There’s a lot of speculation about what the Norwich City first team squad will look like next season, who will leave, who will stay but there are four players that have been out on loan last season, who could have as big a say as any new signing.
The four players I’m talking about are Remi Matthews, Todd Cantwell, Ben Godfrey and Carlton Morris and for some of them at least, I think they’re going to be like new signings for the Canaries.
Over the next few days I’m going to be taking a look at these lads and assessing what they have to offer Daniel Farke.
Norwich need a new goalkeeper, we all know that, possibly two.
Angus Gunn was the undisputed number one at Carrow Road last season as he put in one assured performance after another. In fact, when he did make the odd mistake, it was highlighted and underlined but when you consider his age and lack of experience at any level of league football, he did brilliantly for Norwich.
Michael McGovern will have been kicking his heels as back up and probably felt thoroughly cheesed off, although he remained professional and did what he was asked to do. He might be in the same boat next season too.
Remi Matthews is the 24 year old contender for the number one shirt that McGovern will have to battle with for the place between the sticks, assuming he doesn’t move on himself.
He’s 33 and number one for his country and naturally, he needs to be playing football regularly. I don’t think that he can afford another season like the last one and it wouldn’t surprise me if his agent is pretty busy this summer. He’s going to be on a big salary and that will probably be a wage packet that Stuart Webber is going to want to shift.
That will leave the way open for Remi to establish himself as the new number one. Even if McGovern stays, you can be sure that Remi will fancy it.
He’s been out on loan a few times himself in the last few years with spells at Burton (twice), Doncaster Rovers, Hamilton and last season at Plymouth.
When he joined Argyle, they were in a horrible situation, goalkeeper wise and they were struggling badly because of it. They had suffered long-term injuries to all three professional goalkeepers on their books, which made manager Derek Adams turn to Norwich and Matthews.
Adams called Stuart Webber and asked about his availability and after some consultation with Neil Adams and Daniel Farke, Remi was loaned out to then near the bottom of the table, League One Plymouth Argyle.
He ended up making 26 appearances for the Pilgrims, interrupted only by a brief injury and the premature birth of his daughter, keeping 10 clean sheets in that period.
Plymouth went on a remarkable run after Remi arrived and he tasted defeat just 7 times in those 26 games.
As you probably know, despite having almost 70 league appearances under his belt, he is yet to make a first-team appearance for the Canaries but that looks set to change next season.
A series of rave reviews followed the Gorleston born Academy product and I’ve kept an eye on his progress during the season, via the likes of the Plymouth Herald.
It looks to me as though Remi Matthews is poised to achieve what I expect is a lifelong dream, to keep goal for his beloved Norwich City on a regular basis and let’s be honest, we all like to sing about “one of our own.”
OTBC