Paul Lambert continued his early summer spending last week with the capture of Millwall forward Steve Morison in a three year undisclosed deal, adding further to his options up front. With James Vaughan arriving at Carrow Road in late May, the Norwich boss has wasted little time in boosting his squad and is clearly determined to acquire players as quickly as possible.
Morison caught the eye with 15 goals in last season’s Championship and Lambert showed plenty determination in securing his signature; Norwich had two bids turned down for Morison, but with the player subsequently handing in a written transfer request, the moved reached a speedy conclusion. Lambert has been a long-term admirer of the player and was clearly delighted to snap him up…
“We’ve seen him for a few years and I think he was brilliant at Millwall. I thought he was a handful when we played against him so he will come and add to what we have already got and the striking department at this minute in time is really, really strong. But I think we are going to need everybody…As I said last season and the year before that, for us to do fine in it we need everybody. He will add to it, he is only 27, 28 shortly. I have no worries about him playing in front of a crowd or anything like that because he has already done it.”
The Statistics
Morison is another Norwich forward who has no top level experience; he’d spent five years playing in the Conference -scoring a combined 96 goals in 172 games for Bishop’s Stortford and Stevenage Borough- before Millwall captured him up for a mere £130K a couple of seasons back.
Despite the step up in class, he maintained his level of consistency, grabbing 35 goals in 83 games for Watford, with last season’s tally of 15 (allied to 8 assists) the first time he’s failed to score under 20 for five seasons. It remains to be seen whether Morison’s abilities will flourish in the Premier League but Lambert certainly isn’t concerned over the player’s lack of top-flight action, explaining…
“You want people here who want to achieve something. Players who are hungry don’t need to be 21 or 22. You can get a lad at 31 who is hungry. If I think it’s right then I’ll look at them – if you get experienced lads who want to keep doing well. I think they know the magnitude of it, they know what I expect and I have no worries about any of them. It ain’t going to get any bigger than this.”
The Prospects
Morison’s arrival gives Lambert plenty to choose from up front; the Canaries now have five forwards fighting to fill two places. This will resultantly place him low down on Fantasy radars; Grant Holt, the club’s top scorer for the past couple of seasons, will surely start the season which will leave the 6ft 4ins Morison to battle it out with Vaughan, Simeon Jackson and Chris Martin for the other remaining spot. Even Morison acknowledges the battle he has on his hands…
“First and foremost, I need to work my way into the team, which is going to be a hard task in itself because they’ve got players that have earned the right to play for the club already. I want to be a part of that and it is up to me to work as hard as I can and force my way into the team.”
Morison should come in at 4.5, a cheap third striker option to consider, but unless Lambert settles for a definite pair up front during pre-season, picking any Norwich striker other than Holt at the outset seems nothing more than a mere lottery, particularly as Holt’s penalty kick duties will weigh matters firmly in his favour.
Further Reference
Steve Morison Wikipedia
Steve Morison goals compiliation
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