"Big profit" - Norwich City duo picked above James Maddison as best bargains | OneFootball

FLW's Norwich City fan pundit has identified the club's best ever transfer bargains

Highlights

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Norwich City have had a busy summer of transfer activity following their sixth-place finish in the Championship last season.

Johannes Hoff Thorup has arrived as manager and the Dane has been tasked with guiding the team back to the Premier League.

But he will have to do so without a key player from last year, with Gabriel Sara making the switch to Galatasaray over the summer.

Adam Idah has also agreed his exit following a £9.5 million deal with Celtic, according to Sky Sports.

Thorup will surely be looking to reinvest the money earned from these sales into improving the squad in the final weeks of the window.

Norwich City’s best bargain signings

FLW’s Norwich fan pundit Zeke Downes believes that Teemu Pukki and Emi Buendía are the two best bargain signings he’s seen from the club.

He has also highlighted James Maddison’s arrival from Coventry City for a reported £2.5 million as a deal that worked out excellently, given he was sold for £25 million after just one year at Carrow Road.

“There’s probably two, and it’s Pukki and Buendía,” Downes told Football League World.

“Maybe Maddison, but I’d say for the fact that for Maddison we signed him [for £2.5 million], and then we ended up selling him for £25 million, but he only had one proper season with us.

“Whereas Buendía, we signed him for £1.5 million, and he obviously had three really good seasons for us, and then we got a big profit off it, which helped us although we spent the money badly, it helped us in the transfer window.

“Pukki [was] obviously a free, and all of the years that he was at Norwich he was obviously amazing, one of our best ever strikers.

“But then we didn’t make any money off him.

“I would say that these are our biggest bargains, for different reasons.”

Teemu Pukki’s importance to Norwich

Pukki signed for Norwich in 2018 from Danish side Brondby, and spent five years with the Norfolk outfit.

The Finnish international made 198 league appearances for the Canaries, bagging 87 goals, including 29 and 26 in two different promotion campaigns in the Championship (all stats from Fbref).

Pukki departed the second division side after a 13th place finish in the table under David Wagner in 2023, and currently competes in MLS for Minnesota United.

Meanwhile, Emi Buendía made 113 league appearances for Norwich, and contributed 24 goals and 34 assists before signing for Aston Villa in 2021.

Pukki earned legendary status at Norwich

Pukki was electric for Norwich, playing a crucial role in the team twice gaining promotion to the Premier League during his time at the club.

While they were unable to get a fee for him when he departed, he still proved an incredible bargain given he arrived for nothing as well.

A lot of clubs would be desperate to sign someone who became so important to the squad as a free agent.

Buendía also worked out exceptionally well, and Thorup would certainly like a pair of players as strong as these two in his squad this year.