Neil Adams should have the courage of his convictions to fast-track Norwich City's brightest young gems.

The Canaries' new boss forged his coaching reputation in becoming the first man since Dave Stringer to guide the club's emerging talent to a prestigious FA Youth Cup win, when they toppled holders Chelsea 12 months ago.

Adams also blooded Jamar Loza during his brief first team stint towards the end of City's Premier League season, whilst Josh Murphy and Nathan Redmond were also given fresh Premier League exposure. Stringer faced a similar dilemma when he replaced Ken Brown but reaped the benefits during a productive spell.

'When I first took over I think morale was a bit short at the time because of the way things had happened and the results,' he said. 'Sometimes youngsters come in with a fresh attitude, a clean page and they can write their own stories. They are ambitious, they want to make their mark in the game and I had one or two who were part of the youth set-up at the time coming through.

Players like Dale Gordon and Ruel Fox, who came through the youth team, Jerry Goss was another. Even Tim Sherwood, who was someone we brought in but had been at Norwich as a very young player and then left us to go to, I think, Watford. People like that who had ambition and we then tried to get the mixture right with good senior players and strong types, like Mickey Phelan, Ian Butterworth and we added to all that with good signings who made the difference.

'The problem I had immediately when I took over was we sold Steve Bruce to Manchester United. That was a big blow because he was a massive part of the team. We had to repair things, so we brought in people like Andy Linighan, who made an impact and did well.'