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For once the midnight hour is worth waiting for as Roeder slams 'Sibi' into that big sit vac…

1st September 2008 By Latest News Leave a Comment

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City boss Glenn Roeder finally unearthed the kind of character he has long been looking for when the Canaries tonight signed French striker Antoine Sibierski on-loan until January from Wigan.

It is the second time that the Canary chief has signed the versatile 6ft 2in forward; the last time was at St James' Park where he proved a smash hit with the Toon Army.

Whether or not he will go down a similar storm with the Canary faithful remains to be seen; but he's a footballer; a naturally-gifted technician. Who is over six-foot tall.

If nothing else, that's a start. And he has clearly already enjoyed one working relationship with Roeder – that's another plus.

And by the time that the January transfer window re-opens, Rosenborg's season will have finished and a certain Steffen Iversen may well be up for grabs.

Finally, there is the simple fact that the Canary boss has done something to address the glaring hole in his armoury; to have done nothing this summer window could have been the worst of all worlds if Roeder had found himself with little or no alternative but to ask Darel Russell to start yet another game in that stand-in striker role.

Given the game in question was Plymouth (a), there are a lot of good, political reasons why Sibierski's short-term signature ought to be greeted with a large dollop of relief. All too often in recent years, the midnight hour on transfer deadline day has passed off without a murmur in Norfolk; from the outside at least, Colney ends up looking like a hive of inactivity.

For once, there is something to report ahead of the window slamming shut.

“I'm delighted to have signed Antoine on loan until January,” said Roeder tonight. “This is the second time I have signed Antoine; the first time was on deadline day in 2006 when along with Sol Campbell, who joined Portsmouth from Arsenal, he was widely regarded as one of the best free transfers of the season.

“He's scored lots of goals, many with his head and will be a great role model for the younger players to work with.”

What is interesting to read is the thoughts of Newcastle favourite John Anderson on Sibierski's impact on Tyneside as he and Shola Ameobi grabbed the goals for Roeder in 2006-2007.

“When he signed there were a lot of eyebrows raised and a lot of people wondered what the manager was doing,” said Anderson, speaking to the Newcastle Chronicle on the back of Roeder's transfer deadline day swoop in 2006.

“But to be fair Sibi has come up with the goals when we have needed them and I think the fans appreciate that now. Let's be honest, the goals he has scored have been vital ones, all of them,” he added.

“People will make assumptions because you have arrived on a free transfer. But I think that Sibi has been brilliant since he came in. Every time the manager has called on him, he has delivered.”

Sibierski was understood to be on the verge of agreeing a new deal with Roeder at St James' only for the ruling Shepherd clan to boot the City boss out of the door and usher in the ill-fated reign of 'Big Sam'. At which point Sibierski disappeared over the Pennines to the JJB.

The fact that most have him down as a midfielder simply reflects the fact that the one-time Manchester City favourite is one of those that can drift into that 'in-between' space between the forward line and the holding midfielder. And chip in with the odd, vital goal.

Given that Roeder will now have the in-form Russell, skipper Mark Fotheringham and Sammy Clingan fighting for those two central berths, Sibierski will be employed as a central striker that likes to drop off; invariably with his back to goal; he'll link that central forward area together – and, above all, give the Canaries the kind of aerial presence they so clearly lack.

That's the theory; how well Roeder, Sibierski and Norwich manage to put it into practice will do so much to determine the fate of the Canaries' season.

The Wigan striker's name crossed Roeder's lips last January when he was quizzed as to whether he would be poring over a fax machine come the midnight hour – midnight on the 31st of January in this case.

“If you're doing that, very rarely do you get what you want,” said Roeder, speaking last January.

“Mind you, at Newcastle 18 months ago I signed Antoine Sibierski 20 minutes before the deadline and it turned out to be the best free transfer of last season – along with Sol Campbell. But it's pretty unusual that.”

Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News on the Latics pre-season tour north of the border, Sibierski unwittingly pointed to the likely cause of his own exit tonight – Steve Bruce's eye for a player. In particular, the on-loan Egyptian Amr Zaki.

“The manager has signed some very good players, I see them in training every day and can see that they're very talented footballers,” said the Frenchman. “Our new striker Amr Zaki looks like the kind of player we need… he just thinks all the time about scoring goals…”

Indeed he does. His sweet double on Saturday in the 5-0 demolition of the hapless Tigers made it four in four for the 25-year-old enabling Latics boss Bruce to sanction today's loan move – despite the on-gong speculation that Emile Heskey might be bound for either Aston Villa or Tottenham on a night of high drama ahead of tonight's summer deadline.

At least it was in Manchester…


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