Tom Smith has praised Mark Attanasio's early influence at Norwich City. 

Attanasio was voted onto City's board of directors back in September after acquiring Michael Foulger's shareholding in the club.

The American is set to gain further influence in due course after the club's shareholders voted in favour of creating new shares back in February, with the 65-year-old expected to acquire at least the vast majority of the 194,512 made available. 

Smith has a seat at the top table and has witnessed the American's impact at Norwich firsthand, as well as holding excitement for how the relationship will grow further in the future. 

"It has been fantastic that Mark and his team have come on board," Smith told the Canaries Trust's Stewart Lewis. 

"I have always said that any good football club should always be looking for opportunities to change, invest in itself, develop, and learn new things, and that’s precisely what Mark’s arrival has heralded – as well as a financial investment that has involved him taking a share of the Club.

"Other aspects of Mark’s relationship with the Club are perhaps less visible, but equally as valuable.

"So quite a number of our team here have already been out to Milwaukee to meet with their counterparts, see what we can learn from that sport and the development that has taken place there, part of that continuous drive to learn new things, to grow, to develop, to innovate. We look forward to that partnership continuing with Mark."

Since arriving at Norwich with a background in Major League Baseball with the Milwaukee Brewers, Attanasio and his team have made active efforts to enrich themselves in all facets of the club.

The Pink Un: Tom Smith has spoke glowingly about Mark Attanasio. Tom Smith has spoke glowingly about Mark Attanasio. (Image: Newsquest.)

Smith is keen to explore the untapped potential of the partnership moving forwards.

"I think what’s been absolutely fantastic about Mark since he joined is how much he has been willing to, and really keen to, listen and learn and understand what Norwich City is: who we are, what the culture is, who the people are, a genuinely open-minded approach to the introduction," Smith said. 

"He is really keen to take that understanding to the next level. I think if you look at what Mark has built at The Brewers in Milwaukee, there are so many similarities with Norwich, particularly around the connection to the community, that I think will only mean that Mark is really well attuned to the sort of Club that we feel we are."

Smith has been a City board member since 2016, working closely with majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones during that time. 

"I have always said that my involvement in Norwich City has only ever really been for two reasons," he said. 

"The first is to do whatever I can to support Delia and Michael, who have been such wonderful custodians of this football club and who are obviously people who are very dear to me.

"And the second is that I absolutely adore this football club and I want to do anything I can to help it grow and develop. They are my only two motivations in my role here and will continue to be so."

Stewart Lewis of the Canaries Trust was invited to City's Colney training centre recently for a wide ranging chat on a series of topics.

The full interview is available to read exclusively for Trust members.

More details on joining the Canaries Trust are available here.