--- source: thedugout.football generated: 2026-07-26T08:04:37.646Z last_updated: 2026-07-18T18:00:00+00:00 data_provider: API-Football canonical: https://thedugout.football/clubs/norwich-city/news/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZWRwMjQuY28udWsvc3BvcnQvMjYyNzk0NDcuZGlja3Nvbi1ldHVodS0tLW5vcndpY2gtY2l0eS1leGl0LW1hdGNoLWZpeGluZy8_cmVmPXJzcw --- # When frustrated Huckerby spilt the beans on Etuhu - **Source:** - **Published:** 18 Jul - **Club:** Norwich City - **Original URL:** https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/26279447.dickson-etuhu---norwich-city-exit-match-fixing/?ref=rss It was supposed to have been a media call to promote Norwich City’s use of ‘green’ coach travel to away games. Instead, it turned out to be a Darren Huckerby expose on the club’s inability to keep its best players. Two weeks before the start of the new season, Dickson Etuhu, a man mountain of a midfielder, was on his way to Sunderland, revealed Huckerby, whose main duty in the car park at the Colney training centre had ostensibly been to promote the aforementioned coach. Two weeks earlier, Robert Earnshaw had left City for a cut-price £3.5m when Derby triggered a get-out clause in his contract. Etuhu went by the same process, with then Premiership new boys Sunderland triggering a clause allowing him to speak to clubs offering £1.5m. He was signed by Norwich from Preston in January 2006 after a loan spell, costing City £450,000. He made 62 league appearances and scored six goals before leaving for Sunderland in the summer of 2007 for a reported £1.5m. Another midfielder, Youssef Safri, was being linked with West Brom. With less than a month until the start of the new season, manager Peter Grant's rebuilding plans were struggling, through no fault of his own. “We can't keep losing very good players,” said Huckerby in front of a fairly threadbare local media crew, it has to be said. “Obviously Dickson looks like he is going somewhere else, Saff maybe, we have already lost Earnie - for a team that you would say struggled a little bit last season, to lose three of your best players, you can only go on like that for so long. “It is frustrating because they are very good players. On his day Dickson is the most complete midfielder in this league - on his day. “Maybe he has had inconsistency, but when he plays well he is virtually unstoppable and to lose a player of that quality for, what is it, £1.5m, who are you going to buy? “We are not going to be able to spend that kind of money and get the same player in.” City were powerless to prevent Etuhu’s exit, of course. How will he be remembered? Probably, as Huckerby hinted, as a player who didn’t quite deliver as much as he could have done. Born in Nigeria, Etuhu made a dozen appearances for Manchester City before joining Preston. Then Norwich boss Nigel Worthington signed him on loan in November 2005. “He’s a 100 per cent player – a big, big team player something that’s going to be very useful for ourselves,” said Worthington. The loan became permanent in the January transfer window, costing City £450,000. Etuhu’s first game was against former club Preston – who failed to include a clause preventing Etuhu playing against his parent club. Etuhu didn’t play well and his clumsy challenge during the game broke Adam Nowland's leg, all but ending his career. Reports that Etuhu and Safri had a punch-up on the team bus after a loss at Plymouth in September 2006 were said to be untrue – surprisingly, then chief executive Neil Doncaster said there had been a confrontation, but on the training field, not a coach, after a heavy challenge. But controversy was to come for Etuhu. Having moved to Sunderland after 18 months and 57 league starts for Norwich, he moved on to Fulham and Blackburn before landing in Sweden where he spent the final two years of his career, with AIK and IFK Rössjöholm. It was in Sweden that he was found guilty of match fixing – trying to bribe a goalkeeper to under-perform – for which he was fined and handed a five-year ban from football in Sweden. Career over. Not get-out clause required.