1. Makama again. Ole, ole.

A tale of two strikers. Not for Philippe Clement, who in the warm afterglow of Jovon Makama’s 10th Championship goal of the season revealed he was not happy with the striker’s opening 45 minute output.

Which setting aside the transfer soap opera swirling around the club served to underline the young man has long since shed the ‘understudy’ tag to the wantaway Josh Sargent.

This felt big on every level. Vladan Kovacevic raced towards the packed away end at full-time fist-pumping furiously. Team mates embraced. Coaching staff poured onto the pitch and made their way across the playing surface before a prolonged mutual show of appreciation to reaffirm the unity and belief remains rock-solid.

Captain Kenny McLean had a smile as wide as the River Wensum.

Clement insisted before the game the Sargent saga had not proved a distraction. But this was about action not words. Norwich is in a dogfight and against a Wrexham who are as good as any on home turf in the division they showed resilience, heart and character.

City remain in the bottom three but with clubs now firmly in touching distance. Clement again emphasized afterwards it is not about the rankings now. But he knows better than any if City are going to scramble clear it has to happen in short order.

At the start of a testing looking run of Championship assignments, this was the launchpad they needed.

2. Noise, briefing wars and upset 

Sargent wants to leave Norwich City. Norwich City want to keep Sargent. The bit in between is simply noise, briefing wars and growing upset.

No winners in this latest transfer melodrama at Carrow Road. Simply a search for the least worst compromise. Simply a wait for a potential suitor – be it Toronto FC or any other club – to hit the magic number.

Clement flippantly threw out that £100m label in his pre-match media, but given Norwich would have willing shaken hands on a total package around the low £20m’s with Wolfsburg in the summer of 2025 fair to assert they are not going to trade out now for Toronto FC’s opening gambit.

With or without the contractual clause that conveniently found its way into the media on Friday night, in an echo of the tit-for-tat blow up the previous weekend following Clement’s public utterances on the matter.

A pursuit that began to gather pace in December has plenty of mileage left yet. One hopes for the sanity of anyone connected to Norwich not all the way to the MLS transfer deadline on March 26.

Sargent may get his wish. But for a growing number of Norwich City fans the way he has tried to engineer an exit is just as unforgiveable as Marcelino Nunez’s betrayal.

Norwich would bank a sizeable sum, but nowhere near enough to source a replacement in the days that remain of this domestic window who can provide Sargent’s Championship goal guarantee.

Post-relegation from the Premier League in 2022, the 25-year-old has been the club’s shining light. 38 goal contributions in 46 appearances over two seasons, before 10 in 23 this time around. Not bad in a campaign again disrupted by fitness-related absences around that concussion episode at Sheffield United.

Makama’s goal injection, which continued in this corner of north Wales, has eased the reliance on Sargent, but he remains City’s most complete striker and before this rupture Clement would have told you, in his opinion, Norwich’s best player.

To remove that gold chip in the midst of a relegation battle can only magnify the peril facing a club who remain in danger of slipping down to League One. Less a transfer saga than a thicket of unpalatable choices. 

3. Ali. Loading 

Sargent may want to head back over the pond with his young family. But Ali Ahmed opted to come the other way to Norfolk, and after that intensive block of training, into a Clement line up for this trip to Wrexham.

The City chief had sought to manage expectation with the cautionary note the newly-acquired Canadian international was good for ’45 minute or so’ ahead of his Canaries’ debut.

So it proved with Oscar Schwartau and Tony Springett introduced at the interval for Ahmed and Matej Jurasek. Maybe in part to also try and stem the growing threat from Wrexham’s wing twins.

But Ahmed had certainly served notice in the opening skirmishes he has that thrust and ability to spread panic among opposing defenders.

There was a dart forward inside the opening seconds that ended with him overhitting a ball intended for Anis Ben Slimane. But he made no mistake in the ninth minute when he turned on the after-burners to collect from Pelle Mattsson, and roll it across for Slimane to apply the finish.

Only a coat or two of paint denied him a debut goal to go with his assist when he whipped Slimane’s cut back against the bar, with home keeper Arthur Okonkwo beaten.

There was an energy and appetite to his press out of possession which also bodes well for the battles ahead.

Clement was true to his pre-match word with Ahmed withdrawn at the interval. A wise choice with Wrexham’s growing dominance across midfield inevitably lessening his influence and opportunity to raid on the counter.  

But it was a first shift in green and yellow that brought cause for optimism and perhaps a parallel with the first impression of fellow wide player Papa Amadou Diallo from earlier in the season at Watford in the League Cup.

Diallo was also included in the matchday squad for the first time under the Belgian after his quad injury. The hope now must be Clement can get both up-to-speed to add that dimension in wide areas sorely lacking for the majority of this campaign. 

4. Supply and demand 

Sleep is over-rated anyway. Clement revealed on Friday he had been watching footage of possible new recruits until the early hours of the previous night.

Ahmed remains the only tangible by-product of a huge body of scouting, analysis and sifting undertaken and then shaped by sporting director Ben Knapper and head of recruitment, Lee Dunn, leading into this window and beyond.

The hoped and desired early injection of new talent to aid Clement’s survival bid brought a player in Ahmed who has needed to fast-track his off-season after a full MLS campaign ended in December 2025.

That predictably has exposed Knapper again to the unfavourable scrutiny he should be well hardened to by now during a season of misery at the start of window badged as the hunt for ‘creativity’.

With Ahmed in the building, the focus shifted to central midfield, to ease the workload on McLean and Mattsson after Mirko Topic’s season-ending injury, and a number 10 to conduct the attacking orchestra.

City have tried to push the envelope with at least two Premier League targets and been rebuffed. Andy Irving is not the only option to have politely declined City’s overtures.

Now Knapper, Dunn et al must also dust off those ‘striker’ files to contingency plan for a post-Sargent world. Not to overlook a degree of sifting required around the margins to a squad that is already top heavy in terms of numbers.

Clement spoke again on Friday about the difficulty of January trading, the negative drag of City’s lowly league status, and simple football economics of limited supply and greater demand.

The assured Belgian recently likened it to visiting the casino, in terms of the jeopardy, risk and reward on offer.

These next two weeks, give or take, feel like a last chance saloon ahead of a defining Championship climax.