David Wagner had his say on some of the key squad issues around Norwich City's Championship trip to Preston.

Wagner spoke to the media at Colney on Friday ahead of his opening league game in charge of the Canaries.

The City futures of Todd Cantwell, Isaac Hayden and Bali Mumba were discussed, along with his latest thoughts on the rest of the club's January transfer window.

This is what Wagner had to say on the following topics.

Cantwell

I think there is no secret, he will not be involved, for sure, he is having conversations with clubs. I think it makes sense that he takes his time now in this window and we will see after the window how everything progresses.

But I think at the minute this is where his focus is on, and this is totally okay. (If you lost Cantwell, would you have to replace him?) I said earlier this week, you can't have an overview when you come in new. I have to assess everything. I'm in daily conversation with Stuart (Webber). Our doors are side by side. But give me some time to get an overview, and to think what will be best for the rest of the season, in terms of the squad.

Everybody has a chance to impress in every training session, every game, every minute in the game. Then afterwards, we have to make the best decisions. But this is too early to decide anything right now. 

Hayden

From the contract situation there is no chance to cancel this loan. And in terms of his injury, I met Isaac on Thursday. He had a surgery on his knee and at the minute it's not really clear to predict 100pc how long it will take, but it looks like at the minute we will have to assess it every four to eight weeks.

It looks like that for the last games of the season he can be ready to be back on the grass. Hopefully, we have more than only the 20 league games in front of us.

So this is why we decided, okay, we try everything to get him healthy and fit as soon as possible, because maybe this can be the final push which we need at the end of the season. And this is how we wanted to deal with Isaac Hayden now moving into the future. 

Tzolis

It was great that I was able to meet him (the Greek winger was back at his parent club recently to continue his rehab after a knee injury). So he trained with us once because he was in the building when I arrived but, unfortunately, there is no clause in the contract that we can call it back (in January).

This means he will stay at Twente until the end of the season and hopefully he gets a lot of minutes and good games under his belt. 

Mumba

Obviously his name has been mentioned and I’ve seen some clips of him as well. At the minute my first impression of our full backs is good, is very good. It only makes sense if we call him back that he gets the game time.

If he can't get it with us for the second half of the season, then we have to make sure to think about would recalling him be the right move?

Or should he progress how he has done so far, and he's done great. More minutes, more good games, maybe winning a promotion as well, which is always crucial for a young lad. So we will think about this and especially Stuart will make a good and smart decision on him as well. 

Incomings or outgoings this month?

Listen, it's football. Nobody knows what happens in the next three weeks. Hopefully, everybody stays healthy. Maybe Real Madrid ask for one of our players and we have to sell. Nobody knows. Let's calm down, we all together know that in the transfer window nobody knows what happens.

What I can say is what I've seen in the first week makes me very positive. We have players who are open minded to try to get my message on board. They don't do everything right, this is correct, but they can't. But they have the willingness to try it. And now we have to see who is able to adapt, how quickly, and hopefully all of them can do it very quick.

And then we have to see what happens in the next two or three weeks. I like to leave this very open.

Good for you guys. Every press conference you can ask me the same question.

But at the end of the day, everything what I say now, if I rule anything out or not, it looks like this is not serious. And I like to keep it serious.