Anis Ben Slimane has gone from a player Philippe Clement was unconvinced by to one Norwich City now trust more after a burst of decisive form that changed the conversation around his role. The 25-year-old scored a goal and made an assist for Norwich, and Clement said the midfielder’s work in training and his output in matches convinced him Slimane could help the team.
Clement said he did not see too much in Slimane during the first week of training, when the midfielder was still coming back from injury. Slimane had just returned from a long spell out with a quad problem, and Clement initially saw more of him as an eight in sessions before trying him in a different role. The manager said he liked to ask players where they saw themselves playing, and Slimane answered that he could play on the 10 and do a good job in Clement’s system. Clement replied that they could try it in training and see.
That patience paid off in mid-January. Slimane produced four goals and one assist in five Championship games over a three-week period, a run that brought four Norwich wins and a 1-0 away defeat at Middlesbrough. He also supplied four FA Cup assists in home wins over Walsall and West Brom, including Norwich’s 5-0 away league win at the Hawthorns. It was the kind of stretch that can change both a team’s mood and a manager’s view of a player.
The background matters because Slimane missed a long stretch of the season during Liam Manning’s tenure while recovering from that quad injury. He returned in a 1-1 league draw at Sheffield United in December 2025, then kept working hard on Norwich’s playing style and on what the staff expected from games. Clement said that after the January run, Slimane had convinced him of his value to the side. For a club trying to move away from relegation danger, that is not a minor shift.
There is also a wider payoff. Slimane’s numbers in the second half of the Championship season were strong enough to help earn him a place in Tunisia’s World Cup squad. The selection underlined how quickly a difficult season can turn when a player comes back fit, finds the right position and starts delivering at the right time.
