Kenny McLean talks to Canaries TV after being named as the 2023/24 Anglian Home Improvements Player of the Season.
Kenny, huge congratulations. You've been voted the Norwich City Player of the Season. How are you feeling?
"Obviously, I'm really happy with the award and the fact that the fans have voted for me to win it is pretty nice. We had a few candidates, which is good and means it's been pretty good, especially recently. It's great, and I appreciate all the support we've had, for me personally and for the team throughout the season."
When you've been given something like this by the fans, does that mean something a little bit more?
"I think so, the fans are the heart of the club. They come and pay their hard-earned cash to watch us and hope that we can try and do well for their club. That's what we're doing, it's their club. Players will come and go all the time, they are the one constant of the football club. It's obviously nice that they appreciate everything I've done for the football club this year, and it's nice they've voted me for this."
What about your personal performances are you most pleased about?
"I think consistency across the board this season for me has been one of my main factors. I know we had that part of the season where we struggled a bit, but I think we came through that quite well. I think off the back of that, we've kicked on and that's where you've seen the best of the players that could've been sitting here. Gabby would've been the main one. Sarge, I'm sure if he didn't have his injury, he'd have been sitting here ahead of me as well. Jonny Rowe, his injury probably ruled him out of winning young player for the league. There's been a lot of good performers, I'm happy to be sitting here, but it could've definitely been someone else."
You talked about the difficulties of the season. How pleased were you with the resilience of the squad to turn it around?
"I don't think you see that too often, the way we've turned it around from where we came from. I think if you ask anybody, to sit here with a chance to deliver something special this year, you wouldn't have believed it to be honest. If you look back at Christmas time, it was a real struggle. I think, within this place, everything we could do was knuckle down and work really hard and that's what we did. We knew we had the quality here, our performances and the results weren't good enough. Behind the scenes, we had a lot of conversations. We all knew that we had the right group here, we had the right staff here that could be successful. Thankfully, we were able to turn things around and we've found the back-end of the season has been pretty outstanding. We're just getting stronger, and the position we find ourselves in now is very good. There's still a lot of hard work to do, and a long way to go, but where we were to where we are now, everyone should be proud of what they've done."
You've spent a large part of the season wearing the captain's armband, has that influenced your performances?
"Maybe it puts that little more responsibility onto you, but I've always been one that'll try to help people around me and make them better players. I always want to do that, and if I can bring people on that's even more pleasing for me. I've tried to do that as much as I can and I think I've always tried to do that. Wearing the armband, the responsibility is with me a bit more. People might look to you a bit more, when the chips are down and things aren't going well. Obviously, it's been disappointing not to have Grant Hanley there, but to have that responsibility has been something that I've really enjoyed."
You've been with us a little while now, do you still get that same feeling of pride when you pull on a Norwich City shirt?
"That'll never go, really. The success that I've had here, I just want to keep replicating it. I can only do that by playing like it's my first and last game for this football club, and I'll always do that. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster, and hopefully there's a lot of highs to come. I've loved every moment, and hopefully there can be a lot more great moments."
Now your name is officially sitting on that trophy alongside some of the best ever to pull on that shirt. That must give you enormous pride, as well?
"It's nice to see my name on the trophy. There's a few names that are on there, and it's the same names you see on the walls across the football club. I try and give everything I can, I've done that this season. I've had the reward of the fans appreciating that, and there's still a long way to go this season. I've got more to give, and there's a lot of young and hungry lads who will want the success that some of the older lads have had. We all want the same goal, the fans have pulled us in that direction as well. They're desperate for success at the football club, and hopefully we can bring it."
You can watch the interview in full on Canaries TV below.