On 12th November 2003,
the future looked grim for Nowich City fans. Peter
Crouch and Kevin Harper had already
returned to Aston Villa and Portsmouth respectively. The third
of their loan signings, Darren Huckerby,
was due to return to Manchester City the following day after the
clash with Cardiff.
Whilst Norwich fans
would liked to seen Huckerby or Crouch signed permanently, Nigel
Worthington sprung a surprise by announcing the capture of
Peterborough's pacy leading goalscorer Leon McKenzie for an undisclosed
fee, believed to be initially worth £325,000. This signing
was made despite competition from Wigan who had a £400,000
bid accepted but rejected by McKenzie who didn't want to move
up north. Reading also tried to secure Leon's signature whilst
there was talk of Leicester offering a pre-contract deal paving
the way for a free transfer to the Walkers Stadium in the summer.
In the end, Worthington sold Norwich to McKenzie with the latter
signing a three and a half year contract.
Passing his medical,
he was presented to the media on Monday 15th November 2003."It's
all happened so quickly - it's an absolutely fantastic move,"
said McKenzie, part of the south London boxing family that produced
Clint and Duke McKenzie."Everything about the club
looks first-class," added Norwich's latest arrival, whose
59 goals in 109 League and Cup starts for Peterborough made him
such a man to watch.
Born in Croydon in May 1978, he began his career with his local
club making his debut for Crystal Palace during 1995/96. He scored
7 goals in 85 appearances for Palace. He had loan spells with
Fulham (3 appearances, O goals) and Peterborough (14 games, 8
goals). The latter endeared him to London Road and vice versa
leading the way to a a transfer to Peterborough in the summer
of 2000.
He netted 13 league goals for Barry Fry's side in his first season
at London Road and 18 in the second. McKenzie's progress was destructed
by a serious ankle injury sustained during a pre-season friendly
against the Canaries during the summer of 2002. It kept him out
of action for the best part of six months, but he still managed
a respectable tally of five goals in his 11 league appearances.
In 2003/04 he has again been in excellent scoring form for a side
struggling near the foot of Division Two and had scored 10 goals
in 23 appearances in all competitions.
Leon made a stunning
debut for the Canaries scoring twice in the East Anglian Derby
at Portman Road on December 21st. The 2-0 win took Norwich to
the top of the Division One table. McKenzie's next game was a
1-0 win over Forest on Boxing Day when new striking partner Mathias
Svensson scored. Two days later, Norwich won 4-0 at Derby with
McKenzie scoring the fourth goal.
The News of the
World speculated on 22nd May 2005 that Charlton were preparing
a £1.5million swoop for McKenzie now that Norwich had been
relegated. Wigan were also linked by the meida but this was dismissed
by Paul Jewell. Reading have also been linked.
Leon's 2005/6 season
was plagued by injuries but he formed a good partnership with
Rob Earnshaw after returning from injury.
Norwich's formation
for the beginning part of the 2006/7 season saw Mckenzie relegated
to the bench and so he submitted a transfer request on 15th August
2006. This was rejected by Nigel Worthington who later admitted
he would accept the right price for Leon. Coventry City were one
of two clubs to make an offer. Leon eventually transfered to the
Sky Blues on the last day of the Transfer Window (31st August
2006) for a fee that would rise to £1million.