Iwan Roberts on Kamara, Savage's hoof it, and Chris Wilder

I enjoyed his performance against Stevenage in the Carabao Cup and I thought he looked good, he did well.

Obviously he had a good season at Pompey last season, eight goals in 37 appearances helped them win the League One title.

He's come back, maybe he thinks he should be in the team, I don't know. He had a minute against Blackburn on Saturday and I can imagine he's a little bit frustrated maybe – but come on, two weeks into the season and you’re putting in a transfer request?

I bet the new manager thinks, ‘what the hell have I walked into here? Unhappy players left, right and centre’.

At the end of the day it is his decision, it doesn't matter what people say to him, he’s got to make his mind up whether to hand that transfer request in or not.

I remember my third year at City and I was coming to the end of my contract, I think Bruce (Rioch) was the manager, and David Speedie, my agent, had lined up a move to Forest and a move for me to go back to Huddersfield.

But I didn’t want to go and I went against it, I said ‘David, I'm happy here, mate, I love it here, I love playing for the club, I love the area’ and we fell out over it. I don't think he ever did anything for me as an agent after that. But it was my decision and at the end of the day it is always the player’s decision.

I think there are distractions when agents are saying things to you about where they can get you - this club's interested, that club’s interested, you can treble your money if you can get away.

I don't know the lad, I think he's got potential, but he has just got to be patient.

He could move to another club next week before the window closes and he could be in the same boat, on the fringes of things. He is still learning his trade – 25-, 26-year-olds are still learning the trade. Just knuckle down, work hard, and listen to good advice that the coaches up there will be telling you.

As I say, I was shocked when I saw it because it was something that I wasn't expecting. I can understand if he's a little bit frustrated, if he thinks he should be playing and I get that, but at the end of the day the manager can only pick 11 and it's down to him, when he gets the opportunity, to take it with both hands and make sure that he's in that team on a regular basis.

It is just one other thing that the manager could do without. You know what the start of the season is like in the Championship - games come thick and fast and you have got to prepare for every game thoroughly and the last thing you need is players disrupting things so early in the season.

Abu Kamara and Jon Rowe have both done that. I don't know if they're friends at all, I don't know if they’re in each other’s ears.

Sometimes of course, you have got to force things as a player, if you're not happy and you're desperate to get away. I remember Robbie Savage when he was desperate to get away from Birmingham to go to Blackburn because he wanted to play for Mark Hughes and he said Blackburn was closer to his parents’ house and when Steve Bruce at Birmingham worked it out, Birmingham was about 50 miles closer.

Robbie Savage, centre, and Steve Bruce during training at Birmingham (Image: PA Images)

But Sav would go into training and he would disrupt the training sessions – he’d boot the balls away in a keep-ball session, every time the ball came to him he’d boot it away and then he’d get sent in.

It's something that I never did in 22 years of playing, I never once put a transfer request in – I wouldn’t know how to write one anyway – but I just think there are so many agents in the game now.

Players think they're looking after their best interests, and some of them are. Some of them are really, really good and will do their very, very best for the player and as long as the player is happy, they're happy. But some will try and line their own pockets by getting their players moved. As a player, you've got to make your own mind, you can't listen to the noise.

I looked at the age of the City side and there are a lot of young boys in there and Kamara is probably thinking, ‘I'm just as good as him, why am I not playing? I had good season at Portsmouth, helped them win the league’, so it will be an interesting one.

Johannes Hoff Thorup has a lot on his plate so early in the season (Image: Andy Sumner/Focus Images Ltd)

All of this is the last thing Johannes Hoff Thorup needs. He hasn’t got the strongest of squads anyway.

He hasn’t got the strength in depth that he probably wants and I bet he's working hard to get bodies in to help the lads that are there. So the last thing you need is young lads maybe thinking they're actually better than they are – and the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

Maybe Kamara thought he was getting Jon Rowe’s place – or maybe he was Gabe Forsyth come in at the weekend and thought, ‘hold on, I played well against Stevenage didn’t I?’

This is where the manager’s managing skills come into play now. Where he gets the young lad into his office and not thrash it out, but they talk about things, you know ‘you’re in my plans, you have to be patient’.

It's a long season, he's going to be needed, but he's got to do it on a daily basis in training and he has to show a good attitude – but I don't think that's a good attitude what he has done.

To the left...!

I saw someone pointing out this week that Norwich like signing left-footers this summer.

Ante Crnac – whose signing was confirmed on Thursday night - is left-footed, as are Jose Cordoba, Callum Doyle, Ben Chrisene and Amankwah Forson.

Ben Chrisene - one of the 'lefty' arrivals this summer (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

What is it about them? I look at golfers, tennis players, snooker players – and it's just something about a lefty.

I was lucky, I played with John Barnes. He didn't need a right foot – it wasn’t bad, but his left was unbelievable.

And another one who a lot of people wouldn’t think about – Glyn Hodges, who came up with the Crazy Gang at Wimbledon as well as playing for Watford and Sheffield United. He's the biggest winger I've ever seen – he must have been six foot three and 17 stone, but what a player.

The ball used to stick to John Barnes’ left foot, you just couldn't get it off him.

Nowadays, of course, the game’s changed so much and the way teams set up now, they'll play their lefties on the right hand side and vice versa. They can score goals coming in from the right or left hand side when they cut in.

It does limit one thing I used to do enjoy – like Ryan Giggs, he'd get to the byline and he'd hang the ball up to the back post and I loved that. I’d be so frustrated nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, today the players will still do it, but the final ball’s not good enough.

Talking of lefties what a strike by Josh Sargent against Blackburn. He had no right to score from there really, it was such a tight angle, although it probably should have been his fifth on the day, it was probably the hardest chance that he had. But a magnificent goal.

It was sloppy of City to let the lead slip. It's 18 minutes to go - see the game out. They’d had chances to go further in front and didn't take them, but when you're going into that last few minutes you’ve just got to make sure you don't concede again.

The equaliser was such a poor goal to concede - no pressure on the ball, too easy for whoever crosses it to put a dangerous ball into the box. And you've got Shane Duffy, who's been caught on his heels, the centre forward gets across him and it's a good header. And two points thrown away really.

Blade runners

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder (Image: PA Images)

City have Sheffield United at Carrow Road this weekend – they do say some teams reflect how their manager was as a player and is as a person.

I don’t think there is a truer case than the Blades and Chris Wilder.

There is a naivety about Norwich at the minute, and you look at the average age and it is young and it is completely different to what Sheffield United have to offer.

They have loads of experience, in vital areas, a bit of know-how and there and there is never a dull moment when a Chris Wilder team comes to town.

He is lively, he's always outspoken, he's great for the media, because he'll always give you a line. One thing you have to do is be prepared to scrap and battle for everything, because that's what they'll do.

They signed big Kieffer Moore, who got his first goal in the home draw with QPR last weekend. He’s effectively replaced Olie McBurnie, although I think Moore has more about him and will score more goals.

I think Duffy and Co at the back will probably prefer that test, the more physical test - more up and at you, competing in the air and with that physicality.

City need to chalk up that first win because the longer it goes, the more anxious you become. I hated the start the season and I hated a new year because was desperate to score my first goal of the season and my first of the new year and the longer it goes, the more anxious you get and the more pressure you put on yourself.