It was the news that no Norwich fan wanted to hear. Eighteen months after he left the Club and set off to warmer climes, Darren Huckerby had announced that he was “99% certain of retiring”. Huckerby had conceded that if he could no longer do what he does best, race past defenders down the left hand side, there was no point in him struggling on.
So many times when he was at Norwich we heard of disrupted pre-season and slow starts to campaigns which were all blamed on a troublesome hip. Little did we know how serious this injury actually was, that when the surgeon was finally allowed close enough with his scalpel he would find a joint that was “in shreds”. Huckerby, no diver he, had been kicked to the ground by desperate, flailing defenders one too many times. Serious rehabilitation will certainly follow the operation, for which I, and thousands of other yellows, wish him well.
There is a part of me that cannot believe that an abrupt end has been brought to the chapter of Huckerby’s life entitled “My Love Affair with Norwich City”. Some outsiders might think ‘surely that chapter ended in May 2007, when he left the playing staff?’ Aha, but we know different, don’t we? Rumours were rife that once this season’s MLS season drew to a close, Huckerby would be back to once again render Carrow Road breathless with his pace, effort and ability. No secret was kept by the man himself about how much he loved the Club, and that he remained a season ticket holder.
I was in attendance at a business meeting between the company I work for and the former NCFC Chairman earlier this year. I thought I would put the feelers out and said casually, “Oh, Hucks will be back, won’t he?” He simply smiled and put his thumbs up. I don’t know what the new regime might have had in store but you wouldn’t have bet against a return for our favourite number 6.
After a few disappointing seasons, Huckerby symbolises all that has gone right at Norwich in the recent past (and a lot of what has gone wrong, but the less said about Mr Roeder the better). His arrival on loan was a reflection of the board’s ambition after steady improvement under Nigel Worthington and the loss in the play-off final against Birmingham. Huckerby’s impact was instantaneous (as far as my rose-tinted memories can be trusted) and a Carrow Road hero was born. He was a one-of-a-kind player, especially at a club of Norwich’s stature, and he and NCFC just clicked.
Players who have been at a club for just three months on loan rarely create such a stir in their final game. Huckerby was inspired against Cardiff that day, creating one and scoring two in a 4-1 victory. The crowd was electric – urging Delia to ‘sign him up’ and singing his name to an echo. As my father and I returned up north after that match an old boy calling BBC Radio 5 Live’s 606 programme about Huckerby said “there were grown men crying”. The flare of my dad’s nostrils assured me that this assessment was pretty close to the mark. Delia got our man, giving him to us as a late Christmas present on Boxing Day 2003. I don’t think anyone minded that the gift was a day late. The rest of that season was, as they say, history.
There was something magical conjured up in the Norfolk air between Huckerby and the club he played for. He fed off our unfailing support for him, the singing of his name only served to make him a yard quicker. It was something he hadn’t experienced at his other clubs, for some unknown reason. We knew that Huckerby made us stronger but this conviction made him stronger – a vicious circle in the nicest possible sense.
Huckerby’s immediate success in the MLS and the reception he received at San Jose must have made us all a little bit proud: our Hucks, impressive enough to rouse those flashy Americans who aren’t even used to watching ‘soccer’. He’d be back soon, this was just another subplot in our love story.
Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out that way. It’s the way life goes sometimes. Hucks has said he’d like to come back to Norwich in some capacity and whether that happens or not only time will tell. We just have to look back at the four years that Hucks played at Carrow Road (doesn’t it seem like it could have been longer?) and smile. As the man himself said when departing for San Jose, “those days will always be remembered, forever”. How right he was.
Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out that way. It’s the way life goes sometimes. Hucks has said he’d like to come back to Norwich in some capacity and whether that happens or not only time will tell. We just have to look back at the four years that Hucks played at Carrow Road (doesn’t it seem like it could have been longer?) and smile. As the man himself said when departing for San Jose, “those days will always be remembered, forever”. How right he was.
Hucks: you’re one of us. I look forward to seeing you take your seat in the South Stand before the year is out.
