Mohamed Toure showed why other clubs were keen pry him out of Norwich during the recent transfer window as the Australian striker scored again in the Canaries’ 3-1 win at Sheffield United.
Toure restored Norwich’s lead on the stroke of half-time with a composed finish when one-on-one with the goalkeeper after he snuck out the back of the Blades’ defence.
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It was the 22-year-old’s third goal of the Championship season so far, and his fourth in all competitions, but it was also Toure’s 12th Championship goal since making his debut for Norwich in February – no one has scored more goals in the English second tier in that period of time.
Since arriving from Danish club Randers, the Adelaide product has netted 14 times in all competitions for Norwich.
He is averaging a goal every 75 minutes, and remarkably, a goal every hour when playing away from home.
“It is the first time in his career, he has played three games in that short time. That’s also something to manage towards the next couple of weeks,” Norwich manager Philippe Clemente told reporters post-match.
“For me to manage expectations from our fans towards him and playing minutes. That’s why I’m still managing that during games.
“He made a big step forward in the first four months together when he came from Randers. He had the World Cup, he had his break after.
“Now he is six-seven weeks in the building, so he is not so long with us but we still need to build him to get him more available for more games without taking risks that he gets injured. That’s still one part to do.
“But he is showing really, really big potential. He is a really nice character in the group also. Everyone loves him.”
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Toure will almost certainly attract more interest from rivals during the January transfer window.
Norwich rejected a $28.3 million offer from Championship rivals Stoke City on transfer deadline day, but he had also attracted interest from several clubs in Europe’s top five leagues, including fellow Socceroo Lucas Herrington’s Hull City and Nestory Irankunda’s Sporting CP.
Irankunda played his most minutes yet for the Portuguese giants as the 20-year-old came off the bench for the final 23 minutes in a 2-0 win at home to Nacionale.
Also in Portugal, Socceroos defender Alessandro Circati made his debut for Benfica as a substitute, playing 28 minutes in a 3-0 win at Maritimo.
Elsewhere in the Championship, football authorities are set to investigate an incident between a Portsmouth fan and Cardiff City’s Krystian Bielik.
With Cardiff trailing 2-0, a video that has gone viral on social media showed Bielik, who had hurried to restart play, appear to have grabbed a young fan by the neck after they threw the ball over his head.
The fan then appeared to slap the former Arsenal defender and push him away before play was halted for roughly three minutes as referee Ben Speedie tried to restore calm at Fratton Park.
Bielik, who was already on a yellow card, escaped any in-game sanction for the incident, but the fan was reportedly asked to leave the stadium.
“Krystian went to get the ball back from the stand and got slapped in the face,” Cardiff manager Brian Barry-Murphy said.
“I just wanted to make sure he was protected and make sure he was OK. He is, and I thought the referee and his staff handled the incident impeccably.”
“The referee said that, as Krystian went to get the ball, there was a little bit of a kerfuffle and one of the supporters struck him,” Portsmouth manager John Mousinho said.
“It wasn’t a good incident. We extend our apologies to the players, Cardiff and make sure we can try to cut it out.”