LONG BALL? SO LONG

Farke dispelled myth for goal-king Pukki

IF his goals help Norwich win promotion at Carrow Road tonight, Teemu Pukki will be able to say goodbye to a division he wanted no part of last summer.

He has 27 goals before the visit of Sheffield Wednesday, yet Pukki wasn’t sure he would get any in the Championship. The Finn was out of contract after four years at Danish club Brondby, but when his agent told him Norwich were interested, Pukki’s first reaction was to shudder at the thought.

He had struggled at

Celtic and assumed the Championship was equally brutal. It took Norwich boss Daniel Farke’s silver tongue to persuade him otherwise.

Pukki (above) said: “I was a little bit afraid to use my physicality at Celtic.

“It’s hard to say what went wrong there but it did make me a better player, though.

“I had some offers last summer, but when my agent called and told me Norwich were interested, I was like, ‘No, Championship football is not for me.’

“In my mind, it was still really physical with everyone playing long balls and stuff like that.

“But then I had some good talks with Farke (circled above) and with Stuart Webber, Norwich’s Sporting Director, and they explained how the football is here. It started to be really interesting to me, we came to see it and just made a decision that this is the place.

“The Championship is really entertaining to play in as well. There are still some teams who like to play long balls, but the most important thing is how we play. We create a lot of chances and the best thing for a striker is to know the other guys will give you one or two chances every game.

“You just need to take them, but I didn’t expect to score this amount of goals in my first season.

“The manager has been huge for me – he knows how to bring the best from all the players. It’s important to have a coach who really trusts you and gives you the time to be yourself.”

So, presumably Pukki is looking forward to Premier League football next season in a way that he didn’t to the Championship? Perhaps not.

He added: “I remember watching some Premier League games with my dad when I was young, but I was mostly interested in the Spanish league at that time. That was my dream when I was a kid, to hopefully play there.”

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