• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Football Writer

My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis

Norwich City – news, comment and analysis

Find the best betting sites
  • Home
  • About us
  • The Team
  • Archives Index
  • Patreon
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contact us

City gearing up to face the last of the super-spenders as Rs' boss H bemoans the 'gang warfare' that exists in player agent land

1st February 2013 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

Please share

The morning after the night before and a few loose ends were still being tied up transfer-wise ahead of City’s return to Premier League action this weekend and the trip to a newly-revamped QPR – the last of the big, super-spenders in an otherwise calm market.

It was almost inevitable that Rs boss Harry Redknapp would be the biggest wheeler and dealer in January as the West London club desperately look for a way off the bottom rung of the Premier League; that said, old ‘H’ wasn’t a big fan of the way in which players’ agents were trying to run the show as Loftus Road prepared to welcome four new players to the fold.

“Every agent seems to be trying to screw each other,” said Redknapp, after deploying owner Tony Fernandes’ millions to bring in the likes of Jermain Jenas and Andros Townsend out of Spurs and the £12.5 million signing of centre-half Christopher Samba.

“It is scary,” added Redknapp, who also stole in ahead of Newcastle to bag Loic Remy for £8 million earlier this month – one of agent Willie Mackay’s stable of young French talent. Not that Redknapp appeared a fan of the agent breed after this season’s winter window will be forever remembered for the deal that never happened – that of Peter Odemwingie.

Word was that Remy was on a £75,000-a-week basic at Loftus Road; in a deal that will eventually cost Rangers’ upwards of £22 million. Eye-watering stuff when you are 20th in the table and not far from needing snookers to stay with your nose in the TV rights trough.

Which is exactly where the agents want to keep themselves. Or rather their clients. “It’s like gang warfare,” was almost Redknapp’s last word on the subject.

“If you’ve got a deal for a player, another agent will try to scupper that deal if he is not involved in it. It’s unreal. It’s unbelievable what’s going on. They’re all fighting for big money, that’s the problem,” he said.

Big money…. as in that offered by Rangers’ own owner, for example.

The trick now, of course, is to turn such largesse into Premier League points – starting with this weekend’s game against the Canaries.

“It’s going to be difficult but we’re bang in there,” said Redknapp. “We’ve still got a big chance. We just need to put a little run together, get back-to-back wins, starting with Norwich on Saturday.”

Back in Norfolk, the Canaries had to settle for a mere straight swap deal involving Leeds’ top-scorer Luciano Becchio going one way; Steve Morison the other. The Argentinian’s arrival also made the decision to despatch Spurs youngster Harry Kane back to White Hart Lane five months early that much easier.

It probably said more about Tottenham’s own dire striker shortage than it did about the 19-year-old’s form and fortune in Norfolk. As Norwich proved in the 1-1 draw against Spurs this week, field their strongest XI and they can still compete with their supposed peers. Kane is unlikely to be missed, in short.

But Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas appeared happy enough to welcome the prodigal back to North London.

“It was in both teams’ interests and the player’s interests too, to be fair,” said Villas-Boas. “Norwich have moved on and have found a striker so they didn’t have the necessity to hold on to Harry and for us it gives us another option that has come through our youth level, so it’s a common decision.”

Back in Scotland and Bhoys boss Neil Lennon confirmed again that they had received a further ‘substantial’ bid for Gary Hooper – the fourth, apparently.

Someone’s agent won’t be a happy bunny that the deal never materialised as Celtic stayed true to their world and held firm.

“There was another bid in yesterday (for Hooper), again, an improved offer,” Lennon said today. “I am not going to go into the figures but it was substantial. We made our position clear and we stuck to that.

“I knew what was happening so it wasn’t nervy for me. It might have been for supporters, but there was a lot of rubbish and speculation being bandied about, a lot of nonsense, but I suppose that comes with the fun of it all.”


Please share

Filed Under: none

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

FIND MY FOOTBALL WRITER ON

As featured on NewsNow: Norwich City news” style=

Norwich City News 24/7

#NCFC LATEST

confirm_deals Soccer Transfers @confirm_deals ·
3h

Done Deal! #Marquinhos to #Norwich from #Arsenal on loan. #transfers #NCFC #AFC

Reply on Twitter 1620266323669573632 Retweet on Twitter 1620266323669573632 Like on Twitter 1620266323669573632 Twitter 1620266323669573632
nicoschira Nicolò Schira @nicoschira ·
3h

Done Deal! #Marquinhos to #Norwich from #Arsenal on loan. #transfers #NCFC #AFC

Reply on Twitter 1620265917925175296 Retweet on Twitter 1620265917925175296 3 Like on Twitter 1620265917925175296 33 Twitter 1620265917925175296
nickdye55 Nick Dye @nickdye55 ·
4h

Dimi and Christos / Max and Marquinhos. Stop it. #ncfc #championship

Reply on Twitter 1620250673077182464 Retweet on Twitter 1620250673077182464 Like on Twitter 1620250673077182464 Twitter 1620250673077182464
nycanaries New York Canaries @nycanaries ·
4h

#NCFC Yes, please!!!!!

Reply on Twitter 1620249740935036929 Retweet on Twitter 1620249740935036929 Like on Twitter 1620249740935036929 Twitter 1620249740935036929
planalises Análises PL @planalises ·
4h

#NCFC #AFC| Marquinhos vai jogar o restante da temporada pelo Norwich na Championship. Empréstimo oficializado com o Arsenal até junho de 2023. 🇧🇷

Marquinhos vai fazer dupla com o Gabriel Sara, ambos são formados no São Paulo.

Reply on Twitter 1620248667591680000 Retweet on Twitter 1620248667591680000 Like on Twitter 1620248667591680000 Twitter 1620248667591680000
Load More...

Copyright © 2023 21VC Ltd | All rights reserved | Not to be reproduced without prior permission.

Disclaimer: The information on this website consists of personal opinions. Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained on these Web pages is accurate and correct at the time of writing we do not accept any liability whatsover for any loss or damage caused by reliance on this information.

We do not accept any responsibility for information contained in other websites to which this site links. We strongly advise users to check any information before acting or relying on it.

Developed and Hosted by