City legend Kevin Drinkell has urged Rangers misfit Alan Gow to take the plunge this weekend and join Glenn Roeder’s new-look Canaries.

The Daily Record yesterday reported that Gow, 26, had been given the weekend to decide whether or not to complete a £250,000 move to Norfolk.

The Record claimed that the attacking midfielder - linked to a make-weight role in the Kyle Lafferty switch to Ibrox from Burnley - was reluctant to leave his boyhood idols; that with two years still to run on his Gers contract, he was determined to stay and fight for his place under Walter Smith.

If Smith were to insist that there was no future for him with the Glasgow giants, then Gow would expect Rangers to sweeten his exit with a compensation package.

Today and 48-year-old ‘Drinks’ was singing his former club’s praises - having already once played the match-maker between Gow and his former, Carrow Road employers.

“They have been tracking him for some time, even before Glenn Roeder became manager,” Drinkell told the Scottish Sunday Express, as the versatile six-footer decided the time was ripe for a move from Falkirk last summer.

With then City boss Peter Grant well-versed in the ways of the Scottish transfer market, Drinkell - still based in Scotland following his own striking days with Rangers - found himself being quizzed about Gow’s suitability for the Championship as Grant did his homework.

In the end, however, it was Gow’s blue, Gers’ blood that swung his decision - the same Rangers devotion that is threatening to put his switch south on hold this weekend.

“They tried to get him before he went to Rangers in the first place,” revealed Drinkell, with Gow leaving Falkirk on a free this time last year. “It was when Peter Grant was still in charge. I am still well-connected at Norwich and they asked me my thoughts on the player and if I thought he would make an impact in the Championship.

“At that time, I said that I thought he would be a good signing who would do well for them. I even spoke to Alan about Norwich but he decided to go to Rangers.

“And you can’t blame him for taking the decision to join Rangers. They were his boyhood heroes and I’m sure before he made the move he would have been told he would get his chance to stake a claim in the first-team.”

That chance didn’t really come with Gow making just two appearances for Rangers last season - both in the cup.

His hopes of making much of an impression this season look even more remote after a £6 million spending spree that has seen Smith add Kenny Miller, Andrius Velicka and Lafferty to his strike department.

And with the former Scotland and Everton chief appearing set on keeping Kris Boyd at Ibrox despite £2.5 million worth of interest from Cardiff City, there would appear to be very little room at the inn left for Gow.

Motherwell, Aberdeen and Dundee United have all been floating around north of the border, but with the Rangers board keen to ship Gow south of the border so the Canaries look in pole position to add their third signing of the summer to new arrivals Sammy Clingan and Wes Hoolahan.

“I’m sure Alan will have a lot of options in the Championship and the SPL, but for me Norwich would be the best option,” Drinkell told the Express.

“I know it would be a big wrench for Alan to leave Rangers, but he has to do what is best for his career and who is to say he won’t get back there one day? What Alan needs just now is to play football,” added the 48-year-old, whose 121 City appearances yielded 50 goals - that and an easy elevation into the club’s all-time Hall Of Fame.

“He has to go out and play games and to get people talking about him again.”

Nor does he see a switch to the Championship as a backward one; it is, after all, just a stone’s throw away from the richest football league in the world. If you want to get yourself noticed, far better to be making waves in England’s second tier - and regular home crowds of 25,000 - than sat forlornly in Rangers’ ressies.

“I know the feeling up here is that going to a Norwich or Burnley is see as a step backwards,” said Drinkell. “But they are both big clubs and I wouldn’t say they were both bigger clubs than anything outside the Old Firm up here.

“Norwich, for example, haven’t had great fortunes in the last few years but they have a great stadium and facilities and still average around 25,000 at every home game. They are also a well-run family club and I don’t think Alan will have too many problems settling down there.”

Gow’s whereabouts come the start of pre-season training on Tuesday is just one of a host of questions to be answered over the next 48-hours.

Another is whether the out-of-contract Gary Doherty has returned from his summer travels in time to sign a new Canary deal; likewise, the whole Shola Ameobi saga rumbled on again with reports on Tyneside suggesting that West Bromwich Albion’s interest in the player was on the wane.

With Kevin Keegan desperate to get the newly-married 26-year-old on his way and start on a summer spending spree of his own, Newcastle’s price could be dropping and dropping - to much nearer figures of Norwich’s liking.

The Newcastle Chronicle cited a source ‘close to the Baggies board’ as saying: “There was initial interest over Ameobi, but his name hasn’t been mentioned for a while now.

“The board know that you can’t live beyond your means when it comes to Premier League wages. And they are going to look at all of the options before making a decision on who they bring in this time around.”

It is that determination not to find themselves dragged back to the edge of the financial abyss again should they get relegated that has already seen the Baggies stall on handing a new, two-year deal to 34-year-old Kevin Phillips, while Danish centre-half Martin Albrechtsen has also yet to put pen to paper on a new deal at The Hawthorns - despite proving a main-stay of their successful Championship title charge.

Phillips has now been linked to a switch across the city to neighbours Birmingham City; ready and willing, apparently, to offer the master marksman a two-year deal.

Albrechtsen, 28, appears to have dropped off the West Midlands radar altogether; ditto veteran striker Andrew Cole - despite being ’spotted’ in Norwich Airport having been down to ‘visit friends’.

The one other piece of weekend transfer news concerned Hull’s reported interest in Norwich loan signing Ryan Bertrand. The Premiership new-boys were reported to be keen on making a £2 million bid for the England Under-19 left-back - scuppering City’s hopes of negotiating a second tour of duty at Carrow Road for the accomplished Chelsea starlet.

Source: Norwich City