The Wolf

[Canary World]

So what will happen with him? I assume he will be sold to the French?

 

[Din]

If Alex Neil decides that he would like to give him an opportunity, and would fit into our style of play, I would back that.

If Alex Neil decides that he isn't good enough, and we should get some of our money back by selling him, I would back that.

My personal opinion is that we would probably be best selling him and getting some of our money back, however I would really like to see him in a more attacking team. So therefore as I said, I will go with any decision Alex Neil makes.

 

[splutcho]

I have no idea. I should imagine Neil will take a look at him before moving him on mind.

 

[ZLF]

happy with any decision alex makes.    He does not look like he fits the mould of a neil striker mind (nor does hooper) and I really dont think he will be here next season;   

 

[Salopian]

If we persevere with Wes and a single striker, I have some doubt that RvW could play the striker role. Jerome succeeds, mostly, because of his pace and strength, but he is capable of glaring misses (- the missed header from the right wing cross on Monday, for instance). RvW could certainly snap up chances like this because of his positioning. Perhaps this is a position that Redmond will occupy now, however.

If we played two strikers, then RvW could be a good foil for Jerome. For the moment Wes seems to have fixed his place in the team, and I am not sure how often the Dutchman would get a game other than as a substitute.

His resale value is probably not very high at the moment, and so long as wage demands are not excessive. there may be something to be said for keeping him at CR for a time.

 

[SussexYellow]

Everybody starts with a clean slate with Alex Neil. So I expect he will be given his chance in pre season.

However our Alex will also show no sentiment if not good enough. Tony Andreu is a good example, not yet up to it so has not made the bench for ages.

We are striker rich at the moment - 5, a lot to fit into a 25 man squad.

In an ideal world we need a new number 1 striker and ship out Wolf and Lafferty. 

However Wolf has now had 2 poor seasons for a striker (6 goals in total I think) and presumably will now be back on premier league wages. So few takers and even less on the wages he will want. Got a feeling that will include St Etienne. He was only making the bench there I believe for the second half of the season. So we have a problem. So maybe a loan, or maybe we take the hit and buy out his contract.

Bottom line for me is that if he is not in demand elsewhere then he is definitely not good enough for us.

 

[ZLF]

We are striker rich at the moment - 5, a lot to fit into a 25 man squad.

I think we are more striker heavy than rich.    All have big question marks remaining against them for next season, not just Wolfie & I certainly would not want to start the year with Grabban, Jerome, Wolfie  Hooper & Lafferty as our options.

I think my order of preference is a new face coming in Grabban & Jerome with one of Wolfie, Hooper or Lafferty (and thats a very close battle across all three,  eg Hooper can not do the lone role,  Laffetry is not as good if needed as a pair & confidence in Wolfie low) - or lose all three and sign two.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Neil showed with Bassong that he is willing to give players a fresh chance.

if i were the new manager of Norwich City the first thing I owuld be asking myself would be about the record signing Dutch international considered a hot prospect just 2 years ago that I had inherited. I would not want to dispense with him before I had taken a look at him myself.

Neil may feel there is more than enough evidence based on his season with us and his season with St Etienne. But personally, Id want to see him train and assess him myself before making any decisions. Would fully understand though if he felt that ship had sailed

 

[Suffolk Canary]

Well he's definitely not going back to St Etienne. They're entire transfer budget is nowhere near enough what we'd accept. 

I agree with the above that AN will at least have a honest look at him in training and friendlies. As Salopian said, RVW could potentially be a good partner for Jerome, but he showed last year he doesn't have the strength or pace to play up top on his own. 

I highly doubt he'll play a competitive game for us again, but I'd love to see him at least given a shot. The problem a newly promoted team has it doesn't have the luxury of time to take a gamble on him turning good. At least with Jerome, you know what you're going to get. 

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Warning - Possible Game of Thrones Spoiler (If you've not seen up to season 4)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUOfil_hXUU

 

[Dubai Mark]

I just cant see him playing a competitive game for us again and the same goes for Lafferty considering he was loaned out at a critical time of the season. For me, we have three very decent options in Jerome, Grabban and Hooper (dont get the "close battle" with Lafferty and RVW?) and can see the club spending good money on a fourth quality option.  

