For arguments sake, let’s suggest that the difference between a Newcastle of this world and a Norwich of this world is one Loic Remy.
That the player is top class is not in dispute.
Harry Redknapp may be many things, but he is no fool when it comes to judging a player.
“Make no mistake, he will get between 15 and 20 goals next season if he goes to a Premier League club. He is a top-class player – a player for any club in the Premier League in my opinion.”
Those were H’s words as he made it be known that Rangers’ £8 million signing from Marseille last January could go out on loan this season to any club that was willing to pay a £2 million loan fee.
That and the £75,000 a week wages that his talents and/or his agent demands.
It is interesting the fact that the transfer fee was a mere £8 million – about the same as Norwich were reported to have paid for Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Give or take.
With his strike against Norwich being his eighth Premier League goal of the season – in just ten league appearances for his short-term employers – Remy is already well on his way to proving Redknapp right.
And merely adding to the debate as to what, exactly, £8 million can get you in the European striker market. It gets you a Loic Remy.
But…
If only life were so simple.
Because a Remy comes with certain additional demands. Not least the £75,000 a week wage demands.
And an array of Monaco-based agents led by a Frederic Guerra. Though the name of Willie Mackay has also been connected to the 26-year-old French international.
Mackay may be many things, but he is no fool when it comes to spotting talent.
And cashing in on said talent. At that he is a master.
And as Newcastle’s first attempt to lure Remy to St James’ proved, money doesn’t buy you loyalty. They were all waiting for the Frenchman to do his medical – as said representatives were whisking him away to West London where Harry’s wages awaited.
Twice, reportedly, what Newcastle were originally due to offer him.
On current form, Remy could expect another pay rise before the year is out.
Go back to the luckless van Wolfswinkel and I get every impression that he is a nice, Dutch lad whose girlfriend is the daughter of Johann Neeskens.
He is blue blood Dutch footballing aristocracy. Whether he has the heart of a Carlisle tyre-fitter has yet to be seen, but I would tentatively suggest that the biggest thing Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Loic Remy have in common is their transfer fee.
It might be the only thing they have in common.
And yet as the New Year transfer window looms every larger in people’s thinking, that would be my question for the board – whether to progress the club to where it is beyond the reaches of the bottom five or six clubs in the English Premier League, it will need to dabble more in the Loic Remy end of the European striker market rather than the Ricky van Wolfswinkel?
Because there is a huge difference in what – and who – you are buying into once you arrive at that fork in the transfer road.
And the answer – once you seek to bat consistently at that level – wont lie in the lower tiers of English football. There will be the odd exception. A Holt or a Lambert.
Otherwise, the answer increasingly is something young, hungry, muscular and mean. And, invariably, will have ‘graduated’ from the school of hard knocks that is the French footballing academies.
And will have a Monaco-based agent in tow.
That is where the market is. That is the reality.
That the answer to Norwich’s Premier League striking woes may be the next Loic Remy. Or another Christian Benteke. Who might be Belgian, but the same logic applies.
You know from Day One, you are the stepping stone. The £8 million move that the agent has down as the one before the £25 million one to a Chelsea or an Arsenal.
It’s the Demba Ba route to fame and fortune.
The ‘price’ you pay for their service for 12-18 months tops is a ceiling-shattering wage packet and a five-year deal that you then leverage to gain the £25 million deal that follows.
That’s the way that it works. Thems the choices, to coin a phrase.
Perhaps ‘The Wolfman’ is on the same, said path. Perhaps.
But whether or not this current manager survives the winter or not, the same issue will confront any successor.
At the level that a debt free Norwich aspire to – to be one step ahead of the God-awful ugly fight at the foot of the English Premier League season after season – they are going to have to think long and hard as to who they are prepared to get into bed with to deliver the kind of striker that separates them from a Newcastle.
And that is a very big decision for a club of Norwich’s ilk – just what price are you prepared to pay, financial or otherwise, for the kind of striker that delivers Premier League security?
Dare i say that the biggest difference between these two strikers is…….
The rigidity of tactic that he has to endure. Trying to mould the players we have into the tactic that CH wants to play. Rather than finding the best tactics for the players we have available. At leat i believe that is what Pardew is doing.
We are oan over processed team at the expense of creativity, similar to West Ham and Spurs. For the levels they aspire that can’t compete creatively due the over reliance on tactics and making sure every instruction is coached in.
I see Hooper and RVW running around closing down defenders. Fer and Howsen running around closing midfielders, everyone else running around to try and claw back after going behind. Working harder is not the answer to NCFC’s problems. We look over processed and manufactured. I watched Cardiff yesterday…..if malky had better players (i believe Norwich, in the main have barring a handful) what could he achieve?????
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Yes the difference between Norwich and Newcastle is Remy and er, Krul, Debuchy, Collocini, Santon, Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Gouffron and … Yes I can see where you are coming from.
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Nicely put, he is the type of player that separates you from the crowd. Newcastle will, of course, fool themselves they have a superior team and squad but without Remy they are no different from the rest of us (last season is perfect proof). It’s a shame who, and what, you have to get in to bed with for these deals, but let’s do it for some long overdue fun…I’m a bored supporter right now, and could do with a splash of the Remy’s (and pricey a prerequisite).
