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Gunn backing the 'Luton Two' to be boys no more this season as the Ifil link continues

6th July 2009 By Latest News Leave a Comment

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City boss Bryan Gunn is firmly hoping that the days of 'Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum' were firmly behind the so-called Luton Two, as Chrissy Martin and Michael Spillane resume their full-time Canary careers this season.

Last year, of course, the pair were despatched to Kenilworth Road by then boss Glenn Roeder in the hope that the school of hard knocks at the very foot of League Two would make men of them.

As teenagers, both have talent to burn; both could yet have a big impact on Norwich's fortunes this season; both, however, could still fall by the wayside if their youthful energies are not properly channelled.

Week One back at Colney and the Canary boss had already noted the dressing room seating plan.

“I couldn't believe it when I looked round the dressing room and they were sitting together again,” said Gunn, as City's pre-season preparations continue to gather pace.

“There they were, but I decided not to call them their pet names,” he added, well aware of how Roeder's patience with the pair wore very thin.

For after having the world at his feet in the wake of Robert Earnshaw's injury in the spring of 2007 – and scoring on his England Under-19 debut that summer to boot – the following season found Martin being tarred with the same Plymouth Brethren brush that dogged the Lappins and the Murrays of this world by an unhappy Roeder.

Off he went last season to an all-but doomed Hatters and responded with 13 goals – including one in that Johnstone Paints Trophy final triumph against Scunthorpe United at Wembley.

For Spillane, City appearances came in fits and starts as the Republic Of Ireland Under-19 star failed to to settle into either a steady run of games or, indeed, a steady position playing-wise.

Cast as an athletic right-back by Hatters boss Mick Harford, the arrival of Owain Tudur Jones, Matt Gill and Michael Nelson this summer could leave Spillane with little option but to fight Jon Otsemobor for that gig this summer – his more traditional roles at centre-half and centre-midfield look all-too crowded right now.

The pair have, of course, actually got a third musketeer from their Kenilworth Road days alongside them in that Colney dressing room after Gunn last week opted to give Paul McVeigh the chance to earn himself a second tour of duty with the Norfolk club following his own, two-year spell with the Hatters.

Given the chance to train with City this summer in an 'open-ended' arrangement, the fact that Gunn has some 26 professional bodies at his disposal means that he is not short on numbers.

But it will be quality, not quantity that takes City out of League One at the first time of asking. Masters Martin and Spillane have the quality required; they also have the frame and the physique required in the third tier of English football.

On paper, they've got it. On paper.

“We hope they have come back as men – we hope they have,” said Gunn, widely linked to another potential option at full-back this weekend – one-time Spurs starlet Phil Ifil.

“Being sent out on loan and then the experience of being at Luton – and the hardships that they had to go through – at a club that tried very hard to get themselves out of that situation… I'm hopeful that they have learned from that experience and that they'll come back into the squad.”

That they have the ability to do well at League One level is not in doubt; as ever, it will be attitude that defines the men from the boys.

“They're both good football players,” said Gunn. “Very good football players.

“So, hopefully, they haven't lost that. And I'm sure they haven't. I saw them both at Wembley; I saw them both play earlier in the season against Plymouth Argyle in the League Cup and Ian Crook went down to see them withe Paul Crichton.

“So we've been watching them – and we've made the decision to offer Michael a new contract which he signed; obviously Chris was under contract anyway.”

All of which ticks one of Gunn's bigger boxes – that, first and foremost, he will be looking to field a team of players with a full-time Canary contract to their name; that short-term loan deals are a thing of the past.

“Hopefully, their commitment will be to Norwich City – the fact that they're under contract means a lot to us and they're out there – from day one – starting with the squad.

“And it's good to look around the dressing room and have those type of players back in it. And I'm sure they will do well in the division that we're playing in.”


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