Book Review: Norwich City – The Nineties by Edward Couzens-Lake

Author Edward Couzens-Lake has produced a number of books on Norwich City, with this latest offering part of a series which has seen the Canaries explored through the Seventies and Eighties. Given the volume of work that the author has produced on the Norfolk club, there is no doubt that he is an authoritative voice on the team from Carrow Road and it is in reflected in this particular book.

In this edition Couzens-Lake reviews the fortunes of Norwich City through the biggest transformation in English football, that being the creation of the FA Premier League in the 1992/93 season. The Canaries were part of the old First Division in 1991/92 and having avoided relegation, became founder members of the Premier League.

Those years in the top-flight dominate the book and include the highs of the third-place finish in that inaugural Premier League campaign and the UEFA Cup games the following season and the lows when in the 1994/95 campaign they went into freefall at the back end of the season and were relegated.

The Club wouldn’t go on to regain their place in Premier League during the rest of the decade and instead the Canaries tale is one of changes in the managerial hot-seat, injuries to key players, and the selling of the best talent to balance the books as the club had to adjust to the reality of life in the Championship. The closing chapter is an interesting view of how the ‘whole new ball game’ impacted football in England and especially for clubs of the size of Norwich City.

Overall this is a book primarily aimed at the Carrow Road faithful and it will provide a useful summary of the decade. Where it may have a wide appeal is in the instances when the author introduces stories from Canaries supporters, providing the fans experience, with one for instance, talking about the UEFA Cup games, which brings a vibrancy and joy to the overall factual tone of this book.