Fox suffered with an illness for large parts of last season, maybe his omission was down to that? Sorry if that doesn't fit your agenda.
Just watched the highlights on canaries player, wish they were a bit longer really, but one pass fox played for RVW was class personified, completely on the same wave length catching the defence out and leading to a great save from stockdale. I think he'd add a dimension to our play especially against teams with rigid defences, like Hull away, Cardiff at home etc.
I know Fox was awarded MOTM after the Fulham game, but the Independent gave the award to Josh Murphy. What a total buzz to play well in your first senior home start, get the assist for the equaliser and catch the eye of a sports journalist enough to receive that accolade Well played both Fox and Murphy. please log in to view this image
I really do think that Tettey, Fox and Fer - despite what some people are suggesting Fer has not gone from a brilliant buy targeted by bigger clubs in this window to a crap player in 2 games - could operate as a midfield trio as long as there was a significant system change and CH took the shackles off Fer and Fox. Doubt if it will happen though.
I've had glandular fever, I think years is a slight exaggeration. His shirt number changed to 25 similarly to Surman, Vaughan etc. All had their shirt numbers changed. Where are they now? You cannot deny Fox is out of favour. If you do that's fairly delusional I have to say. Also Fox played most of the pre season campaign. So at the start of the season he was in the exact same boat as the rest of the squad.
Well spotted Cromer - according to Archant (Paddy) - both Murphy and Fox got an '8' for their efforts and both thoroughly deserved!!
There was a thread at the time his glandula fever was discovered where someone said they'd had it and it took them 3 years to get over it! I had an uncle that got it as a baby just a few months old, when he died of a heart attack aged 47, Norfolk and Norwich said a large part of the cause was the damage done to his heart as a baby!
typical course of GF is a few weeks, fatigues can last for about 6/12 in a clinically signifcant manner, but low grade fatigue is known to persist for even longer, albeit reasonably uncommon.
On the glandular fever debate, I think whilst it probably played a part, I don't seriously think Hughton expected to use Fox all season. His squad number changed, and he even tweeted after the cup game that he didn't think he'd get the chance to play at Carrow Road again. Where the new contract he was given fits in, I don't know!
I've had Glandular fever and I have NEVER recovered from it (ok the initial illness is long gone, not cured but the damage it does can be huge) and that was over a decade ago. It's not exaggeration to say that at all, not all cases are as severe and not all cases are as mild as yours. It's a funny disease and people do die from it too. There is also increasing evidence that contracting the Epstein Barr virus in adulthood can cause an increased risk of developing MS. It's a very nasty illness closely related to Hepatitis and can do similar damage to your liver. It's a very under-rated illness the "kissing disease" but it can be a real nasty thing to get. Also once you've had it you carry it for life and if you get run down you can get flare ups, it's not an infection of GF again but it can cause flu to be much worse, coughs and colds can put you in bed.
Suppose I was lucky with glandular fever than. I never knew it could be that bad. Fair enough, sorry to hear that about your uncle Dave. Do most people get glandular fever? I actually don't know? Anyway I agree DH I highly doubt Fox was in Hughtons plans. I wonder if Fox signed that contract earlier because I've heard about new contracts being done and end up being confirmed months later. Russ Martin for example and I think perhaps Surman I can't quite remember.
I may as well add my two peneth. I have had Glandular fever and for me it thankfully passed quickly with no lingering effects (Albeit now that I think about it I'm gonna say it was the reason I never made it, a yard off me pace n all!) but there was one lad at school who got it at a similar time to me and he was at deaths door for the best part of 6 months, god knows when he/if he fully recovered. But the point for me is that whilst we all heard he had it, if he had not recovered by early 2013, then why in hell would he have been played against Luton? Training and general fitness monitoring would of picked up if he was physically not at the right level. So whilst he had a stinker in that game, I would say that Quite probably he has been fit for the vast majority of 2013, just not fancied by the management team. Lets not forget that it took several factors of injury and suspension for him to get a game, the proof of the management teams view on Fox will come in the next few league fixtures. I like Fox and what he brings to the team, so I can only hope that inspite of all that I've said above, that it was lingering effects of the illness and that CH will give him a run of games to see if we can start finding RvW and Hoops abit more often in the right areas. Bah!
I doubt he would have played had we had all our midfielders fit. This has to be the main reason why he played, Johnson has played every minute over the Christmas period and should benefit from the rest, fer was suspended, Howson injured, Tettey injured, who's left? Fair play to him though he seemed to seize his chance this time and could hopefully provide some much needed competition/cover to our central midfield. Just on a side note, what does everyone think about starting Murphy in the next game, shift Redmond out to the right (where he is best) and playing Snodgrass centrally behind Hooper? I know it would be risky against Everton but we need some pace to push the likes of Baines and Coleman from bombing forward
Snoddy plays that role well for Scotland I think, wouldn't be opposed to it as long as he doesn't get shooting crazy and waste good positions a lot which I have a feeling he'd want to do. I'd like to see us get the wingers in the box like we used to when the ball wasn't on their side of the pitch to support the lone striker. We're looking too empty in that position and no one from the midfield is committing.
This is so much why we're missing Pilkington at the moment, he's the best we have of providing that support. Although others could be trained / coached to do likewise?
I agree, I think this season we miss him more than anyone, be it Bassong, Fer, Snodgrass, Hooper. It totally changes how we play on the left, much, much, better than the total rubbish down that side (Ollsson excluded).
