I tended to steer clear of the Todd Cantwell debate that raged almost constantly during his time at our football club. I don’t know Todd, have never met him, and had no idea of the personal issues he was dealing with but of which others seemed to be aware.
As such, I didn’t feel qualified to comment and so stuck to passing comment on his abilities as a footballer, which were considerable.
For me, the bottom line was that he was a good footballer and also, to coin a rotten footballing phrase, ‘one of our own’. Alas, being one of your own is, as Todd discovered, very much a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, your successes are celebrated to a greater degree than those of a player the club has bought but you’re also, it seems, subjected to higher levels of scrutiny and given less latitude than others when performance levels drop.
And Todd’s did drop.. then went up again… then dropped… and so on.
Consistency was what eluded him most over the course of his time in the first team, albeit in the behind-closed-doors season of 2020-21 he did find a rhythm that no one could dispute.
In that season we saw the best of Todd Cantwell, just as we saw the best of Emi Buendia – both eventually finding their feet to outstanding effect after initially getting the hump over the fact they were still at Norwich City.
Todd had watched two of his alumni – Ben Godfrey and Jamal Lewis – depart for pastures more glamorous and, from the outside looking in, appeared to desire some of the same.
That it itself was fair enough because he’s one of our own doesn’t mean he has to stay so. It may be okay for the Steven Gerrards, Gary Nevilles, and Paul Scholes’ but there is no expectation that academy products who play for their local club have to stay for their whole career.
Why would there be?
But we do expect them to give their absolute all; the same that we expect of every player who pulls on the shirt. And that – again from the outside looking in – appeared to be why Todd felt the ire of factions of the Yellow Army.
It doesn’t take too much of a stretch to imagine that also is why he felt the wrath of successive City head coaches – all of whom, at some stage spoke glowingly of his undoubted technical talents.
But 2020-21 Todd Cantwell was peak Todd Cantwell. In a Norwich shirt, it didn’t get any better than that. In the ill-fated return to the Premier League in 2021-22 he played just eight games before, in the January, heading out on loan to Bournemouth.
As we know, that attempt to resurrect his career didn’t come off – Scott Parker returned him to sender once the Cherries had won promotion – and despite there being a clear desire on the part of Cantwell to depart Carrow Road that summer, nothing materialised.
He was, it appears, a reluctant part of Dean Smith’s squad but still made 18 appearances in the first half of the season before finally getting his dream move to Rangers in January 2022.
But clearly, there’s residual beef to be had with Norwich City. Todd being Todd, he was never going to go quietly and so it was no great surprise that when he chose to tell his story to the The Beautiful Game podcast he would fire off a few broadsides in the direction of Norwich.
Among Todd’s greatest hits during the pod were the following:
On the end of his time at the football club:
“My time at Norwich sort of fizzled into a bad place really.”
On being told to train with City’s development squad:
“I spent nearly two to three months in the 23s set-up which after what I had achieved at Norwich it was barbaric … I felt like I had all my respect, honour, and achievements stripped away from me.”
On being shown “no respect”:
“It was like I was a new signing who they signed on a free and if it didn’t work out then no problem. It wasn’t ‘this lad has come through the academy, dedicated his life to this club and won two Championship titles’, it was just ‘this is Todd, he’s different’.”
On his future while training with the 23s:
“I was just in tears saying I’m going to quit, I’ve got enough money, quit football completely.”
On his dealings with sporting director, Stuart Webber:
“If I’m being completely honest, me and Stuart never had a relationship. That might seem weird because he was the sporting director of a club when I was there but, for whatever reason, we never had a relationship. It’s a weird one.”
On reported interest from Bayern Munich:
“I had spoken to them directly and their sporting director and I thought it was going to be a career-changing move.”
On being in demand in the summer of 2020:
“It’s something I’ve not really spoken about because I have a mild bit of embarrassment towards it because everything was so public and there was so much interest in the newspapers.”
On being a Norwich City academy product:
“It was my town. I am a message to the young boys that you can come through, you can be expressive, you can be yourself, you can have blonde hair, you can drive a nice car, and you can come from Norwich. You don’t need to be from Chelsea to do that.”
In fairness to Todd, he was also complimentary about most of the staff at the club – many of whom he will have known on his journey through the academy – and also in relation to Delia, whom he holds in high regard and who he claims to have tried to make contact with in order to clarify some of the misconceptions.
