Why Todd Cantwell has got his Norwich City exit to Rangers all wrong

When that book of Canary Fables is published ‘The Tale of Todd Cantwell’ will be one of the most compelling.  

“It’s a chance to prove a lot of people wrong.”  

That was the standout quote when Cantwell spoke to the media as a Rangers player for the first time last week. If the 24-year-old does go on to become an Ibrox hero I hope he realises he will prove far more people right than he will wrong.  

Criticism always stings and not just for professional footballers. One little dig from a work colleague or a customer, a sarcastic comment from a neighbour about your parking or some unexpected feedback from a passer-by can all leave their mark.  

If you’re blessed with the ability to not stew on minor confrontations or spend ages thinking about what you wish you’d said then I’d like to know your secret. The fact is that for most people, if we’re honest, it takes an awful lot of praise or positives to cancel out one negative.  

I don’t know the finer details of what exactly Cantwell has been through over the past couple of years but his Canary career rather petered out.  

If he felt he was getting more comments or criticism from supporters than some of his team mates it was because they knew what he was capable of. 

A breakthrough Premier League season which featured goals against Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and then Manchester United in an FA Cup quarter final was quite the marker.  

Every Norwich City supporter desperately wanted him to cash the cheque that his promise was writing. He looked sensational and the fact he was a local boy made this Roy of the Rovers story all the more irresistible.  

Todd Cantwell impressed during his Rangers' debut at the weekend (Image: PA)

When Emi Buendia was sold to Aston Villa ahead of Norwich City’s return to the top flight in 2021 the stage seemed set. This was Cantwell’s opportunity to emerge as the club’s creator in chief.  

City’s failure to properly replace their artistic Argentine that summer has been widely reflected on. As disappointing as the recruitment was, it would have been a fair assumption that Cantwell would be ready to start painting the team’s attacking play his own shades of yellow and green.  

Nothing illustrates what happened next better than the fact that Todd Cantwell’s last goal for Norwich City actually occurred a month before Emi Buendia’s.  

The 7-0 hammering of Huddersfield featured the Dereham Deco’s last City strike in April 2021. Saturday was his 46th appearance for Norwich, Bournemouth and now Rangers since that goal.  

If there is a moral from this story it’s that selling a good young player when they are hot is not always the wrong thing to do.  

We all know Norwich City’s financial situation. Its success depends on a constant flow of good young players tied down to long-term contracts. That way the club has either the talent in the team or the maximum transfer fee in their bank account. They have ended up with neither for all of their investment in Cantwell. Perhaps there wasn’t sufficient interest in buying him two years ago, despite the rumours.  

Had City cashed in then supporters would have been disappointed but they weren’t to know what the next two years would bring.  

Josh Murphy is a good example of why taking the money can be shrewd rather than short of ambition. The winger was sold to Cardiff City for a reported £11m at the end of Daniel Farke’s first campaign to go and play in the Premier League. This season he’s managed just three starts for Oxford United in League One after joining on a free in the summer and he’s still only 27.  

How this fable ends and whether Cantwell becomes the next Josh Murphy or James Maddison is now down to him.  

Of course, he’ll need the usual mix of fitness and fortune that blesses or curses all careers. If Cantwell is a Scottish success story not that many people in Norfolk will be surprised.  

He is, after all, one of our own. It was Chris Sutton who first called Cantwell ‘The Dereham Deco’ and if anyone with a Norfolk accent knows about becoming an Old Firm hero it’s him.  

The Norfolk debate

Cantwell’s departure sparked what Mrs Merton would have called ‘a heated debate’ on BBC Radio Norfolk last week.  

With six Premier League goals to his name we asked how many Norfolk-born sports stars could claim to have achieved more than Todd Cantwell.  

We may not be widely considered a sporting hotbed but the texts that flew in that morning suggested otherwise. In fact in the six days since we conducted our non-scientific straw poll Alfie Hewett has won two more Grand Slam titles.  

The aforementioned Chris Sutton was disqualified for having the audacity to be born in Nottingham so the main contenders were not footballers.  

The most capped man for England in Rugby Union, Ben Youngs, is set to add his incredible record when the Six Nations begins next weekend but even he didn’t make our final two.  

Instead we boiled it down to being either Matthew Pinsent or John Edrich.  

Pinsent is sort of a reverse Chris Sutton in that he left Norfolk as a very young child. However, the four-time Olympic gold medallist got in once we’d established the strict ‘born in Norfolk’ rule. His birthplace was Holt.  

The other finalist was John Edrich. Born in Blofield in 1937 he is one of only 25 cricketers ever to have scored 100 first class centuries. He’s also in the top 20 of runs scored by anyone the game has ever seen.  

We did also weigh-in the suggestion that the most famous cricket ground in the world, Lord’s, has The Edrich Stand. What a tribute to a true great. Further research has reminded us that it was actually named after another Edrich, John’s cousin Bill, but he was a Norfolk man too so at least the county can claim it.  

It was good fun but I think it’s one of those subjects that will never truly be resolved. It’s good fodder to pass a few miles in the car during your next long Norwich City away trip though.