Saturday’s draw at West Ham was a great advert for the Premier League at a time when increasingly tedious manager spats and on-field handbags dominate the headlines.
Rarely has the self-appointed ‘best league in the world’ tag looked so unconvincing and tatty.
However, City’s 2-2 draw contained all the positive elements from both teams – fast, end-to-end attacking, great goals and a last minute plot twist. And all done without a single yellow card being shown and no nasty, niggly head-to-head confrontations.
Afterwards, both managers, although disappointed not to have won, complimented the opposition and the interviews weren’t dominated by the whingeing at decisions and the bemoaning of bad luck.
A refreshing change but it won’t be like that every week.
For us, while the excellent Robbie Brady (£7 million – a snip at twice the price) probably got the man of the match award from most, for me Jonny Howson epitomised all that was good of a cracking game played in the right spirit of competition.
The unsung cog of an increasingly well-oiled midfield engine, Howson did his stuff with no fuss – endless back and forth energy, solid clean tackling, slick, accurate passing and an eye for goal (four efforts, two on target).
On top of that, in the heat of battle our Birdman of the Boleyn found the time and decency to move a stricken pigeon from the pitch to the sidelines. A small gesture which no doubt some will ridicule but, for me, speaks volumes of the man.
Would Diego Costa have done it? More likely he would have done an ‘Ozzy Ozbourne’ and casually tossed the remains to one side. Most would have ignored it and left it to its fate.
Howson has no Beckham-esque hairdos or garish tattoos on show. He’s the Iniesta to our Wessi.
The last of the Leeds conveyor-belt to remain at Carrow Road, Howson is now an integral ingredient in Norwich City 2015-style.
He maybe doesn’t find the back of the net as often as he should – 13 goals in 108 league games – but when he does it’s invariably worth the wait. He doesn’t do tap-ins.
His superb instant control and outside of the foot strike at Elland Road last season being one of my personal favourites in the run in to Wembley. Pure class.
The goal he scored at Portman Road in the play-off semi-final was a typically great strike and kick started our push to the capital.
On that wonderful May day in the capital, the multi-pass Redmond goal was a thing of beauty with ‘four-pass Howson’ at its heart. Yet if you listen to this TV commentary to the build-up for the goal, Howson’s name isn’t mentioned once… typical.
He rarely gets voted man of the match.
He has never been close to the Barry Butler Trophy.
And yet he was probably one of the first names to appear on a Lambert/Hughton/Adams/ Neil team sheet and has played all but four minutes of this Premier League campaign.
Maybe unknown to most, he was awarded the ‘Real McCoy of Football‘ trophy last season before the final home match against Fulham.
Not the most prestigious of awards maybe and Jonny may have been slightly embarrassed to be recognised by a crisp firm for his contribution as a role model on and off the pitch. However, Alex Neil’s words in recognition of the award spoke volumes:
“Jonny Howson deserves to be the Real McCoy of Football, because he’s a top player on the pitch and a top lad off the pitch – I think every team should have a Jonny Howson”.
Even for a club still going well under the radar of TV pundits and experts alike, Jonny manages to maintain a cloak of anonymity entirely in line with his Yorkshire roots and football career to date.
Born in Morley (part of Norwich’s own Ed Balls’ former West Yorkshire constituency), Howson can probably best be summed up by the following gritty Northern labels:
Maximum effort with little fuss – no bother – leave the interviews and spotlight for others – back home to the wife and kids.
No Grabban-like hissy fits or tedious Costa-like on field antics for our Jonny.
My kind of footballer and my kind of role model.
He did get sent off at Bournemouth last season, but that was a poor decision from the ref towards an honest, full-blooded tackle with no hint of malice. Just a dozen yellow cards in those 108 games.
You might put him in the James Milner category? Another former Leeds man often ridiculed for lack of personality and for being boring.
Fair enough, but like Milner he’s the kind of all-action pro gifted with enough flair and drive to almost always get the nod from the manager come match day.
