Iwan Roberts on Rowe, taxi for Szmodics and Delia Smith

Jonathan Rowe effectively went on strike when he pulled out of the squad to play Oxford last weekend, because of the rumours linking with a move away.

Max Aarons dealt with a similar situation much better

Okay, he probably didn’t perform as well as he did in his first couple of years at the club, maybe his performances, especially the Premier League, dipped a little bit. But you talk about getting his head down, working, turning up for training, turning up for games as you should do when he knew there were rumours of him going -  Bayern Munich, Barcelona, some big clubs, but it never turned his head once.

The other piece of advice is simple: ‘Just get your head down. Stop listening to all the noise from whoever represents you. Get back to the Jonny Rowe you were 12 months ago; at the start of last season when you were absolutely flying, banging the goals in, catching people's eye. You were getting the headlines – now you’re getting headlines for the wrong reasons. You were really unlucky with that bad injury that you had, but if you look when you came back, you didn't really do anything, you got nowhere near the Jonny Rowe of the first six months’.

I would never have done what he did by refusing to play. And I don't know many players that I've played with that would have either. I remember when I was coming towards the end of the time at Norwich - I knew Cardiff were desperate to sign me and it was a time when they were throwing money at players. David Speedie was my agent and I knew the package that was on offer and it was a lot more than I would have been on at Norwich. I went to see Nigel (Worthington) on a daily basis, saying I wanted to go back to Wales, but he just said, ‘I can't afford to sell you for what they're offering’. I was disappointed, but I didn’t throw my toys out of the pram. I still had a job to do for Norwich. It didn’t cross my mind to go on strike - because that's what Jonny Rowe did.

Whether he's been advised badly, I don't know, but I think in this day and age advisors have got far too much influence over players.

Can he come back from this? Well, fans can be quick to vent their anger, but you know what? One good performance, a couple of goals and it's yesterday's news.

I feel sorry for Johannes Hoff Thorup. What’s happened would be poor for an experienced manager to deal with, not one who’s not been in the job for long. I'm sure he's dealt with it as the club would have wanted - he'll have been punished, been fined however much, and rightly so. You just hope he learns from it.

Footballers get well paid to do their job. It’s not like they are doing hard labour. They are in a privileged position. A lot of people would give their hind leg to be in their position.

Personally, I hope they can all settle their differences. I'd say ‘stay for another 12 months, you're only 21, you have your whole career in front of you. If you carry on like you were before your injury, get 15, 20 goals, there will be big, big clubs knocking on the door’.

Adam Idah had a good six months on loan at Celtic, he scored the winning goal in the Scottish Cup final, he got a goal just about every other game – you can see why he was desperate to get back there. He will be playing for a really good manager, in a magnificent stadium every other week.

I'm just glad City dug their heels in and will get the price they wanted. He's got his wish and the club have got a good fee for him. Good luck to him.

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Rovers dangerman Sammie Szmodics (Image: PA Images)

Word has it someone from Norwich is heading to Blackburn to pick up Sammie Szmodics and drive him to Ipswich so he can’t play against the Canaries at Carrow Road on Saturday.

Szmodics has scored three goals in two games, despite all the transfer rumours circulating about him going to Portman Road. He's just got on with the job.

He scored 27 Championship goals for Rovers last season and it is only a matter of time before he goes, and I think he knows that. He’s not far off his 29th birthday so I think this will be his final big move.

City need to be better than they were at Oxford, but you’d hope that result will serve as a reminder, a kick up the backside if you like.

I don't think it was a case of them just turning up and winning - they're not that stupid. But they lacked energy. Big Grant Hanley knows he should do much better for their first goal – Mark Harris should never be able to knock him off the ball as easily as that.

Sometimes you need that reminder: in the 2001-2002 season we went to Millwall, we’d had a great pre-season, we felt super fit – and we got battered.

Something was not right at Oxford – Thorup came out and said it. I thought he was spot on in his analysis of the performance and hopefully they will have got that out of their system this week.

I would expect a really big reaction from the players against Blackburn.

Delia and Michael

Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones brought me to Norwich in 1997, I think they'd only been here for two or three seasons.

They've been great for the club: they're not multi multi-millionaires, but they care and sometimes that's worth more than money.

They've invested what they can and they've seen the club through some tough times. They’ve had promotions as well as relegations in their time in charge, which is now approaching its end.

I haven't probably got the relationship with them that someone who spent seven years at the club, is the club’s third top scorer ever and played over 300 games should have.

I know I've upset her with certain things that I've written in the column, but that's my job now. It's never been anything personal with me, it's always an opinion and if people don't like it, there's not a lot I can do about it.

My first season at the club my first season was tough. They’d spent £850,000 on me and were expecting big things, and rightly so.

A few years later, the then manager, Mike Walker, told me that if Delia had had her own way, I would have gone. He was advised to sell me after my first season.

I’ve seen some of the comments from other people that have played for Norwich, but I've never been that close to her. I remember at an exhibition by Susan Gunn, wife of Bryan - Michael shook my hand, but Delia completely ignored me.

I think there's a reason why I don't get invited to the football club. It is what it is, I guess. But I've only got good things to say about her role at the club.

I will say one thing – City used to have a Christmas party each year up at Colney for the players’ children and the children of the staff who worked and Delia and Michael were always there. I remember one year my parents were here with me, it was on a Sunday so I took them to Colney and Delia sat with my mum and dad the whole time.

That was a nice touch.