Norwich City: Why Increase in Quality Is One Major Change That Fans Can Agree On

It's not often that a motivational speaker and Norwich City Football Club are mentioned in the same breath, but a quote from Brian Tracy could potentially buck that trend. 

Tracy famously commented that: "You are safer moving forward than standing still," and the decision-makers at Carrow Road could do a lot worse than listening to Tracy's wisdom. 

Of course, there is still work for the Canaries to do to ensure that they are playing Premier League football once again next season but if that goal is achieved then the time will once again come to evaluate the playing squad in the summer.

And this is where Tracy's advice should come into sharp focus.

If Norwich City are to stay up for two consecutive seasons, no one could deny that it would be a wonderful achievement at perhaps the most important stage in the club's history.

With the influx of the new mega TV deal coming into play next season, the prize for keeping your head above water come the climax of this campaign couldn't be greater for those teams currently fighting for survival.

Moreover, the Canaries board have indicated that the club will be completely debt-free should Premier League action be secured for another season in 2013/14. 

It all points towards a bright future for the Norfolk outfit and now is the time for the club to kick on to the next level.

Up to this point, Norwich City have conducted their transfer business in an extremely mature way by continuing to find players at very reasonable prices.

However, this approach will only take you so far and there will come a time in which the Canaries will need to up the ante in terms of the type of players that they bring to the club.

The example of Stoke City is something that Norwich would be strongly advised to follow, and the way in which the Potters' chairman, Peter Coates, has backed his manager without putting the future of the club in jeopardy is something to be admired.

Year on year, Coates has allowed Tony Pulis to bring in a higher quality of player without splashing silly money and such an approach has seen Stoke consistently achieve mid-table security.

The simple logic dictates that the more years you are able to comfortably survive in the top flight, the more attractive you are to a higher calibre of player, and this is exactly what Stoke City have exploited so well. 

Norwich City showed their intentions of following such a route in the January transfer window with their pursuits of Sporting's Ricky Van Wolfswinkel and of course, Celtic's Gary Hooper, ultimately ending in failure but bursting with ambition.

These are the type of players that the Canaries should now be looking to attract on a regular basis and being able to say that they have comfortably survived for two seasons in a row will undeniably make them more attractive to prospective new recruits.

That is why finishing as high as possible up the table is of vital importance, because it essentially means that you are higher up in the food chain when it comes to adding to your existing squad in the summer.

It must be noted that no one in their right mind would advocate the Canaries trying to emulate a similar path to Queens Park Rangers by chucking money at players hoping for a short-term fix.

Long-term progression has been proven as the more reliable road to follow and how the bosses at Loftus Road must wish that they had taken note. 

There clearly isn't a need for wholesale changes at Carrow Road during the summer, but any players that do come through the doors should be of a higher standard than those currently available to Chris Hughton with the emphasis more on quality rather than quantity. 

In previous transfer windows, much of the focus was rightly on getting enough bodies into the squad to ensure that Norwich City would at least be competitive in the Premier League but now the club finally has a foundation of experienced Premier League players to add to. 

Now, Norwich need to keep looking to push on, or risk going backwards.

The seeds appear to have been planted for Norwich City to flourish in the top flight for years to come.

The time may have come to reap the rewards.

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