Paddy Davitt: The 'unwanted' Drmic and a sour City spell

Drmic will return to HNK Rijeka for the final 12 months of a Carrow Road spell that soured quickly and irrevocably. The 28-year-old’s injury record in Germany, interspersed with a very respectable goal ratio at top clubs like Leverkusen and Monchengladbach, was why City were able to pick him up on a free transfer in 2019.

But it became apparent the pace and the physicality required in the Premier League were beyond what Drmic could deliver.

There were undoubtedly glimpses of that predatory penalty box instinct. Most notably following up Kenny McLean’s strike to memorably take Tottenham to extra-time in a raucous FA Cup penalty shoot out win in front of 9,000 delirious City fans that feels a lifetime ago.

Josip Drmic scored a vital Norwich City in an FA Cup penalty shoot out win at Tottenham (Image: Focus Images Limited)

But his league return was dismal, just the solitary tap in after a gaffe from Tom Heaton in a 5-1 home tanking to Aston Villa from 21 appearances. Or to put it another way, a goal every 634 minutes in his Norwich league career.

Contrast that with a goal every 170 minutes during his spells in Germany, or more recently one every 162 minutes in the Croatian top flight last season, and it was possibly wrong time, wrong place, wrong club. Not every free transfer can turn out to be Teemu Pukki or Tim Krul.

Drmic’s pedigree alone made it a calculated punt worth taking ahead of the club’s first Premier League tilt under Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke.

A summer window defined by meagre spending, in comparison to their rivals, and what the head coach has labelled since as the need to pay ‘for the sins of the past’.

Drmic’s signing symbolised why both Farke and Webber framed that attempt at survival as striving for a miracle. Had he supplemented Pukki’s craft with the goalscoring prowess he managed throughout earlier career postings then things could have been dramatically different for both parties.

The Swiss international replaced Pukki on the opening night of that new Premier League season at Liverpool, but there was to be no changing of the guard.

Take some of those FA Cup cameos out of the equation and the abiding - albeit distant memory now - may be that red card for a ridiculous lunging challenge in the final Premier League defeat to Burnley in July 2020.

Emi Buendia also saw red at Carrow Road that day, but only one of those two would be rehabilitated following a period on the naughty step.

Drmic was deemed surplus to requirements by the following season and demoted to train with the development squad. Buendia would make a triumphal return to the Championship and seal a club record move to Aston Villa.

Even in the midst of a striker crisis that saw Marco Stiepermann deployed in a makeshift forward role just before Christmas there was no way back for Drmic.

That prompted his right of reply on social media, which hastened his departure for a first tour of duty with Rijeka.

Drmic may reflect he never had the opportunity to prove his worth. In a team and a squad so woven around the talismanic presence of Pukki, every other striker must feel they are part of the Finn’s support cast. That placed a far higher premium on him to impress when rare chances did come his way.

His signing will be filed in the one to forget basket under this regime that contains the likes of Marley Watkins or Ben Marshall. The contrast, in terms of Norwich’s recruitment ahead of this second crack at the Premier League, could not be more marked.

There will be no free transfer arrivals in what remains of the current window. Drmic’s de facto departure brings a finality and a degree of certainty to City's ongoing squad makeover.

Do not rule out another forward arriving to compete with Pukki. One capable perhaps of actually challenging the Finn for his crown.