Norwich City goalkeeper John Ruddy has revealed that the news of his release did not come as a massive surprise to him.
The club announced last week that seven first-team players are to be released this summer, with Ruddy being among them.
Sebastien Bassong, Michael Turner, Kyle Lafferty, Steven Whittaker, Ryan Bennett and Youssouf Mulumbu are the other out of contract players who are to leave the club.
Ruddy’s – and the others’ – contract comes to an end on July 30th, making them free agents ahead of the summer transfer window.
The news of Ruddy’s release has been met with mixed reactions. Half of the Carrow Road faithful didn’t like the decision, whilst the rest accepted it was time for him to leave.
His form over the past two seasons has been erratic and he has been dropped on three separate occasions for Declan Rudd (once) and Michael McGovern (twice).
Ruddy played his last game for Norwich on Sunday, capping off his seven year career with a 4-0 victory against QPR to end the season.
Speaking to The BBC after the win, Ruddy said this:
It’s not massively surprising. It’s disappointing obviously, but I think the direction that the club needs to go, it’s a rebuilding structure.
For reasons other than football, it was a decision that was made.
The club did have the option on me, but mitigating circumstances within that contract meant that it was probably impossible for the club to uphold that.
It was nice that we were told when we were and nice that I was able to go out in this manner on Sunday.
