Former Canary fans' favourite Mathias Svensson has admitted it could be a 'promising season' for his ex-club after witnessing the way City put Falkenbergs FF to the sword on Tuesday night.
And after the convincing 3-0 success, Svensson is hoping for better times ahead after three miserable seasons since relegation – despite not being familiar with most of the current Canary squad.
The man City supporters called 'Super Matty Svensson' was in town to watch his old team and it's clear he still holds a soft spot for his last English club.
“It's good to see Norwich play again – it's been a while,” said Svensson, who enjoyed one-and-a-half seasons in Norfolk, scoring 11 goals in 27 starts.
“I had probably the best time of my career when I was at Norwich, the last two years when I was in England and I think maybe I went home a bit too early.
“But that's how football is. Sometimes you stay a bit longer at a club and sometimes you tend to move on. I wish them all the best.
“There are not many players I know in the team now but they are playing some good football and it looks like it's going to be a promising season for them.”
If it turns out to be anything like the famous Championship-winning campaign of 2003-04 then Glenn Roeder will be given the freedom of Norwich and a whole lot more besides.
And the former Portsmouth, Crystal Palace and Charlton hitman admitted that standing on the top of City Hall with the famous old trophy safely in his hands was one of the sweetest moments of his career.
But did he have any regrets that they couldn't stay in the Premier League longer than just the one season?
“Ah, I don't know,” Svensson added. “That's just the way it goes. I just hope that Norwich can push back up there and be part of the Premier League.
“There are a lot of things happening at the club at the moment – managers in and out and players in and out. I hope it will settle down and they will become a top team in the Championship.
“When we got promoted and we were celebrating at the City Hall it was one of the biggest moments in my footballing career.
“And obviously my last goal in England and in the Premier League was against Charlton ? one of my old clubs. There are a lot of memories from Norwich.”
When he left the club in 2005, then-manager Nigel Worthington came in for some criticism for not retaining Svensson on the two-year deal he craved.
In the end, he decided to let Svensson return to his homeland to rejoin first club Elfsborg and Worthington replaced him with Peter Thorne. As they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
And the Boras-born striker went on to enjoy on of the greatest seasons in his new club's history as they recaptured the Swedish league title for the first time in 45 years.
“The club hadn't won the championship for 45 years so it was a big achievement,” he continued.
“The club invested a lot of money by bringing me home, Anders Svensson to the club and building a new stadium.
“We played some good football and only lost two games that season and duly won the league. That meant we were in the Champions League in 2007. We were knocked out but managed to go into the group stages of the UEFA Cup.
“But we had a tough group and from Elfsborg's point of view, it probably came a little bit too early for us.”
Sadly for the former City favourite, his career came to an abrupt end at the start of last season after being told his knee injury was beyond repair and the 33-year-old admitted it was a bitter pill to swallow.
“I was just going to go in and have a little clear-out in my knee and the doctor said you can't play on with it because the knee is in such a bad shape and you need to retire now. It was a hard thing to take but I had to do it because I was risking my future.
“Now I am working for Elsfborg as assistant manager, doing a bit of marketing and scouting for players. There's a few at Norwich here I might try to bring over!”
Tom Haylett
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