That was certainly a weird weekend in terms of the FA Cup Third Round, with apologies to one Louis Theroux. To much laughter and in certain quarters great joy, Wessi’s Cambridge United defeated the Richest Club in the World at St James’s Park, lowly Kidderminster Harriers turned over Reading and Arsenal sported a one-off nameless white kit for their defeat at Forest.
The reason for the Gunners’ shirt initiative is an excellent one it must be said. This kit will never be commercially available and will only ever be awarded to individuals who are making a positive difference in the community. Following the game, the ten shirts worn by outfield players were gifted to organisations doing work in the community such as The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation and The Ben Kinsella Trust that address some of the root causes of knife crime and youth violence.
The scheme is backed by both Ian Wright and prominent Gooner fan, the one and only Idris Elba.
Maybe the weirdest thing of the whole weekend though is that Norwich City scored a goal and… won a match. The defeat of Charlton has earned us an away tie at Molineux on weekend beginning February 4 which is probably not exactly the draw we would have wanted. But we’re through and that’s really a bit of an unexpected bonus if I’m honest.
James Colman and Gary G gave their thoughts on the game itself yesterday, so I’ll just add a couple of observations of my own.
Immediately prior to the match Andy Hughes and/or Neil Adams and/or Stuart Webber decided to loan 19-year-old striker Tom Dickson-Peters to Gillingham, whose debut came when he was introduced as a late sub in the Kent side’s 4-0 home reverse to… another team that plays in blue. Quite how Steve Evans will aid Tom’s development over the next five months is beyond my ken, but we’ll see.
That means that we’ll have to see the season out at the top end with Teemu Pukki, Adam Idah and one Josh Sargent, who universally attracted the diametric opposite of rave reviews after the final whistle on Sunday.
One cheeky Addick came up with a line about our USA international on Twitter that a mate passed to me on Sunday night. I must admit it made me laugh when perhaps I should have reacted more pragmatically:
*I am reporting [Charlton defender] Ryan Inniss to the RSPCA for having the ginger poodle in his back pocket*.
Dean Smith, as seemingly always, made a spot-on summary with five staccato sentences:
“It wasn’t a pretty game. I expected nothing less from Charlton. I wanted us to try and control the tempo but we were nowhere near good enough on the ball.
“You have to be right up for it because they made it a proper cup tie. We only had one shot in the first half and that is not good enough.”
I can’t say that I disagree with you on any of that, Dean.
A beneficial by-product of this weird weekend for me is that I got to watch three pretty decent games of live football on telly. Millwall came up with a flurry of plastic bottles and some homophobic abuse for the boy Gallagher as they lost to Palace.
West Ham [yes I know, it’s tomorrow night] looked cool, calm and collected against Leeds with a relatively easy 2-0 and, with next season in mind, Forest were awesome against an Arsenal side who never got going. Would I fancy our chances against Steve Cooper’s men right now? No, I bl00dy well wouldn’t.
But we’re not playing them for now. Oh no. We’re off to meet the Wolvers and somebody told me the last time we played them at Molineux in the Cup we were on the wrong end of a 5-1 hiding. Possibly the only person I know who will be pleased about this particular fixture is MFW regular Don H, who lives in the West Midlands and should be able to take in the game.
With the weird weekend over, it’s a busy week for City. Nothing to worry about on Wednesday of course at the East London Stadium when we face Michael Antonio, Declan Rice and their mates. Phew, that’ll be an easy game, won’t it?
I missed an outro trick a week ago so I’d better put it right this time around. RIP Stuart Adamson.
Morning Mr P, as you say a weird weekend. I really enjoyed the Forest game, Arsenal not taking the cup or the game with total respect got their just desserts. Decided that I would settle for The wireless on Sunday, charged up the accumulator and made sure it was earthed. Just could not be bothered own any streams for the game, which I doubt there was.
After 15-20 minutes I did wonder what I was doing listening to what sounded like a premiership team playing at home to a league two. Side. When I realised it would be more productive and more interesting to clean the oven. The oven lost out to a sunday afternoon doze.
