• Norwich want new manager with top-league previous
• Cardiff's Malky Mackay out of running
Malky Mackay appears to be out of the running for the Norwich job after the club's chief executive David McNally revealed they are looking for a manager with "top-league" experience, something the Scot lacks. Paul Lambert quit Carrow Road for Aston Villa last week.
McNally says the club will scour Europe in the hope of finding a manager who can continue Lambert's work in guiding the club to 12th in the Premier League.
"The search is certainly a European search," McNally told the Eastern Daily Press. "We are looking for somebody who has got top-league experience. I don't think the candidate necessarily has to have Premier League experience – but they have to have top-league experience.
"If, for example, you have managed in Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga, they are some of the toughest leagues in the world, too. So why on earth if there is a candidate in one of those leagues who was available and we felt was right for us should we say no to them just because they haven't managed in the Premier League?"
The Birmingham manager Chris Hughton appears to have dropped down the pecking order in the running for West Bromwich manager's position, after the club held talks with the former Schalke boss Ralf Rangnick, and is reported to also feature on McNally's list.
The Norwich chief executive added: "We have names in mind, of course, and we are now thinking deeply, and long into the night, about the characteristics, the specifications if you like, and we are looking at the qualities that the new manager must have. They include hunger, commitment, desire, and then the usual things that we look for when we appointed Paul – knowledge, skill, relevant experience and then the glue which holds it all together, which is attitude."
Lambert will be officially unveiled as the Aston Villa manager on Wednesday and it has been reported that he wants to add Norwich's assistant Ian Culverhouse, with whom he also worked at Colchester, to his backroom staff.
Whoever is appointed at Norwich, he will have to deal with a number of issues – one of which is the future of the club captain Grant Holt. The 31-year-striker is at odds with the club after they rejected his transfer request when negotiations over a new contract stalled. Holt's actions have caused shock among the fans but the Norwich defender Russell Martin thinks the club should not stand in the way of their 17-goal striker if he wants to leave.
"Players have to move on and if he feels that's right for his career and his family, then so be it," Martin told Sky Sports News. "He has had a great season but we have players like Steve Morison, who has scored some great goals, and James Vaughan, who will be like a new signing.
"I'm sure when the new manager comes in they will have targets to replace him, but Holty is still a Norwich player at the minute and hopefully we will keep hold of him. He has done brilliant for the club in the last three years. He has been absolutely colossal with the goals.
"Hopefully he will stay but if he doesn't he should move on with the players' best wishes and the club's – unfortunately it has come to this but hopefully he won't be remembered for this and it won't end on a sour note." Read More
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