No reason to take issue with ex-Canary Elliott Bennett joining Ipswich Town

Reports have emerged in the last week suggesting that former Norwich City winger Elliott Bennett could be on the verge of joining East Anglian rivals Ipswich Town. Bennett is currently plying his trade at Blackburn Rovers but following the departure of boss Paul Lambert, who brought him to both City and Rovers, he may see a move elsewhere as a necessity to try and rekindle his dwindling career. If this proves to be the case, and he chooses Portman Road as his next destination, there will undoubtedly be a negative reaction among some of us across the border - but will it be justified?

When Bennett joined City following our promotion to the Premier League in 2011, his career appeared to be on the rise. He had just played a key role in Brighton’s League One winning campaign, earning a place in the division’s PFA Team of the Year - and now he was a Premier League footballer at just 22-years-old. His first season in a City shirt was impressive; his pacy, dynamic style of play, coupled with his down-to-earth attitude and that goal at White Hart Lane, soon earned him the position of fan favourite. The loss of Paul Lambert to Aston Villa slightly curtailed his opportunities during his second season at the club, but he still played a relatively prominent role in our 11th-placed finish under Chris Hughton, making 27 appearances. That proved to be the final season in which we saw Bennett featuring regularly in a City shirt, however, as the first game of the 2013/14 relegation season saw him pick up a serious injury, damaging his knee ligaments. Despite successful rehabilitation and a return to the first-team on the final day of the season 9 months later, the pre-injury Bennett never really returned. A touch of pace and huge amounts of confidence was lost and, even in a division lower, the ex-Wolves youth star never really featured, nor impressed. Occasional appearances at right-back seemed to offer an avenue of opportunity to counter-act the lost pace, but it proved to be an option that Alex Neil never really persisted with.

A return on loan to Brighton, as well as a loan to Bristol City and the permanent move to Blackburn have offered Bennett numerous opportunities to try and rediscover his 2010-2012 form but they each have proved to be opportunities that, by all accounts, he has failed to take.

Football careers are short-lived and Bennett has to try and do all he can to prevent his from stagnating - if doing so requires a move to Ipswich, then it’s difficult to begrudge him. Sometimes supporters struggle to remember that for the majority of footballers, like Bennett, it is just a job - for us it would seem impossible to represent our rivals, but for the likes of Bennett, the progression of their career is priority. He made 79 appearances for City and in not one of them could his efforts or commitment ever be questioned - he does not owe us anything and he most definitely did not leave as a club legend, so there is no reason for him to feel any loyalty to City. If it was Grant Holt making the move, then it would be another story.

Ex-City goalkeeper Andy Marshall has been in the press warning Bennett of the hostile reaction he would receive from City supporters if he was to make the switch. To think that Bennett would receive anywhere near as much vitriol as Marshall did is unlikely, however. After all, Marshall made the direct switch from City to Town just weeks after winning the club’s player-of-the-season award - now that is betrayal. I certainly don’t envisage any City supporters wearing ‘Welcome to Hell, Judas!’ t-shirts when Bennett potentially visits Carrow Road with Ipswich in February, as some did upon Marshall’s return.

The majority of City supporters wish the best for the rest of Bennett’s career and whilst we would rather his future progress elsewhere, if he does join Ipswich then it is something that I am sure most would accept.