The official Barnsley website this afternoon hailed a 'sensational' loan capture as Jamie Cureton joined the Tykes on a three-month emergency loan deal.
With less than an hour to go before the final 'emergency' loan deal deadline of 2008 comes and goes, most Canary supporters would have been expecting to see at least one fresh face come into Colney as opposed to an all-too familiar one pack his bags for Oakwell and a debut against Nottingham Forest this weekend.
However, Cureton had made it clear last month that he would fancy a loan move – if it gave him the chance to play first team football again having found opportunities, and goals, all too hard to come by at Carrow Road this season.
The arrival of Arturo Lupoli on loan in the summer marked the 33-year-old's card as to which way the manager was thinking – the subsequent arrivals of both Leroy Lita and Antoine Sibierski have done little to help his cause.
Indeed, even when a space has become available up front, so Roeder has opted to employ midfielder Darel Russell as a stand-in striker – principally for reasons of a physical stature nature. Even so it would still irk the one-time Canary youth product and Championship 'Golden Boot' winner to see a non-striker being preferred ahead of him.
That all said, Cureton has been chronically short on confidence this season; he has never quite looked the Jamie of old whose natural eye for goal was always taken as a given. This season and even when opportunity has knocked, the Canary striker has appeared to lack his usual belief and ability in and around the 18-yard-box.
A change of scenery might do him the power of good; the Canaries do, at least, have a 24-hour recall on the player and have ensured that he won't be lining up against the Canaries when the two clubs meet in January.
“Jamie is a player that I have admired for a long time and has a fantastic goal-scoring record,” said Tykes boss Simon Davey this afternoon, still desperately unhappy at the way he lost Iain Hume to a serious facial injury in the recent South Yorkshire derby with Sheffield United.
“We have lost Iain [Hume] and our thoughts are with him but we need to ensure that we have the firepower to maintain the excellent run we're on – Jamie is another part of the jigsaw here,” Davey told the official Barnsley site.
He also suggested that Cureton needed little persuading to pack his bags for opportunities new after making those want-away noises last month.
“Having spoken with his representatives and Jamie, we knew that he wanted to come here,” said Davey.”We wanted Jamie and we have signed him.”
And with their man in the bag, so Davey was clearly hoping that a Cureton of old could keep Barnsley on a roll.
“He is a goalscorer and is proven at this level,” said Davey. “And if he gets the opportunity then he will put it in the back of the net. We are on a fantastic run at the moment and now is the time to strengthen.”
Norwich, by contrast, are on less than a fantastic run right now and whether now is the time to weaken – at least in terms of simple numbers – is something for Roeder to justify.
Announcing today's switch, the City boss suggested that the move had been very much player-led as he looks for first team games.
“Jamie asked to go out on loan about a month a go,” Roeder told the official City website.
“At that time it didn't suit us to let him go, but understandably in the last month he has become frustrated by the lack of first team starts and he also feels that Arturo Lupoli is ahead of him in the first team picture.
“As a result he feels he needs to get a move in order to get some first team football and he now has that opportunity for the next three months with Barnsley.”
After that and Roeder suggested that they would look at a long-term deal – something both clubs could agree on at the back end of the January transfer window.
As ever, judgement on today's events will come with results. Norwich start to dig themselves out of the bottom six and the fact that Cureton hadn't been hitting too many heights of late would justify Roeder's decision.
But with Leroy Lita due to return to Reading on December 7 – and their recent wobble may yet find Steve Coppell thinking twice about letting the 24-year-old out for a third month – and Sibierski struggling to deliver the kind of command performances needed in that target role, so Roeder needs to keep every finger crossed all goes to plan over the next five weeks before the transfer window reopens on January 1.
He has, of course, Omar 'OJ' Koroma tucked somewhere up his sleeve, but the on-loan Pompey youngster has been out for the last three weeks through injury and remains very raw.
Otherwise, it's down to the Luke Daleys and Kris Rentons of this world and the Canary chief has been busily insisting ever since that thrilling win over Arsenal's youngsters that none of the kids are ready to make the next step up to Championship football.
But with Cureton walking out of the door, he may have little or no option if the next 20 minutes fails to deliver a replacement – and injury strikes again. At which point some desperate needs will must.
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