Over recent weeks, there’s been a lot of scepticism surrounding Stuart Webber and the immediate future of Norwich City. Elsewhere on this website, there are numerous posts about this in more detail, but in light of them, I’ve compiled a list of what I consider to be the best and worst incoming transfers under Webber’s stewardship, in my opinion.
Feel free to agree/disagree in the comments – I look forward to reading your opinions.
Teemu Pukki
It’s impossible not to put Teemu Pukki at the top of this list. The Finn was a relatively unknown name to English football fans before his arrival, having had largely unsuccessful spells at Sevilla, Schalke and Celtic, but Pukki had been going under the radar at Danish side, Brondby, scoring just under a goal every two games. However, ahead of the 2018-19 season, Teemu Pukki was available on a free transfer, so City swooped.
Since then, he’s been nothing short of phenomenal. Teemu has been named in the EFL Team of the Season twice, been nominated for Championship Player of the Season twice (won it once) and scored an immense 55 goals in 84 Championship games. Arguably one of the best free transfers in world football, the signing of Teemu Pukki was undoubtedly a success.
Josip Drmic
Josip Drmic is probably best known among Norwich fans for his budding music career while at the club. In all seriousness, City fans will always treasure Drmic’s FA Cup goal against Tottenham, but that’s about it. He only managed three goals in 24 games before falling out with Daniel Farke and being shipped off to HNK Rijeka in Croatia.
For most, Josip Drmic’s time at Norwich City was a failure. We’ll always have No Tomorrow though.
Emi Buendia
Emi was a revelation at Norwich City. Three years of Argentinian magic fired the Canaries to two promotions and gave Buendia a host of personal honours. In his first season, Emi finished third in the Norwich Player of the Season vote, and two years later, was named in the 2020-21 Championship Team of the Season, and was City’s and the Championship’s Player of the Season.
A sour departure somewhat ruined Buendia’s reputation among City fans but rest assured, he’ll always be considered a Norwich City legend.
Marcel Franke
Marcel Franke signed for Norwich at the start of Daniel Farke’s tenure. He played in the first five league games of the season, but following City’s 4-0 defeat at Millwall, the German was dropped with Grant Hanley joining and Timm Klose returning from injury. He left on loan in January 2018 and never played for the Yellows again.
Perhaps the most disappointing part of this transfer is the reported £2.7m fee paid to bring him to the club (according to Transfermarkt).
Tim Krul
Tim is another free transfer phenomenon. Prior to his arrival at City, most knew Krul for his 11-year stint at Newcastle and penalty heroics for the Dutch National Team. He joined City following a year at Brighton, where he was a back-up keeper. It seemed a smart deal at the time, following Angus Gunn’s departure, but I don’t think any Norwich fans could anticipate just how successful Tim Krul would be with Norwich City.
Nearly four seasons later, there’s no doubting that Timmy Krul is a fan-favourite among Yellows. A main-stay in two title-winning seasons and Player of The Season winner in the 2019-20 season, the Dutchman is surely one of Webber’s most successful signings.
Josh Sargent
It’s fair to say that Norwich fans weren’t full of optimism ahead of Josh Sargent’s arrival. The American had averaged roughly a goal every six games in the Bundesliga for Werder Bremen but was highly rated, and highly-priced.
The main reason I’ve included Josh Sargent in this list in a negative capacity is because of the hefty price paid. At the time of joining, Sargent was Norwich’s record transfer but (also at the time of writing) he’s not returned that in the slightest. The only highlight of Josh’s City career so far, is Watford (A) where he scored that memorable scorpion kick.
While I’m still optimistic, £10 million for a handful of open goal misses and a scorpion kick has to be deemed a failure.
Mario Vrancic
Mario was one of Stuart Webber’s first signings at the club, and I’d argue it was a successful one. He was signed for a minimal fee from Darmstadt 98, and spent four years in yellow and green. Vrancic provided City fans with so many memorable moments during his time at the club – Leeds away, the Sheffield Wednesday free kick – everyone in Norfolk fell in love with Super Mario.
This, for me, is why the signing of Vrancic was a success, and he’ll always be fondly remembered for his moments of magic.
Ralf Fahrmann
When it was announced Ralf Fahrmann was joining City ahead of the 2019-20 season, most fans were excited. He was the captain of Schalke 04, and had a number of Bundesliga and Champions League appearances. Things didn’t turn out as hoped, though. Fahrmann only made one league appearance at Norwich, and that was a 22-minute cameo against Crystal Palace.
