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Lupoli goes for his switch Blade as Wolves warn of yet more heavy snow overnight

2nd February 2009 By Latest News Leave a Comment

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As the dust slowly started to settle on a frantic day on the transfer merry-go-round, so all eyes were now turning to the snow that could yet settle overnight at Molineux as Bryan Gunn's new-look Canaries prepared to make their debut.

With international clearance duly granted for both Chris Killen and Alan Gow and last week's import David Carmey fast settling into his new surroundings, the Canaries may well have boasted at least three new faces in their line-up against the league leaders.

A fourth – the on-loan Fulham defender Adrian Leijer – might have had to settle for a place on the bench given the goal-scoring exploits of Matthew Grounds at Doncaster Rovers on Friday night; a fifth – former Essex scaffolder Cody McDonald – may have to bide his time as he gradually acclimatises to life as a professional footballer.

But with the forecast for more snow in the Midlands overnight, so Wolves were tonight urging supporters to check with their local media in the morning to see whether the fixture survives this week's icy blast.

Despite Molineux boasting undersoil heating – heating that has been switched on – the club admitted that the fixture would be decided “by the volume of snow which falls overnight”.

“The undersoil heating was on throughout the night at Molineux on Sunday night and will be on again this evening,” the club announcement read. “But if there is another heavy snowfall, as has been forecast in some quarters, then a major pitch clearance exercise would also need to go ahead.”

Even if the pitch can be cleared, the surrounding approaches to the stadium and the stands will also have to be deemed playable.

“As always in these situations, the safety of spectators attending the match is of paramount importance,” said the club, with boss Mick McCarthy forced to abandon today's training session at Wolves's Compton training HQ due to the depth of snow covering the pitches.

“Fans of both Wolves and Norwich are advised to log on to the clubs' official websites or listen to local media tomorrow morning for any updates which will be announced as soon as possible.”

Two players not camping it out in a Birmingham hotel tonight are Elliott Omosuzi and Arturo Lupoli – the former is back in London with Fulham after effectively swapping places with Leijer, while the latter's afternoon ended in a flurry of last minute activity as the Canaries first cancelled his year-long loan deal with Serie A giants Fiorentina before the Viola then immediately loaned him back out to Sheffield United for the remainder of the season.

And all “with seconds to spare”, according to one of those at the sharp end of a fax machine.

City boss Gunn had dropped big hints that the time was now ripe for Lupoli to move on. And with David Bell having left for Coventry late last week and Omosuzi back in the West End tonight so the team that Roeder built was fast being dismantled in favour of something with a strong Scottish-Antipodean flavour – one that mirrors Norwich's own coaching line-up of the Scot Gunn and his first team coach Ian Crook, recently returned from ten years Down Under.

“We wish Arturo all the best,” said Gunn, as his own Colney shake-up continued right up to the deadline hour.

“He's been frustrated with the lack of chances he has had to start games and we had a chat last week and discussed the options which were suitable for him,” Gunn told the club's official website late this afternoon.

Those frustrations are only likely to mount now that the City boss has both Gow and Killen in the building; he could yet add further options to his strike force as and when the emergency loan window reopens in a week's time.

That may yet also yet deliver another centre-half – though loans are limited to English switches only. If Sir Alex Ferguson was ever going to give his one-time babysitter a crumb off his mighty table, then this time next week would be the time to do it.

In the meantime, it was a farewell to Lupoli after his five-goal haul from his 20 City appearances failed to cement his place in anyone's first-team thinking.

That he could finish was not in doubt; his two, memorable late strikes away at Cardiff were out of the top drawer; his quick footballing feet and potent left foot also spared City's FA Cup bacon away at Charlton.

But in the end both Roeder and now Gunn decided his face – and his physique – didn't quite fit; that maybe he was a luxury Norwich could ill-afford in the bottom six of the Championship; in the the top six and cruising, then fine. In the trenches, nah… didn't work.

It was a logic that may also have applied to David Bell's ?500,000 exit to Coventry; that maybe – particularly with that niggling ankle injury still needing further surgery – he was too much of a tender show-pony for Norwich's immediate needs.

As for whether this latest crop of Scottish imports and Premiership reserves will prove any more durable than the Ian Murrays and Julian Brelliers of this world, only time will tell.

And that will be one of Gunn's problems on the messageboards tonight; that he will be tarred with the same brush that did for Peter Grant and the famous “Plymouth Brethren” that Roeder ruthlessly cut down to size.

Results, of course, will dictate everything. The other interesting one, of course, is the Essex scaffolder, McDonald.

He will come to the fold with a hunger and a desire. And as the likes of Kevin Phillips have long ago proved, from the ranks of a Baldock Town or a Maldon Town a real hidden gem can still emerge. Even in 2009.

And Lee Croft remains a Norwich player. Or at least until the summer. When he can walk for nothing on a Bosman.

As can Alex Bruce out of Ipswich. Leroy Lita out of Reading. That's what player power is all about; the ball remains firmly lodged in their court.


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