‘Could be a really smart bit of business’ – Norwich City eye talented EFL defender: The verdict | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict’ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Jacob Greaves is on the radar of Premier League relegation scrappers Norwich City ahead of the January transfer window, according to David Burns of BBC Radio Humberside.

Greaves has been a key man at the heart of Hull City’s defence for a number of years and has played a key role in the Tigers clawing their way out of the relegation zone in recent weeks. With the situation at board level at Hull City, without receiving any funds of note to invest in the squad in the last few transfer windows, Greaves would be an enormous loss to the Tigers’ survival bid under Grant McCann.

At just 21-years-old with a deal until the end of the next season, Hull are in a strong position to bring in a pretty penny for Greaves’ services, the concern from the fan base though will be whether or not they will see any of that money reinvested in the squad.

Here, we have gathered the thoughts of a selection of FLW writers to see whether they believe Jacob Greaves would be a good signing for the Canaries…

Ned Holmes

Looking long term this could be a really smart bit of business for Norwich but I’m not sure we should expect him to have too much of an impact on their battle for Premier League survival.

Greaves, for me, has got everything that you should be looking for in a young centre-back but he is not yet the finished package.

He’s stood up to every step up and every challenge but he’s only played 18 games at Championship level and is not ready for the top flight just yet.

That said, I think Norwich signing him in January with a view to bedding him in the team next season would make a lot of sense.

It could prove to be another shrewd bit of business from a club we’ve come to expect that from in recent years.

Ben Wignall

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I have a feeling that it may be a bit too early for Greaves to make that step up to the Premier League right now.

However Norwich are said to be lining him up with a view to loaning him back to the Tigers for the rest of the campaign, which would make a lot of sense.

This is just Greaves’ third season playing in the EFL regularly and first in the Championship, so he’s getting the right sort of development at Hull and I’m not so sure that Norwich would be the right move for him at this stage of his career.

Many expect the Canaries to be back in the Championship next season unless Dean Smith can really turn their fortunes around and with the resurgence Hull are on then they could still be in the second tier next season.

There’s no guarantee that Hull with a new owner arriving soon will need to sell either, so if I were Acun Ilicali I would be knocking back any bids for Greaves when he completes his takeover as it would signal a statement of intent and I don’t believe Greaves is what Norwich need right now anyway.

Josh Cole

Although Jacob Greaves has managed to show glimpses of his talent in the Championship this season, it could be argued that he is not ready to step up to the Premier League at this stage of his career.

Currently averaging a respectable WhoScored match rating of 6.78 in the second-tier for Hull City, the 21-year-old could make considerable strides in terms of his development if he continues to feature regularly at this level in the coming months.

Keeping this in mind, Norwich ought to wait until the summer transfer window to make a move for Greaves if they are indeed interested in signing him.

Furthermore, when you consider that the Canaries are currently able to call upon the services of Grant Hanley and Ben Gibson who have both featured regularly in the Premier League for the club this season, Greaves may struggle to overtake this particular duo in the pecking order at Carrow Road if he makes the switch from Hull.