Ok we managed a scrape by, hardly positive but have to take what we can get. What did concern a little was Kenton, saying that too many players were hiding, making sure their markers were sheilding them from being seen. Something is very wrong when that is spotted by professional. We know confidence is low, but to try and hide, doesn,t speak of players trying to get out of a rut.
I did wake up for the draw. Not surprisingly City the very last ball out of the wolves away, there endeth this season cup involvement. With Wet Spam and Neverton waiting. Any increase in points total will be a step away from highly unlikely..
Caught sight of a very fast moving tweet, that referred to Sargent being likened to Beaker from the Muppets. Did raise a smile, I byWent to find it again and could not.
Starting to look like The S&S team, cannot get much out of this shower, anymore than Farke could. Sure if in high powered business, resignations would be expected for such a second abject failure.
Got to enter my score guess in a league, I have a go in, can’t make my mind up between 3 or 4 for the Hammer’s game. Simply cannot see much better happening, maybe a point against Neverton is the best I can see.
Hi Lad
I hope the cat’s whisker didn’t let you down and I bet you were not alone in induging in a Sunday afternoon doze as a few in yellow shirts seemingly joined you.
I didn’t listen to Chris G and Darren Kenton but they both talk good sense so I’m sure what you say is right.
Dean Smith was yet again declaring that there would be no incomings in January which was rather depressing reading.
Clean the oven? I’d rather buy a new one 🙂
Cheers
A weird FAC weekend it certainly was, with VAR and a certain Michael Oliver denying Villa the minimum of extra time. My personal highlight – watching Bali Mumba waltz thought the Bristol Rovers defence!! 😄
I loved the tweet about Sargent! I can’t believe that fit n the same money, we could possibly have but Olise from Reading, who ensured Millwall:s cup run ended on Saturday.
I’m really appalled to see that McLean did his ‘rousing barite cry after our defeat to Arsenal and apart from his pass watch led to our guest goal in around 500; minutes of football, has looked more and more like Naismith!! ☹️
I see there are protests and counter protests for Delia to sell, but as Jake Humphrey pointed out, there isn’t a queue of millionaires camped in Morrison’s car park willing to take over.
We all applauded when SW and DF delivered 2 promotions in 3 years, but on both occasions, they got the recruitment horribly wrong. Yes, SW may have spent around £60M, but he would have been far better saving the £13’14M he wasted on Sargent and Gunn to bring in a a much better quality striker.
Giannoulis and Tzolis seem to have gone backwards under Smith and I’m finding more and more fans thinking that sacking DF was the wrong choice and we’ve blown the slim chance we had of becoming an established member of the PL!! 😕
I just hope that we can survive in the Championship!! ☹️
Hi Ed
At this rate I cannot see Smith staying past the end of the season. Blunt maybe but I do question if he knew exactly what he’d walked into.
I never called for *Farke out* but we cannot really answer that question right now.
After seeing Forest and to a lesser degree Millwall at the weekend I am confident we can survive in the Championship – with a 14th place finish.
Cheers
Pretty grim reading Martin. We are now at a point many of us have been predicting for some time.
In truth and with hindsight Delia should have stepped down after the Wembley triumph but instead has clung on with various low cost schemes.
Meanwhile in the real world teams in all four divisions have secured deals with very wealthy owners. This means following relegation we’ll struggle to maintain a presence in the championship.
Our recent recruitment drive is the most disastrous ever meaning there will be no Maddison or Buendia to subsidise the current ownership.
The fans are now openly protesting which means the writing is on the wall.
Delia has the best interests of the club at heart but she must realise that failing to capitalise on three recent slices of good fortune indicates she has taken the club as far as she can.
The one glimmer of hope was the financial directors statement at the AGM where he said the club receives offers to buy all the time. These offers are scrutinised and viable ones presented to the board. Is it not time to re-examine some of these offers?
