Norwich Will Buy Before They Sell This Summer – How City Will Deal With Transfers

Sunday morning’s Norwich City internet traffic is still fairly heavy, as you might expect after Saturday’s relegation and the hammering (sorry) that they took at the hands of West Ham.

Social media is still bubbling away and it’s probably best that you stay away from those platforms for your own sanity. One of the best articles I’ve read, apart from This other one (obviously) is by Michael Bailey from The Athletic.

It is obviously behind a paywall, so you have to be a subscriber to access it but if you are, it will tell you a heck of a lot about Norwich City’s attempt to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, or Project Re-bound as Michael calls it.

Michael reports that among other things, the football staff at the club, including coaches, Daniel Farke and Stuart Webber will all be in-line for wage reductions as a result of relegation.  Every player has a relegation clause in their contract that will see their salary and bonus structure reduced for the 2020/21 season. The top limit of that is 50% for the highest earners with most having a 30% salary reduction. Michael says that he understands that only one player will earn more that £20k per week next season – my guess on that would be Josip Drmic.

Having said that, all the players will still earn more than they were on in the promotion season of 2018/19.

It seems that there could be as many as three high profile player sales in this summer’s transfer window which will apparently be open until October. Michael suggests that Emi Buendia, Todd Cantwell and Ben Godfrey are the most likely to have suitors but that any sales will have to suit the club and will have to be for the highest fee possible to persuade them to sell.

As well as the imminent signing of Jacob Lunghi Sorensen from Esbjerg in Denmark, youngsters Bali Mumba from Sunderland, Sebastian Soto from Hannover 96 and Matthew Dennis, released by Arsenal, all look set to join. The now public pursuit of Dennis Man from FCSB in Romania continues to suggest that Norwich want another pacy winger/forward to help their attack. The likely loss of Buendia or Cantwell, perhaps both, makes this a priority.

Sam McCallum, Melvin Sitti and Danel Sinani are already in Norfolk and have been pictured training at Colney last week so there will be new faces around. There is surely no better way to get over a crushing relegation than to get some hungry new players in to assist those more experienced players still in the squad with a bit of a lift, is there?

A new, probably younger goalkeeper is going to be needed to support and provide competition for Tim Krul. The likes of Aston Oxborough and Archie Mair are still too young and inexperienced to do the job well enough if Krul suffered a loss of form or long-term injuries. Those two lads are still for the future.

Where are the new defenders? You will be asking yourselves, after having watched City ship an inordinate number of goals this season. Remember that Norwich were hamstrung (sorry) from the start with injuries to central defenders and that Hanley and Zimmermann are still rated by the club, also that Timm Klose was always going to be up against it when expected to play at the highest level having not kicked a ball in anger for almost a year.

There is already a very promising young centre-back in the squad in the shape of Akin Famewo, who is back from an impressive loan spell at St. Mirren and remember, Farke enjoys working with youngsters. Famewo will be assessed, of course, but if Godfrey is sold we may already have his replacement in-house.

Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis have had tough seasons that have, arguably, seen their value drop a bit. They are though, still great prospects and could still command high fees. If they do go, Sam McCallum and Sam Byram are already here as their ready-made replacements.

So, that’s the thinking in terms of transfers. If you want to know more detail on the other bits, including the club’s financial shortfall because of COVID-19, reviewing the season early (de-briefing) and Daniel Farke’s future then you’ll have to check out Michael’s article.

OTBC