The Championship table since Philippe Clement was appointed Norwich City manager | OneFootball

The Canaries have undergone an extraordinary transformation since the former Rangers manager was appointed to replace Liam Manning in November.

It's only been just over two months since Philippe Clement was appointed as the head coach at Norwich City, but Canaries fans have already seen a transformation in their team's fortunes.

With a 2-1 win against the Championship leaders Coventry City marking their third successive league win, Norwich City's upward swing continues.

They remain in a relatively lowly 18th place in the table, but the signs are clear that there has been a transformation in their fortunes since Philippe Clement was appointed as their head coach on the 18th November.

Clement arrived at a club that was in disarray. The Canaries had only appointed Liam Manning as their head coach at the end of the 2024-25 season as a replacement for Johannes Hoff Thorup. But after an extensive summer rebuild, Norwich started the new season in a dismal fashion, making Manning's position untenable by the middle of November.

The new man in charge has managed to get a tune out of a team that had been coughing and spluttering for the previous three months. With the gap between them and 6th-placed Wrexham currently sitting at 11 points, while heading up the table as far as a play-off place may be beyond them this season, but there seems to be plenty of good reason for Norwich fans to be optimistic about the rest of this year.

By November, Norwich were left with little choice but to sack Liam Manning

Of course, the appointment of Liam Manning in the first place wasn't expected to turn out in the way in which it did. Manning had taken Bristol City to a play-off place at the end of the 2024-25 season, and on top of this he was a local boy made good, who'd been born in the city and had started his academy career at Carrow Road.

But any homecoming soon started to feel like an extremely damp squib indeed. By the time he was sacked in November, the Canaries were one place off the bottom of the Championship table, and his team had only picked up a point more than Sheffield Wednesday, who were already adrift at the foot of the table thanks to the points deduction they incurred for entering administration.

There were no signs that anything was going to change by the time that Norwich City pulled the trigger on Manning. At the time of his departure, they were on a run of form which had seen them pick up just two points from their previous ten games.

It is an extraordinary statistic that, despite having been in charge of the team for 15 league matches - almost a third of the entire season - Norwich season-ticket holders never got see a single home league win under him.

Norwich's performances since Clement's appointment puts them in a play-off place in the Championship form league

Philippe Clement's transformation of Norwich City's season wasn't immediate. They lost their first match under him 4-1 at Birmingham and won just one of their first four with him in charge, although their 3-1 win against QPR at the end of November did represent their first home league win of the season.

Since then, however, they've grown wings. Taking Championship matches played since his appointment only, Norwich are in 5th place in the form table, with seven wins, three draws and four defeats from 14 games, compared to Manning's record of two wins, three draws and fifteen defeats from his 15 games in charge.

As can be seen, the turnaround in Norwich's form since the middle of November has been dramatic. Their results since Clement's appointment have been identical to those of league leaders Coventry City, while only four clubs have managed to outstrip them in terms of points won over this period of time. This is play-off form, and it may even leave Canaries fans wondering where they may be now had Manning's time in charge of the club not been such an unmitigated disaster.

*Sheffield Wednesday deducted 12 points for entering administration

Also notable is the fact that, of the other seven clubs in the top eight in this form league, six of them are the current top six in the overall Championship table while the only other team that aren't, Sheffield United, are also recovering from a similarly dismal start to the season to Norwich. The comparison with Manning's time in charge of the team is stark, and completely justifies their decision to make the change when they did.

The likelihood is that it's a little late for Norwich City to charge up the table as far as a play-off place. Eleven points is a big gap to have to make up with just 17 league games of the season left to play. But Philippe Clement has overseen a remarkable transformation at Carrow Road this season already, and even if Norwich do end up falling short this season, there have been plenty of signs for Canaries fans to feel optimistic that 2026 is going to be a much better year for the club than 2025 was.