Perhaps it’s a cliché to suggest that Angus Gunn was always bound to be a goalkeeper.
The tale of father and son is a well-worn one after four seasons of the 27-year-old in Norwich City’s first team. References to Gunn’s father Bryan are unsurprisingly constant given the latter’s status as a Canaries legend, and most City supporters have heard it all before.
It remains true, however, that his family’s reputation played a significant part in Gunn Jr. becoming a goalkeeper, and it’s hard to imagine the picture he paints coming into view without those connections.
“I think I was eight,” he recalled on the Yours Mine Away podcast, “trialling for Norwich outfield. In the trials it was basically just playing eight-a-side once a week at the training ground, and they just looked to see if they want to sign you.
“It was coming towards the end of the year when they were going to choose who was going to join the academy at under-9s. The goalkeeper got injured and I was hiding a little bit, but someone turned around and said ‘you go in goal’.
“I ended up doing well, and the coach came over to my mum after the training session and said ‘bring his gloves next time, he’s going to be a goalkeeper’. A couple of months later I was signed.
“My mum was very reluctant to let it happen, dealing with my dad for however long throughout his career. I don’t think she was very happy at the start, but after I went in I started enjoying it and didn’t look back.”
The fairytale appeared to end for what was an understandable move back in 2011, when Gunn signed for a rapidly progressing Manchester City team aged 15. Again, his dad played a significant role in making that work for him.
“Because I was still a schoolboy, what happened was my dad got a job up in Manchester with my agency, and that’s why I had to leave, because I was relocating with my family,” he said. “Moving up with my family helped me settle in a lot easier.
“Coming from Norwich, I wouldn’t say it’s the busiest place, I wasn’t really used to big cities or anything like that. So moving to somewhere like that was pretty daunting and a little bit scary, but ever since I moved there I was never looking back.”
That move was followed by a season on loan at his former club and eventually a £10million switch to Southampton, where he made his Premier League debut and became the Saints’ first-choice goalkeeper.
Things quickly went downhill, however, and soon he was out on loan at Stoke City having featured in a 9-0 thrashing by Leicester at St. Mary’s. He returned from that loan with a positive attitude and a desire to win back the shirt he’d lost, but was met by a disappointing outlook from then-boss Ralph Hassenhutl.
“I think I went and saw the manager and said I wanted to come back and try to get in the team,” he continued.. The first thing he said to me was: ‘I don’t see that. I think you should go out on loan again and try to prove yourself.’ Before I’d even trained I think.
“I was like ‘obviously he doesn’t want me here, not really having me’.”
That opened the door to a second return to Carrow Road, however, and a move he couldn’t refuse.
“There wasn’t really too much happening in the transfer window, but a week or two after that my agent rang me and asked what I thought about going back to Norwich,” he said. “It was the year they got promoted, so they were in the Premier League again.
“Tim (Krul) was there playing and got promoted again, so I knew I was going there as number two to try and push him and get in the team, but obviously the manager that was there when I went on loan (Daniel Farke) was still there.
“He was the one that wanted me and I got on with him very well, so in my head at that time I felt like I wanted to go somewhere that wanted me for who I am, they respect me, obviously I know them quite well.
“It seemed like a good fit at the time, so when it came about I jumped at it straight away really.”
That move has paid off for Gunn, with first-choice status eventually forthcoming for the Scottish international. With his country heading to the Euros this summer, however, he’ll undoubtedly have ambitions of making it back to the highest level with his club as well.
