The question for me is: What does Teemu want to do? If he is willing to go thru the Championship wars again, this time without Emi, then great. But he may want a nice payday, i.e. signing bonus, before ending his career. If he wants to move, I don't see how the club could say no to him.
I agree with that. If he wants to go, we shouldn't stand in his way. The club owes him that. But if he doesn't want to go, we should do everything we can to keep him.
I'm very worried that Pukki won't be here next season. The last couple of games he's looked a lot more like the old Pukki because we've been playing a system that brings out the best in him. But for most of the season his role has been running around like a headless chicken chasing lost causes, a job almost any idiot could do. Why would he want to do that in the autumn of his career?
City have been linked with a French U20 winger Jean-Luc Dompe, who is currently playing in Belgium. he is predominatly a left winger and has recorded 14 assists this season. It is believed that City have opened dialogue with his representatives ahead of a potential summer move. Bristol City also interested. Previously played for Standard-Liege and Genk before he joined his current club in 2020. Can play Left/Right wing or Left midfield
Do you know how many of those assists came from balls along the ground? And how many from crosses into the box? I doubt if these facts are included, but asking just in case.
I just can't see him going. He is 32, earning £50k a week, guaranteed a game every week and will undoubtedly be offered another year if he performs well next season. Who is going to offer him a better deal than that and is he going to want to move Mrs Pukki and little Pukki away from where they have settled in for a bit extra bunce? On top of that he is under contract so any Club wanting him would have to pay a transfer fee for a 32 year old who has not had a lot of success in the Premiership. To me it doesn't add up.
I really hope you're right. But I watched that run of games in the middle of the season when he was like piggie-in-the-middle between opposition defenders with no other Norwich player within twenty yards of him, and he looked like he'd had enough. He was professional as always, of course, and dutifully did the chasing, but his body language suggested that he hated it. If that's our future, I doubt if he wants any part of it.
I think Pukki has at least two good seasons left in him as well - he’s never relied on his pace, so even though that has already faded a little it’s making no real difference to what he brings
I agree. IMO only mental fatigue will lessen his performances for at least a couple of seasons more. EDIT: I also think his all-round play has actually improved over the last two seasons. He is not just making runs anymore to put himself into scoring positions, but also reading our attacks well enough to provide assists for other players. One of many examples I remember was him passing the ball to Sargent and more or less placing the ball on his foot. (Sargent, of course, got his feet in a mess. Pukki flashed him a quick look which was not appreciative.)
In case you ask - I have never heard of him and nor had a friend of mine who knows more than I do about French players. He just dropped in for a chat probably because he saw the wine delivery van here earlier!!
In recent games both Dowell and Lees-Melou have shown the ability to play the through balls that Teemu thrives on and that could make a difference next season. Whether it's enough to convince him to stay remains to be seen.
Based on The Athletic article about the contract extensions, Pukki (and his family) feels very settled in Norwich and he is not looking for a way out this summer. Should a club make a good offer for him and if Norwich want to consider it, then maybe there's a discussion, but Pukki won't agitate for an exit. As above, I can totally make an argument for Norwich accepting an £8m+ bid for Pukki believing it has long term benefits to the club, but I also think the transfer dealings the club have made in the last 2 years haven't been good enough to trust them with such a gamble. Pukki is very capable of another 20+ goal season in the Championship, and no player we could sign would have a better chance of achieving that with Norwich. Whilst there are questions about how we effectively build a Premier League team around Pukki, I think it's more important to get promoted at the first time of asking and reassess those questions next summer, rather than sell Pukki and try and develop a playing style this summer which can both win the championship and achieve Premier League survival after that.
Completely agree. There is far too much complacency (not on here, but look at the PinkUn message board) that all we have to do is turn up in order to win this league again. IMO, we need to put all our effort into getting promoted again and then we worry about PL survival.
Credit where it's due, the club handled that risk of complacency well last time around. Made early, positive transfers, and got on with the job well. We need to learn from what was done correctly there, and also look to still do better again this summer. I think in some ways it's harder this time around, as we won't be sticking to the Farke blueprint for promotion and at least from where I'm sitting it's not clear what Smith's favoured approach is. But equally, we're going down with a squad that's better on paper, probably as the only relegated side with a manager in place, into a league which I think has fewer dangers than two seasons ago. Maybe I haven't been paying as close attention to the championship, but there's no Brentford equivalent building towards an inevitable promotion, and few teams will have significant parachute payments, I think it's only West Brom and Sheffield United that could still be in the league and receiving significant funds (plus the relegated trio). Everton would have a massive task on their hands if relegated, as they have few relegation clauses in contracts and an expensive squad, whilst if Burnley go down they apparently have a £60m loan to repay, which is going to do a lot of damage to their ability to rebuild. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...g-60MILLION-hit-relegated-Premier-League.html There's no "sleeping giant" like Leeds or Newcastle in the league, and whilst Watford will throw money around, they're also very likely to lose both Dennis and Sarr this summer. Getting promoted will absolutely be difficult, we need the squad to take it seriously, and be bolstered by smart transfers, but we should absolutely be a big fish in that particular pond.
I think this is a false trichotomy. It is perfectly possible for Dean Smith to (a) start immediately on developing a playing style better suited to EPL survival while (b) also being well capable of getting us promoted at the first time of asking and (c) continuing to be centred around Pukki. I don't think Pukki is an issue at all in this context; the crucial signings this summer would be a McGinn-like AM and a right-sided CB with better feet than Grant Hanley. Why I don't think Pukki is an issue in this is because of the close similarity between him and Ollie Watkins -- striking similarity you could say!
May I ask why you single out Hanley and say nothing about Gibson, who arguably cost us the game against both Brentford and Man Utd? Is it because you assume Omobamidele will come in and play Gibson's role, or do you believe that Gibson has done a better job this season than Hanley?
It’s just because either Robbie is a troll, or he just cannot bring himself to admit being wrong. Even though every commentator, fan thinks differently, even though Hanley is our only player to be linked with a move to a Premier League club this summer, even though he gets high praise from our manager (who Robbie is so adamant is the right one), the thought of admitting to himself that he might just have been a little bit wrong - not a lot, but just a bit of a misjudgement - is too much for Robbie to stomach.
Purely because I think the way Dean Smith will have us play requires CBs who can move the ball forward to an advanced midfield without surrendering possession, e.g. by carrying the ball forward themselves or by accurate medium and long passing. Gibson is better at this, which is the reason why Hanley so often passes the ball to him rather than trying to progress the ball himself.
