Norwich City: Liam Manning told to unleash £5.8m man v Wrexham - he's being "wasted" | OneFootball

Matej Jurasek has had a tough start to life at Carrow Road, but could he be about to come alive?

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Norwich City's somewhat new-look side under Liam Manning has a lot of overseas flavour to it after the summer transfer window - and there is still seemingly no room for big-money January addition Matěj Jurásek.

The Canaries searched far and wide for new signings this summer after big money arrived at Carrow Road through the sales of Jonathan Rowe and Borja Sainz, with fresh faces coming in from clubs in Denmark, France, Portugal and the Netherlands, as well as England.

Six of Manning's new additions played from the start of their 1-1 draw with Coventry City on Saturday, but one player who remained glued to the bench was the aforementioned Jurásek.

Liam Manning told to start Matěj Jurásek against Wrexham

Recruited in the January transfer window earlier in 2025 from Slavia Prague for £5.8 million, Jurásek appeared just twice in the second half of the 2024-25 campaign, with thigh and groin injuries restricting his minutes massively, as well as then-manager Johannes Hoff Thorup believing that he needed to work on adapting to the intensity of the Championship before returning to action.

The Czechia international was left out of Manning's first two league matchday squads this season, and despite starting in the EFL Cup in August against Southampton, he's been stuck to the substitutes bench without touching the pitch in the Championship for the last three matches.

However, due to an injury suffered by summer recruit Mathias Kvistgaarden, FLW's Norwich fan pundit Zeke Downes would like to see Jurásek finally unleashed from the start when they face Wrexham at Carrow Road this coming weekend.

"It is a bit of a strange situation, because you can't really judge him too much off his playing ability because we've really not seen him," Downes told FLW.

"When he signed, we were told that it would take a bit of time for him to get used to everything, and we saw videos of him training by himself and working hard to get himself up to speed, and then he had a couple of appearances where he looked alright, and then he got injured and we haven't really seen him since.

"But we were hoping this season would be him kicking on, and it's not happened yet - but then also we have the predicament of we've also got Kvistgaarden and Crnac, who both were quite hefty fees, and all three of them are sort of trying to gain that right-wing spot, as well as Forson and Schwartau.

"There's no-one that's really solidified their spot, but with Kvistgaarden's injury, I think now is the best time to have Jurásek in the line-up and move Crnac into the middle, maybe.

"And I can really see this (Wrexham) is going to be a good game for that, because Wrexham's defence look very gettable, so hopefully we can see a bit more of him because otherwise it's a lot of money that's being wasted."

Matěj Jurásek needs to show something for Norwich City ASAP - January exit could beckon otherwise

It's hard to say anything other than Jurásek hasn't lived up to the hype so far in Norfolk.

Jurásek, who has been capped the once for Czechia, would have been expected to be a hit from the off in the Championship based on his price-tag, but it's been a learning curve and a long adaptation process for the left-footer.

A scorer of six goals from 22 appearances in his final half-season with Slavia Prague, which is a respectable record for a winger, Jurásek on his day is clearly creative and knows where the back of the net is, yet Liam Manning up to now has clearly not considered him ready to take on the Championship.

Manning will know best having seen the 22-year-old in training every day, but with the leaky defence of Wrexham coming to town this weekend, as Zeke says, it could be a prime opportunity to see how Jurásek handles coming up against a team that can be got at.

If he does not perform in the next few months though, could Jurásek be moved on after just one year at Carrow Road? Stranger things have happened, but with the strong competition for game-time out wide, it may be a case that he just can't figure under Manning when it's all said and done.