Defender Ryan Bennett reflects on his Norwich City career

The recently retired defender spent five years with the Canaries, making 118 appearances - the longest period of any club throughout his 17-year professional career, which also included spells at Wolves, Leicester and Swansea.

Norwich provided Bennett with his first opportunity of Premier League football, but also ruthlessly released him as part of a cull by Stuart Webber when he joined the club as sporting director in 2017. 

That ending still hurts Bennett, but he has nothing but positivity when he reflects on his time at Carrow Road. 

"It was the first chance that I had coming from Peterborough and stepping up two leagues, it was tough.

"I was a young boy trying to come and play in the Premier League. I didn't really play consistently all the time, whether I agreed on that or not. I enjoyed it. I loved living there and it was a great experience for me.

"It was the longest time that I spent at a club in my career, so I look back always with good memories and I met some really good people.

"With the playing side, there are always ups and downs - towards the end, it was obviously tough. The way I left, not playing the last couple of games because they told me I wouldn't be there, wasn't ideal.

"There are little things in there that annoy me about how it ended and how it went, but that is part and parcel of football and coincided in me leaving and having the best spell of my career at Wolves." 

The circumstances around Bennett's arrival at Norwich on deadline day in January 2012 have become something of legend. 

Then at Peterborough, both Swansea, managed by Brendan Rodgers, and the Canaries, with Paul Lambert in charge, were vying for his signature. After some toing and froing, Bennett and his representative headed for South Wales - but the story would contain a dramatic ending.

"It was a deadline day. I was at Peterborough, and my agent lived in Harlow. I was training at the time, and we weren't sure what was happening or where I was going to go," he recalled.

Ryan Bennett joined Norwich City in 2012 from Peterborough United. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images) "At that point, Norwich was dead because Peterborough wanted me back on a loan. Swansea had a game that night. We actually set off to Swansea without it being fully confirmed. The manager at the time, Brendan Rodgers, was on the phone and was saying, 'Come down, we're going to get it done'.

"We ended up getting close enough, and my agent decided that we weren't going any further without speaking to the manager or the chairman again because if it didn't happen and we were there, everything else would have been lost.

"I wish I filmed it because it was so surreal. Barry Fry rang up and said 'go to Norwich'. It was the fastest drive I've ever had there. I went one way, my agent went the other, and I went for the quickest medical ever.

"I came back into the training ground, and it was one or two minutes to the deadline. It went through 10 seconds before. I ended up getting home at three or four in the morning - my family thought I was in Swansea, and I ended up in Norwich.

"It was a surreal experience. I went back to Peterborough the next day as though nothing had happened." 

One of the most well-remembered moments of Bennett's spell at Carrow Road was a flashpoint with then-Arsenal winger Alexis Sanchez in December 2015. 

Arsene Wenger was furious with Bennett after the former Norwich man accidentally pushed the Chilean superstar into advertising boards before he landed in a camera pit in front of the South Stand. 

Ryan Bennett had a high-profile tussle with Alexis Sanchez in December 2015. (Image: Richard Blaxall/Focus Images Ltd)"It makes me laugh now. Whether I did it on purpose or whether I didn't, that is something that people will always have to guess," Bennett said with a smile. "We were running off the edge of the pitch. I couldn't slow down too well, there ended up being a big hole there and he was a good player, so one of those things that happened.

"You think about the consequences of what could have happened and it could have been worse, but I'm never going to try and push somebody into a hole to try and hurt them. I'm surprised the pit was still there.

"It was never a pre-planned thing. Thankfully, he was alright, and it is something we can look back on now and smile about. Whether he finds it funny, I'm not so sure." 

Bennett, despite some annoyance over how his spell in Norfolk ended, ultimately reflects positively on the memories he has gained from his time at Norwich. 

Ryan Bennett was one of seven high-profile Norwich City earners released in 2017 by Stuart Webber. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd) "My kids were born and grew up there. I love the area. I wanted to retire there, but that never ended up happening, but that was my aim," he said. 

"The football was up and down but without that opportunity and exposure or appearances that I made at that level, I wouldn't have had the career that I had. I have nothing but positive words and I'm thankful to them. That will never change.

"It's a place that I have fond memories of and hopefully I gave them a few as well."

- Watch the full interview with former Canaries defender Ryan Bennett on retirement, his sporting director ambitions and Norwich reflections below👇