Redmond rejuvenated? Amidst the commotion of the Canary’s promotion pursuit in recent weeks with the Yellows securing a position in the play-off finals at Wembley against Middlesbrough on Monday; the latest performances of our very own England U21 winger, Nathan Redmond have been eclipsed somewhat. Unquestionably our journey thus far has been based on broadly excellent individual performances throughout the team, but the man Gareth Southgate has selected to journey with many other Young Lions deserves an individual mention.
With two goals and four assists in his last four appearances, the Englishman has indisputably hit some much needed form – and with a portion of fans contesting his contribution to our campaign thus far (an argument which us here at Read Norwich feel has little foundation) the timing could not be more perfect. Monday really is then the day of reckoning, a performance akin to his recent run outs will surely be critical in Alex Neil’s tactics to defeat Boro and finally realise the club’s aspirations of Premier League football once again. Without meaning to state the blatantly obvious, we need to score and preferably multiple times thereby placing even further emphasis on the talents of Redmond who currently tops our assists table with 12 across the season – certainly not an accolade awarded to a “flop” as I heard a fairly intoxicated man refer to him as in the Gunn Club whilst watching the first leg of our play-off semi-final against Ipswich – a tie which we ultimately won 4-2 by the way… we won it. We beat them. Again.
The most salient element for me of much of Redmond’s recent game time and the driving factor behind the success he has seen is his confidence levels. With perhaps the exception of constantly going up against Tyrone Mings in our last two matches who, as much as it pains me to say it, is a very decent left back; Redmond has been cutting through back lines left right and centre – now not only beating his man but delivering a good ball in the majority of the time. The signs are positive, work on actually getting men in the box for all of his crosses and we have a potentially venomous offense on our hands.
While it is apparent that many fans no longer accept this argument, it is still entirely valid for me: Nathan Redmond is still only 21 years old. We can debate about his progress since we signed him all we like, but that fact is that in his time here he has played under three different managers all of which have played him in a different role with different instructions – most players would struggle for consistency in that scenario and Redmond certainly cannot claim not to have.
With that said, he is improving and with him now having what seems to be a consistent role in the side under Alex Neil; a perfectly floated cross onto the head of a yellow shirt or even a goal himself on Monday to take us to the Premiership would in my mind be the start of a new chapter. All we can do now as fans is to support him in his development, the potential is there and who knows, in a few years to come we could either have an absolute force blazing down that right hand side of the pitch, or we could have pocketed a monstrous profit from selling him on. Regardless, believe in Nathan Redmond.