Hi John
Unfortunately I cannot find anything to disagree with there – not because I want an argument but simply because what you say reinforces the depression 🙂
Can you imagine working in the finance department or wherever at Carrow Road and having to pass on a potentially decent offer of investment to Delia?
I’ve had some carp jobs when I was a kid [haven’t we all] but none quite as bad as that.
*Don’t shoot the messenger* doesn’t even cover it.
Cheers
Assuming we do get relegated this season, I tried to come up with a list of reasons why we should bother striving next season to get promoted back into the Premier League.
This is what I came up with….
…
Reckon that sums it up.
Spot on Mr Sadler, spot on.
Cheers
Well our friends at ESPN and supersport were kind enough to throw live feeds for this one , I wish they hadn’t .
The previous day Bali Mumba made an explosive debut in the cup and looked to have more going forward than our entire left side going forward during the first half dross. The guys are so short on confidence they don’t want the ball,apart from Sargent who wants it but when he gets it can’t do anything with it. And we send TD-P out on loan .
At least we free in the cricket, where is the City equivalent to Crawley s great counterattacking knock , promising young player, oh out on loan .
Roll on the Ribs.
Hi Bernie
I’ve always liked Bali Mumba since he came on late against Swansea last season.
Creepy has gone through the cricketing mill but shouldn’t be dismissed, ha!
I’ve never met Lesley Hornby, honest.
Cheers
Hi Martin
Well an ex city player put the boat in against Arse-nal, a current player scores the winner fir Peterborough and a couple of other loans get a good report and we have 2 young lads at managerless Gillingham how that will effect their game time only time will tell.
Ian Ladyman looks like he has become the spokesman for the Rick Parry cut the Premiership brigade naming city and WBA as prime candidates never to be allowed in so much for fair play.
He also mentioned Fulham as a yo yo club only taking the parachute payments yet have an owner worth $6billion so he got that wrong but it looked good it an article without much research needed lazy reporting I think.
Wet Spam on a Wednesday night at the London Stadium must be better than the old Boleyn chicken run ground or Upton Park maybe they might keep their heads and go easy on an under preforming city side.
With the breaking news that Chelsea have looked at Gilmours injured and it’s ruled him out for 4weeks then I am not sure he will be a big miss in any of those games.
Maybe we will see a new fighting spirit in the squad after a scrappy win but will not hold my breather at 71 they are getting rarer by the day.
Rocking horse poo or Dinosaurs eggs both will become a staple diet before anyone convinces Smith and Jones to sell up especially with an empty car park of millionaires.
Have a great day
Hi Alex
I wrote this before large man Evans was dismissed by the Gills so what Tom D-P’s future will be now I am uncertain. It must be unsettling for him to put it mildly.
The Ian Ladyman article I hadn’t previously read but it serves to show what some folks think of us right now. I’d love to say they’re all wrong, but…
Some might say that the Smiths will never sell up. But when few offers make it to the table we will never know.
I’ve got a ticket for Euromillions tonight but even if I win I will be turned down as unsuitable – probably because I’ve never been pictured in an 1p5wich shirt.
Cheers
I have some long standing family stuff on the Friday and Saturday of the next round which would be very expensive (emotionally and financially) to cancel so, unless the game is moved to Sunday or Monday I’ll miss it. The memory of the pub after the 5-1 game makes me feel ok about not being able to go.
Well, we won, got a clean sheet and are the only team in the bottom 5 to get through. I have a feeling this could be the high point of January, perhaps the high point of the rest of the season. Oh well.
The Skids are a brilliant band, I saw them 40+ years ago and shortly before the ‘rona took over and hope to see them again soon. Hopefully it will be before the Maquerade of us being a Premier League team has disappeared and the Charade of this season is over. I’m not sure many of this team will be TV Personalities
Hi Don
Yeah I hope the k/o is switched for you. Missing out on a big moment in family life is never ideal so hopefully you can enjoy both.
I never saw the Skids myself and although I was never a fan of Big Country Stuart Adamson was some musician. Another one gone far too early.
