City boss Glenn Roeder tonight revealed that he had his beady eye on a 'beautiful mover' – a six-foot striker that he was hoping to unveil “within the next 48 hours”.
For if there was a glaring lesson from tonight's 5-1 dismissal by an all-too slick Spurs outfit, it was how light the Canaries remain in the striker department.
With Arturo Lupoli's international clearance still stuck within the corridors of the Italian FA, the City chief had little option but to send Jamie Cureton into battle on his own with Wes Hoolahan sparkling in the hole behind.
Or at least until Darren Bent turned on the power and bagged four goals as Tottenham ruthlessly dismantled the Canaries after the break.
And while Cureton may have delivered an excellent, clinical finish to wipe out Dejan Stefanovic's tenth minute own goal, it was always a case of Ledley King slipping over and letting him in – neither Cureton nor Hoolahan are about to barge their way into any Championship penalty area. But someone has to – as Roeder is the first to admit.
“There will be one in the next 48 hours,” said Roeder, quizzed as to whether a big striker remained his top priority now. With John Kennedy's six-month loan switch from Celtic confirmed, it would be Roeder's ninth signing of the summer.
The tenth, he promised, may take a couple more weeks; he again was of the six-foot plus mould. The next arrival, however, was more about grace and power than sheer brute strength.
“He's of six-foot stature, but you wouldn't think of him as a big striker as such,” said Roeder, refusing to name names. Other than to insist he was a real athlete – that, for now, was less than a household name.
“He's just a beautiful mover; fantastic,” said Roeder. “The manager who has helped us out on this transfer has, I think, hopefully done Norwich a big favour.
“Because we've watched this player twice in pre-season and he's been absolutely fantastic; he's a serious young player. And he won't be a big name to us at the moment, but hopefully he will have a good season here at Norwich.”
Roeder has, in the past, made mention of every Arsenal player being 'a good mover' – offering the kind of graceful athleticism that young Kieran Gibbs brought to the party last year. For now, however, that was all guesswork.
The big striker that remained in Roeder's sights carried all the hall-marks of Shola Ameobi as the endless saga of the 26-year-old's whereabouts next season dragged on and on.
“The big striker that I'm targetting, I think I'll get – but it might take seven or 14 days to get the club to agree to sell him to us,” said Roeder.
The French triallist that went to Sweden with the Canaries – Chris Makiese – has been let go after failing to impress in the second of the two tour games. “We need better than OK,” was the manager's final verdict on the Lille striker.
Trial keeper Stuart Nelson remains in the hunt for a full-time deal. “We're looking at him again against King's Lynn tomorrow – he's in there punching for a contract and he hasn't let himself down. Tommy Wright is quite impressed with him.”
The City also offered two more injury updates – neither of which were particularly good news. Ex-Luton wiger David Bell will be out for the next three weeks with an ankle injury he sustained in pre-season training with the Hatters, while Gary Doherty's summer has been of the nightmare variety.
He will be out for at least three months after the agricultural tackle on his ankle in the opening tour game did more damage than first suspected.
“Doherty was bad news,” said Roeder. “The scan revealed more serious damage than we thought and he had an operation involving an arthroscope – where they go in and clean up the mess that's in his ankle – but he will not play football for three months.
“Which is really bad news because he's just signed a new contract and that brings us down to three centre-backs and I want four – with Kennedy, Stefanovic and Shackell, we need another centre-back now.
“And I'm working on bringing another one in before the window closes – in the way, that we will have four strikers come the window closing.”
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