Thorup on Man City loanee Jacob Wright
Manchester City’s on-loan midfielder Jacob Wright is ready to be pitched in the deep end, for Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup.
The 19-year-old looked set to sign for Championship rivals Swansea, and was reportedly at the Swans training base in the closing days of the transfer window, but made a deadline day dash to seal a loan move to Norfolk.
City have negotiated a buy option, that could become an obligation under certain conditions, but Thorup is only thinking about the here and now.
The deep-lying midfielder is firmly in the Dane’s Derby plans ahead of Saturday’s home league test.
“He is ready to go because he’s such a natural football player,” said the Norwich boss. “A big credit to our recruitment department as well, because they really find some good players in terms of fitting in to the things that we want to do here. We try to recruit players where they have the basic skills to play our game.
It’s realistic that we can bring him into this game, probably not as a starter, it’s too early, but to be around the team is realistic. He’s fit, he’s in a good shape. He’s been training with Man City for the whole season, playing Under-21 games. So in terms of match fitness, he’s more than ready.”
Swans’ chief, Luke Williams, admitted missing out on Wright was a bitter pill.
“It’s tough for young players,” he said, quoted by Wales Online. “They’ve got to try to make a decision and like I said, I think it may have been something we could have had lined up long before and got done before others came came in to try to ruin the party.
“But he’s a really, really good player, a really talented player, a really good spot. A really good idea to bring this player.
“We just needed to to get that done as a matter of urgency and in the right way.
“But good luck to the boy. I hope in the future that we maybe get to work with this player because it seems like a really, really bright guy and a really good footballer.”
Wright was joined at Carrow Road by Brighton’s teenage centre back Ruairi McConville on a permanent deal.
The Northern Ireland international could have to bide his time behind first choice Shane Duffy and Callum Doyle.
“There’s competition and it’s not many times during this season where I can select some players and deselect some other players,” said Thorup. “Not because we love to deselect players, but because we love that there’s competition. If you train well during the week you can push for a position in the starting line up.
“I cannot say that he will just go in from the start to play, but I can say if he trains well and he performs well then there’s a possibility that he can go in.
“It’s also fair to say that we have some good centre backs already, and they’re performing well. They’re getting better and better, and we try to have some consistency around that group, but we need competition.”
Fellow centre back Jose Cordoba is also available this weekend after sitting out the Watford win due to a disciplinary matter.