Cheers
Weirdly I found myself last weekend more engaged with Bali Mumba’s goal for Peterborough, Cambridge Utd’s progress against The Toon and whether Wes would appear off the sub’s bench than City’s exploits at The Valley.
My two main sporting loves, City & Ashes cricket I can no longer bear to watch or listen to on radio or TV. I’ll still go to City games when possible and test matches including Lords and the Oval in 2023, (God willing), but I don’t wish to put myself through the stress any longer of listening preferring to watch a positive highlight if there are any, thank you Teemu & Milot, great goal.
This leaves me unable to comment on our performances, players, manager, etc. Thankfully I’ll keep supporting MFW where I can find out all I need to know.
Hi Colin
We have several cricket fans on MFW, including Alex B, Bernie O and myself.
I’ve been following the Ashes via Guardian Live as I absolutely love the way Tim de Lisle, Tanya Aldred and their colleagues provide the updates. It’s obviously not the same as watching it yourself on the TV but comes a pretty close second.
To me it’s ironic that the two newspapers whose politics I like the least provide the best online sports coverage, as in the Torygraph and the Grauniad!
As for MFW offering all you need to know don’t read us about Carthusian doctrine or reality TV as you might be equally disappointed with our responses in both cases.
Thanks for the kind words
Cheers
I do hope that Norwich has some kind of january plan, there looks to be 3 games and if you loose all those then its possible that gap to avoid relegation has gone way larger. Burnley is surely worst team in premier league when you look their squad, but they have played together with same squad so long that they might still be that 1 of 4 which survive again. Newcastle does not look like spending a lot, Trippier looks at least on paper as good buy and price was reasonable. They obviously didnt get managers they wanted and have manager who might not be able to keep them in league. That is big problem, because next manager have to start basically on zero. He have to first get rid off majority of players in their roster and then he can start rebuilding. Watford have once again bought african players from Europe. Ranieri is surely best manager of those 4 clubs. Pozzo family has good contacts and they run very large player pool and looks to be believing african players in english football.
Yes, this is hard for Norwich. Game against Charlton showed problems harshly. And Arsenal? No Partey no party.
Hi 1×2
Yes, Norwich do have a plan for January.
This will mean spending no money, maybe selling Todd Cantwell and buying yet another low value striker with the profits.
If we get £15million for Cantwell – and we’d be lucky to do so – we will only spend one third of that and the rest of the money will disappear into the self sustainability pot.
We have never really signed African players and I quite honestly do not know the reasons for that. The few we have had never worked out except Alex Tettey, but he was far more Norwegian than Ghanaian anyway!
You said last week that Teemu Pukki will leave us at te end of this season and I very much fear that you are correct.
Kiitos
Hi Martin,
How curious that we should loan out an U-23 striker who has scored 13 goals this season, rather than having Tom Dickson-Peters on the first team bench at least. The club appears to have removed a player who might have aided our staying in the Premiership, and its not as if he would have been the youngest ever Premiership debutant!
I honestly believe that Idah would be better employed spending the rest of the season in the Championship actually scoring some goals, which would help us, and the Irish.
Why not bring Hugill back from WBA, give him the chance to prove himself supporting Super-Teemu, and if he can’t cut it, sell him this summer.
I’m afraid Tzolis seemed a bit weak against the Addicks, probably in the wrong league(s), I’d sell him and buy a more traditional Brit striker with the money – or even loan one from the Premiership till the summer!
Did you guys hear any news on Normann’s return?
We absorbed a lot of pressure in the 1st half at the Valley, and at times, played like a team of strangers, although I thought Hanley and Kabak were pretty good most of the time.
All the best for ’22
COYYs!
Hi Kev
When I saw the loan-outs for Bali and Tom D-P I was gobsmacked as they used to say back in the day. Neither move made any sense to me and still doesn’t.
Adam Idah has completely stagnated but I don’t see how we can let him out on loan at the moment. The poor $od’s confidence must be at an all-time low.
