Daniel Farke has bad news for Norwich City’s rivals. Max Aarons is only getting started on the eve of his 100th appearance for the club.

Aarons is poised to clock up the milestone in Wednesday’s Championship game against Nottingham Forest just under a month before his 21st birthday.

The attacking full-back was tracked by Barcelona and a posse of Europe’s elite during the summer after emerging as one of the best prospects in the land.

“Max is outstanding in many topics. I can’t praise him enough for what he has done since his first appearance,” said Farke, who handed Aarons a league debut in an East Anglian derby at Ipswich Town in 2018. “When you have the clubs interested in him who were interested it is easy to lose the ground under the feet.

"Maybe you think you know everything about football. He is always looking to work harder. Never ill, never injured. If the best clubs in the world are interested then maybe there is not that much more space to improve.

"But he knows he can work a bit more on his assists and end product, like in the last game. I think he can be more of an offensive threat for us. You watch some of our games now and the opponents go man-for-man on him.

"That is crazy for a player who is a full-back but it says a lot about his reputation.”

Aarons is now a leader in this City set-up.

“In my eyes he is not the young Max Aarons, he is just a special player and he has an unbelievable future,” said Farke. “I know he has been labelled as one of the best young players in this league. Well I told him we can reject this label now because he is no longer one of the best young players, he is one of the best players.

"When you are close to 100 appearances you are already an experienced lad. He is so young and he has to improve, and he will, but what he has done in the past two years is amazing. I cannot praise him enough.

"The good thing with him is he can handle this praise. He is also a player who never gets annoyed when I have to criticise or ask him to do something else. For me it is not just what he has done on the pitch. It is his development as a person. He is so balanced and level-headed.

"So humble. I remember he played in the derby and produced a fantastic performance and from this moment he has more or less grown on a daily basis.”