 

[Yellow Fever]

According to this, RvW is coming back. 

http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2015/ricky-van-wolfswinkel-to-return-to-norwich/?

How long he will stay is another question.

His record at St Etienne was 5 goals in 18 starts and 10 sub appearances in Lique 1 and 4 goals in 6 starts and 1 sub appearance in the Europa Cup.

 

[Canaryboy]

Well he's definitely not going back to St Etienne. They're entire transfer budget is nowhere near enough what we'd accept. 

If they need money then perhaps we could give a couple of million + Van Wolfswinkel, and take Max Gradel off of their hands?  B)

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

If they need money then perhaps we could give a couple of million + Van Wolfswinkel, and take Max Gradel off of their hands?  B)

Not sure basing our transfer policy on exploiting clubs who need money is the best strategy. Thats how we ended up with RvW in the first place

 

[ZLF]

sounds like the so successful morison/becchio deal too

 

[GJP]

Just can't see that AN would ever pick him ahead of Jerome (and there's a chance that he might sometimes pick Grabban ahead of Jerome).

Jerome might not find goals as easy to come across in the Prem but what is RVW going to give you that Jerome can't? Jerome is bigger, stronger, quicker and his goals have fired us to promotion.

People will talk about RVW having technique but I haven't seen anything from him that you don't get from every other player at that level. 

 

[Canary World]

A few of 8.5 million and 1 goal is a very expensive goal does it make him the worst striker in premier league history?

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

I think there are worse ratios than this. You also have to factor in his amount of game time. Goals per minute would be a more useful statistic - he was injured for a large part of our season.

You also have to factor in the other things a striker brings other than goals. Though in Ricky's case thats probably just shirt sale revenue

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Just can't see that AN would ever pick him ahead of Jerome (and there's a chance that he might sometimes pick Grabban ahead of Jerome).

Jerome might not find goals as easy to come across in the Prem but what is RVW going to give you that Jerome can't? Jerome is bigger, stronger, quicker and his goals have fired us to promotion.

People will talk about RVW having technique but I haven't seen anything from him that you don't get from every other player at that level. 

My conclusion on the RvW saga was not necessarily that he was a bad player, just the wrong player for us. He was a brainless signing. He was the wrong type of striker for us and when we got him, it was clear we didnt have a clue what to do with him - which to me just acts as evidence that Hughton didnt understand strikers. Didnt appreciate what he got from Holt, and thought scoring goals was as simple as buying 'quality'. I really think he thought, right Fat ex-tyre fitter out, check, 13m on Hooper and RvW (Iv looked them up on Wikipedia and theyve got double figures and have played for a big club, not Spurs, but you cant have everything) job done, those two will score my goals for me (even though one will alwasys be on the bench) on their own, no idea how Ill just leave that to them because they have 'quality' Im sure they'll figure it out. I can get back to drilling the rest of the team to defend. If they get stuck theres a guy available who's got 100 caps for Sweden and played with Ibrahimovic - he'll get the job done!

In all seriousness I think Ricky could score a lot of goals in a team like Arsenal who could do the leg-work for him and serve it up on a plate for him to dispatch.

Think Ricky is a luxury player who will be very useful in a team which is winning and dominant, but not at all suited for a club like Norwich who need work-horses not race-horses.

Hughton needed to better recognise what he got from Holt in terms of leadership, territory, outlet, holding the ball up, aggression and work rate. he should have recognised those attributes and replaced them with similar if he felt Holt had to go.

Replacing a talisman with a racehorse was never going to work. Cameron Jerome is the closest we've had to a striker in the Holt mould

 

[GJP]

In all seriousness I think Ricky could score a lot of goals in a team like Arsenal who could do the leg-work for him and serve it up on a plate for him to dispatch.

What kind of striker wouldn't though?

Good forwards make things happen, even if they are penalty box players. How good is RVW if he needs someone to provide him with tap ins?