David Wagner admits Jordan Hugill’s future is unclear at Norwich City with the striker not part of his plans. 

Hugill was left out of the matchday squad for the 4-0 Championship romp at Preston and was recently linked with a January exit to Reading. 

The 30-year-old is out of contract this summer and yet to make a league start under Wagner or previous head coach Dean Smith this season. 

Wagner made it clear before the trip to Deepdale Teemu Pukki, Josh Sargent and Adam Idah will battle it out for two starting spots in his promotion battleplan. 

“I had a chat with Jordan (on Friday) and I really like what I've seen,” said the City head coach. “He is exactly the type of striker I love, who shows so much passion on the grass. But in our idea, and in our formation, you normally only play with two strikers. We can do that and I will normally only name three for the squad.

"The three we had in this squad are the three. They are top players. And, unfortunately, there is no space for a fourth one. And I don't know what this means for the future. But I think it's important that everybody is on the same page. And this is why I had this conversation with Jordan.” 

Wagner said after Saturday’s game there was no further update on Todd Cantwell’s pending exit, with fresh reports in Scotland at the weekend claiming he could sign a three year deal at Rangers in the coming days. 

The City chief is still assessing his current squad before weighing up if Norwich will need to do any late January window signings. 

Wagner’s decision to name Tim Krul in place of Angus Gunn was the main pre-match headline from his first league starting line up. 

Krul made two key stops early in the second half to secure a clean sheet in his first league action since early October. 

“Every manager, on one side, will tell you he loves if he has depth in the squad. But obviously this sometimes gives you some big decisions to make,” said Wagner. “I had clear, honest conversations with both of them. But this conversation will stay between us.

"Obviously, we have two very, very good goal keepers. And for this game I made the decision that Tim stays in the goal again. Sometimes you cannot really explain in detail, sometimes it's more a gut feeling from everything what you've seen and the emotions which you feel.  

“At the end of the day, I think we can be very happy in our football club that we have two very good people."