How Championship leaders Norwich engineered an instant return to the EPL

Norwich City are top of the EFL Championship and look dead certs for an instant return to the Premier League next season (according to the Mr Green betting site, they have odds of 1/100 to clinch promotion. How did they achieve this remarkable feat? We identify 5 factors which helped propel Norwich City to the top.

Norwich kept faith with Daniel Farke

German coach Daniel Farke has been at the club since 2017, making him a veteran in the managerial stakes (only 13 coaches across England’s top 4 divisions have been in the job longer at this point). While he is a popular coach, plenty of pressure came on Delia Smith and Co. to replace him once it became clear that Norwich was going down last season. But the board stuck to their guns, confident that he was the man who was best placed to ensure another promotion.

Norwich kept hold of their attacking stars

The club’s main creative outlets in the 2019-20 season were all kept for the promotion campaign. We can just about understand why EPL sides didn’t want to touch flying Finn Teemu Pukki (he is too old, too unglamorous, and seems rather slow in the sprint), but for Norwich to keep hold of Todd Cantwell and Emiliano Buendia was impressive.

The two factors above let Norwich build a team that is greater than the sum of its parts

Watching Norwich in action, it is clear that the players know each other well, and this can be seen in the fluidity of their counterattacks as well as when they face a defensive-minded low block. This kind of attacking prowess only tends to come when a group of players have been together for a longer time under a coach who can drill them in exactly the way he wants to see them combine. Even Pep Guardiola at Man City needed a season to impress his systems on his squad. The longer Norwich can keep this side together, the better.

Norwich did make some wise sales to balance the books

Norwich did let two of their defensive stalwarts from the Premier League season go, for a total of £44 million, as Daniel Fark shrewdly realised that this area of the team would be easier to replace. This cash injection was necessary to cope with the financial shortfall of EPL relegation, as well as the fact that gate receipts were suddenly stopped due to COVID-19. In a time when most Football League clubs were warning that they would soon go bust, Norwich City actually turned a profit in 2020.

EPL parachute payments helped Norwich weather the effects of COVID-19

Of course, it wasn’t just the big money sales of Ben Godfrey and Jamal Lewis which helped Norwich City balance the books. Premier League parachute payments of £40 million have given Norwich, Watford, and Bournemouth distinct advantages over the rest of the EFL Championship. It is certainly interesting that all 3 are in the mix for promotion this season. If all of them make it back to the Premier League next year, we can expect doom-laden articles from the likes of Jonathan Wilson about how TV money is making the formerly exciting lower leagues a bore-fest.