Norwich City legend Jeremy Goss is confident new 'heroes’ will emerge and has called for patience as the Canaries build for their Premier League challenge.
The transfer window officially opened on Wednesday and runs until August 30, with City confirming the club-record sale of Emi Buendia to Aston Villa for an initial £33million on Thursday.
Sporting director Stuart Webber made clear that the club’s reigning Player of the Season had wanted to join the ambitious and wealthy Birmingham side, with reports suggesting the Villans offered more than double the wages the 24-year-old would have been on at Norwich next season.
“We can only presume that there’s going to be maybe two or three players that come in with that money. We won’t know the quality of the players until the Premier League starts, then we can start judging it,” Canaries legend Goss said of Buendia’s exit.
“Six, eight, 12 games in we can start judging the new players. I think we’re going to make a better stab of things now to remain in the Premier League.
“It will be a tough challenge, naturally, give the financial restraints we’re under, but we’ve proven in the past that we can bring out the very best of any player that arrives here at the football club.
“I think we will see that again and there will be heroes next season, there will be wonderful players representing us next season that will probably attract other clubs, because you’re in a bigger shop window.
“The question now is who else could go? Let’s see who arrives. We hope that Max (Aarons) stays, we hope that (Todd) Cantwell is here and so on, because there’s only so many you can lose without a big overall restructure.
“I think there’s a lot of exciting times ahead for Norwich.”
Former Wales international Goss made 238 appearances for City between 1984 and 1996, the majority of which were at the top level, with just nine Norwich players making more than his 172 top-flight appearances.
He can understand why Buendia was keen on Villa, who Dean Smith led to 11th place last year but much closer to the European place than the survival scrap.
“The stature of the club is irrelevant,” he added. “I think they did incredibly well last year, struggled the year before, but it’s a growing club with an adventurous manager with great vision and he’s building a squad of players to eventually replace the star player in his side.
“It seems to me, with the signing of Emi and the sights on James Ward-Prowse, that he’s presuming that if Jack Grealish has a very good Euros, he will be off - because he will be in a bigger shop window, attracting bigger clubs, with bigger money.”
- You can hear more of the City legend’s thoughts on Buendia’s exit above, in the latest episode of the Pink Un Podcast.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here