While it’s disappointing that City fans didn’t get to see more of the German, it’s more of a concern that £2.7 million was sanctioned as a loan fee. To put that into perspective, it’s more than the transfer fees of Emi Buendia, Kenny McLean, Mario Vrancic and Tom Trybull combined. There’s no doubt, the signing of Fahrmann was a poor one.
Oliver Skipp
Super ‘Olli’ Skipp joined on loan ahead of the 2020-21 season and is remembered by Norwich fans as one of the best recent loanees at the club. He was one of the first names on the team sheet and constantly demonstrated maturity and composure beyond his years.
Much of the City fanbase wanted Skipp to return ahead of the 2021-22 season, but his importance in the Tottenham squad shows what a player Norwich had on their hands. A new contract with Spurs is the least Skipp deserves, and I’d expect him to be in the England senior squad over the coming years.
Ben Marshall
Ben Marshall joined following impressive spells at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers, and naturally excited City fans. He started the first four games of the 2018-19 season, but would never play another league game in yellow and green.
A reported £1.5 million fee was paid for half a season’s service before Marshall went on loan to Millwall and his contract was terminated. Surely this is one of (if not the) worst transfers sanctioned by Stuart Webber during his time at Norwich City.
Good read, you could so easily be carried on with Leitner, Husband, Roberts, the Lad from Spurs who thought he was above us, Passack. Duda, Amadou, Srbeny and Heise just a few that springs to ind
Srbny like Sorensen was given game time to prove his worth so forme the panel is out on that one
Passage was in a similar position he was proving himself in Germany but can up against Aarons and never got into the team.
Leitner had all the skill to be a good player for city but didn’t have the mentality to succeed in English football he had proved that in Italy.
Should have read Srbny and Sorensen not give time to prove themselves and Passlack not Passager spelling check again
Lots of poor signings and good ones over the last 5 years, for sure. Can’t have Srbeny being called a failure though! 😂 #icon
As Canarylad mentions above you’ve got quite a few transfers to go through! Rhodes anyone??
As a general rule of thumb id say Webber got more right in the Championship than the Premier League owing to wages mostly.
Rhodes is a strange one in as much city wanted him and he wanted to be at the club but his parent club Sheff Wed wanted double his value and weren’t willing to negotiate with city.
Family who are Sheff Wed supporter’s were convinced that Rhodes was joining Norwich but have told me the owner paid £12m+ add ons and wanted it all covered when he was sold and Webber didn’t play ball he then left for nothing going back to Huddesfield,
Rhodes is certainly one that could’ve ended up on the list. Steipo and Onel were also top picks.
When it comes to recruitment I think Webber is overrated but when it comes to running a club within the constraints imposed on him by the inability of our owners to fund a top professional side I think he’s very competent.
I now think he is thoroughly disillusioned with the self funding model as he’s taken it as far as he can.
I’m certain he’ll now seek fresh opportunities.
He definitely isn’t fully committed to the cause at the moment. The work he’s done at the club over 5 years is incredible though.
To really judge Webber success in the buying side of the transfers perhaps its worth looking at how other teams perform in transfers, I feel like we might be pretty average when it comes down to it, I mean there is still man utd
Obviously this isn’t a definitive judgement on SW, as you’ve said there are many more components of his job. Overall the work that he’s done at City has been positive, but this is a look specifically at some of the transfers made.
So my point was to say whether Webber was doing a good or bad job with transfers we would need to think how well or poorly other teams have done. I imagine that this same conversation is happening at Watford, Burnley, Everton for sure, MAn Utd as always, Leeds probably, Villa, Leicester, Chelsea. even and thats before we even get to West Brom or say Stoke not to mention Ipswich…. We can say he hasnt had much success but is his hit rate significantly worse than others?
Hi Jamie
Good selection – you can’t cover them all as other folks have said.
I’d certainly add the Stieperdude onto the positive list and Sam Byram too if he was indeed a Webber signing – it seems so long ago I can’t remember for sure 🙂
Ben Gibson – for me – verges on the mediocre while a rank bad one would be Felix Passlack.
Good article.
Cheers Martin. This article just contained the top 5 best and worst in my opinion. More than happy to do a part 2!
Tricky innit though, most of those negative ones I thought were good signings at the time – Ben Marshall in particular I thought was a real coup. Probably a manifestation of my unwarranted optimism.
Sargent was clearly a huge gamble though, and for me probably the most damning name in your list just for the cost. Real trier though and may yet come good (there’s that unwarranted optimism again)
I suppose the question boils down to – would the outcome have been any different under the previous system/regime? And honestly I can’t see us having won two Championships (and incidentally not being constantly on the verge of a financial crisis) the way we were going pre-Webber, and Krul, Hanley, Buendia, Pukki would all be good shouts for NCFC Team of the Decade.
