Swindon boss Danny Wilson has launched an attack on City star Anthony McNamee, claiming the former Robins winger is a “passenger” ahead of today’s showdown at the County Ground.
Since making his loan move to Norfolk permanent in January, McNamee has mainly found himself on the substitutes’ bench. But he has showed flashes of brilliance both from the bench and during his flurry of starts recently.
Canary chief Paul Lambert dropped him, however, in favour of Darel Russell for last week’s 3-1 win at Huddersfield and the 26-year-old faces a fight to get his shirt back, with the league leaders in such great form. And Wilson has stoked the pre-match fires by doubting McNamee’s defensive capabilities
“You’ve always got to look at whether you can have a player of Macca’s ability in your team,” said the Robins manager, speaking to the Swindon Advertiser.
“If you’ve not got the players around him, he’ll find it very difficult. I don’t think there’s many teams that can carry any passengers in any league.
“But again if you’ve got a special one, then you need a special team of players around that particular person to carry his defensive work.
“I didn’t feel we could do that quite honestly and I still don’t. I still think we need everybody out there who can do their shift defensively.”
After making the move from Wiltshire, where he made 79 appearances, McNamee has started just three times in Canary colours. But Wilson believes that could be down to the success City have enjoyed so far. As they say, if it ain’t broke….
“I’m sure he’s not played enough football for his liking. I think he’s only started a couple of games or a handful of games over the period since he left us.
“He’ll be disappointed with that. He felt he was going to a bigger club, which is right, it is a bigger club, but obviously he wanted the opportunity to play football.
“They’ve been so successful, I’m sure Paul [Lambert] has found it difficult to keep changing the team to incorporate him.”
But while the Canaries are heading for promotion and a return to the second tier, Wilson was non-committal when asked if McNamee had made the right move.
“I can’t comment on whether it was right or wrong or indifferent. He made the decision and that’s the end of it, it’s gone.
“They are going to be in the Championship next year by the looks of things at the moment, so he’s got to be happy with it I’d have thought. But that’s a question you’d have to ask him.”
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