Whether this was Todd being upfront and honest, or Todd being a bit loose-tongued, or even Todd taking some pre-planned potshots at Norwich City, it just feels like someone who needs to let go and move on.
Without Norwich City, there would be no Todd Cantwell at Rangers and it does feel that, for all the beef he clearly has with the club, it would be an idea if he occasionally paused to remember that.
The reputation he gained for being, shall we say, a challenge to manage may or may not be true, but to be still harping on about his difficult time here ten months hence does him no favours.
And as for the revelation that you can be from Norwich, drive a nice car, AND have blond hair… well who saw that one coming?
Time for you and your flowing locks to concentrate on Ibrox, Todd.
Watch the full Beautiful Game Podcast interview below:
It’s perfectly reasonable for Todd or anybody to tell his side of the story, particularly as he got such a bad reputation from his own fans. Perhaps people don’t want to hear this because they want to believe what they presumed happened, but this is an interesting opinion from someone with such a low opinion of Webber.
To isolate Cantwell at a difficult time in his life shows the club, particularly the sporting director, in a dim light. The manager would not discuss why the player was dropped nor had the guts to tell him he banished to the U21s- while telling the fans that it was due to fitness – while selecting players who were not fit.
We also learned that some of the senior players were totally unmotivated during Farke’s first relegation. Two moves were shelved although Webber had said that they sold Buendia because he didn’t want players at the club who didn’t want to be here.
I found it very interesting to learn what is happening behind the scenes and perhaps an indication of what has been going wrong. An intelligent footballer who has endeared himself to his new supporters was asked questions and answered honestly. Perhaps a good time for it approaching the exit of Webber and return of Farke.
Remember they inherited a player with excellent potential and turned him into someone who wanted to quit the game.
Time for some supporters to move on and put an end to the hair comments.
Good points, well made, Gil.
And noted.
I agree with Gil.
Remember when Howson angled for a move and Webber said he “had to come out and say what really happened”. Which was really just to sully the name of a great player for us.
Well, I guess this is karma.
Not sure why we’re focussing on Stuart Webber here. The key relationship is between player and manager. Three experienced and sympathetic managers talked up Todd Cantwell’s talent and gave him every opportunity in the team. All three eventually left him out.
I wouldn’t say that banishing a player, not letting him near his teammates and letting him know by email qualifies as being sympathetic. The DOF who publicly humiliated him after relegation and then blocked moves didn’t do much to motivate Cantwell. The damage was already done by the time Smith arrived to a player, not being allowed to further his career and seeing out his contract. He was given that chance at Rangers and the fans love his attitude. A massive mistake by the club. It contradicts the video they have just put out, which if you look at some of the comments on here (whining, loves himself) has done no good at all.
Sounded to me that some of the issue (if not all) was with Webber. He said he had good relationships with the Farke and Smith, but no relationship with Webber (while others did).
Interesting and Webber for sure has had his hits and misses at City, but he’s not the problem here! Cantwell needs to concentrate on football if he’s ever going to fulfil potential – it won’t happen he has not got the mindset of a top professional and too easily distracted.
Totally agree what did he contribute in his last 3 zilch hardly ripping up in Scotland good riddance.
There are, as always, two sides to a story and without the club providing theirs – and they’ll never become embroiled in a slanging match – we’ll likely never know all of the full details.
Never mind what Todd thought of the management, and Webber in particular, the key thing from my point of view is that he failed to create any kind of impression at Bournemouth.
If I remember correctly they had an option to buy him at the end of the loan spell but clearly didn’t see enough to warrant parting with any cash.
The boy will never amount to a hill of beans in the football world sadly because he’s too obsessed with the circus element rather than the professional element which brings you success and the adoration he embarrassingly and increasingly desperately craves…….. Dream on Todd if you really think the vast majority of the Y’’army really cares Buh!!!!
Great piece Gary.
All kind of rumours or tittle tattle ( whichever you prefer) have emerged regarding Todd over recent years.
Whether it be his behaviour to fellow pupils when he was at school, his fitness issues, his lack of perceived interest in our club, his desire to leave, his reasons for missing training etc etc.
Who knows the truth? Not Todd as his “truth” will only be his perception of events solely from his point of view.
Now mental health is a very serious ailment and I feel great sympathy to Todd if he has been suffering from this. But life is tough especially the world of professional football. We all have things to deal with in life like cancer, heart problems and many more but unless we are so bad we need help by the state we still have to go to work to earn a crust.
