The key to writing a successful novel has always been, as any literary agent would tell you, is to start off with a cracking intro to draw the reader in and to finish with an awesome twist to the tale at the conclusion.
Oh boy, we must have written a classic on Saturday. James Maddison’s sublime strike (loved the nutmeg Madders) after just five minutes and Angus Gunn’s superb stop from Ollie Watkins the same temporal distance from the final whistle ensured that.
And what happened in between wasn’t half bad either. Passion, commitment and sheer bloody hard work denied Brentford, particularly in a second half when they turned the screw to the last thread.
Now, I don’t believe Daniel Farke has any special relationship with the football gods – far from it in fact. Ivo Pinto crocking his knee while emerging from his car surely serves as a prime example of that. We had an allegedly half-fit Mario Vrancic, ditto Tom Trybull, no Wesley and the lad Marcus Edwards from Tottenham who has already – after two weeks in which he has been recovering from a back injury – attracted a slightly obscure comment from Farke that already seems to sow the seeds of doubt about his attitude.
And three new signings who are probably still using their satnavs to locate Colney.
But those gods smiled on us on Saturday afternoon because for once the odds were evened up. I wish no ill-will on any footballer (except Kevin Muscat) but Romaine Sawyers’ bout of illness and the lack of Lasse Vibe due to a probable impending transfer out suited us down to the ground. These two combined twice to destroy us at Carrow Road and their absence from the team sheet cheered me immensely.
Those same gods also provided us with two rather large bonuses. Harrison Reed looks a more than able occasional right back – I was quite surprised at just how well he performed in that slot to be honest. I feared lack of height and experience in the role might have gone against him, but not so.
Also, the return of Marley Watkins to the fold can only help, even if only in terms of numbers. It would seem our Daniel has worked a bit of Nelson-style magic and “sorted him out”. Watkins would not have featured in the squad had that not been the case.
So, yet another most welcome 1-0 “grind-out” on away turf and up to 40 points. I wonder which other team has the same total? Oh yes. Them. Maybe after February 18 we’ll be above them for the first time in a while. That might not be essential in the great scheme of things but, c’mon, we’d all love it.
As so many of our readers and writers keep saying, let’s see what Farke can produce next season. Cynics like myself say it will be with a “downsized” squad courtesy of Delia, but when I think of all the youngsters (several of whom are on loan elsewhere and thus tend to be forgotten about) there is hope. It looks like the hunger has returned on the pitch big time – and that’s enough for most of us, however much the players are earning. Maybe less will indeed become more.
Having seen highlights from the Plymouth match, I have little fear about Remi Matthews taking over from Angus when he inevitably leaves us in May. Another bonus.
Now my personal plea to the gods of the round size five: Let somebody spirit Madders away to a remote Caribbean island with no w-fi for a week. I think Farke would join in a prayer with me on that one.
And I’ve got a mate who works in telecomms. I think I might just ask him if he can sabotage David Moyes’ moby and the West Ham fax machine. Until Thursday, anyway. They were desperate against Wigan in the Cup and might just make a silly offer.
As for the literary world, a couple or three classics have ended with the line: to be continued.
I can think of nothing more appropriate to the ongoing saga of Norwich City.
I said at the beginning of Jan Pritchard would be gone and maddison would not be able to comvince people he was worth £20m until the end of the season as it would still be a gamble for them.
That has now changed based on his excellent January and that goal was the final nail in his canary coffin. No one needs convincing to part with a mere £20m after that.
I fully expect to see him gone now.
He’s certainly further raised his profile at exactly the wrong time I would agree!
I could just about stomach a buy and loan back from say, Spurs for over £20m. What I could not accept is a straight sale to West Ham for £12-15 million.
We’re going to lose him in the summer anyway so accepting the inevitable a loan-back now might be the way forward.
The performance on Saturday was excellent but it does not obscure the fact that City do not score enough goals. Murphy and Oliveira had chances which were not converted. And Watkins never looks like scoring..
When Maddison goes – and he would go even if City were promoted- City will have to find a goal scorer from somewhere. If not we will be back to the days of Sibierski and Strihavka!
Thanks for the gruesome memories Douglas!
Add in Dean Coney, Henrik Mortensen and Darren Beckford and we’d really hit the jackpot:-)
Good read as per … I had a little thought sitting here with my 2nd coffee. Thank you Alex Neil. for sending Maddison out on loan and then not playing him. Or we would not be watching him now, he surely would have gone to the prem last summer, had he been given the the chance to show what he can do. It also showed me you didn’t have much of an eye for talent.
