An Unhappy Maric

Southend United 0-3 Norwich City

No trip to Roots Hall for me, due to those pesky earlies, but Grant Holt (2) and Korey Smith's second half goals helped prove that Carlisle cup defeat was not anything to be too worried about.

It was just after this game that Paul Lambert revealed he had reached agreement with Serbian striker Goran Maric to release him just four months after joining the club.

Maric made the briefest of substitute appearances in the Carling Cup at Yeovil and then started the JP Trophy win over Brentford. His fate was sealed in that game. Lambert's constant hair pulling, swivelling on the spot and kicking out at thin air every time Maric touched the ball was probably the most obvious show of frustration about one player's performance I have ever seen from a manager.

It had all looked so promising in pre-season. Goran Maric was a demon on the tour of Scotland, scoring a couple of goals and looking like a lively customer. I wrote back in July of my great hopes for this Serbian striker but alas, and we should have learnt by now, a player on trial can be a different beast from a player with his inky fingermarks on a contract.

This is going to sound dreadfully xenophobic and I do not want it to, (I will be stopping short of saying 'they come over here......') but Norwich have never really had a lot of luck with foreign players. In recent years Zola, Bergkamp and Cantona have lit up English football with their flare and brilliance. With one or two notable exceptions (Steen Nedergaard anyone?) the canaries have never quite tapped into this rich supply of overseas talent.

Here's the evidence:

1- Michael Theoklitos (Australian) Let in seven on his debut. Not played since.

2- Thomas Helveg (Denmark) It was so exciting when Norwich signed a player who had previously been with AC Milan and Inter Milan. We thought we had really made it in that Premiership summer of 2004. He soon lost his place to Marc Edworthy.

3- Fernando Derveld (Holland) A dutch left-back discovered by Brian Hamilton. He was tall, quick and liked to get forward. He just wasn't very good.

4- Pape Diop (Senegal) You what? Pape Bouba Diop - a Premier League star with Fulham and Portsmouth a flop? No. This isn't him. This is Pape Seydou Diop who was due to spend the 1999/2000 season on loan from Lens. After 10 games that spell was cut short following allegations he spat at QPR fans during a particularly bad tempered game. Still he went on to be part of the Senegal team which defeated France in the first game of the 2002 World Cup didn't he? No. That side included Pape Malik Diop.

5- Dejan Stefanovic (Serbia) Perhaps a slightly harsh inclusion on a list of overseas flops for Norwich as it wasn't his fault he did his knee ligaments after just 12 league games for the club having looked fairly promising. He did manage to get himself sent off for arguing in a match at Southampton though. He either swore at the ref in English or swore at the ref in his native tongue and was unlucky to catch the Football League's only Serbian official.

6- Juan Velasco (Spain) Signed by Glenn Roeder in 2008 after being released by Espanyol. We had high hopes of this fella who had been part of Spain's Euro 2000 squad. He shouldn't have had any problems settling in East Anglia - he revealed he was best mates with Ipswich striker Pablo Counago. So what could go wrong? Well he played 3 games for City and in the final one, at Coventry, he was substituted after 21 minutes of the game.

7- Cedric Anselin (France) In fairness this one-time Bordeaux right winger achieved cult status during his 29 game (1 goal v Oxford United) spell as a Norwich player. The fact his list of post-canary clubs included King's Lynn, Dereham and Norwich United will tell you how rapid his fall from grace was.

8- Mattias Jonson (Sweden) One of the signings in the summer of 2004 brought in to make Norwich a competitive Premiership side. A Swedish international who had impressed in Euro 2004 for his country. 30 games for Norwich - 0 goals.

9- David Strihavka (Czech Republic) One of my favourite interviews of all time was when this 6ft striker scored the only goal of his Norwich career in a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. "I'm very, very happy" was the limit of his English. This perhaps wasn't helped by his team mates who revealed they had tried to help him settle in England and learn the language by taking him to see the Transformers film. Glenn Roeder got shot of him soon after taking over as manager. The Norwich fans nicknamed him 'Dave Striker' and he may just have had something - scoring against Tottenham in the UEFA Cup later that season. However his Norwich career was to last just 11 appearances, 8 of those from the bench.

10- Goran Maric (Serbia) The final piece of the jigsaw in this team, for the reasons mentioned above.

11- Raymond DeWaard (Holland) Another of Hamilton's curious signings. The left winger played 13 times for Norwich in a year. I have vivid memories of one Brian Hamilton press conference in which he was telling us how De Waard was unable to head the ball in training without closing his eyes.