He was having a go in the media last week at Chris Sutton…. why?…. I am sorry Todd but you are going to have to get a much thicker skin than that. You will use a lot of energy picking fights with pundits who criticise you and it will get you nowhere.
And lets be honest here Todd has had many chances here at Norwich under quite a few coaches to re-establish himself in the Norwich City first team and failed every time.
His fitness for the first half of the game against Southampton awhile back, when he was recalled by Dean Smith was dreadful, It was no surprise he was replaced at half time.
And how did the loan and potential transfer to at the time “Championship Bournemouth” fail?
If Todd is as good as he thinks he is he should have ripped it up there at that level. He talks about Bayern Munich, but surely you have to prove yourself good enough here or at Bournemouth on a much more consistent basis than Todd has ever achieved to date to consider yourself good enough for Bayern.
To put a bit of fairness into this I do wonder if Todd has been dismayed at the number of players coming into the club on, in some cases on much higher wages than him, and being the academy boy paid substantially less and he perhaps rightly feels he is not being respected by the club.
But for my money I think Todd is a very good player but crucially he isn’t as good as he thinks. And I think that is were the problem lies.
Life is life it will always carry on regardless and football is the same maybe that is the greatest lesson he can learn from this , it is a shame because of his talent but whatever happened he let it control him .
I think that Todd looked in the mirror when he was 15, fell in love and has been utterly faithful ever since.
It’s true that Rangers fans like him; such is the dearth of talent at Ibrox, he is about as good as they’ve got. However, I watched every game he’s played against Celtic and he’s hardly lit the place up.
I don’t know where he’ll go next, but I don’t think it will be the EPL or any of the major European leagues
We all loved Todd because as he knows ‘he’s one of our own.’ Yes he was a prospect, yes he was involved in some great successes, but in the end he played a bit part in the ’18-’19 promotion and in ’20-’21 we weren’t there to see him in the flesh. He doesn’t want to talk about the bits in between when he (and the squad) were rank in the Premier League.
So for all his talents, he can’t ignore that he was dropped by successive managers and from the outside still appears to be sulking about it. He won’t make the hall of fame, despite some iconic moments, even though he seems to be a nice lad.
Pro footballers have a unique chance in life. I hope he gets off social media and concentrates on being the best footballer he can; the alternative is he ends up looking like an entitled parody with a legacy framed by whining about how hard done by he is.
Some rare recent credit where its due here; to the club, for maintaining a dignified silence. May it continue.
To be fair to Todd, I am willing to concede that during recent years someone at the club might have handled something better. Perhaps more than once. Possibly there was much injustice in his treatment. But what is so hard to digest about this thoroughly modern, Harry&Meganesque self-obsessed recounting is the complete absence of any potential personal responsibility.
I would hope a player, that fell out with Farke more than once (thereby, including academy promotion, having been given three cracks at it by Daniel), and put straight into a PL line up by Smith, might have suggested they could have done something differently. Somewhere? Along the way? Just once?
I wish Todd the best, he has many talents. He could and should be a wonderful role model for children in Norfolk. I hope he becomes one. He won’t with this mindset.
Talented but temperamental. One never knew which Cantwell was going to turn up — the game-changing midfield eager beaver or the individualist who did his own thing regardless of team formation, regularly being caught out of position when required to defend.. Sometimes a player and his club management are simply not simpatico. When that happens, players usually move on without the huge chip that Cantwell appears to carrying on his shoulder. It’s a pity he has not made the most of his ability.
Reading the exerts from the interview printed in the local press, it’s plain to see that Cantwell lays the blame for his woes squarely at the door of Webber.
Personally, since he left City I haven’t followed his career with any interest and to be honest I’m more invested in the recent articles about Uriah Djedje and Ken Aboh.
It will be of some interest to see how he now goes at Rangers given their new manager?
Todd was one of our own but never earned the respect of fans.
I suspect his quick rise went to his head and his levels dropped a little.
Hopefully he’ll let his football do the talking from now on and think twice before foil wrapping his flashy cars.
Interesting that once you know from the player himself what was really going on how poorly the club comes out of this.
The club will no doubt say they won’t get involved with a former player who’s now at another club, but you can be fairly certain had what he’s said been significantly different from the truth the they’d have been quick off the blocks to defend themselves.
Needless to say most fans are too blinkered to believe that the Club could possibly wrong.