Jez Moxey outlines Norwich City’s January transfer strategy

Alex Pritchard was Norwich City's big-money summer signing. Picture by Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +447814 482222

Norwich City’s Championship dip will not trigger ‘a knee-jerk’ reaction in the January transfer window.

Share Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in.

Murphy’s Law Alex Neil has made no secret he wants to keep the Murphy twins beyond their current contracts, and Jez Moxey echoes those sentiments. “I do not want to publicly talk about individual discussions with anybody. When we have got something substantive to tell you we will,” he said. “They are under contract, there is no great rush. Would we like them to be with us for a very long time? Yes. Would they like to be with us here? Yes, I think they would. There is a commonality there, I believe. We want to keep our best young players.”

The Canaries aim to be active in the upcoming market but chief executive Jez Moxey made it clear on Wednesday City’s blueprint to try and refresh Alex Neil’s squad is not affected by recent struggles on the pitch.

“Sometimes you trade at your peril in January because there can be a knee-jerk reaction to a run of bad results,” he said.

“You might go and buy two players and do it quickly, you haven’t quite researched it properly and it doesn’t quite fit, then you are worse off for it. January for us will be to try, if at all possible, to improve the team.

“Players are bought, players are sold or traded, there will be ins and outs in every transfer window at every club and that will the same for us, if we can, in January.

“Every fan likes to see the squad freshened up. But there is no magic wand or a pot of money waiting to be spent on buying new players. We all know we have players on the books who are not contributing to the club all that much on the field. If that means moving some players out to bring players in, yes, I hope that will happen. We need to be realistic, we are wanting to move some players on, but it is never easy.”

Moxey admits the huge price inflation from the Premier League clubs’ massive spending power continues to distort the market - which is why the loan option should not be ruled out as one avenue to explore for the Canaries in January.

“Absolutely. Any way you can strengthen the team we would consider as part of the recruitment process. It is not just about buying expensive players,” he said.

“There has been a seismic shift in upward value of players to a point where many of them are not worth the money they are commanding now.

“This market is being inflamed by foreign ownership, foreign money and a desperate clamour to reach the Premier League and they are spending lots of money and not always getting the success people want.

“You can look at players we were linked to in the summer who were sold for huge amounts and not all of them have done everything we might have thought they would and some of those players are now being offered again. That is what happens.”

Moxey is keen to stress there is also another dimension to City’s recruitment.

“One of the really, really important things for me as a chief executive is you have to get your recruitment right,” he said.

“This club will live or die by its ability to recruit well and secondly we have to have a conveyor belt of players we are developing ourselves to supplement our top players and the high wages we play for players. The Murphys and Louis Thompson are examples of that starting to happen and we need to do more of that.”

If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Eastern Daily Press. Click the link in the orange box above for details.