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Frankly speaking

STUFF YOUR PRIMADONNAS - GIVE ME HOLT!

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Read my latest blog:

STUFF YOUR PRIMADONNAS...GIVE ME HOLT!

Almost exactly one year ago (20th December 2010)

I posted a blog entitled ‘Grant Holt – An Ordinary Legend’. In it I celebrated

not only the outstanding performances of ‘The Horse’ but also his sheer

down-to-earth qualities. What I focused on could almost be called an ‘anti-celebrity’

image. I mentioned his post-match interviews and how they make the listener

almost feel part of things, how he speaks our language and genuinely comes

across as one of us. I wrote that I felt we were watching legendary status in

the making and I finished the blog by stating that I firmly believed that one

day Holty would lead out a Norwich City side in the Premier League.

One year on and I feel it is now time to welcome Holt into

Norwich City’s Hall Of Fame (not that I claim the right to do so!) Most City

fans would quite rightly consider that the key man behind our unbelievable

change of fortune over the last twenty seven months has been Paul Lambert whose

shrewd acquisitions and tactical awareness have underpinned everything we have

achieved. That is not to underestimate the off-field contributions of the

board, the Chief Executive and the coaching staff, especially Ian Culverhouse.

However, if we concentrate our attentions on the park, the part Holt has played

in our renaissance is certainly the stuff of legend.

Fifty goals in under one hundred appearances is a

magnificent achievement but statistics don’t do justice to Holty. Here is a man,

signed from League Two Shrewsbury Town after plying his trade at (amongst

others)Workington Town, Halifax,  Barrow and

Rochdale, who now has people seriously suggesting that, at the age of thirty,

he might merit an international call up!

There can be few of us who expected this when Bryan Gunn, in

what might be considered his final positive contribution to the club he served

so magnificently for so long, signed the big man in the summer of 2009. For my

part I knew he had a decent goalscoring record in the lower leagues but I also

knew he had moved around a lot, numbering at least eight clubs amongst his

former employers, and I wondered why. I have to say now that given his

magnificent contribution to The Canaries’ cause since then I simply cannot understand

how a player who so completely embodies commitment was allowed to slip through

the grasp of so many managers without ever attracting the attention of a top

club. At the end of the 2006-7 season he was voted Nottingham Forest’s player

of the year and yet they let him go!

If Holt were a difficult character, a dressing-room ‘stirrer’

or a bad influence on others I could understand it. Given that as far as I can

see he is the absolute opposite, I can only count our Canary blessings! Maybe

there is some truth in the concept that this is a perfect example of the ‘right

place, right time’ theory. Paul Lambert’s arrival at Carrow Road coinciding

with Holt entering a mature phase of his career might just have created the

perfect combination, the manager’s burgeoning appreciation of the game with its

continental influences providing  the

centre-forward with the necessary guidance to polish his bustling style with a

bit of Premier League lustre.

Whichever way you look at it Grant Holt is now part of

Norwich City folk-lore. His goal today at Everton was the result of a piece of

skill which had it been performed by a Drogba or a Balotelli would have been

feted to the extreme, while his goals at Anfield and last week against Newcastle

were more reminiscent of Ron Davies (for those with long memories!) or the Toon’s

own Alan Shearer.

Holt scores goals..and we love him for it. But for me his

presence means more than just goals. He is our leader, our icon, our talisman,

our heart. A hat-trick against Ipswich, that silly moustache, laughing on the

pitch, accepting a substitute role with dignity, speaking through the media

directly to us fans.. all of this is

what makes him special. I’m sure we’re all tired of reading that he was once a tyre

fitter but still the idea that a lad who came up the hard way, and even went to

play in Singapore as a wannabe twenty year old, is now outperforming some of

the strutting primadonnas of world football is just another reason that our

club is what it is.

How does the Barclay song go? We ****ing love Grant Holt!

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Absolutely fantastic piece.

Holty - a natural leader of men. If anyone has missed his interview with WLY on the club I urge you to watch it.

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There should not be a dry eye in the house after reading that....!!!!!!!!

Thank for an excellent post and a I wholeheartedly agree.

You can not do anything but lov the big man.

Excellent and Ta

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Great write up.  I''d love to see Holty make our top 5 record scorers, hes got 60 in 106 games.  That IS phenomenal.  He deserves all the plaudits and recognition he is getting. 

 

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A cracking piece, brilliantly written. As for Holt, it does seem he came to us at just the right time & fits perfectly with our system. I would imagine his rise to PL striker is as surprising to him as it is to us, the man just seems to be able to rise to the challenge. Also, I love how he seems to have a genuine love of the game, you get the feeling he would be just as happy to be playing in the conference, he appears to have a very simple love for the game.

Once again, well written.

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I certainly thought he was going to make Fellaini cry yesterday! What a whinger! He''s been elbowing people consistently for years and yesterday couldn''t handle a bit of physical presence from Holt.

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Great post.

I find it so satisfying watching him pee off Fellaini, and also when he took out Baines....  Best of all was the two times he floored John Terry at Chelsea.  He must have been waiting years to be able to do that to some of these "stars".

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[quote user="Frankly speaking"]Hopefully no retrospective punishment from the FA. See one journo today suggesting Holt could have been in trouble if Fellaini had gone down.[/quote]shows the journos lack of Knowledge then.. i suppose the same hack only thinks its a penalty if a player hits the deck or only think its a goal if the ball actually hits the net....Holt would be in trouble regardless of Fellaini falling on his arris...he has got away with it now.. so who cares?

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