I think he will be here until the summer neck on block. Hope it isn’t to Moyes lot at wet spam, he does deserve somewhere better. But I do struggle to see where, the clubs like Liverpool, Chelsea Manchester City buy these talented lads and sit them in their development squads , Spurs or Arsenal would use him . But do struggle to see who else would shell out the asking price.
As to the game, despite what the Bee’s manager has to say how lucky we were, I still have a job of really counting the goal bound saves Gunny made. What does concern me still, is this apparent lack of how to keep the ball when under pressure, I lost track of the times I heard the commentator and Mark Rivers mention that they had given it away again. This only serves to increase pressure, nowt wrong with lacing it up field, when your backs are against the wall. hit the touch line as far away as possble.
Agreed on your last point. Some of the gifting of the ball back to Brentford, in dangerous areas, was shocking.
Hi Lad and thanks for the comment.
I reckon our Madders could go up a notch on the happy Hammers – Spurs and Liverpool look much more favourable options.
Tottenham are my “second team” so I’m slightly biased but I would far rather he went there – or indeed to Klopp’s lot. At least he has experience of German management:-)
His emergence has really been rocket-propelled.
I guess it depends at which point we (sorry, they) decide to cash in – if all that money were going to be reinvested in the squad I would shrug the old shoulders and accept it. But probably only about a tenth of it will be as the Board’s self-perpetuating black hole has to be filled.
That’s what happens when you “don’t even listen” to offers of outside investment.
Daniel Farke has already said that young Todd Cantwell will be an important part of pre-season in the summer. And I think we all know who he’s tentatively earmarked to replace.
Hi Martin
As usual an excellent read and summary.
I don’t think there is a city support that would denign Maddison a transfer to a team like Spurs with a loan back, but I also think that they would de disappointed with a transfer to WHA I just hope Sullivan doesn’t try his old pals act with the Smiths to get him.
With 3 more imported players 2 permanent and Leitner on loan we are now top heavy with foreign players lets hope we are within the home grown rules.
Leitner is a strange one to me has played along side Trybull and had successes with winning the bundesleague also played champions league so somewhere he has truely fallen out of favour.
Does this loan possibly have a right to buy clause???????
Saturday I was expecting to see both Onel and Dennis get some sort of cameo towards the end but Team Farke deemed that only Leitner came on and did quite well.
2 days and counting will our esteem owners along with Messr Stone/Webber surprise us all by keeping Maddison and possibly bringing in one more player???????
Roll on Thursday
Interesting observation in there Alex – I had no idea Sullivan and Gold had any kind of hook-up with the Smiths.
I try to keep my ear to the ground but have never come across that one before!
I know Sullivan is/was into “publishing” but in a rather different sense to MWJ so I guess you might be right. Sainsburys Mag and Playbirds don’t share a seat imo. Morality isn’t my strong suit but I could cheerfully live without a softcore pornographer at the helm of our club. As I guess could many of us.
I don’t want Madders to go there as I’ve said – he deserves the best and if that’s Spurs or Liverpool so be it. His problem would then be getting selected on a matchday but the way he’s going I’d back him to achieve it.
He really is a special talent.
No, it’s £22m or bust – no less for me.
I read somewhere that when Sullivan and Gold sold Birmingham they were interested in city if they didn’t get WHA and both said they were good friend Delia.
Maybe wrong.
Martin cast the old grey matter back a little when the soft porn kings sold Birmingham, There was a lot of talk about them two taking over from their pals the stowmarket duo. Or working with them, But Gold I think it was, said something about the size of what they wanted for their money, at the time I believe City had a fair bit of debt . I was lead to believe Karen Brady came to talks at Carrow Rd, Should imagine the Archant archives hold it if you can find away of working it
Hi again Lad – interesting post.
I’ve probably bored the butt off MFW readers before by mentioning that my Uncle Joe was part of a team who “did up” the Sullivan mansion near Theydon Bois in Essex. He told me a few interesting stories about the mansion and the visitors to it, all non-football related.
I just do not see Delia and MWJ being involved in any serious dialogue with him. Chalk and cheese will have to suffice – I’m not stretching my neck!
Whatever I think of Delia (and it’s normally pretty negative) I doubt that’s the sort of chappy she would ever do business with for reasons I’m hardly open to discussing online. For once, I utterly admire her stance – if indeed it was ever like that in the first place or there were even talks.
Karren Brady is still the WHU “fixer” to this day. Let’s hope our Madders keeps well out of her way.
Great post.
I can only see a straight sale for a knock-down price happening if the player himself is bellyaching for a move and looks like throwing his toys out of a pram bought second-hand from Lewis Grabban, if he doesn’t get one. That doesn’t seem to be the case.
