Football Season Guide

Norwich managed to complete the feat of immediately returning to the Premier League at the first attempt after relegation at the end of the 2013-14 campaign. Things did not look too great for them at the midway point of the season as Neil Adams was not getting the best out of the squad and the Canaries were only on the fringes of the play-off race. The surprise appointment of Alex Neil in January proved a masterstroke by the Norwich management as the young Scottish manager quickly turned things around and instilled winning mentality into the side. A run of 14 wins in 19 games from January to April propelled them into the top five and the team went into the play-offs with momentum and belief that they can succeed. They were underdogs against Middlesbrough in the final but made the most of their chances to secure a professional 2:0 win. Thus, the Norfolk side are back in the big time and face a massive challenge if they are to avoid another relegation. Neil has had the least amount of time to prepare for the upcoming campaign compared to the other top-flight managers, and transfer business has been underwhelming. Youssef Mulumbu is easily the top signing of the lot as he has experience in the Premier League and is a very good player on his day. Robbie Brady and Andre Wisdom could turn out to be decent captures as well but it remains to be seen whether they will be even regulars. Thus, it is likely to be pretty much the same starting 11 that finished the season in the Championship like a freight train. The worry is that most of these players were around when Norwich did go down a couple of years ago. The main source of optimism for the fans is that Neil is a lot more positive and engaging manager than Chris Hughton and has the mentality to succeed in the highly competitive league. That said, Norwich are still massive favourites to go down and it will be nothing short of a feat to actually beat the drop.