So for all the Farhman’s and Heise’s and sargent’s I’m still calling it a pretty decent effort.
I certainly agree that SW’s transfers on the whole should be seen as a success. There is a clear difference in outcome between Championship signings and Premier League signings. It might just be Webber’s fatal flaw.
A strange read in some ways but I agree that your failures have to be looked at
Drmic had a great season 2 years prior to joining city then had a serious injury that he never g9t over and like a few of Webbers signings arrived at the club still carring the injury
He has said that he played in games when not 100% fit to try and help the team out in a struggling season, but once he got over his injuries the club shipped him out and has been a success at his loan club who made the decision to loan him out DF or SW he might have come good, city gave paid most of his wages while on loan anyway.
Sargent like Rashica arrived with a good reputation in Germany as a hard working player with great potential but was in a team that had just got relegated both players on arrival came for similar fees and Webber announced that their confidence would need rebuilding due to the poor season Shalka04 had getting relegated.
Neither player had a full preseason due to covid-19 and games getting cancelled, Rashica has adapted better out of the 2 with close family living in London, Sargent arrived injured and a pregnant wife and no close family support so adapting has taken longer, Injuries haven’t helped neither has a struggling team also at 21 his price tag might have been a burden before classing him as a failed recruitment lets give him the benefit of time to prove himself along with Tzolis another who hasn’t 04oved himself yet was announced as one of the best players of his age in Greece yet DS says he has to forget how much city paid for him.
I agree, but for a club like Norwich City, the price has to be taken into heavy consideration. We don’t have that money to waste on a player without reason to believe they can be important players. I’m more than happy to be proved wrong, but surely with such a big fee, SW had to have been confident he could help the club avoid relegation, something his offensive stats at Werder Bremen didn’t suggest towards.
As you say with Josip Drmic, City are still paying the majority of his wages. Financially, it has to be looked at as a disappointing signing.
Agree completely on Josh. He’s 21 and I’ll come back to a comment he made before signing – he spoke to Tim Ream at Fulham before signing and the comment made was “it will take a year to settle” as the league is unlike any place he had played before. Like the majority of US players, he’s coachable and has time to learn. Maybe more of question is whether or not DS/CS are capable of taking him to the next level?
Ah trying to glean some positives from all of his buys as opposed to this season for which he should be well and truly sacked for ! Journalists I mean Really ??!! This man is not the Messiah a Guru .
He is a very brash embarrassing Ostrich who really needs to let the club move on .
The article includes 5 of Webber’s best signings, and 5 of his worst – one of which is from this season.
Too much nonsense about Pukki, but not surprising. His lowest scoring stats are from HJK, club which has won championship before season starts. In Sevilla he was only a kid, but was youngest player during those times that made break through to first team. In Schalke they liked him and they didnt want him to leave. In Celtic they hate him, because he represent complete opposite than scottish players are. First season in Brondby was not so good. After that he finally changed his attitude, so he has played now 6 seasons as a real professional. Before that he used his talent and was known as a player who does not try much or all. In Celtic his nutrition was mainly pizza, candies and soda drinks.
1 thing is clear and really strange, Pukki what Norwich fans has seen is very much different than what we remember. Outside britain, because you obviously have difficult to understand and accept that football has been played long time outside britain so basically every possible player who is not british is unknown, Teemu was seen as huge talent. No matter his unprofessional attitude clubs have wanted him, hoping that some day he maybe change. Other thing what I have not seen him doing in Norwich is long range shots. He is perfectly capable of scoring there too. Is this still some part of laziness? Maybe he thinks enough is enough and is not willing to start using also his all shots. If he use it once, likely they want him to use it more often and long range shooting takes energy. He has also ability to headers, but dislike it. He still has not used his special footballing gift and thats why he must move on this summer and take that step. This is not question about nationalities or club fans and what they would like to see him doing, its football matter. I dont care if he represent next Sweden, Iraq or whatever national team, this guy just is so special talent and Norwich is not right club to him. Bad attitude Pukki could have played as long as you like there, but not that one anymore.
And sometimes you get it wrong. It’s not all about you.
We bought some cheap players from Germany who have transformed the fortunes of the club. Some didn’t work out as well as others but it was a risk worth taking.
Since the first promotion under Farke we’ve wasted so much money trying to upgrade. At the same time we’ve been unable to get the best out of the players already here.