It’s been a season associated with little but failure so, in a bid to top up the glass to the half-full level, CHRIS LAKEY takes a look at how some City ‘connections’ fared in 2021-22


The Premier League has been a far-from-happy hunting ground for players associated with Norwich City.

Perhaps the one player with Carrow Road links who will look back on the season with satisfaction is Olly Skipp, the midfielder who had a season with City in the Championship and performed so well that Tottenham were never going to let him return.

Skipp’s season has been restricted to 14 starts because of injury, but he’s helped Spurs to the brink of a Champions League spot.

In the interest of balance, it needs to be said that the season has been far from plain sailing for striker Patrick Bamford at Leeds, and Everton defender Ben Godfrey – both ex-Canaries have been fighting a relegation battle. Both their teams somehow managed to stay up.

The Championship is another story altogether, with a whole host of familiar faces in the promotion mix.

Harrison Reed, who spent the 2017-18 Championship season at City, has helped Fulham to that particular title, while there has been a sizeable City contingent at Bournemouth, who join them in the Premier League next season. The Cherries are managed by a one-time City loan player Scott Parker, with Gary O’Neill, who spent two years at Carrow Road, as his first team coach. They had Todd Cantwell on loan – although they declined the opportunity to sign him on a full-time basis - alongside ex-Canary Robbie Brady.

There’s been plenty of local interest among the play-off chasers, not least in the play-off final on Sunday when Nottingham Forest beat Huddersfield Town 1-0.

Former City striker and Forest club captain Lewis Grabban lifted the trophy, although injury restricted him to a watching brief in the run-in.

On the receiving end were Harry Toffolo, who has been outstanding for Huddersfield, where his team-mates include City loan player Danel Sinani and former loan striker Jordan Rhodes. The Terriers loan manager is David Fox – who knows a thing or two about promotion with Norwich - and their head of football operations is Leigh Bromby, who had a spell here under Nigel Worthington in 2003.

Paul Heckingbottom steered Sheffield United into the end-of-season jamboree, only to fail at the semi-final hurdle.

The other semi-final losers were Luton, who were the surprise package of the season, helped by a clutch of former Canaries – Robert Snodgrass, Henri Lansbury, Cameron Jerome and goalkeeper Jed Steer, on loan from Aston Villa. Adrian Forbes is Luton’s head of coaching and player development and Phil Chapple is head of scouting operations.

Just missing out on the top six were the evergreen Jonny Howson at Middlesbrough, where Kieron Scott is head of football, and Blackburn, who have Daniel Ayala and Bradley Johnson on their books. Johnson has been allowed to leave Ewood Park this summer.

At the other end of the table, it was relegation for Carlton Morris and William Hondermarck at Barnsley and City loanee Bali Mumba at Peterborough.

In League One, Norfolk-born and bred Canaries fan Paul Warne steered Rotherham to promotion, behind champions Wigan, while former City boss Alex Neil took Sunderland up via a play-off final win, with a lot of help from Alex Pritchard and one Patrick Roberts, who joined the Black Cats in January, ending a run of nine loans from Manchester City, for whom he did not start a league game.

They beat Wycombe in the play-off final – the Chairboys having been indebted to the goals of Sam Vokes, who had a short loan spell at City under Paul Lambert at the end of the 2010-11 Championship promotion season.

Wycombe got to the final after beating MK Dons, whose assistant first team coach is David Wright, who had been Norwich’s Under-23s boss.

League Two champions Forest Green Rovers are owned by Dale Vince, from Great Yarmouth and number Ebou Adams among their regular starters.

They are joined in League One by Exeter, who have Jonathan Grounds in their squad, and Bristol Rovers, whose assistant coach is Kevin Bond and goalkeeping coach is Tony Warner.