The former forward, who played for Norwich across two spells between 2000 and 2011, believes the club's passionate support, facilities and potential remain considerable assets. With American ownership now in control and Philippe Clement leading the team, McVeigh's assessment of Norwich's possibilities offers a compelling perspective on what the club could become.
He told Football Presse, “It's such an incredible period of my life, and it was all down to this very, very unique place of Norwich in Norfolk in England. Because it's quite out of the way.
"You don't go to Norwich unless you're going to Norwich. No one suddenly finds themselves in Norwich and thinks, how did I get here? No, it's like, you were going to Norwich, that's why you're there.
“And because it's quite remote, it also means it's very, very quiet. And I think the combination of it being a one-city county, where Norfolk just has Norwich City, plus the fact that it was right at the start of my career, makes it an incredible place.”
A club that gave McVeigh two league titles
McVeigh was part of the Norwich side that won promotion from the Second Division in 2001-02, before helping the Canaries secure the First Division title in 2003-04. He returned in 2009 and was involved in another promotion-winning campaign under Paul Lambert in 2009-10.
“I'm so blessed and grateful to have been a part of that journey that brought Norwich City back up to that top level. And winning two league titles in 2004 and 2010, again, I don't know if there is any other Norwich City player, only myself and Adam Drury, I think, are the only players who have won two league titles with Norwich.
“So it means so much. It's an incredible place, it's an incredible club.”
McVeigh's affection for Norwich extends beyond the football. Having left Belfast as a teenager to join Tottenham Hotspur, he found a very different environment in Norfolk as he matured into an established professional.
“I actually lived in Norwich for 20 years, from 2000 all the way to 2019, before I moved back home to Belfast. So that just kind of shows the affection and regard I had for Norwich as a place, because it's still, to this day, an incredible place, so unique, and you won't ever find a place like it in England.”
Could Norwich follow Brighton and Brentford?
McVeigh believes Norwich has the ingredients to emulate clubs such as Brighton and Brentford, who have established themselves in the Premier League through different approaches to recruitment, development and ownership.
The club is now under the control of Norfolk FB Holdings, led by Mark Attanasio, following the transition away from Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones. McVeigh's argument is that the opportunity exists, provided the ambition is matched by investment.
“I think one of the decisions why Delia and her husband Michael Wyn-Jones sold at the time was probably a bit of, I think they'd taken them as far as they could take them. And I think that's where you see with Brentford and Brighton, it's a different ownership. It's a different demographic of ownership, it's a different style of ownership.
“Whereas Delia and Michael were like, ‘This is our little club, we want to do well.’ Although, when I first met Delia in 2000, her goal was, and this is word for word, verbatim, she said, ‘We want to be the best football club in the world.’”
At the time, McVeigh admitted he had questioned the scale of that ambition. Looking back, however, he sees the importance of having a vision that reaches beyond the immediate circumstances.
“Now, as a 48-year-old guy, I'm sitting here thinking, well, she owned a football club, so that's the first thing. She was a woman owning a football club, that's the second thing. And so her ambition to get to the level that she got to in her career, and the amount of millions of books she sold as an author and everything else that she was successful with, was because she had the biggest goals.
“So when it came to her football club, she wanted to be the best in the world. Now, financially, she's not competing with Manchester United and Real Madrid and AC Milan, but the best club in the world doesn't necessarily mean financially. It means how they operate, how they do things.”
Investment could unlock Norwich's potential
McVeigh's assessment is that Norwich has the support and infrastructure to compete at a higher level, but that financial backing will be decisive.
“With the new ownership from the Americans, and of course because they've had huge success in American sports, now, depending on the appetite for the American owners, if they want to invest their money, or more of their money, then Norwich City has every chance to do what Brighton and Brentford have done, because essentially they have all of the possibilities.
“They've got the fans. They've got the ability that if they have the infrastructure, they've got the training ground. So they've got everything, but what they don't have is the financial backing just yet.”
McVeigh even believes Norwich could make significant strides within a relatively short period if the owners commit to the project.
“I would say it wouldn't surprise me in five years' time if Norwich City aren't doing what the Brightons and Brentfords are doing.”
For McVeigh, that possibility is rooted in more than nostalgia. Norwich gave him a home, a career and two title-winning experiences that shaped his life. He sees a club with the capacity to build on those foundations, provided the people in charge share the ambition that Delia Smith expressed to him more than two decades ago.
The challenge now is turning that potential into sustained progress. For a player who remains so attached to the city and club, the prospect of Norwich establishing itself among England's leading sides is more than an attractive footballing idea. It is a vision he would dearly love to see realised.
Paul McVeigh is author of "It's Not About You: The Psychology of Leadership" - which is available here.
