he has incredible pace.
Cordoba should have been given the MOTM award but what do sponsors know. Clement has somehow made him concentrate and cut out the silly mistakes he used to make. He has pace, power, good in the air and comfortable on the ball. I think he’s the best Norwich centre back I’ve seen since Dave Watson/Steve Bruce.
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Bruce arrived just after I left Norwich so I only saw him play with Watson in a couple of away games in the Manchester area. They looked a formidable combination.
Dave Watson was not only the best centre half we have had on the past 50 years (big Dunc included) but set an example some of our recent players should have taken note of. When relegated at the start of the 85/86 season he refused a lucrative transfer to Everton (then the countries best team) on the basis that he was one of the players responsible for the relegation so he should stay & attempt to put things right. He did, we were promoted & he then left for Merseyside the following season going on to have a fine career there.
Now, whatever became of Mr Bruce……..
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Some Millwall “fans” arrived at 11am and were inevitably involved in some city centre fracas but the police intelligence to the club was that no trouble was expected and that’s pretty much how it played out. An interesting constraint to 20+ years ago and the last visit of Millwall in far greater numbers. I guess you can take no chances but it was depressing to see more cops than fans at the station and that Millwall still travel with undercover Met Officers, although how “undercover” they might be at this point is to say the least questionable.
Smith had a niggle as did Broadhead so Moore and O’Brien started. Both again put in performances which might politely be described as both shameful and par for the course. The decision to have Dobson on the bench again inexplicable.
That aside, I hold my hands up. That was a wonderful game of football and, cliche aside, it really was a game decided on fine margins between two teams playing near the peak of their form this season and both looking for the win. We dominated for 35 minutes, played some lovely stuff and created decent chances. The serious looking injury to Matty James turned the rest of the half into a scrap. The injury to Cacace was a huge blow as he was beginning to look what he is, arguably one of maybe 4 or 5 PL players in the team. Thomason as his replacement was arguably the best player on the pitch second half.
Both sides went at it and for it second half in a game where Millwalls pressing was superb and in the end created the errors which won the game. At half time it was one of those games where literally no-one wanted to call it beyond “first goal absolutely wins it” and so it proved.
Young Max scored the decisive OG. Not a lot he could have done given the pace on the ball but the real damage was the move which ripped us apart to set it up. Hyam who otherwise had a magnificent afternoon, slipped in poor conditions and they were all over us in an instant, as admittedly we were them when the opportunity arose.
The second goal didn’t reflect the closeness of the teams or the match. It was just an inevitable consequence of pushing for an equaliser we could have got. Hell of a wallop though.
We beat them 0-2 at their place and can have no complaints yesterday. It was a great game and no shame in losing that at all. It’s ludicrously close but Millwall will have to go some to blow a play off place.
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A fine win for Luton yesterday against Bradford, one of the play off teams and maybe getting rid of some ‘rejects’ helped because that was probably one of our best performances of the season. Bradford were no slouches but we managed to get stuck into them and to cause them problems. Great to see Mullin again who can still pose a threat at this level. More of this please…but there again we face Cardiff at Cardiff so miracles needed next weekend.
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