There is no denying that it has not been a great start to life for Norwich City in the 2026/27 Championship campaign as manager Philippe Clement has watched his side lose two of the opening three matches of the new season.
No Time To Panic
It is far from panic stations at Carrow Road for the former Rangers gaffer, as following his arrival at the club last November he has built up a fair bit of goodwill given the results and turnaround in his partial debut season. Heading into his first full year in charge there was always guaranteed to be some sort of transitional period, as the summer transfer window has been as busy as many in the Canaries faithful had felt it should be.
The first team squad options available to the 52 year old Belgian are now quite different when compared to last season given the ins and outs that we have seen, and the gaffer will remain confident that the newbies will soon start showing their best and gel with the group in the coming weeks. For those who made their early predictions given the EFL Championship outright odds, they will certainly be hoping that back to back victories over Cardiff City in the league Cup second round, and then the 4-1 win over Burnley at the weekend represent the start of a corner turned.
Speculation Rife
As this summers Deadline Day approached, one headache many felt we would face would be very late interest in striker Mohamed Toure. The 22 year old, 13 capped Australian international attacker made the switch to the club during the last January window, and was an instant hit, firmly establishing himself as a fan favourite. This naturally led to plenty of claims on the speculation rumour mill where he was linked with a number of other teams.
However, as we went into Monday evening Clement told the media what we had all wanted to hear – he was not for sale this summer, and nobody would change that belief even if we received the quintessential ‘silly offer’. Speaking to the BBC late on in the day, his Burnley double on Saturday had seemed to only strengthen our desire to keep him with us, and not quickly cash in as many had feared.
Confirming that we would be open to certain deals as Tuesday’s 11pm deadline neared, he stated that this would apply to specific incoming targets if a deal looked like it could be progressed, or maybe one or two players on the fringe of the squad, but only if they too could be quickly replaced so our strength in depth and wider options were not weakened.
Not Everything Has A Price
For Toure specifically – “Mo Toure will not leave the club even when somebody comes with crazy money. Because then you would make things difficult, you cannot replace that.”
Depending on how our hopes for a promotion push this season ultimately go, fans will rightly wonder if this position will change come the January window, or next summer more specifically, but those worries are not unique to Norwich and they will simply be a bridge that we cross in the months to come. For now, it is exactly what fans wanted to hear and with his goal return so far, he is clearly more important to us on the pitch as opposed to in the budgets right now – so let’s make the most of it and see where it takes us.
We will simply see what other things Deadline Day may have in store for us when we reflect properly on Wednesday morning.
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