Norwich City

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Former Norwich City striker Grant Holt says this Easter's matches could prove pivotal in the Championship's play-off shake-up.

City welcome strugglers Plymouth Argyle on Good Friday, before travelling to high-flying Leicester City on Bank Holiday Monday.

Holt told BBC Radio Norfolk, "I think it's really important they get off to a flying start against Plymouth and then roll onto Leicester with at least four points."

"If they do that, they're settled and ready to crack on and finish the season strong," he added.

Norwich City boss praises the improvement of midfielder Marcelino Nunez.

The 24-year-old is back in Norfolk following the international break, where he represented Chile against Albania and France.

After a mixed start to the Championship campaign, Nunez is now a regular in David Wagner's starting line-up.

What a difference a few months make.

Following the 1-1 draw with Southampton on New Year's Day, the Canaries were 13th in the Championship table - some five points off the play-off places.

12 matches and 26 points later, they've moved into the top six.

While a few teams have changed positions, the top five teams in the division remain the same.

Sunderland have been the big losers over that period, picking up just eight points in 12 games and dropping off the promotion pace.

David Wagner held his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon looking ahead to the Canaries' Championship match with Plymouth on Friday.

Here are the key points:

• Josh Sargent is fit and available after not joining up with the US men's national team due to injury

• Shane Duffy is back in training after recovering from a calf problem

• Grant Hanley will be on his own training schedule until the end of April

• Only focus is on "the next game" - not a mini-season of eight games

• Wagner says they are "desperate" to rectify what happened at Plymouth in the away match earlier this season when they lost 6-2

• On Plymouth - "It's up to us to show we are much better than we were when we played them last time," said Wagner.

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Former Norwich City midfielder Adam Forshaw missed Plymouth's last Championship game against Preston through injury, but he could be fit for a return to his old club.

The 32-year-old has been struggling with a pulled hamstring.

Argyle travel to City in the Championship on Good Friday.

Forshaw joined the Canaries last summer on a free transfer from Leeds United but failed to make an impact on David Wagner's side.

He played just nine matches in yellow and green before leaving for Plymouth in January.

Injury has prevented him from regular football at Argyle, where he has made six league starts.

Bali Mumba, another former Canary, will definitely miss the match on Good Friday. He completes a two-match suspension after receiving his 10th booking of the season earlier this month.

Opinion: Webber finally departs.. now the focus can return to City's run-in

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Gary Gowers - My Football Writer, external

I’ll not revisit the words of Stuart Webber. More than enough has been written and spoken about those very badly misjudged comments, and to prolong the debate serves no purpose.

But it didn’t half leave the club in a difficult position.

(You can catch up on his comments about black players, and the reaction to them, here.)

For one, when the interview was given and when the Pink Un piece was published, Webber was technically still on the club’s payroll - I understand he officially departs this week – and doubly awkward was the fact his wife is still the club’s Executive Director.

You can also throw into that same mix the undiluted adoration shown toward Webber by two of the club’s owners – Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones.

To distance themselves from comments made by someone so intrinsically tied to the club was always going to require a tricky balancing act and so, in hindsight, it was unsurprising it took them 48 hours to come up with a form of words sufficiently vague as to not chuck Webber under the bus while also offering support to the players mentioned.

A little wishy-washy it may have been, but in the circumstances, there was no way they were going to come out all guns blazing and condemn Webber’s views in the strongest possible way. Even if they should have.

How could they?

Unfortunately, it was a conundrum of the club’s own making and was one that was only ever a loose-lipped comment away in Webber-world.

In the early part of his Norwich City reign, Webber was a breath of fresh air and nothing, from a pure footballing perspective, should detract from the fine work he did in his first two seasons at the club. He also excelled in 2020-21, when working with Daniel Farke to revamp a squad for another tilt at Championship success.

Alas, in his latter time at Norwich City, when stung by criticism for some of his decision-making, he resembled a loose cannon – taking unnecessary potshots at all those he perceived as critics.

At that point, the club’s hierarchy chose to ignore the damage caused by his firing-from-the-hip style or were oblivious to it. Either way, he was unchecked and given carte blanche by said hierarchy to say and do as he pleased.

Even after his departure was announced, those in power still granted him the freedom of the club and spoke of their hurt at losing someone considered a friend.

So, when the dirty stuff and the fan collided, it’s no surprise that the hand-wringing began.

Hopefully, for all concerned, the final parting of the ways for Stuart Webber and Norwich City will enable the club to now focus on what matters. The next eight games.

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Norwich City midfielder Marcelino Nunez was on the score sheet for Chile on Tuesday night in their international friendly with France.

The 24-year-old, who has scored just one goal in the Championship this season, opened the scoring in Marseilles before the hosts took control of the game and went on to win 3-2.

Nunez played 88 minutes for his national side.

Meanwhile, it was another disappointing night for Angus Gunn and Kenny McLean as Scotland lost 1-0 to Northern Ireland.

Gunn was awarded another start in goal, while midfielder McLean came on as a second half substitute.

Elsewhere, Christos Tzolis and Dimitris Giannoulis will not be going to the Euros this summer. Greece were beaten by Georgia on penalties in their play-off eliminator.

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Ahead of the Championship clash with Plymouth Argyle on Friday, Norwich City midfielder Marcelino Nunez will go toe to toe with one of the best players in the world later.

His Chile side take on France in an international friendly on Tuesday and Nunez could find himself up against Kylian Mbappe (not to mention a number of other world class players).

The Norwich midfielder played more than an hour for his country on Friday in a 3-0 win over Albania.

The international friendly takes place in Marseille.

Elsewhere, Angus Gunn and Kenny McLean could once again see action for Scotland, who host Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, Christos Tzolis is hoping his Greece side can make it to the Euro 2024 Finals. They play Georgia for a place in the tournament in Germany later this summer.

This week's Norwich City podcast 'The Scrimmage' is available now.

On the show hosts Joe Dean and Jack Maclean look back at Norwich City Women's 2-2 draw with QPR at Carrow Road, as well as reaction to former sporting directer Stuart Webber's comments in the paper.

You can listen to the latest episode here.

Following the comments made by former Norwich City sporting director Stuart Webber over the weekend about several black players, BBC Look East took to the streets of Norwich to get some reaction.

Webber has since told the BBC he had contacted the players in question to apologise.

Here's what a few people had to say.

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On this day - 25 March 1999 - Canaries sign Ced

Cedric Anselin joined Norwich on-loan from french side Bordeaux, where he had played in the 1996 UEFA Cup Final.

He joined permanently later that summer for a fee thought to be around £250,000.

Anselin still lives in Norwich and played for a number of non-league clubs once he finished his professional career.

You can sometimes hear him talking about the Canaries on BBC Radio Norfolk.