Electric Man City winger should be on Norwich City’s radar this summer: Opinion | OneFootball

Installed as one of the favourites to head straight back to the Premier League last season, it was a real shock to see Norwich City finish in the bottom half of the Championship in 2022-23.

A 13th-placed finish for the Canaries was a far cry from their last few second tier efforts, and it was even more of a surprise considering they kept many of their key players such as Max Aarons and Teemu Pukki whilst also splashing out on the likes of Gabriel Sara.

Despite being in fifth position in late December, Dean Smith was sacked and replaced by David Wagner, but City faltered further under the German and finished where they did.

Faith has been kept in Wagner however and with the expected departues of the likes of Aarons and Andrew Omobamidele, plenty of experience has been added to the squad already in the transfer window with Ashley Barnes, Jack Stacey and Shane Duffy all signed on free transfers.

It's clear the kind of characters that Wagner has been trying to bring in, but what is also needed - especially in attack - is some pace.

Barnes will no doubt be the focal point in attack based on what he did for Burnley last season, and the likes of Adam Idah, Josh Sargent and Onel Hernandez can play around or off the veteran.

As we saw when signing Marquinhos from Arsenal in January though, Norwich have good contacts when it comes to potential loan moves and they should use them with Premier League champions Manchester City to bring electric winger Carlos Borges to Carrow Road to strengthen their options out wide.

Who is Carlos Borges?

Borges will probably not be known by many supporters of EFL clubs as he is yet to be seen in a Man City shirt under Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is clearly being patient when it comes to unleashing the 19-year-old Portuguese starlet, but he's made a big impact in under-21's football in the last 12 months.

Arriving from Sporting CP in 2015, Borges has progressed through the City academy and made his real breakthrough in the 2020-21 season for City's under-18's, scoring 13 times and providing 19 assists in 24 appearances, following that up the next season with 12 goals in 11 matches in 2021-22 whilst also being gradually eased into under-21's football.

That easing in clearly paid off as last season was incredible for Borges at that level, as across 33 matches in the Premier League 2, UEFA Youth League and the EFL Trophy, the teenager scored 29 times and provided 18 assists - a mammoth 47 goal contributions.

In what is pretty rare nowadays at top clubs, Borges is a natural winger - a left-footer who plays on the left instead of playing on the opposite side and cutting in - and that perhaps makes his goalscoring record even more impressive.

Why would Carlos Borges be a good signing for Norwich?

Norwich do have plenty of wingers on their books, but you would expect Milot Rashica to be sold this summer, whilst Christos Tzolis didn't make that much of an impact in the second half of the season when returning from his loan spell at FC Twente.

Then there's Przemysław Płacheta who will likely be exiting Norwich too, so there is a need to add to their options out there.

Even though Borges has no experience in senior football whatsoever, Man City's development squad normally has a few outstanding talents that are built up and eventually ready to play in the men's game.

James McAtee had a similar record the season prior to last before getting a move to Sheffield United, and his nine goals and three assists for the Blades helped them to win promotion back to the top flight of English football.

And there would be an expectation that Borges, for all of his inexperience playing against grown men, would be able to make a similar impact in the Championship.

There are plenty of experienced individuals that Borges could learn from at Norwich, but he is quite clearly an incredibly raw talent that could do damage in the Championship, and the pace of himself and Hernandez supporting the likes of Barnes, Sargent and Idah could be incredibly dangerous.