Let us discuss the sometimes stellar, mostly pedestrian career of Mr Todd Cantwell. Born on a cold day in February 1998, in the delightful country of England, Cantwell spends his time gallivanting on the football pitch as a central attacking midfielder for Blackburn Rovers. He stands at a fairly average height of 1.77m (5ft 9in) and he weighs in at a lean 70kg (11st). Sporting the number 8 jersey, he has the air of a man who's trying to live up to the great players that number carries.
In July of 2014, Cantwell decided he fancied wearing the yellow and green stripes of Norwich City, there in the Championship no less. He was there for the long haul, which included a few mediocre seasons of mid-table anonymity. To his credit, he did manage to occasionally put the ball in the net: once in the 2018 - 2019 season, and then six times each in the 2019 - 2020 and 2020 - 2021 seasons. Not exactly prolific, but hey, who are we to question his contributions?
Midway through 2018 Cantwell fancied an international adventure, trotting off to Fortuna Sittard in the Netherlands on loan. He made a somewhat noticeable mark with two goals in ten matches before scurrying back to Norwich, probably missing the English rain.
After returning from his Dutch sojourn, Canton repeated his previous patterns with Norwich over the following seasons, before he was shipped off as Bournemouth's problem in January 2022. He proved just as sporadically effective there with 11 appearances in one season. After another return to Norwich, I dare say the groundsmen might've started recognising his face.
In January 2023, the Scots at Rangers found themselves forking out around £1.5m for Cantwell. He pulled on the blue shirt 16 times, contributing six goals. The following season, he upped his game to seven goals in 30 matches, proving that practice certainly does make perfect. Or, well, slightly better in this case.
Come August 2024, Cantwell was bouncing off again. This time, it was over to Blackburn Rovers for a knocked-down fee of £500k. In the current 2024 - 2025 season, Cantwell has made five first team appearances, the contributions to the goals tally, well, we're still waiting. One can only hope he doesn't turn into another forgotten prospect warming the English Championship benches.