Unlike Milner however, Howson has been criminally overlooked at international level – just one Under-21 cap to his name as a second-half substitute in a friendly match.
Now 27 years-old and contracted up to 2019, Howson is at his physical and footballing peak. He probably wouldn’t want the attention but let’s savour his big contribution to our success and give him the recognition and praise he deserves.
I sense Leicester on Saturday will witness his first goal of the season. If so, it will be a classy one for sure.
MFW writers have a penchant for flounce. 150 words, for which howson would have use three – maybe worth taking note of 😉 fully agreed tho, Howson is class and Neil has serious love for that man. He will be considered one of the finest City players when he no longer dons the yellow and green.
Toad – point taken, but not sure a there word article would be much of a read! Couldn’t agree more however on yours and Russ’ take on the great man. We’re indeed lucky to have him.
Nice article about Jonny. Good solid pro, a shame Hodgson has big club bias in his selections as I feel Howson deserves some recognition.
Fingers crossed about him scoring, I wonder if we see a clean sheet to!
Howson is a very good player. On Saturday, he showed how much better he is than W Ham’s much vaunted Mark Noble. It is no coincidence that some of the best City performances in recent years – Stoke away under Hughton, Millwall away and the play-offs last season – have had Jonny Howson at their heart.
He is a top player and from appearances a top bloke. OTBC
I agree totally. Someone on facebook yesterday suggested mulumbu will take Jonny’s shirt when fit. I laughed out loud.
Jonny has to be the first name on the team sheet as said above, a pure class act.
I too loved the goal at Leeds last season. The respect he showed the (dirty) Leeds fans was typical of the man, but then he turned and celebrated with the city fans and showed the respect to his present employers.
Top man, may he be here for a very long time to come.
*Toad – I’ve been accused of many things (waffle, hyperbole..) but never ‘flounce’! I could have kept it to 150 words but don’t think the editor would have been pleased.
Let’s hope I’ve not built Jonny up too much for the rest of the season. He’s only scored three times at home, so a winner on Saturday in front of the faithful would be especially fitting.
I bet he’s good to his Mum too. Knowing my luck, he’ll go and get a tattoo for next week.
*NW Canary – don’t get me started on Roy Hodgson. A clean sheet would be splendid but as long as we score more than the opposition, who cares? I’ll take a 2-1 or 3-2. Watford have kept clean sheets but have scored only once in 4 home games – I’d be asking for my money back at Vicarage Road.
Another positive re Howson is his versatility. He’s played (literally) left, right and centre this season already. Having players who can play in a tucked in wide position for the full-backs to bomb on and players who are more ‘traditional’ wide men (Redmond, Jarvis) gives us good options. I prefer him as one of the middle two, though, making surges forward when the opportunities arise.
I like Howson as a player, perfect for us.
But I can understand why Hodgson has, at least as his starting point, “big club” bias simply because the guys in those clubs are playing Champions League or Europa League, and coming across genuine international class opposition more often.
Unfortunately for Howson he isn’t facing those guys, and it is surely significant that we haven’t been inundated with offers for him even though he could be a useful home-grown player in one of the big team’s Europe squads. He hasn’t caught the eye of Wenger, Mourinho, Rogers, and so on. That’s really why he isn’t catching Hodgson’s eye either.
Still, if he can put in strong games when we play the Manchester and big London clubs perhaps that will change.
When Mulumbu is fit it will be interesting to see who drops out – more likely Dorans or Tettey, who seems to have been having card-collecting lessons from Lafferty.
Re (1): “Howson is great.” – 3 words – accurate – not very interesting to read though.
I’ll be honest – i never understood the fuss about Howson until last season under AN. Probably because of his inability to complete a season without a long lay-off from injury, and Hughton’s insistence on playing him out of position.
But this year he’s been the central cog of our team and your description of him as the ‘Iniesta to our Wessi’ is spot on. Hooray.
Seems to be a lot of love out there for ‘our Jonny’. Nice to know it’s not just a crisp firm that appreciates him.
Must confess, it was Paul Lambert who early on made the Iniesta comparison.