To say it’s been a mixed season for Adam Idah would be an understatement.

The Norwich City striker has gone from serious injury to rehab, recovery to a management change and from a bumper five-year deal to criticism for his recent performances.

It’s been Idah’s Canaries career in microcosm, with a variety of trials and tribulations marring what’s often been a spell bursting with promise.

That emotional rollercoaster has bound him closely to the club he made his own six years ago, as he told the Beautiful Game podcast.

“It means a lot,” Idah said when asked about the club. “When I was 15 I was coming back and forth on trial, so Norwich is all I know, I haven’t been anywhere else. I’m friends with all the staff, I know everyone. All my team-mates are so nice.

“Even fans in Norwich, I know some fans in Norwich that I get on well with. So it’s such a lovely club, and it reminds me a lot of back home. It’s quite similar to back home.

“My family love Norwich. The club is great and the whole area is great.”

Idah’s emergence in yellow and green wasn’t a familiar one. He was set for the loan pathway many academy graduates experience before featuring in the first team, but for three goals forcing a late change of plans in January 2020.

He continued: “The hat-trick was quite weird, because the week before Doncaster and Lincoln (were interested), so I was about to go on loan. It was only like two days before the Preston game, Teemu (Pukki) and Josip Drmic got injured, so I was the only striker.

“So I kind of knew in the back of my head I was going to start this Preston game. Eventually we found out the team, I was starting and I still got told I was going on loan after the game.

“I started the game and scored a hat-trick, and then after the game they said I wasn’t going on loan anymore!

The Pink Un: Idah scored an FA Cup hat-trick against Preston North End.Idah scored an FA Cup hat-trick against Preston North End. (Image: PA)

“We played Manchester United the week after, and I started at Old Trafford. My life just changed so quickly. People say all the time that football can change really quickly, and I never really had that experience.

“That was the first time I was like: ‘Wow. How can I go from going on loan to starting at Old Trafford and staying with the first team. Ever since then I’ve stayed with the first team.”

So the question becomes what next for Idah, more than three years on from that hat-trick and still without having established himself as a regular starter.

Pukki's summer departure is set to create an opening for the forwards left at Carrow Road, and Idah's name has been at the forefront of discussions around replacing the Finn.

With the unpredictability that once served him so well meaning nothing can be guaranteed, however, Idah knows the road to success won't be an easy one. There's still plenty of work to do with just one Championship goal to his name this season, and the 22-year-old is keen to focus on what he can control.

“When you’re younger you always want to play at the top," he said, "and I never thought I’d have such a bad injury. There was a period where I was going up, up, up. Everything was on the rise.

“Then you might not have a good game, and that’s when I’d see all the fans criticise me and I’m thinking: ‘What’s going on? I was the next star here and now I’m hated. There’s a lot of ups and downs.

“I don’t focus too much on where I want to get to. Once I’ve trained hard and played well, I’m going to get to where I can get to. That’s the best I can be. If I put in the work I’ll get to the top.”