After Sam McCallum was released by Norwich, Darren Huckerby maintains that whomever signs the former Coventry City defender this summer will be getting a “real bargain.”
The 23-year-old full-back was loaned back to the Canaries for the balance of the season after being sold to them in the January transfer window of 2020 for a move that may have cost up to £3.5 million depending on the player’s performance. After being snatched by City from non-league obscurity, McCallum returned on a season-long loan in 2020–21, appearing in 41 Championship games and notching one goal.
On his return to Carrow Road he was again farmed out as part of his development, and spent a season at QPR, albeit his progress set back by a hamstring tear, for which he required surgery that kept him out for several months, limiting his appearances to just 19 games.
He then made 25 showings for Norwich in 2022/23 and 34 last term, including substitute appearances in the play-off semi-finals against Leeds United as he spent most of last season as second choice to Dimitris Giannoulis.
Former Sky Blues favourite Huckerby is a regular at Carrow Road where he ended his English playing career. Asked about McCallum’s progress and why he thinks the player has been let go by Norwich – who missed out on promotion this season after being knocked out by Leeds in the play-off semi-finals – the 48-year-old told CoventryLive: “I thought he did pretty well towards the end of his time at Norwich. When he first arrived he was just a young lad and then he was in and out when they were in the Premier League. And then he had Giannoulis ahead of him, but I thought that when he played he held his own, and his release is probably more about him playing regular first team football than not being wanted as such.”