Norwich City

"Anyone who was optimistic before the game on Saturday... if you start writing things off after one game, it's a bad job."

BBC Radio Norfolk's Rob Butler and Chris Goreham reflect on Norwich City's opening day defeat by Millwall and take a look ahead to Tuesday night's cup tie against Watford (19:45 BST).

Listen to the full episode of The Scrimmage and more on BBC Sounds.

Image source, Rex Features

England star Lauren Hemp has thanked Norwich City for the honour of carrying out the match ball before kick-off against Millwall on Saturday.

Hemp, who comes from nearby North Walsham, became a double European champion last month when the Lionesses beat Spain on penalties to retain the trophy they first won at Wembley three years ago.

"It was nice to be back there [at Carrow Road]. I try and get back as much as I can to watch Norwich games. They're my team at heart and always keep an eye on their scores and watch as many game as I can when they're on TV," she told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"It's good to be able to come back and support them. I was treated so well and obviously it's nice walking out and applauding me, and the team as well.

"It was a very special moment and nice that my family got to see that as well."

Asked about the possibility of one day returning home to play for fourth-tier Norwich City Women, where her friend Flo Allen is general manager, the Manchester City forward said: "We'll have to wait and see for that one.

"Hopefully they'll climb up the pyramid and once they're in the WSL, we'll have to see where we're at."

Rob Butler
BBC Radio Norfolk, Canary Call presenter

Image source, BBC/Rob Butler

Norwich City face Watford in the first round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday at Vicarage Road (19:45 BST).

The Canaries were beaten 2-1 by Millwall in their Championship opener on Saturday.

Looking ahead to the cup tie, City head coach Liam Manning spoke to the media at the Colney training centre.

Here are some of the key points:

• Midfielder Amankwah Forson has a hamstring injury and will miss the game at Watford

• Manning said he and the players had an "open, honest and frank meeting" following the defeat by Millwall

• Denmark international Mathias Kvistgaarden made his debut as a substitute against Millwall, Manning said he was "really pleased" with his eye-catching cameo appearance

• Manning said Kvistgaarden is pushing for a start against Watford

• On the EFL Cup, Manning said he likes to rotate his squad for knockout competitions. He added that it will be a blend of first-team and fringe players

• "I'll do everything I can to pick a team that can win," said Manning, who added that he will not belittle the tournament by selecting an under-strength side

You can listen to full live coverage of Watford v Norwich City with BBC Radio Norfolk on FM and DAB from 19:00 BST on Tuesday.

Norwich right-back Kellen Fisher, 21, is attracting the interest of Everton. (Pete O'Rourke, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Monday's gossip column here.

Norwich City boss Liam Manning says his side must "accelerate" their work following a 2-1 home defeat by Millwall in their opening game of the new season.

Manning moved to his hometown club from Bristol City in the summer following a disappointing 13th-place finish in 2024-25.

The Canaries have made a number of summer signings, six of whom started the game against the Lions but they were beaten by an 83rd-minute Macaulay Langstaff goal.

"It was a real mixed bag. I thought the first 25 minutes were really positive. We got control, we got in good areas, but then the game shifted in their favour a little bit and the second half was not what we wanted in the end," Manning told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"I'm frustrated, hurt, disappointed and annoyed that in our first game here, we couldn't send the fans home happy.

"We also need to step back and reflect on where we are. We know we have a huge amount of work to do, but we must accelerate that and own it."

"The amount of new managers coming into the league this year, I have never seen anything like it".

Aaron Paul and Jobi McAnuff are joined by special guests Tommy Smith and Alex Bruce to preview the 2025-26 Championship season.

They discuss a range of topics including assessing chances of sides coming down from the Premier League, who the contenders might be for the top six and take a deep dive of each of the sides promoted from League One.

Listen to the full episode of 72+ and more on BBC Sounds.

The Liam Manning era at Carrow Road begins with the visit of Millwall to face Norwich City on Saturday (15:00 BST).

Alex Neil's Lions eventually finished five places and nine points ahead of the Canaries last season, though missed out on the play-off places on a dramatic final day.

• Norwich City are unbeaten across their last 21 home league games against Millwall since November 1968 (W14 D7), their longest ever run against an opponent.

