With Nigel Worthington now consigned to the history books Peter Grant gets a good run at a full season in charge. So far this summer though it's the departures that have caught the eye more than any of Grant's new arrivals.

Norwich
Last season – 16th: It was actually a bit of a shock to see how low Norwich finished last season. It was all too much for Nigel Worthington, who found himself turfed out in early-October despite a not-too-desperate start to the season. He was replaced, after a brief caretakership from Martin Hunter, by the current incumbent Peter Grant. Grant steadied the ship but little else.

The bookies’ prediction for this season – 13th – Best odds to win the league 34-1 (BetFred), worst 21-1 (Stan James).

The squad: There’s an awful lot of people in the Norwich squad and you won’t have heard of most of them. Well, that’s a bit unfair on Jimmy Smith, our loanee from Chelski last season, who’s now on loan to Norwich. It’s also not that kind to Jamie Cureton, our hat-trick hero against Coventry once. But Norwich fans might want to ask why their club has brought in £3.5m from the sale of Rob Earnshaw to Derby, along with £1.5m for midfielder Dickson Etuhu, but spent bugger all. Just £750k of all that loot has gone on keeper David Marshall from Celtic, after his period on loan at Carrow Road at the end of last season, plus undisclosed fees for Banik Ostrava striker David Strihavka and for Sjoke midfielder Darel Russell, which may make for unrest on the terraces.

The large size of the squad, 35 with more to come if the current lack of a number five is anything to go by, hasn’t really changed from last season because, apart from the big money sales, there haven’t been that many leaving. It includes the dangerous Darren Huckerby, now incredibly in his 30s and 95-year old Dion Dublin, who can always be trusted to score against us for old times’ sake. Otherwise, it’s still the same old bunch of underperformers.
Likely Star Player – David Marshall (Keeper), likely to be very busy unless Cureton and the Czech can do the business

Head-to-Head: You can normally rely on being entertained in a QPR-Norwich encounter, with maximum defensive incompetence allied to two sides that look happiest going forward. A classic example of this was the 3-3 at Loftus Road last October, with both sides holding the lead for a bit before Rowlie’s equaliser in injury time made up for the dodgy peno that Earnshaw converted. The game at Carrow Road between Christmas and New Year was a much paler version, Norwich winning 1-0. This year, the Loftus Road goalfest will be on October 6 but the Carrow Road affair might be a bit nervy because it’s our last away game and their last chance for some home points.

What do we think? Norwich just don’t look as though they’ve done anything to improve on last season and the sales of Earnshaw and Etuhu make that impression even harder to shake. It could be that the bloke with the unpronounceable name is about to surprise us all, or that the excellent Norwich academy has some new gems to spring upon us, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them struggle while talk of the play-offs seems fanciful.

Norwich have a tough start, travelling to Deepdale first game and then hosting Southampton. After that things look a bit easier with Hull away followed by Cardiff and Palarse at home. That should be enough to put Norwich into comfortable obscurity early on.
Verdict: Mid-Table. Concentrate on upsetting Ipswich

All pictures (c) Action Images

Photo: Action Images

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