According to the latest reports from Daily Record Live Transfer blog (22:35), Norwich City have won the race for the signing of Patrick Thistle’s talented winger Aidan Fitzpatrick. The report mentions that the English club have secured a deal by paying £350,000 plus for the 18-year-old. Rangers were also one of the interested parties along with their arch-rivals Celtic. The Canaries have been after Fitzpatrick since the last two windows, and they have finally secured their signing.
The youngster played in the Scottish Championship last season and made 30 appearances for his side. He contributed with seven goals and two assists. Last season was the breakthrough campaign for the Scotland u-17 international and the fact that he started making regular appearances for the senior team at a young age didn’t go unnoticed.
What was impressive about Fitzpatrick last season?
Often young wide players are blessed with pace and dribbling skills, but they take time to come up with attacking returns regularly. They are then termed as ”pace merchants” by the fanbase because of lack of end product. However, Fitzpatrick showed last season that he has the composure to finish off moves or pick the right pass in the final third.
With more experience, he is going to improve further. Last season, was the first season for him, so the youngster has a big future ahead of him. We think that he is likely to play for the Norwich u-23 before he gets into the reckoning for a senior team spot.
Big miss for Rangers?
Rangers currently have plenty of options in the wide regions, so it is probably understandable why they didn’t go all out for Fitzpatrick. It is always good to keep the young players coming in, but the Gers are exceptionally well off in the wide region.
Recently they completed the signing of Jake Hastie from Motherwell who shone last season. He too is just 20 and is likely to compete for places in the first team for the next season. Glenn Middleton is also another young and upcoming winger. Let us also not forget the first team options that Rangers have in the form of Jordan Jones, Jamie Murphy, Sheyi Ojo and Daniel Candeias. They are also looking to add Ryan Kent to their arsenal, so Fitzpatrick isn’t too big a miss for the club at the moment.
However, if he goes on to thrive for Norwich in a few years and breaks through to the first team, then the Gers might feel that they missed out on a talented option as Fitzpatrick is close to signing for somewhere around £350,000 plus which is very much in Rangers’ budget.
