Transfer Rumours Arrivals / Departures lounges, Summer 2023.

This from the EDP:

"City have been linked with experienced defender Shane Duffy but it's understood both parties remain apart in their desired packages but work is ongoing to find a compromise."

 

Out of context the euphemisms could be quite eye-popping

 

Five youth team players Samuel Seaman thinks are verging on promotion to the first team squad:

https://www.pinkun.com/news/23568801.norwich-city-next-academy-breakout-star/

 

Tom Ince (31), Reading's Player of the Season, apparently has a relegation release clause of just £50k and Norwich are interested. He previously worked with Wagner at Huddersfield, who eventually sold him for £11m.

9 goals, 4 assists in 38 Championship games last season, mainly playing a CAM role (I think, but he's clearly positionally flexible).

 

I think he was rumoured to have been one of the players that were shown Colney

 

I used to rate Ince a few years ago, but not so sure now. Still, DW and SW are more likely to want to bring him in to CR if they think he ticks all the right boxes. So that could be four new players: Barnes, Stacey, Duffy? and Ince. All these are 30+ years old so experience seems to be the main criterion.

 

Nothing about Ince screams to me of a player who could carry us into the Premier League and keep us there.

However, what we need is experience and strength in depth, level heads. If he’s available for not too much money I would say that’s perfect. We still need to plan for the future, but we also need grit and consistency for next season.

 

Agree with that. There seems to be a concentration about making the most of our last season with a parachute payment. Ince is another who knows the league and that he's worked with Wagner before is another plus.

 

Stacey is only 27, but the others are all over 30.

 

Yeah I agree with this. As long as the role for him is appropriate, I can see the sense in the signing.

Ince's all-time Premier League record is 48 games, 3 goals, 1 assist - and he hasn't played in that league since 2018. I don't think he gets anywhere near the pitch for a promoted side.

But in the Championship, 91 goals, 59 assists in 365 games is pretty respectable, and he'd be joining off the back of his best season in a while. If Wagner wants to work with a small squad, a senior pro who he's got experience with, and can slot in across any of the attacking roles in a 4-2-3-1 makes a lot of sense. I'd be worried if our expectation was that he was going to come and play 46 games and fire us to promotion, but as a flexible bench option he's very useful.

If the sales of Rashica, Omobamidele, Aarons, etc don't pan out as intended and we don't have the funds to significantly strengthen our first team, he's not the worst option to have starting. With a better team around him than Reading, you'd hope he's capable of bettering his 13 goal contributions from 22/23 - and only Sargent from our squad hit that mark last season.

 

Borja Sainz, the winger from Turkey linked recently, scored and was sent off in his team's final fixture. It ended in defeat and relegation, meaning he should be available on a free.

 

I'm afraid that the days when we can push for Promotion and plan to stay there are well and truly over. I suspect that the main aims next year are to plan for when the parachute payments stop, commence a steady significant drop in the wage bill etc , make a profit on transfers, have an experienced squad to maintain a steady position in the league, make progress on the long term ownership of the Club and use the season to bring forward several academy players. Not what most supporters want to hear but it is the reality of the situation.

 

Statsbomb recently introduced an improved version of the familiar Aerial Duels Won/Lost metric, the aim of which is to better evaluate heading ability:
https://statsbomb.com/articles/soccer/introducing-hops-a-new-way-to-evaluate-heading-ability/
Shane Duffy ranks 2nd among all the male players in Statsbomb's entire dataset, one place above Virgil Van Dijk. Sounds as if he might singlehandedly transform our set piece goals stats.

And another random stat, courtesy of Statsbomb. Two of our somewhat less than impenetrable midfield shield, Marcelino Núñez and Kenny McLean, feature in the top 10 most nutmegable players in the Championship!

 

According to reports in Chile, Brighton are to make a big money offer for (our) Nunez.

 

It does seem that Webber and co are now facing up to the fact that overall the 'project' has failed to meet it's objectives. When he arrived, he said that mistakes like squandering money on over priced players must stop, but as soon as we received PL money that's exactly what we did. Our biggest successes came from free transfers and bargain signings like Pukki and Buendia. We're now back in that situation and hoping to scrape along.

The Championship and lower leagues are littered with former PL clubs like West Brom, Bolton, Blackburn, Swansea, Sunderland and Watford struggling to manage. In the past 20 years we've reached the PL 5 times but but only stayed there only once. I'm not sure that entitles us a place on that list. Our future now lies predominantly in short term thinking with the hope that the academy can continue to turn out first team players or that those bought in like Forsyth can do the same. It's a delicate balance, but the days of splurging funds on expensive players are a thing of the past.

 

Rumoured figures of £17m - not sure we can turn that down. I think he has taken a while to settle and would improve next season, but that is a significant fee that we couldn't afford to dismiss with the rebuild ongoing this season

 

This according to the Pinkun:

"The 23-year-old could cost Brighton around 20million Euros according to the report, or just over £17million by current exchange rates."

That would be very welcome money indeed, if true.

 

You are perfectly correct Rick and there are many other big City clubs such as Cardiff, Birmingham Coventry and Stoke that do not appear on your list. All have had to learn to live within their means in this Division without the parachute payments and those like Derby, Portsmouth and Wigan who haven't, have paid a terrible price. I think that next year will be really tough. A few of these bigger Clubs such as Coventry and Sunderland are showing signs of revival and they are the sort of big City Clubs that are capable of attracting investment. Look at the three huge Clubs coming down from the PL and also the three large well run Clubs that are coming up. As a Club we have to face that challenge on the field whilst at the same time substantially reducing our overheads - especially the wage bill - with further budget cuts planned for the season after that to cover the loss of the parachute money. I wish the Club well but I am rather fearful about the likely outcome - anyone else remember the dreadful 1960's?

 

Is Nunez good enough for Brighton? Beundia was certainly good enough for Aston Villa as he has shown this season. I suppose that if Brighton want to spent upwards of £17m on him then who are we to argue. I suspect DW and SW will be delighted.

 

An excerpt from Michael Bailey's latest article in The Athletic, about Jack Stacey:

"He runs for fun — to the point that he actually enjoys getting stuck into pre-season — and his care of the ball proved as good as any full-back at that level during 2021-22. That was emphasised by his successful passing, progressive passing and carrying numbers ............. he has been adept at figuring in successful wide passing combinations that see him receive the ball in the penalty area and create opportunities with low crosses or cutbacks towards the central space just in front of goal. It is a pattern Norwich head coach David Wagner also likes, and the same can be said of Stacey’s desire to play in intense teams, get up and down the pitch as often as possible and drive his team forward. Stacey wanted an intense training regime, too.

He has also shown he knows what it takes to be defensively sound. In his first seven appearances of the 2021-22 season, Bournemouth did not concede a goal while Stacey was on the pitch. He subsequently became a regular in a back line that kept a club-record six successive clean sheets away from home.

What is more likely to go under the radar with supporters is how Stacey’s character meshes with his new team-mates.
Wagner and sporting director Stuart Webber have both attempted to be diplomatic about the character traits Norwich found in short supply last season as they stumbled to a failed Championship promotion bid and finishing 13th.

The real answer is revealed by Stacey, who received rave reviews about his professionalism from his former manager at Bournemouth, Gary O’Neil. Stacey’s determination and focus was noted by his team-mates at his former club, along with his desire to engage with the club’s community functions."

Sounds an excellent signing to me.