• Millwall have won two of their last three league games against Norwich City (L1), as many victories as across their prior 15 meetings with the Canaries combined (D3 L10).

• Norwich have won just one of their last eight opening day league fixtures that have come on home soil (D3 L4), though that sole victory did come in their last with a 2-1 win over Hull City in August 2023.

• Millwall lost 3-2 against Watford in their opening league match last season, last losing on MD1 in consecutive campaigns in 2012-13/2013-14.

• Since 25 January (their first win under manager Alex Neil), only promoted sides Burnley (44) and Leeds (41) have earned more points in the Championship than Millwall (35 – W11 D2 L6).

Image source, BBC/Rob Butler

BBC Radio Norfolk presenter Chris Goreham is celebrating 25 years of providing commentary of Norwich City matches.

Goreham was behind the mic for the first time on 29 July, 2000 during a pre-season friendly for the Canaries against Dutch side SC Heerenveen.

He was surprised on-air by City hero Simeon Jackson during the Radio Norfolk Breakfast Show on Friday.

Jackson scored a famous winning goal for City against Derby in April 2011, a goal which went a long way to help secure the Canaries promotion to the Premier League that season.

Goreham's BBC commentary on that last-minute strike is revered by City supporters.

He said, "We've done a five-year commentary deal and I had in my mind that, at the end of that deal, it would be 25 years since the great Roy Waller stopped doing the commentaries.

"But, I had completely not realised that the first I did was Heerenveen in 2000."

You can hear more from Chris Goreham on his 25 years of commentary duty on BBC Sounds here.

Norwich are hoping to beat Leicester and Sheffield United to the permanent signing of England under-21 defender Callum Doyle, 21, who is valued around £10m by Man City and spent last season on loan at Carrow Road. (SportsBoom, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Thursday's gossip column here.

Gary Gowers
My Football Writer

Image source, Getty Images

A new season. A new head coach.

Something not unfamiliar to City fans, who have had a different head coach in their technical area for every season opener since 2021-22.

Liam Manning is merely the latest holder of the baton, following on from Daniel Farke, Dean Smith, David Wagner, and Johannes Hoff Thorup.

With stability being widely acknowledged as one of the key elements of a successful team, the Yellow Army will be hoping Manning's time in NR1 extends way beyond 2025-26.

But in the here and now, things look nicely shipshape, with a significant summer player churn giving this current Norwich City team a very different look and feel. A much-needed churn.

The Class of 2024-25 had their moments and ended last season as the Championship's second-highest goalscorers, but they badly lacked consistency. They also, at times, lacked backbone, oomph, bottle, and bravery; key qualities that City's sporting director Ben Knapper has looked to add to the group this summer.

At the time of writing, 11 new faces have arrived, which includes a complete overhaul of the goalkeeping department and two new starting centre-backs.

So far, the only big-name departure has been Borja Sainz, who left to join FC Porto for a reported £14.25m, although rumours around the future of top scorer Josh Sargent refuse to go away.

But, with or without the American, Manning's new-look Norwich team appears to be a more combative and solid unit than the one that eventually floundered under the tutelage of Thorup.

For too long now, City fans have watched their heroes flounder when the going gets tough. A soft underbelly was how it was often described, but other descriptions are available, including lily-livered and fragile.

While not too much can be read into the results and performances of pre-season, the physical profile of this new City team differs from the one Norwich fans have become accustomed to.

Their latest addition, Mirko Topic, from Portuguese side Famalicao, is a defensive midfielder of considerable stature – 6 ft 3 in for those who are counting – and will add some badly-needed ballast to an area of the pitch that has all too often been afflicted with hot-knife-through-butter syndrome.

If Topic, assisted by the new centre-back pairing of Harry Darling and Jacov Medic, can help the team survive the difficult moments instead of them collapsing like a poorly-made Delia Smith soufflé, then that will be a massive win for Knapper and Manning.

The very early signs are promising, with Manning's first XI concluding their pre-season with two clean sheets – a 0-0 draw in the Netherlands against Den Haag and a 2-0 home win over NEC Breda.

This newfound solidity has, as things stand, compromised the team's in-possession attacking flow, but given the defensive horrors of last season, most City fans have already agreed it's a price worth paying.

