Norwich City fell flat with Italian transfer | OneFootball

The signing of Kyle Lafferty at Norwich City was always a risky one and it never paid off for the Canaries either.

In the summer of 2014, Norwich City brought Kyle Lafferty back to the British isles with hope he could harness his technical quality with a better mentality, but it was a transfer that would end up mirroring the rest of his career.

Enniskillen-born Lafferty came through the academy at Burnley and made nearly 90 appearances for the Clarets before Rangers swooped in for the Northern Ireland international.

With the Bears, he helped them win three Scottish league titles, the Scottish Cup and two Scottish League Cups, hitting 38 goals in 138 appearances.

Having left after Rangers’ financial troubles, Lafferty experienced a forgettable stint in Switzerland with Sion before a move to then Serie B side Palermo in the 2013/14 campaign.

Lafferty had already made himself into a famous figure during his time at Ibrox, and taking a European career path was unusual for a Brit, but not necessarily surprising for Lafferty; and Norwich attempted to unlock his natural gifts.

Lafferty never cut it for Norwich

Having been named the Supporters’ Player of the Year for Palermo’s 2013/14 season, scoring 11 goals in 34 appearances under Gennaro Gattuso and then Giuseppe Iachini, Palermo still chose to cash in on Lafferty.

The Sicilians had won the Serie B title and Lafferty had become a key man among a team of stars that consisted of Abel Hernandez, Andrea Belotti, Paulo Dybala and Franco Vazquez; with Lafferty scoring more than them all bar Abel Hernandez.

However, infamous Palermo owner and president Maurizio Zamparini, in an interview on Italian radio station Radio 24, as reported by ESPN, declared Lafferty to be unable to be coached and so they sent him on his way to Carrow Road:

Zamparini said: ""He is an out-of-control womaniser, an Irishman without rules. He is someone who disappears for a week and goes on the hunt for women in Milan.

"He has two families with six children, he never trains, and he's completely off the rails. On the field he's a great player, because he gave us everything he had and more.

"In terms of his behaviour, however, he is uncontrollable. My coach told me he cannot sort this player out, so he has to go."

In the 2014/15 season, with Norwich challenging for a return to the Championship, Lafferty was handed the number nine shirt and had hopes of being the talisman pinned on him.

He instead scored just a solitary goal in 18 appearances and, a few weeks after Alex Neil was appointed in early-January, Lafferty found himself loaned out to Turkish Super Lig side Caykur Rizespor.

A Premier League appearance but no more for Lafferty

Norwich gained promotion that season via the play-offs, and Lafferty returned to a Premier League club, still with hopes of changing Neil’s mind and forcing himself into contention.

He came off the bench and scored in his first appearance back at the cup in the third round of the League Cup against West Bromwich Albion in a 3-0 victory for the Canaries.

Then, about ten days’ later, with Norwich chasing an equalizer against eventual champions Leicester City at Carrow Road, Lafferty came off the bench for a 13-minute cameo; and those 13 minutes would be the only time he ever spent on a Premier League pitch.

Norwich were relegated at the end of that season, but Lafferty had been loaned out to Birmingham City in March, where he scored one goal in six appearances.

In the meantime, though, during his distinctly underwhelming couple of years at Carrow Road, he had inspired Northern Ireland to qualification for UEFA EURO 2016 with seven goals – only Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thomas Muller, Edin Dzeko and Artem Dzyuba notched more in that qualifying campaign.

The summer in which he represented Northern Ireland at UEFA EURO 2016, having shown the quality and potential in qualification that he had shown at Palermo and made Norwich take a chance, was the summer before he finally permanently departed Carrow Road.

Perhaps understandable taking the risk, but Norwich had to soon forget what had been a nightmare bit of business, as Lafferty left Norfolk with a total of four goals in 39 appearances across all competitions in three years.