Norwich City: Championship highs and lows for Canaries

The Pinkun team have witnessed every plot line and every twist and turn of Norwich City's Championship successes and failures down the years.

Here Paddy Davitt picks out some of his more memorable moments and players ahead of Monday's finale to the latest second tier tilt against Blackpool.

Best NCFC player?

Heart over head? Head over heart? Tricky either way. Wes Hoolahan was a key figure in a truly uplifting spell under Paul Lambert that swept the club from League One to the Premier League.

There was also the Championship encore under Alex Neil that ended in a fairytale Wembley play-off final triumph against Middlesbrough. Who would ever forget that nerveless penalty in the play-off semi-final, second leg against arch rivals Ipswich that sealed Norwich’s passage?

Hoolahan was a wilo-the-wisp entertainer who at his best was a willing participant to play the beautiful game. But Emi Buendia was a worthy successor. Two promotions, a stack of individual accolades, goals, assists and a fizzing partnership with Teemu Pukki that powered an unforgettable period of success shaped by Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke.

Plus a huge profit on the outlay that brought him from Spain, before returning him to the Premier League at Aston Villa.

Best moment?

Nathan Redmond’s swerving right footed strike that arrowed past Dimi Konstantopoulos to double Norwich’s early lead at Wembley in the 2015 play-off final.

If you could capture a moment in time it was that crescendo of noise and the colour behind Ruddy’s goal. What a goal as well, to effectively seal City’s promotion back to the Premier League within 15 minutes of the kick-off.

A flowing move sparked by Martin Olsson in the left back slot and rifled home on the angle by Redmond. Go back a few short months to Neil’s firefighting arrival in January and such an outcome looked beyond a group who appeared to have hit the buffers.

But a Bradley-Johnson inspired surge galvanised a set of players who still had something to prove, and a fan base who were joyously swept along behind.

The first unexpected Farke Championship title success would run it close, but for a setting, for an occasion, for the high stakes on the line, what unfolded in that magical opening 15 minutes culminating in Redmond’s strike would take some beating.

Worst moment?

From the highs to the lowest of lows. A 4-2 defeat at bottom club Charlton on the final day of the Championship season in 2009 that consigned the Canaries to the third tier of English football for the first time in 50 years.

A 24th league loss of a wretched campaign. A group of players not fit for purpose. A squad unable to score enough at one end, and keep them out at the other.

But within a season City were back in south London, and this time it was 'Happy Valley' as Michael Nelson’s thumping header secured promotion at the first attempt. A reminder perhaps things can turn swiftly in this game.  

Best Championship player you have seen?

Ruben Neves. The heartbeat of a Wolves squad that romped to the title in 2017/18. New champions Burnley still need a point to overhaul Wanderers’ 99-point total, which has not been bettered in the second tier since 2014.

John Ruddy and Ryan Bennett added a dash of green and yellow but the then 20-year-old Neves was a cut above the Championship after arriving for a reported £16m fee.

Neves had the lot. A wonderful passing range, accuracy from set pieces and also a fiery temper that earned him 12 yellow cards and a red on his first tour of the rough and tumble of the Championship.

The attacking midfielder made 42 league appearances that season, and has since gone on to help Wolves establish themselves in the Premier League along with amassing 39 caps for Portugal.

Honourable mentions to Fulham’s prolific if temperamental forward Aleksandar Mitrovic and Burnley’s reliable last line Tom Heaton, who were key figures in promotion successes for their respective clubs.

Thoughts on Dean Smith?

Kudos for fronting up towards the end, and facing the music, when it might have been easier to keep his head down.

Although his post-match pop at the home support in that toxic Championship home defeat to Blackburn was ill-advised, and merely turned up the heat ahead of a defining Boxing Day defeat at Luton.

Even then, when Smith must have known it was game over, he appeared for his media commitments at Kenilworth Road and pledged to fight on. But that was Smith the man. Smith the manager left too many questions unanswered at Norwich.

Although subsequent events, and a successor who has similarly struggled to find any semblance of consistency from the same group of players, may suggest it was not all down to Smith’s tactical failings and inability to galvanise a group who started the season as promotion favourites.

His reappearance at Leicester is an astute career move. Keep the Foxes up in the Premier League, or go down with a fight, and he may find a temporary stay is extended. Do neither and he may still have raised his profile enough to tempt another Championship club to take a chance.

But you suspect Norwich is a chapter he will not look back on fondly in his football career.

Thoughts on David Wagner?

From the giddy excitement of those early goal-fuelled wins over Preston and Coventry City reality has bitten hard.

One win in 10, ahead of Blackpool’s visit, has narrowed the focus on Wagner and his coaching methods and tactical set ups. But like Smith the time to really judge will be after a summer of churn to find the players he wants to fit his mode of ‘full throttle’ football.

As a character that natural enthusiasm and optimism is infectious. As a person he was the perfect antidote to lift the mood following a horrendous festive downturn that culminated in Smith’s exit.

Wagner has been here before in the manner he surveyed the scene at Huddersfield in his first six months or so before plotting a promotion triumph via the play-offs in his first full season of Championship football at the Terriers.

He faces the same challenge again. Get things rolling next season, and those early uplifting wins on his watch would suggest momentum can build.