As for Normann it is a case of softly softly catchee monkey because if you have to undergo an operation on nerves/tendons in the pelvic region that recovery will have to be monitored extremely carefully. Although medically I’m more or less a layman I cannot think of a worse area of the body for a professional athlete to get injured as the pelvis is the fulcrum for every single twist and turn.
Cheers
Hiya,
Yes, both loans seem bizarre, Mumba’s goal for the Posh was crackerjack though! So far as Dickson-Peters is concerned, I guess we’ll never know – Dan Adshead is already at Gillingham for the season so they have two Canaries now.
We all know Idah is a good technical player, but surely he would have gained from loan time at another club, widens the perspective in some cases, especially after landing the ball in the net a few times.
I bow to your superior knowledge and reasoning regarding Normann’s injury – not one I’ve ever had thank God. We always seem to lose key players at key times, a great shame.
All the best.
What impressed me the most about Mumba’s goal for Posh was actually the finish as many a young man is capable of blowing all the great work leading up to it but Bali was as cool as cool can be.
Norwich has so called club option for Pukki and Cantwell, its 1 year. What does it mean? Very little, if they activate it they still need player to sign their proposal. Usually clubs activate those way earlier about 2-3 seasons before player contract ends and then try to get player sign 1 year more to his contract. I believe there is some rules in premier league which makes impossible to offer very different 1 year contract than regular contract was if club activate that option.
So both Pukki and Cantwell are free agents 1.7.2022 and can sign with any club they like. 3+1 contract would be huge advantage for clubs if it means that clubs can just like that keep player 1 year more. Every club would make all contracts like that and depending how some player has played they would activate or not activate no matter what player would want. Im hugely surprised if they play for Norwich next season, free agent market is best possible situation for player especially financially. Of course not to all, every year there is players whose career ends because of lack of interest. That is not the case in this issue.
What you say is correct.
However as much as we would love to keep Pukki we would equally like to sell Cantwell.
Norwich City have done so well out of Teemu. He, along with Buendia, has proved to be our finest signing of recent times and he might give us one more season. Maybe.
It depends where he wants to finish his career. of course as at 31/32 that is what a striker must consider. Whenever he leaves it will be with the best wishes of all of us.
Martin,
I cant see situation that Teemu would go playing in championship again. It would mean that some championship club would have money to pay salary which would be competitive or better than all other options. If Norwich avoid relegation, then of course its possible that he stays in Norwich but still not sure. Playing in Norwich is very tough mentally when you are in premier league, its basically only surviving battle and honestly desperate one. It also affects to players personal stats negatively. I still keep my opinion that his best seasons are waiting him, its because he has been avoiding severe injuries and because he was so lazy trainer so he has capacity left. Also there is example of players who are still very good even they are 38 years old.
Cantwell is different thing, he needs playing time. Norwich surely would want to sell him, but does Cantwell want to move now knowing he will be free agent in next summer? His situation is very complex and to me those rumors of 15 million transfer are absolutely mad. I could understand 2 million gamble, but does Cantwell want to tie his hands because Norwich would get transfer fee?
Both are difficult to sell, because they very likely are not willing to loose their option of been free agent. Club can of course keep both out of playing, but honestly that would be very unfair especially to Teemu and that would also weaken team clearly. As long as Norwich has somewhat realistic chance to avoid relegation, I believe that Teemu plays.
Yes I get your point about Teemu’s capacity but that would not help him even in the English Championship as in if he loses half a metre of pace over 10 metres that is enough to nullify his threat.
Young defenders in that league can be very quick indeed.
Maybe in a different country he could play on and on, but probably not in the UK as it is different here in that respect.
In the UK domestic market I would value Cantwell at £8 million max. His *ship has sailed* as we say.
Teemu’s been a great player for NCFC, 1×2, sad that time marches on as he is a joy to watch play when he is going for goal.
If I was Teemu, I think I would like to play a couple of seasons in the sunshine, Spain or Greece for instance.
Wherever Teemu goes after playing for Norwich, I hope he enjoys every second of his playing career!
Cheers!