Part 1 –
The Big Bad Wolf
Back in the
March of 2013, NCFC announced the signing of Ricky Van Wolfswinkel
from Sporting Lisbon on a 4 year deal thought to be worth around 8.5
million and making 'RvW' our record transfer signing in the process.
The deal wouldn't officially go through until the re-opening of the
transfer window, but the excitement was palpable. It transpired that
we had apparently managed to agree a cut-price deal with Lisbon who
were allegedly having financial troubles at that time, and that RvW
had sought advice from his girlfriends father – none other than
Dutch legend Johan Neeskens who urged him to join us feeling it would
be a great fit for both club and player.
Come the 1st
of July and Ricky was officially a canary, and thus began a somewhat
OTT marketing campaign from the the club, with the player modelling
the new away shirt whilst in the background is a forest with the
luminous eyes of a wolf and the bold tag-line “Be Afraid of the Big
Bad Wolf”. It was a decision that would later come back to haunt
both club and player, but in truth at the time I absolutely loved it.
Here we were with a highly talented goalscorer who'd also earned a
couple of international caps with the Netherlands, and who had been
scouted by the likes of Man Utd. It seemed like a coup of the highest
order (and I still think it was to some extent), but lurking in the
distance was a storm cloud that very few of us expected to be coming.
He made his
league début in the season opener against Everton, scoring the
equalising goal of the game (a 2-2 draw) with a superbly placed
header following a mis-hit cross from Steven Whittaker. It looked
like the start of something incredible was happening, yet following
the opening game, RvW failed to find the net in the next 7 matches,
however there was a key incident during this spell that I fully
believe had a major impact on the player.
The date is
Sept 21st, the opponents are Aston Villa, it's early in
the first half when Robert Snodgrass cuts the ball back across the
area only for it to be handled by Ciaran Clark. The penalty is
awarded and RvW steps up to take it, having been the main penalty
taker for each of his previous clubs, having a great conversion
record and this being the ideal situation to get him scoring again
after drawing blanks in the previous three games. However, despite
the manager having pre-agreed that pens should go to RvW, despite
everything being right for the player to take it, Robert Snodgrass
decided differently, starts an argument with RvW and basically forces
him off the ball so that he can take the penalty instead! Well, up
steps Snodgrass – and Guzan saves it! Shortly after this, Libor
Kozak scores the only goal of the game for Villa and we end up losing
1-0 to a side we should have beaten and at the very least taken the
lead against.
Spin forward
a month to the end of that barren 7 game period, and whilst RvW
hasn't been able to add to his goal tally of that single header on
the opening day of the season, the runs and movement have been there
(even if the supply to him rarely was) and it's simply looking like
'when' he'll get the goal to start the ball rolling again rather than
'if', but he then collects a serious ankle injury that will keep him
out for a month and a half, missing a further 7 games in the process.
Part 2 –
From Big Bad Wolf to Dire Wolf
Following
his return from Injury, RvW was slowly eased back in, making only sub
30min appearances for the next 3 games and even sitting out the New
Years Day match against Crystal Palace on the bench. He was then
restored to full duties against Everton on the 11th of Jan
(possibly with hopes of another goal like the equaliser almost 5
months earlier), but the goal didn't come, nor did it come in the 2
games after this against Hull and Newcastle respectively.
The cracks
had well and truly started to appear, both with Norwich's overall
campaign success, and RvW's performances. The key issue being the
overly negative tactics employed by manager Chris Hughton, which saw
a highly defensive approach, with the majority of our attacking play
being funnelled out to Snodgrass on the right side of midfield, who
would then slow things down even more, before regularly sending in a
cross that was usually nowhere near RvW (nor anywhere he'd like it to
be either), or any other Norwich player for that matter.
If I recall
correctly, Snodgrass was averaging just 2 accurate crosses for every
SEVEN inaccurate ones! What's more, the role that RvW was being asked
to play by Hughton simply wasn't his game. RvW is a classic goal
poacher, nowhere more at home than in the 6 yard box or running off
the shoulder of the last defender onto a good through ball for a
quick snapshot finish. Instead he was being asked to play like Andy
Carroll, and somehow try to be a big, strong, target man, who wins
aerial battles, holds onto the ball with his back to goal and plays
others in with this or his headed knock-downs. RvW may well be 6ft1”
tall, but he simply didn't (and doesn't) have the physique to play
that role, it wasn't a role he was either comfortable or familiar
with, and thus combined with the frankly appalling quality of supply
and incredibly slow build-up play, it was no surprise to see why the
goals had dried up, and yet nobody at the club seemed willing or able
to do ANYTHING about it!