I think the jury may still be out on how far Maddison really can go, and therefore how much top clubs will be prepared to pay for him. What we see and remember is mainly the spectacular goals. Every time he hits one we mentally add a few million to what we think should be his asking price. But his opportunities to score goals like that would be much reduced in the PL.
So I wonder how his all-round game is perceived by those who really understand the sport, who watch his every move on and off the ball. Does he move well enough? How many killer passes does he hit – think Vrancic to Pinto, or Pritchard to Maddison himself, in recent weeks ? How does he cope in tight situations under pressure, the sort of thing Wes is so adept at wriggling out of? How secure is his first touch? It wasn’t that good when he came up against better players at Stamford Bridge. Come to that how often does he risk a card with a put-your-body-on-the-line lunge that occasionally got Jonny Howson into trouble?
Talking of whom, he was the best all-round midfielder we’ve had in recent years is, in my view, All being well he and Maddison will be going head-to-head in a few days time. It might be interesting to see how they compare.
Absolutely excellent view, Keith.
No rumours at all about Madders being anything other than grounded, but when he gets home from Colney four days a week he must have a great big beam on his face. Wouldn’t you?
He has the world quite literally at his feet. How much further he can progress is indeed open to debate.
If I thought the money would be used to develop the squad (it won’t be) I might be tempted to cash in now. He’s that elusive butterfly that must be allowed to spread its wings.
As I’ve said before: £22m or bog off.
Not you – clubs coming in for him:-)
Is it Naismith that we’ll chuck in free?
I do agree that if the rumoured vultures circling are in the hunt £22m should be the minimum we look for. Take a leaf out of Fulhams book, ask for the earth and some lunatic might give it to you (Especialy if Liverpoo are in the market)
Bah!
Update Toffolo gone to Millwall small fee with add ons accounting to Skt transfer news so another one out.
With Jamal doing his stuff plus Husband and Stiepermann in situ that was always on the cards Alex.
I don’t touch social media with the butt end of a grubby bargepole but those who do tell me the transfer might be in the best interests of both parties.
Sad to see him go after the youth cup triumph, but in truth he never looked good enough in his cup appearances here or in his loan moves to break through at CR. All the best at Millwall Harry I hope you prove me and the club wrong.
Bah!
In an ideal world we’d have owners willing and able to fill the revenue gap for a few years while we mount an attack on promotion.
Unfortunately that’s not the case and we all know Maddison is going. It’s just a matter of when. Webber said he didn’t want to do business in January (ha ha ha) because of the inflated prices. I say we cash in on Maddison now if we can get between 20-30M. The pressure that would take off our shoulders for next season would be huge. Prices right now are hugely inflated. When summer comes players will be out of contract. Relegated PL players will be angling for deals. We may rue not selling.
Anything less than 20M in this window and we’ve been robbed.
It is a shorter window this summer so prices could jump as clubs will want to get their business done early, they could even start to negotiate before the season ends to make sure they get who they want.
Dave: your last sentence (see above) is the mutt’s nuts.
£22m, or £20m if they’ll also take Naismith?
A great read as always Martin, some excellent and informative comments to follow as well.
There is definitely a good squad forming at the club – if only it could be held,together and allowed to develop in yellow and green. I’m genuinely excited,to,see the three new Germans and I’m looking forward to Saturday’s game where hopefully a fit, rested and full squad will be available to pick from.
Given the choice of the likes of Maddison on the pitch or cooks in the directors box there is simply no contest.
I reckon there’s a fair bit of squad evolution yet to come in the summer, and what a key window that is going to be!
It’ll probably be a case of how many of our youth (Matthews, Godfrey and Cantwell for sure) can be integrated into that squad rather than who we will buy in.
Maybe there will be a way of offloading Naismith and Russ permanently also.
The squad will remain intact until the success of an individual member of it attracts a reasonable bid, at which point he will doubtless be sold.
Every time I think we are beginning to get our act together we do something stupid like selling the brilliant Middleton to Rangers for peanuts and rejecting 2m for the ineffective Watkins.
I cant believe we are being so stupid and have’nt felt so annoyed since we loaned Maddison to Aberdeen !
No wonder the Rangers fans can’t believe their luck !
I just hope there’s a sell on clause but…………….
On the surface it seems crazy, agreed.
But in the case of Middleton, 18 is a little young to expect regular first-team football which is apparently what he was after. Plus he’s a Scottish lad and there might be a burning desire to play for Rangers. However, we should have kept him unless he was truly desperately unhappy.
Like you, I would have snatched the £2m for Watkins from a shark’s mouth if necessary. Ineffective is a most accurate description!