McConville ready to meet his next City phase head on

Few at Norwich City enjoyed the same uplift as Ruairi McConville after Philippe Clement’s arrival last November, but the defender knows he has it all to do again.

Prior to Clement's appointment, the Northern Irish international had made just eight appearances following a move to Carrow Road from Premier League side Brighton in January 2025, but formed a key partnership with Jose Cordoba as part of Norwich’s resurgence under the Belgian.

McConville began pre‑season in pole position for a Championship starting berth. That comes with a different kind of pressure that is new to the 21-year-old, who has spent much of his time at Norwich desperately seeking a route into the first team.

With Harry Darling stepping up and Jakov Medic looking for an unlikely path back into Clement's side, McConville is keen to keep the accelerator to the floor ahead of the new campaign and knows the onus is on him to justify his status within the squad.

"I think you ask anyone, they just want to play games and play as many as they can, and that's what I want to do, it's what everyone's going to want to do, but you obviously have to work hard for it, have to earn it.

"Pre-season is a way to earn your place in the team when the season starts, and that's all we're all trying to do," McConville said.

"With that competition, it's only going to push you to get even better, and that's what you want as a player. I'm already looking forward to the season starting. I'm looking forward to coming back in at the end of the off-season.

"We're all excited and there's a good buzz around the group but we know the tests we have this season, we know how strong the league is this year and we've just got to do what we can to start the season well and get points on the board and push up the table as much as we can."

Ruairi McConville became a key player during Norwich City's rise up the Championship table. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

The arrival of Brazilian loanee Bruno Alves has added another layer of competition to the defensive mix, even though he won't rival McConville directly as a left-sided option alongside Cordoba.

He is the latest to embark on a similar path to the one McConville initially walked during the early days of his City spell.

It presents a difficult balancing act for City's first-teamers, who need to keep an eye on their own progress while helping their colleagues develop for the greater good of pushing Norwich toward another promotion. That is a task McConville relishes.

"For me, that's how I look at it. Straight away, we can see the quality Bruno has on the ball, and obviously, it's tough for him coming in not speaking as much English as he would like, I'm sure, but it'll take him a while to settle in.

"We're all here for him to try and help him settle in. There's so much more for him once he gets past that language barrier but the quality he has already is obvious," he said.

The Northern Irishman has become a key part of Norwich City's plans. (Image: PA)

"For me, it's just everyone, Jose coming back now, it's just trying to learn off each other and trying to help each other because we're a team at the end of the day, and we all want the same goal. We know our plan this year, we know our ambitions so we'll try and work on it together."

Those individual battles sit inside a broader reset under Clement. Norwich's pre-season campaign, the first led by the Belgian, has been about building an intensity back into the group after their summer break.

This campaign represents a different task to the one inherited by City's boss in November, which was about turning round a sinking ship through short-term results and upping the fitness levels. This time, it's about building a more sustainable machine capable of maintaining consistency throughout a gruelling 46-game season.

Despite an incredible rise from the Championship relegation zone to a ninth placed finish, including a run of two points per game in 2026, it was ultimately a disastrous start to the campaign that blew their promotion ambitions and cost Liam Manning his job.

McConville is confident their work is enabling them not just to have a strong start, but also to build throughout the season.

Harry Darling will be looking to apply pressure to Ruairi McConville's starting spot in Norwich City's defence. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

"We'll try and take it game by game," McConville said. "I'm sure we'll start preparing for West Brom as the games tick by in pre-season but that's our plan, just to start the season well.

"Everyone wants to do that. We didn't start as we wanted to last year, but we know how important it can be to start well. We've got the momentum coming in from last season, so we just want to take that forward and start as well as we can.

"Adding players like Paris (Maghoma) and Andre (Brooks) to the team. There's so much they can produce, and they're exciting players.

"Even the boys coming back as well, obviously from the World Cup, and I can name the whole team up front about how much quality there is, so it's something we still want to improve on. We know what we're capable of, so we've just got to keep working on it in training."