Simon Smith

Central Defender - Norwich City
28 Oct 2035
Sunday
Process

Marked for Simon Smith

465 Edition

The Norwich City Chronicle

25 Jun 2035
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Harvey Higgins puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Norwich City, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Terms done: Sergi Oriol is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cheltenham Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Norwich City is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Words at Norwich City training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sol Gordon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Gavin Bazunu

Norwich City asked and Stoke City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Norwich City try to borrow Joel Ndala

Chelsea have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Squad

Tempers go at Norwich City

Simon Smith was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

The dugout

Abdel Nouamani gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Harvey Higgins knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Harvey Higgins trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

Adam Sosna gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Adam Sosna is on it.

In brief