Norwich City had a busy day on Tuesday with two players leaving and another joining and some further transfer news emerging in the shape of West Ham striker, Jordan Hugill.
First the two players leaving.
Philip Heise has completed a loan move to Karlsruhe SC.
Wishing you all the best for the 2020-21 season, Philip!
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) August 18, 2020
Philip Heise has barely ever had a look in with the first team squad. He was bought for a modest fee of around €250k and made his debut in the Carabao Cup debacle at Crawley last summer. A season-long-loan to Bundesliga 2 club, Karlsruhe SC seems to be the best thing for him. He’s 29 now and needs to be playing football regularly at this time in his career. He has perhaps been a victim of some earlier than expected success for Norwich and the breakout of Jamal Lewis.
The second player to get a move was Louis Thompson.
Louis Thompson has completed a loan move to MK Dons for the 2020-21 season.
Wishing you all the best for the year ahead, Louis!
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) August 18, 2020
Thompson is a player that Daniel Farke likes, we know that, but he has struggled badly with injuries. This will be his second season in a row in League One and he links up again with former City Captain, Russell Martin who is the Dons’ manager. He will also link up with another Canary in the shape of Carlton Morris who is also on loan with Martin’s side.
In terms of incoming players, the Canaries announced the loan signing of Spanish left back, Xavi Quintilla. Quintilla will join Norwich on a season-long loan deal with City also retaining an option to buy him throughout the course of the 2020/21 season.
🤝 Time for another summer signing…
We're delighted to welcome Xavi Quintilla to Norwich City on a season-long loan from Villarreal! 📝
🇪🇸 #HolaXavi 🇪🇸
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) August 18, 2020
I assume that means that Norwich can take a look at the lad as we go along and make the deal permanent if things are going well. Quintilla can also play at left centre back but for that matter, so could Jamal Lewis if we needed him to and so could Ibrahim Amadou. It doesn’t mean that they are regular options there though.
I could be reading this wrong but it suggests to me that there is still interest in Lewis and if he leaves it would mean throwing Sam McCallum into the Championship mix with no other established left back option. In years gone past, that might be exactly what would happen but now it seems that Stuart Webber is using the club’s finances wisely, at least he has the money to do such things.
Will Lewis leave?
That will depend on many things at other clubs but there is no doubt that he is held in high regard at a number of Premier League clubs’ recruitment departments. Crystal Palace have been linked to Lewis numerous times and with the speculation that Chelsea want to buy Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell, he would also be a good fit for the the Foxes. If that move came off then it would be much better for him, surely, than that half baked proposed move to Liverpool. He would get to play regularly in the top flight and could work with another progressive, admired coach, in Brendan Rogers.
He may not leave though. The talk is that Norwich haven’t been inundated with offers for their players, so it’s conceivable he could initially stay, although with the transfer window open until mid-October, there’s a long way to go yet. If he did stay then I could see McCallum going out on-loan with there surely being no shortage of takers for him in the Championship.
Finally, the day ended with the news from Sky Sports that Norwich are closing in on a deal for West Ham striker, Jordan Hugill.
The fee was being quoted at £5m by the media but several people on social media, journalists and “in the know” types, from both clubs, are saying that the fee is much lower than that and that it is actually below £3m and that it would only rise to £5m with a large number of add-ons.
I’ve seen a bit of moaning among some Canary Twitter users about Hugill but at that price, and remember that David Moyes paid a reported £10m for him in 2018, he is potentially a great signing. He will add physicality at both ends of the pitch and make us a viable threat in the opposition box in the air. For all his goal scoring instincts, Teem Pukki could not be described as being strong in the air.
It’s good to have options and if Josip Drmic does leave to pursue his career as a euro pop star elsewhere, then forward options of Pukki, Adam Idah and Hugill would seem pretty rounded to me. He has played over 40 games in the last two seasons for both Middlesbrough and QPR, suggesting that not only does he know his way around the league but that he is not often injured. Scoring 15 goals for QPR last season also suggests that he knows where the goal is at this level.
I think it would be a good move and the indications are that the deal is already some way along. Hugill is 28-years-old and probably at the peak of his powers right now, the same sort of age as when we took Grant Holt and that worked out quite well.
OTBC
Why do people have to moan, the player has not signed yet. I think a lot of it, stems from that he isn’t that well-known name. He knows the league, knows where the goal is, for me he is just what we want in this league.
Completely agree, CanaryLad
Jamal Lewis can play left CB?? What are you on? Have you seen him defending corners?
Ha! Yes, I know, I remember him playing there once during a game when someone was injured. He came through that unscathed, as did our goal but you wouldn’t want him playing there every week. I suspect the same is true of Quintilla, although that’s just me guessing…
I know we were spoilt with Pukki, but he sounds like a cross between Dogshit and Pigswill.