by Asif Burhan
at Norwich’s Colney Training Centre

“I WAS just doing my job, right,” claimed Mario Vrancic on his spectacular winning goal at Carrow Road, which secured Norwich City automatic promotion to the Premier League. 

The Bosnian striker knew from a young age that this day would come. “One of my best mates, his mother is from Norwich. When I was 12 or 13 years old we used to play together. He said: ‘One day you will play for Norwich City in the Premier League’ and yeah, I achieved it!”

No club has enjoyed the joy of promotion to the Premier League more than Norwich City. Last Friday’s victory over Blackburn Rovers earned the Canaries a fifth spell in England’s top division since 1992, a feat matched only by Crystal Palace. 

Club owner Delia Smith has lived through the highs and lows and described this promotion as the most exciting for her, claiming that she foresaw the club’s success. “I knew 18 months ago what was happening here was going to get somewhere.” 

On the impact of sporting director Stuart Webber, Smith was equally emphatic. “I would describe him with just one word — genius. I think he’s a genius. We are extremely lucky.”

“It hasn’t really sunk yet to be honest, it was a lifetime goal of mine,” said defender Ben Godfrey on the prospect of playing in the Premier League next season. 

After an indifferent start to their campaign, in which Norwich lost three of their first five Championship matches, Godfrey picked out the draw with Ipswich in September’s East Anglian derby as the turning point in their season. 

“We were 1-0 down in the derby at Ipswich, it was a tense game and we ended up getting a late goal to make it 1-1. To move out of that game on a positive, and then we had the international break, so at least we finished that period of the season on a little bit of a high. 

“Then we moved on to Middlesbrough at home where it just sort of changed, things felt a little bit brighter, it just sort of clicked from there really, we ended up beating them 1-0 and we never looked back.”

Looking forward to competing in the Premier League next season, Webber admitted: “We will have the smallest budget in the league. We will spend the least money in the league. 

“I can guarantee that now so we have to find a way to doing it. We have to keep investing in our young players. Fundamentally if that’s not enough for us to stay in the Premier League, well so be it. But we’ll come back and we’ll be a lot stronger than we are sat here today. This is what we are and we’re not ashamed to admit it.”

Manager Daniel Farke concurred claiming his squad is ready for the challenge. “To be honest, my feeling is we are prepared. Most of all key players are under contract. It’s not that we need to sign 15 new players or that we have to do an unbelievable amount of business. 

“In general, I think we are in a good place. I totally trust our recruitment. I totally trust Stuart Webber. I’m convinced that we will have a competitive group of players for next season.”

“We have to stay in the Premier League with our identity, with our philosophy, with our work ethic, with our principles. We will 100 per cent stick to our plans. This is our way and we won’t go one centimetre away from this.”