Chris Martin

[Canaryboy]

Anybody else going to find it strange seeing (probably) this man line up against England this week? 

I know it isn't particularly unusual, League Two players have lined up against Brazil and Chris Martin is one of the best strikers in the Championship. 

But I think we have been given a small dose of what Ipswich fans feel when they see Jordan Rhodes being valued at £12m. Chris Martin is being picked above Jordan Rhodes for Scotland at the minute and is joint top scorer in the division. 

I always rated him but I can't say I expected him to do as well as he has. 

 

[KeiranShikari]

He really has flourished as the main forward. Shame we never really gave him that chance.

 

[Din]

To be fair he played a lot in the first half of the season we were promoted from the Championship to the Premier League up top with Holty, and scored a grand total of 4 goals, when the previous season he got about 20 when partnered with Holt in League 1. 

For me we were right to sell him when we did. We were in the Premier League when he was sold, and he was way down the pecking order. It's just unfortunate I suppose that he's turned into a very good striker at Championship level.

Good luck to him though, came through our academy, and played a big part in our promotion from League 1, so good to see him doing well. Just a shame it's for one of our promotion rivals

 

[splutcho]

He's been crap tonight!

 

[Yellow Fever]

IMO, Martin suits Derby's style of play, where his lack of pace doesn't show so much. I'd rather have Hooper and Jerome up front.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

On target today along with Jamie lad

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Scored twice for Derby today. Has has 52 goals for them now.

What are people's feelings about him? I doubt he'll ever be a particularly effective Premier League striker, but he seems to be one of the top Championship ones. 

I dont feel like we missed a trick with him because he had a million chances to be that player with us. But still, we ultimately decided he wasnt good enough. Did people expect him to do this well? Or did we expect him to do a Micky Spillane (wasnt he the other half of Roeder's Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?).

I thought he did well with us in the championship to be fair. I think he only scored 4 goals at that level after stepping up from a more prolific League One season, but by all accounts he was unlucky not to actually score more, and contributed much more that season than his 4 goals suggest.

Might a Premier League team take a punt on him at some point? Might we do a Cureton and decide to re-sign him? If he gets to the Prem with Derby, how well will he do?

 

[Indy_Bones]

I didn't agree with the sale at the time, I thought he could easily develop further, and was a much better finisher and overall player than many of those chosen ahead of him like Kamara, Becchio, Jackson etc.

We let him go for a song when he would have been an ideal 3rd/4th choice striker (or even as cover for Wes),and now we'd need to pay 6mil+ to get him back...

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

He was a free transfer wasnt he?

 

[KeiranShikari]

26 and with a 1 in 2 strikerate over a couple of seasons means he'd cost quite a bit more than 6m imo.

Yeah, we released him. At the time it looked like the right move as we were trying to move on. Can't beat Hughton with this.

 

[Canaryboy]

Most Norwich fans could see that Chris Martin had a lot of potential, from the moment he waltzed into our team at 18 and hit it off with Huckerby to help keep us in the Championship. Linked with Man Utd. 

Then forming a partnership with Holt in League One in which his impressive 23 goal haul was only 7 short of what Holt managed that year. 

People saying that he doesn't have the pace to make it in the Premier League but he's 6ft 1", aggressive, intelligent and can hold up the ball, Derby are a much weaker team without him, their capitulation last season came after his injury. 

But he probably needed a change of scenery to fulfill his potential, so don't have any issue with us letting him go.

I don't think £6m would buy him, he's Derby's most important player, basically their talisman like Holt was with us. If they can keep him fit all season I think they'll be right up their challenging this season. 

And if he came up with Derby I'd tip him to succeed in this division, just like Holt, Murray and Lambert. 

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Is it the general consensus then that Martin could never have been the player he is now with us? One of those things that he had to move away, he had to fall to build himself up? That leaving Norwich made him?

 

[eatonparkboy]

I know it is Scotland but he does have full international caps now. Who was the last from our neck of the woods? Chris Sutton?

I think a lot of people got on Martin's back because he had an arrogance about his play that doesn't sit well with Norfolk people, particularly, their own. Cocky *bleep*was an expression that you heard all the time about someone from the area who did well.

I honestly think we missed out by selling him. I think he could handle pressure on the field. Remember his goals at Colchester in the L1 season? And he served an apprenticeship with the master of self importance in Grant Holt.

I hope he does make it and it wouldn't bother me if he comes and shoves it back down our throats at some time.

 

[Canaryboy]

I know it is Scotland but he does have full international caps now. Who was the last from our neck of the woods? Chris Sutton?

Matthew Upson is from a village just inside Suffolk, near to the border with Norfolk, he won 21 England caps.

Can't think of many other players to come out of this area and make it big in recent years,

Wasn't there a decent striker who played for Charlton who was born in Norwich and once played for King's Lynn? Name escapes me! 

 

[Canaryboy]

I know it is Scotland but he does have full international caps now. Who was the last from our neck of the woods? Chris Sutton?

I think a lot of people got on Martin's back because he had an arrogance about his play that doesn't sit well with Norfolk people, particularly, their own. Cocky *bleep*was an expression that you heard all the time about someone from the area who did well.

I honestly think we missed out by selling him. I think he could handle pressure on the field. Remember his goals at Colchester in the L1 season? And he served an apprenticeship with the master of self importance in Grant Holt.

I hope he does make it and it wouldn't bother me if he comes and shoves it back down our throats at some time.

I don't think anybody is really to blame for Martin not 'making' it here, he had that excellent season with Holt, but then had a stop-start season in the Championship due to injuries.

Then we were suddenly in the Premier League and he'd effectively missed out a step on the ladder and looked well off the pace in the few games he got here in the Premier League under Lambert.

If he'd had a full season in the Championship that year then perhaps there would have been a more realistic chance of him being able to go into the Premier League with some momentum and make an impression, I do think that going back down to the second tier to establish himself in the Championship was a necessary step for him, and in fairness to the club we didn't just ditch him when winning promotion, we kept hold of him and sent him out on loan.

Presumably if we'd been relegated in the first couple of seasons we'd have then used Martin in the Championship. He didn't set the world alight out on loan either, so I don't think he was short of opportunities to impress, just needed a permanent move somewhere to find his form and confidence again.

Deserves our best wishes for his contribution in the League 1 season though, was really one of our key players that year, difficult to imagine us having got over the line without his 17 league goals..... I doubt Cody McDonald or Jamie Cureton could have done the business alongside Holt that year.

I do see the potential for him to get back into this league and impress like Glenn Murray / Grant Holt / Rickie Lambert have, but sometimes players just need to take a step backwards to take two step forwards, like Holt when he left Nottingham Forest to join Shrewsbury in League Two....