As a manager I'm not a huge fan of wide players, and prefer to play a fairly narrow 4-1-2-1-2 with attacking fullbacks providing the crosses and any width required.
Looking at the team I had inherited i was happy that I could make this formation work. The board had told me I could only keep 15% of player sales as money was tight and whilst I could have challenged that, I felt that if I could force myself to be prudent now, it would sow the seeds for long term financial stability.
Ins and Outs
In July I offloaded wide-man Elliot Bennett to Southampton for a generous £4 million. I also felt offers for defensive midfielder David Fox and Russell Martin (right fullback) were too good to refuse and allowed them to leave.
As July turned to August my transfer targets were a striker of real quality, a strong central midfielder (who could also cover as a DM) and a right back.
First in was Ruben Jenssen. A central midfielder from Tromso for 3.7 million. He had a strong average rating (it was mid-season in Norway) and he was young, and professional. I felt he had good skills and could develop, and very importantly his wage request was realistic. I had determined I wanted to preserve Norwich's very sensible handling of wages as much as possible. After negotiating his agent down, Jenssen signed for £16k per week.
First in: Jenssen
Unconvinced that Simeon Jackson was a Premiership striker, he was offloaded to Huddersfield for £1.6 million. The following day I signed Mamady Sidibe on loan from Stoke as cover for the injury prone target man, Grant Holt.
With the season about to start I had yet to sign a right back or a marquee striker but I was determined not to be rushed. Our first two games were against Man Utd and Chelsea and realistically I wasn't expecting them to yield points in our fight against relegation anyway so I determined to take my time.
Season kick off vs Man Utd (Don't Scare De Gea)
We started with Holt and Sidibe up front, and Steve Morision on the bench. Having failed to find a right back I wanted, and with Steven Whitaker long term injured, I put 18 yr old reserve Ewan McNeil in.
As you would expect Utd dominated the match going 2-0 before the game was even one quarter old, and overall having 29 shots to our 8. However we completed the great escape with Hoolahan scoring a nice goal with a quarter of an hour left, and then 5 minutes from time De Gea making an outrageous howler from a Bassong defensive hoof from his own half.
With a valuable point from our first game, the hunt for players continued but no-one went in or out before our trip to Chelsea the following week. There we played like a team without a top quality striker, and with a reserve team player at right back and were whipped 4-0.
By now it was 25th August so we had one week to bring in players before the transfer window slammed shut. I offloaded Leon Barnett, a central defender who was not in my 1st team plans) for 1.7 million and then two days later I signed the striker I had been looking for.
Leonard Kweuke was a complete forward, and had scored goals wherever he had gone in his career. He was only 25 but he and Sparta Prague had fallen out of love, so they accepted an offer of 2.3 million. After some tough negotiations he signed for 18.5k per week, which was fair and reasonable and within our wage structure.
He made his debut the following night in a Capital Cup tie vs Sheffield Utd. Clearly it was a different level of opposition with Utd 2 divisions below us, but the difference was palpable. He scored on his debut, and he and Holt worked terrifically together as I believed they would. Holt bagged a hat-trick, and we ran out with a confidence restoring 5-1 win.
With no more fixtures before September, there was just time for a few more deals.
In came right back Paul Stalteri on a free transfer. He brought experience, and a good attitude. Of course he was only a stop gap but I wasn't going to be rushed into paying big money for someone mediocre. Stalteri would see us through to November/December by which time Steven Whittaker would have returned from injury. I could then look for real quality in that position in the January transfer window. The only other addition was the loan of Ayila Yussuf, who I brought in as defensive cover, but who could play equally well as DM which was a big help when Tettey got injured.
On deadline day out went Remi Matthews and Chris Martin on loan, Matthews for development and Martin to get him off the wage bill. I also offloaded Simon Lappin for 750k as I was only keeping a bare minimum of wide midfielders/attackers just in case the tactic didn't work out.
So that was July and August. the transfer window was shut and the real meat of the season was about to begin.
Norwich's transfer window in full. Very prudent but has Simington got the players to avoid relegation
Next time: September and October
No comments:
Post a Comment