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Manager: Paul Lambert (since August 2009). Odds on being first out of a job: 25-1 (11th=).
Last season
Championship: 2nd, 84 points. FA Cup: Third round. Carling Cup: Second round.
Transfers in: James Vaughan (Everton, ?2.5m); Steve Morison (Millwall, ?2.8m); Elliott Bennett (Brighton, undisclosed); Anthony Pilkington (Huddersfield, ?2m); Bradley Johnson (Leeds, free). Richie de Laet (Manchester United, loan); Kyle Naughton (Spurs, loan)
Transfers out: Henri Lansbury (Arsenal, end of loan)

Paul Lambert's 1997 Champions League win with Borussia Dortmund was a handy subject for a quiz question - the first British player to win the European Cup with a non-UK club - for a while. A Scot who never joined an English club, Lambert was probably underestimated as a player south of the border. Now he has the chance to make a proper name for himself here, two years after leading Colchester to a 7-1 win at Carrow Road on the opening day of the season.

Swansea are spreading the Premier League's reach westwards; Norwich are back doing so eastwards, six years after they dropped out of the top flight and two seasons after relegation to League One. Unsurprisingly there has been a massive turnover of players in the past two years, a process started before Norwich reacted to that Colchester defeat by promptly poaching their opponents' manager.

One key signing came before Lambert in the summer of 2009, that of Grant Holt. The then 28-year-old has scored 45 goals in two seasons. Taking the step up to the top flight, like so many of his team-mates, will not be easy. The acquisitions of James Vaughan and Steve Morison - a spelling mistake waiting to happen - are designed to spread the goalscoring burden.

The defence has been bolstered with a couple of loan signings: Richie de Laet, a Belgian out of Manchester United, and Kyle Naughton from Spurs. But they add only 22 top-flight appearances between them, and the catch is that 18 of those were by Naughton for Gretna in the SPL.

Elliott Bennett, a 22-year-old winger who helped Brighton into the Championship in May, could just be the key signing, adding pace to City's robust style. In June Lambert was warning not to expect too much: "I don't think anybody should have an expectance level on him. He's only a 22-year-old lad but he's earned the opportunity to come with the rest of the club and make his mark." But even then the Scot added: "He's exciting, I think he'll make things happen, his enthusiasm and desire to do well will pay good dividends for us." After Saturday's 3-0 win at Coventry, Lambert was careful not to read too much into a friendly but said: "He's only a young kid but I think his ball for Steve [Morison] was a terrific ball and his strike was a fantastic strike."

What Norwich need is to take the kind of positive approach the youthful Bennett suggests and look to make an early impression. They kick off at Wigan, where Blackpool won a year ago to claim the opening-day headlines. With Stoke - to whom last season's team are compared in some quarters - the first visitors to Carrow Road, and West Brom coming after the international break, there are some opportunities on which Lambert will be keen to capitalise. With the intervening match at Chelsea, proving his side are no pushovers is probably the best ambition for the Scot.

Norwich's status as comparative East Anglian giants did enable them to poach Lambert. The fact that those quotes about Bennett were given to BBC Radio Norfolk, former fictional employers of Alan Partridge, is a reminder that this is a backwater, though. It is a long way to travel to, but it is also a long way to travel from.

Leaving the Delia Smith jokes to one side the abiding memory of Norwich's last top-flight season was its ending, when they were one of four teams competing for a single survival slot on the final Sunday in 2005. Needing a win at Fulham to guarantee they would stay up, they started brightly enough but lost 6-0 - which meant they did not record a single away league victory.

Lambert's side should pick up points at Carrow Road but perhaps their fate will hang on what happens outside East Anglia.

Philip Cornwall

Posted By: lurd, Aug 1, 15:10:25