After news emerged today that newly appointed Canaries’ manager Alex Neil is planning to hold talks with Cameroonian international and former Norwich Player of the Year, Sébastien Bassong regarding a potential return to the club; I found myself compelled to give my perhaps somewhat controversial thoughts on the topic.
The 28 year old has today returned to his parent club from Watford after his 93 day loan expired and while to much of the Norwich contingent this would seem irrelevant given the alleged disciplinary issues that ultimately cost Bassong his place in the senior squad under Neil Adams, I would argue that there is still very much a place for him if Neil can pacify his supposed attitude problems. Aside from this being the key argument utilised by fans as to why Bassong’s return would not be welcome, I suspect another will be that we currently have five ‘true’ CB’s in the squad and that there simply isn’t room for any additions – so let’s break that down. Michael Turner, Ryan Bennett, Ignasi Miquel, Carlos Cuellar and Jos Hooiveld are in my mind our only true centre backs – there is of course Martin is capable of filling in that position, but as evidenced by him being pushed to full back against Bournemouth after Whittaker was withdrawn following a calamitous opening 45 minutes (one of a plethora this campaign), I fully expect Neil to reinstate him in a wide role permanently. Both Turner and Bennett have had broadly exceptional seasons so far and would be the natural pairing immediately ahead of Ruddy in goal, but from there it gets challenging. Ignasi Miquel is obviously still in the infancy of his professional career and while I have no doubt he’ll do great things for the club in future, based on the performances we’ve seen in the cup so far this season, he’s not quite up to standard yet. Cuellar on the other hand is entering his twilight years and has put in several good performances (some exceptional) in yellow and green making him an ideal third string CB.
The problem with only having three strong centre backs available is that, as we’ve seen, it only takes one injury to leave us wanting in the position. You’ll note I’ve excluded Hooiveld from the available choices as, to be blunt, he’s pretty dreadful and I’m not entirely sure why we loane crucial cover when necessary – it just depends whether he and Alex Neil are willing to work together…ed him in… With this being the case, surely we’d be better safe than sorry and bring Bassong back? He’s an individual who is more than competent at the back and could provide crucial cover when necessary – it just depends whether he and Alex Neil are willing to work together…
