Norwich City: 1997 arrival threatened to be a costly transfer mistake but left a fan favourite | OneFootball

Iwan Roberts' Norwich City career didn't get off to a flying start but he left a legend.

Iwan Roberts' early Norwich City career certainly wasn't smooth sailing but the Welshman would leave as one of the most beloved players to grace Carrow Road.

Standing at 6'3" and lacking front teeth, Roberts was a defender's nightmare in the early 2000s Championship (or First Division then) era and has become an iconic figure in years gone by at the Norfolk club.

The former Norwich captain has admitted that at the time he didn't initially want to leave West Midlands club Wolverhampton Wanderers but in his final game for the Canaries he was "fighting back the tears".

It wasn't an easy start for Roberts

Mike Walker bought Roberts to the club for £850,000 in the summer of 1997, a price tag that seems minimal today but was one of Norwich's most expensive transfers before the turn of the century.

Norwich had been unsuccessfully trying to claw their way out of the First Division for two seasons. With a solid 10-year career under his belt and a pricey transfer fee, expectations were high on Roberts.

The Welshman only managed five goals in the league, and the man who brought him in was relieved of his duties come the end of the season. Walker's sacking weighed heavily on the striker, who felt guilty that he'd not performed well enough to save him.

He would say in 2020: "To this day I still hold myself massively responsible for his departure."

These days, such a poor season and a managerial change might have spelled doom for Roberts, but Delia Smith had only recently injected £2 million into the club and, with a view to rid the financial turmoil plaguing the Norfolk club in the mid-90s, Norwich would want their money's worth.

A Welsh dragon rises from the ashes

Bruce Rioch would take the Norwich City post and it could not have worked out better for the striker. Roberts was a player the manager had been keen on during his time at Bolton.

If it wasn't for Rioch convincing Roberts to get into better shape for the upcoming season, who knows where Roberts' career may have ended up?

He would score 19 goals in 45 games in the league that season and would match that record the following.

He attributes his goalscoring record during this time in part thanks to his "telepathic" understanding with another Welshman, the young Craig Bellamy.

It was a partnership Roberts valued immensely, so much so that years later he admitted in his autobiography to stamping on Wolves' Kevin Muscat for putting Bellamy out of action for two months from a knee-crunching tackle seasons before.

It's hardly the most gracious retribution and Roberts was handed a three-match ban and £2,500 fine, though he certainly wouldn't have lost any fans in Norfolk.

But Roberts was unable to help the Canaries progress out of Division One. He would find the goals, but the team were unable to find the results. Their next best chance would come in the play-off final against Birmingham City in 2002 at the Millenium Stadium in Roberts' home country. He scored Norwich's only goal of the game but would go on to lose in a penalty shootout.

He said: "I never cried on a football pitch, but I did that day."

The following season the side would finish eighth, unable to capture the form of the previous season while Roberts was coming towards the twilight of his playing career.

All good things must come to an end

The 2003/04 season after that would prove one of Norwich's most successful seasons in the first division. Roberts would only start 13 out of 41 games played but scored eight goals despite a brief cancer scare.

Then manager Nigel Worthington decided to release Roberts at the end of the season, once promotion back to the Premier League had already been confirmed. The manager admitted it was a tough decision but that Roberts was a "true Norwich City great".

With one more game to play at Crewe, it was a fitting end for the man who'd fought for Norwich all those years in the second division of English football to bow out in a team that finished as Champions.

Roberts scored twice to chants of "Iwan! Iwan! Iwan!" and would end his Norwich career with 96 goals in 306 appearances, third among the club's all-time top goalscorers.

Roberts remains a popular figure around Norwich, and the feeling is mutual for the Welshman. Prior to his final game, he said: "I've felt more at home here at this football club than I have anywhere else in my career."