McLEAN IS MAKING MOST OF HIS SPELL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
THERE is a player, who made the bench in a Champions League final a few years ago and was well on the way to becoming this season’s English Championship Player of the Year, wondering what he has to do to get back in the Norwich City team.
As it’s Kenny McLean who needs to be dislodged before he can reclaim his place, ex-Borussia Dortmund, Lazio and Stuttgart star Moritz Leitner has a problem.
The former Germany Under-21 captain’s history — and relationship with head coach Daniel Farke — is counting for nothing and he can’t construct an argument.
For Farke has proved to be utterly committed to keeping faith with players in form and there are few fitting that category more emphatically than McLean as Norwich soar towards a Premier League return.
Today will be McLean’s 15th appearance for Norwich since returning from injury in January, taking in the current run of eight wins in a row followed by a 2-2 draw with Reading in midweek that has carried them to the cusp of the Championship title.
Barring an unlikely collapse over a five-game run-in starting today at Wigan Athletic, the Scottish national squad will have a new English top-flight operator to select as of next season.
As an individual and a group, McLean and Norwich are already performing at Premier League level, according to former Carrow Road favourite Simon Lappin.
‘Kenny has been outstanding in the games I’ve seen,’ said Lappin, who played for Norwich in the top flight under Paul Lambert. ‘He seems to be enjoying his football. Who wouldn’t in that team? They are playing Premier League football and look ready for the step up.
‘If he keeps going in this manner, then he’s going to be a first pick in the Premier League.
‘Looking at some of the players he’s keeping out of the team, they include Moritz Leitner, who got injured and can’t get back in now that he’s fit. There’s lots of quality on that bench and Kenny is keeping them there.’
McLean (right) effectively had a year to wait for his breakthrough. He signed for Norwich in January of last
year and was loaned straight back to Aberdeen to round off the season. He did so with seven goals in the second half of the campaign.
The chatter among the Canaries faithful was that an automatic replacement for £25million departure James Maddison had been picked up. Three games in, an unnecessary and bruising challenge suffered against Stevenage in the EFL Cup saw McLean sustain ankle-ligament damage.
A four-and-a-half-month absence through injury is the type of start with a club that can ruin new careers in England. Thankfully for McLean, his can be put down now as only a false start to something special.
‘I spoke to Kenny at the training ground when he was injured and it was clearly a frustrating time,’ recalled Lappin. ‘Since he came back into the side, he hasn’t looked back. ‘I’ve seen it before where there’s a step up to the game in England and it’s far from straightforward for players coming from Scotland. ‘Aberdeen are a big club but he came to an even bigger set-up with Norwich and the Championship. ‘The division is notoriously difficult, physical and not necessarily about who plays the best football but who wins the battle. ‘It takes time to adapt as you move away from where you’re comfortable to new surroundings. All those things need to be taken into account. ‘While he was out, they got off to a shaky start and in September, October there was a bit of unrest among supporters. But the manager stuck to what he believed in and kept on doing the right things. Kenny came back in and has only helped lift the quality. ‘He has a lot of years ahead of him. ‘He’s gone from strength to strength and now there’s a chance to play for Norwich in the richest league in the world.’