By this
stage, it was becoming clear that Chris Hughton had no idea how to
get the best from the player we'd paid our record transfer fee on,
Gary Hooper and Johan Elmander were getting the nod ahead of him, and
the idea that we'd stop playing the most diabolical football I've
ever seen as a Norwich supporter, was frankly like being in cloud
cuckoo land, as we slowly gave up game after game in possibly the
worst manner since Derby's ill-fated campaign back in 07/08...
Another 4-5
games passed with RvW either being sat on the subs bench or making
little impact before being subbed in the 2nd half of
games, and although it was plain to see just how hard the guy was
trying to make things happen (possibly trying TOO hard), it just
wasn't working and he was very much the 'square peg in a round hole',
trying extremely hard to fit into an uncomfortable and unfamiliar
system that seemed to invite disaster almost from the kick off, and
then came THAT pass.
It's the
12th of April, the opponents are Fulham, RvW runs onto a
ball in the area and close to the by-line, he looks up, sees little
passing options centrally so decides to play the ball out to the
right for the winger/full back to cross in, he does this with a
cheeky no-look pass, which sounds all very Ronaldinho-esque until you
realise that he's actually passed the ball to absolutely NOBODY.
There isn't a player with 5 yards of him, and instead it gets passed
virtually straight to a bemused Fulham player who quickly turns round
and looks to begin a counter-attack!
If ever
there was a moment that encapsulated his season, that was probably
it. He simply wasn't on the same wavelength as the midfielders behind
him, he'd make the runs – they'd ignore them, he'd be ready for a
header at the near post – it'd be crossed 10 yards behind him
instead, he'd hit a fantastic first time shot – the opposing keeper
would pull off a 'worldie' to deny him.
After
drawing further blanks against Liverpool and Man Utd, RvW was benched
for the final 2 games of the season, and little did we know at that
point, that the Man Utd game would be his penultimate, official match
for the club, having played just 1400 minutes of football since
joining...
Part 3 –
The Loan (sic) Wolf
Following
his disastrous first season in the Premier league (which ended in
relegation for the club), it was hoped that the player could return
fit and ready for a long campaign in the Championship, what's more,
with former manager Chris Hughton having been dismissed towards the
end of the previous campaign, surely more chances would come about
under his replacement – former Norwich winger Neil Adams, a man who
surely wouldn't be looking to take the same defensive approach that
Hughton had done and who could set the team up to provide RvW with
the right sort of ammunition to get him firing on all cylinders
again.
Instead of
this, the decision was made to allow the player to leave on a season
long loan to French Ligue 1 side St.Etienne.
Maybe Neil
Adams didn't think that he'd suit playing in the more physical
Championship when he'd struggled with that side of the game in the
Premier League, maybe he didn't think that the player would be
committed enough and that he was 'too good' to be playing at that
level (it certainly appeared that RvW's agent felt that was the case
even if we didn't get confirmation of this from the player himself),
or maybe he simply didn't want to play the type of system and style
of play that RvW really needs to perform at his best, whatever the
reason was, he was allowed to go on loan with a clause in the loan
allowing St.Etienne to make the move permanent for around 4.75mil
(thus with the club taking a near 4 million pound loss in just over a
year).
Van
Wolfswinkel duly went over to France, and then found himself in a
very familiar and frankly disappointing situation. St.Etienne were
also playing a lone striker system (much like how Hughton had done),
and whilst it clearly wasn't a system as reliant on a big, target
man, it still wasn't a system designed to get the best from an
old-school goalpoacher, which lead to a season of rotation between
RvW and Turkish international Mevlut Erdinc.
Much like
how in his first season with us, RvW was similarly limited in his
minutes played at St.Etienne as well, with just 1600 mins chalked up
due to the rotation with Erdinc. By the end of the season, he'd
scored only 5 league goals and 4 assists (and a goal in the Europa
League), but if we extrapolate this over a full season, then he'd
have potentially got 11 goals with 8 assists – hardly an awful
return considering that yet again it wasn't a system designed to get
the best from him and as it had been at Norwich, with the focus being
on playing through a winger (Snodgrass at Norwich, Gradel at
St.Etienne) rather than more centrally with through balls, or with
crosses into the 6yd box for him to finish.
St.Etienne
decided against making the loan move permanent and Ricky was all set
to return to Norwich ready for yet another Premiership campaign
following the successful promotion at the first time of asking under
new manager Alex Neil, who had taken over from Neil Adams (who
gracefully resigned) in the January and lead us on an incredible run
losing only 3 games (and drawing 4) out of his first 22 games in
charge, which took us not only into the play-offs, but to a play-off
final victory against Middlesbrough!
