Norwich City have today announced the signing of Finnish International striker, Teemu Pukki, with all the details being on canaries.co.uk.
Introducing our third signing of the summer… 🙌
Finland striker Teemu Pukki is set to join City on a free transfer from July 1 ➡️ https://t.co/cg5HhKclKO#ncfc #WelcomeTeemu pic.twitter.com/PlfNsMQShc
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) June 30, 2018
The 28-year-old was announced on the same day as Ben Marshall and my opinion piece bemoaning the Canaries’ lack of a free-scoring striker.
Apologies for the late reporting of this news by Vital Norwich but I’ve been at a football tournament all day, getting roasted in the sun watching my lad play. If I’m honest, this signing has caught me a little off guard with there literally being no speculation about it at all. I think the EDP boys would also say the same.
There has been no hint of this, so congratulations to Stuart Webber for still being able to pull a rabbit out of a hat. The question now though, is “is he any good?”
My article this morning focussed on how the club have not replaced Grant Holt since he left us, almost exactly five years ago and that needed to change. We have been missing a leader too, along with Holty’s goals, we’ve missed his desire, work rate and sheer will to win.
No pressure, Teemu.
Teemu Pukki is 28 and has signed a three-year deal on a free transfer after spending the last four years with Brondy, one of Denmark’s leading Superliga clubs.
He is a Finnish international and has 12 goals in 64 appearances for his country and has had spells with Sevilla, FC Schalke 04 and Celtic. It isn’t as impressive as it sounds though.
He barely played for Sevilla and he scored 8 goals in 37 appearances for Schalke over three seasons. He scored 7 goals in 25 appearances of the 2013-14 season for Celtic, after being signed as Gary Hooper’s replacement (you may remember Gary Hooper).
His record at Brondby is better though, with 36 goals in 87 appearances for the Danish side.
It seems that he struggled to make an impact in Scotland due to the physical nature of the game up north of the border, which doesn’t bode well for the Championship.
Pukki is 5’11” tall and it seems that his main asset is his pace, which is always a tool to terrify defenders with. From what I can make out, he possesses a powerful shot and has quick feet, so who knows?
If he can get to grips with the physicality of the English game, we may have a player on our hands, or not. As ever, I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen him play but I’m not excited, are you?
OTBC