Norwich City’s 2019/20 season was a difficult one to work out. Yes, the Canaries finished a distant 20th in the Premier League – returning to the Championship at the earliest opportunity – but a number of Daniel Farke’s squad still emerged from the wreckage of a disastrous season with their reputations not only unscathed but enhanced.
Ben Godfrey sealed a £20 million move to Everton just a few months after Norwich’s relegation. Jamal Lewis joined Newcastle United. Max Aarons caught the eye of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
The Athletic, meanwhile, reported that Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur were keeping very close tabs on the so-called ‘Dereham Deco’; a 21-year-old, then-£30 million-rated Todd Cantwell.
Liverpool, the report added, were also intensifying their interest in a player who marked his debut Premier League season with six goals from midfield, including strikes against Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton and another during that famous 3-2 triumph over Guardiola’s City at Carrow Road.
Todd Cantwell is an ‘exceptional player’
“I think eventually he’ll play (for a) top-six club,” Norwich legend Chris Sutton told BBC at the time. “I think he’s an exceptional, exceptional player.”
“He’s caught my eye more than once this season,” former Liverpool ace Danny Murphy said on Match of the Day. “He’s a terrific player. I like his creativity, his bravery on the ball. With and without the ball, he does his job.
“He’s not just a luxury player because he’s got the skills. If (Norwich) go down, he is someone the other teams will be looking at.”
Two-and-a-half years later, Godfrey’s development has plateaued at Everton. Lewis is out of favour at Newcastle. And Cantwell has started just nine out of a possible 26 games for a Norwich side sliding into mid-table mediocrity.
The Canaries wanted £40 million for Cantwell as recently as 2021 amid interest from an Aston Villa side then negotiating Jack Grealish’s sale to Manchester City (The Sun). With his contract expiring in just five months’ time, Norwich may be tempted to accept just 10 per cent of that once-eye-watering fee, Rangers offering now-24-year-old Cantwell the chance to rebuild his once-glittering reputation north of the border (Sky Sports).
Rangers coach Mick Beale hails Norwich City misfit
With all due respect to Rangers – a huge, historic club with a colossal fanbase – the fact that Cantwell could arrive in Scotland for a cut-price fee this month, just three years after catching the eye of Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea, is a sign of just how far he’s fallen.
Perhaps Gers boss Mick Beale said it best.
“Todd was an excellent player when he was young and playing against my Liverpool Under-23s,” Beale says when quizzed about Rangers’ interest in a player who’s decline has been as rapid as his initial rise.
“I thought he would go on and have a fantastic career. He’s maybe just looking for a move to re-ignite it. But I think he is a fantastic player at a good age.”
An inspired addition or the new Aaron Ramsey?
With Dele Alli toiling on loan at Besiktas, with Ross Barkley in-and-out at Nice, Cantwell’s story feels oddly familiar. One of unfulfilled potential, a classic case of ‘what might’ve been’.
And whether Rangers – one of the most pressurised environments in British football – is the right place for Cantwell to rediscover the form that once made put him amongst the Premier League’s most exciting attacking talents remains to be seen.
The good news is that Beale got the best out of similarly mercurial playmakers Chris Willock and Ilias Chair at QPR. And the stylish, shimmying Cantwell certainly feels well-suited to the number ten role in his 4-2-3-1 system. If Cantwell can strike fear into the hearts of Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea – he also scored a stunning FA Cup goal vs Man United – it’s tempting to wonder what he could do to Ross County, Dundee United and Kilmarnock.
But as Rangers discovered 12 months ago – when bringing in Aaron Ramsey from Juventus – undoubted, unquestionable talent does not always translate into success in Scotland.
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