Mike Walker reflects on historic Norwich City spell

The club's third-place finish in the inaugural Premier League is the highest in their history, and the victory against Bayern Munich in the Uefa Cup can be considered among their best-ever results. 

His controversial exit came after a long-running feud with then-chairman Robert Chase before key players were sold, and Norwich were unable to maintain the success that Walker and his squad had created. 

In that famous 1992/93 season, City qualified for Europe via Arsenal winning the FA Cup after missing out on winning the Premier League trophy to Manchester United, and Walker admits to being disappointed they let a healthy lead evaporate after spending much of the season in top spot. 

"We just weren't good enough when it came to it. We were disappointed because we were eight points clear at one point.

"Okay, we had no right to think that we could just cruise on from there, and that proved to be the case," he said. "Teams dig in, and they keep coming, and there were some decent teams about, but we lost some games that we should never have lost, quite honestly."

Norwich also completed that campaign with the anomaly of a minus-four goal difference. To this day, that remains the highest finish for a team with more goals conceded than scored. 

"It wasn't great that we let in so many goals, but it didn't matter to a degree because we had the other side. We didn't throw in the towel, and that was an excellent quality that we had," concluded Walker.

"We didn't have the quickest players at the back. In that first season we had Bowen, Culverhouse, Butterworth and maybe John Polston, sometimes Rob Newman.

Mike Walker led Norwich City to victory over Bayern Munich. (Image: Simon Finlay/Newsquest) "They were all great in the air and great competitors, but not the quickest with due respect to them. Because we wanted to go up, we left space behind, and people could knock it behind. That's why I made some changes in the second season."

There is no Norwich victory that is more iconic than the two-legged triumph of Bayern in the Uefa Cup, becoming the only English club ever to win at the Olympic Stadium in the process. 

Everyone, including some of the Bayern squad, wrote of the Canaries' prospects of victory, but they defied the odds to progress to the third round. 

"It sounds daft, but I was disappointed in a way [after the draw] because you're looking to go forward. You want another lesser-known team so you can get a few rounds before testing yourself against one of the bigger boys. 

"We were out there on merit. If you look at it logically, you'd say, 'They should win'. No way did I think they'd win by 10 or any of the stupid comments that were made towards us. We respected them, but not on the pitch," Walker said.

"You're playing a top team. If we'd gone out there negative and a bit wary, I think we would have lost, but we played our game.

"It was fantastic to score the first goal and to go in front. It's what we dreamed of. For Gossy to get it was a bit of a turn up because he wasn't known for scoring a lot of goals, but what a time and game to do it. 

"We got battered for the final 15 minutes and a bit of fortune, but we held out. The players showed grit. It was a group effort." 

Despite Norwich's success on the pitch, tensions were growing between Walker and Chase off the pitch. 

Disputes about a new contract, the potential departure of key players and frustration over limited spending exacerbated their relationship to an unfixable extent. 

Ruel Fox was a key Norwich City player during that period. (Image: Newsquest) "I don't want to talk ill of him, but the facts were that he said lots of things weren't forthcoming.

"I was on £50k a year. I took it because I knew I was lucky to get the job," he said. "We ticked all the boxes for all the incentives. I went in at the end of the first season after finishing third and said, 'What about a rise?' 

"He more or less said it was a fluke, but I knew differently and that if we achieved it again, I'd get this and that. So what do I do? Do I stay? Do I leave? Do I trust him to cough up when it comes? These things were going on behind the scenes. 

"We do well again next season, and it comes to Christmas, and I'm knocking on the door. He'd push it away. Then you start to hear rumours about someone else being interested, and you think, 'Surely I'm worth some money or something decent,' but it wasn't forthcoming.

"I didn't have an approach as such, but they could approach the club, and the chairman wouldn't tell you anyway. I'd heard rumours, but I didn't know anything concrete."

Walker eventually resigned as City boss when the feud with Chase reached a head in January 1994, joining Everton the next day. 

"We'd had this going on for a period. It wasn't all in the press. There were rumours of Everton and Atletico Madrid, which I'd heard," Walker said. 

"It came to a point where I went to see him, and I thought my time was up. It wasn't just that; he'd been pestering me to sell [Chris] Sutton and [Ruel] Fox. In the first season, he came in and said he'd got an offer of £3million for them - but Sutty was worth that on his own. I managed to talk him out of that. 

"As a manager, you think 'Where am I going?'. Eventually, I had enough. He wouldn't budge, so I resigned. I went home, wrote a letter and the next morning put it in. He wasn't there. I said, 'Will you give this to the chairman?' and that was it. 

Robert Chase eventually sold Chris Sutton to Blackburn Rovers. (Image: Newsquest) "Then I spoke to an agent who said: 'I know Everton are interested in you. Do you want me to say anything?'. They got in touch, and that was it. The inference was that I'd been talking to them before - but I hadn't been speaking to anyone. 

"The facts are I was running out of contract; he promised me this, that and the other and reneged on it. That was it, as far as I could see. If other people on the outside see it differently, then that is up to them." 

- The full chat with former Norwich City boss Mike Walker by Winston Gallagher is available to listen in The Splendid Rush Norwich City Podcast hosted by the Pink Un below