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The on field set up and tactics at Newcastle work for Remy. The set up and tactics at Norwich don’t work for RvW, or Hooper, or Elmander (playing on the wing?!)
Get the set up and service right and the goals follow.
I said CH needed 6 points from the next 4 games – Palace being the 4th. So watch this space if we loose on Saturday……
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Great Article,
Came here Via a Newcastle forum page. its so true, even for a (no disrepect intented) bigger club like Newcastle (which is has been in Europe 5 times in the last 10 years) we’re seen as stepping stones. Europe or no Europe, its wages that dicatate where a players goes. Champions League may be the exception to the rule but its the ‘chicken or the egg’scenerio as in order to compete for the 4th spot you need to spend tens of millions – but you can only get that type of money when you are in the Champions League.
We had a long look at Ricky VW and (to a lessor extent) Leroy Fey and thought the former would be a good buy.
Time will tell but you obviously need goals sooner rather than later.
One thing is for sure Chris is defo the man for the job – the fact that Newcastle Fans gave him a chorus of ‘theres only one Chrissy Hughton’ on Saturday is indicative of that.
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There can’t be comparisons made between RVW, Hooper and Remy. They might be absolute dynamite but we’ll never know unless someone actually starts giving them the ball. Did Hooper get a touch in the second half v Newcastle? It certainly didn’t look like it.
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At the start of the season had we wanted a Remy perhaps we would have got one. As things stand I can not believe any player with ambition is going to even get as far as a medical.
One look at the table, and perhaps a few questions about the manager’s style of play will be enough to see to that.
But in truth the problem lies deeper in the team. Neither RvW nor Hooper have missed hatfuls of chances. We have not been creating chances for them to miss. Once again on Saturday the goal came from a set piece, as 2 did against West Ham (and the third an individual effort late on when the game was being chased). We create so little in open play.
If you watch football across the divisions the most obvious difference between top and bottom is the passing, especially in the final third. By the time you get to the top half of the Premiership it’s not just about finding a man, it’s weight of pass too so that the recipient doesn’t lose momentum, can take a pass in his stride, barely needs a touch to control it.
We have nobody of the quality to pass like that consistently. To me that is Hughton and McNally’s biggest issue. And unless they are prepared to take a blow wide open club’s wages policy – something that would almost certainly alienate the better players in the existing squad – I can not see that changing soon.
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Remy’s been in the PL five minutes so let’s not overblow his trumpet (leave that for Harry to do). Cisse had the same impact for Newcastle in season 1 but tailed off and can’t get in the team now. Remy also has the big plus of being surrounded by his fellow countrymen – by all accounts, French is the language of choice in the Geordie changing room.
Not forgetting the likes of Chamakh, Jelavic, Balotelli etc etc who all made an explosive start but fizzled out quicker than you can say Guy Fawkes.
Judge a striker after a full season (or even two)-ours just aren’t getting the service. Giroud at Arsenal looked distinctly average for over a season before Ozil arrived and started putting the ball on a plate for him. It’s midfield creativity we badly need – what’s happened to Wessi?
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Much like the above. Not fair comparing starved strikers against those that are well fed. Put Redmond or Pilks on the right and Snod on the left and feed Hooper and RVW at pace. Fed up seeing us cut back, slow it down and float an ‘easy one’ in for their keeper/defenders. Luciano who? Come on CH at least give him a whirl, he’s your purchase.
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Agree with much of the response here. Surely tenuous, and premature, to compare Ricky with Remy at this stage? And the theory that we’re buying ‘nice’ Dutch players rather than ‘hungry, muscular’ French ones surely runs into a big barrier called Leroy Fer.
As usual there’s probably something in what Rick says, but we may need to reassess at the end of the season.
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Listen, it is far too easy for the people to jump on the bandwagon of an in form striker and claim how wonderful they are and that’s exactly what the writer of this article is doing. All decent strikers go through good stages and bad stages in their careers – Just ask last years Darlings if the Premiership Michu and Benteke. And before that Torres and Demba Ba who shelved out millions based on articles like this only for reality to kick in once the goals dried up. RVW was prolific at his last club and a good striker he definitely is. Our team is in transition and hopefully we will begin to click as a team and when we do then so will RVW. Shelving out more on strikers is not the option at the moment. Getting rid of the remaining average players who are costing us points at the other end should be the priority even though in my heart I love what some of those mediocre players have done for our club, we are beginning to see a few of them out of their depth at Premiership level
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While making good points, I think this article misses the point. While Norwich City couldn’t realistically afford Remy’s wages, this is primarily not the reason why the club find themselves in the hole they are in.
Any striker would struggle to achieve their potential at Norwich City under the current management team and articles keep appearing to justify Hughton and the club at large. In short, making excuses.
Norwich City have a good enough side to comfortably keep up, while not exactly setting the world on fire. The reason that currently isn’t happening has very little to do with money and I’m sure the board (and many journalists) realise this too. What stance they take could affect the club for many years to come but hopefully indecision will not be part of it.
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