Ironically, it's a balance that the City head coaches listed at the start of this piece failed to strike – aside from Farke, whose time in the Fine City was extraordinary – with a recurring problem being the lack of a defensively-inclined central midfielder since Alex Tettey's departure in 2021.

We desperately hope that Topic, with a hazelnut in every biting tackle, will fill that void.

But it's not just improvements on the pitch that have lifted the spirits of the Yellow Army. Off it, too, a new dawn is rising.

This summer's transfer window is the first with US businessman and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, Mark Attanasio, at the helm. He and his Norfolk Holdings group now have full control of the club, and their approach to dealings in the transfer market couldn't differ more from those overseen by previous owners, Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones.

Then it was a tepid, frugal, austerity-driven approach that often saw the club scratching around bargain basements for players other teams didn't want. Now it's bullish, brave, and positive, with targets identified, hunted down, and secured with the minimum of fuss.

None of this waiting for Player A to be sold and the funds received before we can even think about bidding for Player B.

If Knapper wants Player A and Player A aligns with the wider plan, then Attanasio and Norfolk Holdings will do everything they can to make the deal happen.

It is most un-Norwich-like. Uncharted territory. A brave new world.

And we like it.

No longer are we at a significant disadvantage before a player is signed or a ball kicked. Now we compete on a level footing with our peers, which is great news for City fans while heaping all kinds of pressure on Knapper (for all the right reasons).

Those now in power at Norwich City have openly declared that the aim is a top-six finish this season, in the same way Attanasio has made it quite clear the ultimate goal is a return to the Premier League.

He and his people are not here to mess about, which is why the player churn has been significant.

As City fans, we're still not sure where this journey is going to take us, but there's a growing feeling that it could be fun.

On the Ball City.

Image source, BBC/Rob Butler

Norwich City head coach Liam Manning faced the media ahead of the Canaries' first Championship game of the season.

City host Millwall at Carrow Road on Saturday (15:00 BST).

Here are some of the key points from the press conference:

• Manning said his squad is "good to go" for the big kick-off. He said his players have worked hard during the pre-season to get to this point.

• Club captain Kenny McLean recently had an operation on his ankle issue. Manning said the surgery went well and the Scotland international is on course to return in September.

• Manning did not reveal who will be team captain on Saturday but said a decision has been made.

• On the abundance of summer signings: "It shows the intent from the club, there were areas that needed addressing." City have made 11 summer signings so far.

• Manning said new signing Mirko Topic will provide the team with a 'strong ball-winner'.

• "I'm not an egomaniac, not everything I say goes." - Manning said he is keen to consult with his staff and players before making big decisions.

You can listen to live commentary of Norwich City v Millwall with BBC Radio Norfolk on FM and DAB. Coverage begins at 14:00 BST on Saturday.

Norwich City boss Liam Manning is expecting players to leave the club before the transfer window closes at the start of next month.

The Canaries have added 10 players to their first-team squad over the summer while selling last season's top scorer, Borja Sainz, to Porto.

As they prepare for Saturday's opening Championship match of the season against Millwall (15:00 BST), Manning admits players will have to leave the club.

"It's not always in our control but naturally we're a bit heavy," the head coach told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"We've been able to do some real productive work with the help of the owners to bring in what we have - the consequence is we've got a few too many and I'm sure in the coming weeks there'll be a few who will leave."

Norwich finished their pre-season programme with a 2-0 win over Dutch side NAC Breda on Saturday with the notable absences of experienced duo Shane Duffy and Anis Ben Slimane.

Defender Duffy missed only one league game last season while midfielder Slimane made 25 starts in the Championship.

"Everybody wants to play football and if that's not happening or not likely here, people want to pursue alternative options," Manning added.

"Until anything definite happens we'll keep working with them, keep pushing them - their attitude has been top in training and we'll see how that plays out."

Listen to BBC Radio Norfolk's Scrimmage podcast.

Norwich City are set to sign Lincoln City striker Jovon Makama, 21, that will see the Englishman set a club record fee for the Imps in a deal reportedly worth over £1m. (Derby Telegraph), external

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Monday's gossip column here.