It’s that time of the week again folks, when I have a little go at summarising all the rumours currently surrounding the Canaries.
We start of with what seems a fairly positive and realistic link to Croatian goalkeeper, Simon Sluga as reported here by the EDP
The 21-year-old is reportedly a target for both Norwich and Sheffield United, although both clubs are linked with the same players in virtually every rumour at the moment. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the winner of the playoff final on Monday is then automatically added to these stories by default.
Anyway, getting back to Mr Sluga. He plays for HNK Rijeka in Croatia, who finished runners-up in Croatia’s top division behind Dinamo Zagreb, the team that Ivo Pinto has just re-joined.
He made 35 appearances last season, kept 13 clean sheets and conceded only 35 goals, which isn’t bad at all. He has been called up to the Croatian international squad several times but is yet to earn his first cap.
Even though Michael McGovern has signed a new deal at Carrow Road, I would be very surprised if he is number two to Tim Krul, although I do expect Krul to be given every chance of being the club’s number one next season, at least starting the season after his performances during last season.
With a reported fee of just £1.8m, this seems feasible.
The big, and slightly unsettling, news on Friday evening was a link by the Sun suggesting that Stuart Webber is on a shortlist to be the new Director of Football at Old Trafford.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer clearly needs some help as Manchester United’s Head Coach and it seems that Webber is being considered amongst others.
You can read all about that here in our story from Friday.
Facing facts, Norwich are not going to be able to hold onto Stuart Webber forever and he is likely to see Norwich as a steppingstone in his career, however, would a club like Manchester United really want a Director of Football who is unproven at the highest level?
I’d be surprised but, they do have a Head Coach in the same vein, so who knows?!
Another player that we brought you a Daily Mail link to last week was Leeds United’s combative midfielder, Kalvin Phillips – you can read that story here.
It seems a bit unlikely to me as Phillips has two years left in his deal at Elland Road and would cost £10m+ which is surely too rich for Norwich City.
That hasn’t stopped former Leeds striker and now pundit, Noel Whelan from urging young Phillips to stay at Leeds because Norwich could be relegated in 12 month’s time!
He does, of course, have a point. That could happen, it’s the reality of Premier League football for a newly promoted team like Norwich.
Whelan told Football Insider and reported by the EDP
“Don’t do it, you’re better off at Leeds. I’m not sure he would play regularly at Southampton or Bournemouth, they’ve already got quality central midfielders.
“Maybe Norwich, he would play regularly, but they will struggle to stay in the Premier League. Would he be going anywhere better?
“It might be one season in the Premier League for Norwich and they could be going down in 12 months and Leeds could be going up. Are Norwich going to be competitive in the Premier League? I’m not so sure.”
Moving on to a link that has returned, we have The Sun again talking up a Manchester United move for Ben Godfrey.
In this story they report that Solskjaer intends to rebuild United’s squad with young British players and that deals for Swansea’s Dan James and Stoke’s Nathan Collins are virtually complete. United are also linked to Newcastle’s Sean Longstaff and have reportedly also made an approach for Godfrey.
United obviously have a lot of pulling power and money for that matter, however, would and could City withstand an offer for Godfrey? I think at this time, having just been promoted that we probably could, unless they threw a huge amount of money at Norwich and I’m not sure that is quite United’s plan at the moment, hence they’re at younger Championship players.
I could easily be wrong on that because money talks, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Finally, we have the award for crazily unlikely story of the week from the Mirror.
Norwich and Sheffield United battling it out for Middlesbrough's Britt Assombalonga | @JamesNursey https://t.co/mwf9LyW1fG pic.twitter.com/GtsgNOntUp
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) May 24, 2019
I”m really surprised that anybody thinks that Norwich have the money to buy Assombalonga, who suffers from having a reputation and price tag bigger than his level of ability, not to mention that his knees are made of cheese.
Next!
OTBC