However, yet
again fate decided to conspire against him, with Alex Neil ALSO
preferring to focus on using a lone striker (either a big 'target
man' striker like Cameron Jerome, or a pacy player who would work the
channels such as Lewis Grabban), thus again leaving RvW as being seen
as simply not fitting into the way the manager wanted to play. After
being benched or left out of the squad for the first few games, he
was given a chance to impress in a league cup match against
Rotherham, where he duly scored (he actually scored twice but one was
incorrectly flagged as offside), was again left unused on the bench
for the league game against Southampton, and then the news was
revealed that he'd be leaving on ANOTHER season long loan – this
time to Real Betis.
I'm sure at
some point around this time, the player must have been thinking that
he'd killed a nest of robins or something, and wondering how he'd
gone from being scouted by Man Utd, scoring bucket loads for Lisbon
and Utrecht, and having been signed by us for a record fee, to being
misplayed, mis-used and loaned out left, right and centre instead of
being allowed to do what he does best. I also wonder if there were a
few choice conversations between the player and both Neeskens and Van
Persie (who had also encouraged him to join us), asking WTF was going
on and why was he being treated so shabbily?
Whatever the
case may be, off he went to Betis and found himself competing for a
starting place with Betis top scorer Ruben Castro, and experienced
forward Jorge Molina. Minutes were difficult to come by, it was
obvious that Castro was the 'main man' at Betis, and indeed Castro
racked up more minutes that season than any other Betis player
(including the keeper!), thus badly limiting the time and
opportunities Ricky had to impress.
Truthfully
though it was a poor season for the Wolf, he struggled to make his
chances count, never got a run of full games under his belt to show
any possible consistency, and finished the season with a mere 600
minutes to show for his troubles, a Betis side that like St.Etienne
the year before had decided against making the loan permanent, and
was now facing another return to Norwich who were still being managed
by Alex Neil, albeit this time it would be back in the Championship
again following our relegation (talk about yo-yo clubs!).
Part 4 –
Back to the pack
Ricky
returned to the club over the summer ready for pre-season training
and willing to give 100% to show that he wasn't a flop, that he CAN
score goals and perform consistently, but the issue was still there –
he still didn't fit the system that Alex Neil wants to play, he's
still one of our top earners and the manager still didn't appear to
favour him, with a clear message apparently being sent out to other
clubs that he was available for transfer ASAP.
Despite news
reports linking Birmingham City with yet another season long loan
deal, it was announced yesterday (28/07/16), that a permanent deal
had been agreed with Vitesse Arnhem (Ricky's first club as a youth),
for an undisclosed fee (not likely to be too high either), and that
the Wolf's torrid time at Norwich was finally over.
Part 5 –
Musings of the Author
I personally
wish Ricky well in his career, I fervently hope that he regains his
confidence and goalscoring ability with Vitesse and shows (albeit in
a somewhat weaker league) that he isn't the flop that he's been made
out to be, and to thank him for his professionalism and commitment to
our club despite some truly trying situations and frustrations.
I also
firmly believe that the defensive focused and frequently negative
approach applied by former manager Chris Hughton was the beginning of
the end, as pretty much EVERY striker who played under that same
system also struggled for goals, including Hall of Fame member Grant
Holt, who's 15 goal haul the previous year under Paul Lambert being
virtually halved to 8 under Hughton, and with Gary Hooper, Johan
Elmander and Luciano Becchio ALL suffering in this respect despite
previous high goal tallies (Becchio for example had already hit 16 in
26 the season before at Leeds before a Jan move to us).
Do I think
he could have done a job for us this season – yes
Do I think
that Alex Neil would have made the necessary change in system needed
to facilitate this – not a chance
Do I think
that the move to Vitesse is the best option for both parties –
probably, but I'll always wonder what could have been if we'd been
willing to focus our play more to this strengths and let that natural
goalpoacher have his fun with a selection of through balls, well
placed crosses and more intricate passing in the area, rather than
lumping the ball towards him and hoping he can hold play up against
the usual burly centre halves that his physique was never going to
compete against.
There will
always be those who are unwilling to accept that there are numerous
mitigating circumstances as to why his move here just didn't work out
(and it's somewhat difficult to argue too strongly against this if we
just look at nothing more than pure goal tallies), but a more
in-depth analysis shows how little we actually did to get the best
from him, that his time in France wasn't actually that bad, and that
although his loan to Betis was pretty awful, that was more to do with
being unable to displace one of their clubs star players whilst not
being given the minutes to prove otherwise, and the knock on effort
the past 2 seasons had taken on his confidence.
In closing,
the 'Big Bad Wolf' may have stayed in disguise as Grandma for too
long, but he now has the chance to truly change this, to knock the
hell out of defences back in the Dutch League, to get his stalled
career back on track, and show the rest of the world what he can do
if given the correct ammunition.
Good luck
Ricky, and again, thanks for your respect, professionalism and
endeavour whilst at our club – even through genuinely difficult
situations and circumstances that could easily have lead to negative
comments that other players in the same boat would have been all too
happy to throw around...