Ex-Canaries defender and former Norway team boss �ge Hareide has admitted the vacant City post is an exciting prospect. The 55-year-old resigned as Norwegian national coach in December but revealed he had not received an official approach from the club where he played 54 times during a two-year spell in the early 1980s.

Ex-Canaries defender and former Norway team boss �ge Hareide has admitted the vacant City post is an exciting prospect.

The 55-year-old resigned as Norwegian national coach in December but revealed he had not received an official approach from the club where he played 54 times during a two-year spell in the early 1980s.

"This is very fresh, and I have not been in contact with Norwich. At the same time, it is a very exciting job," he told website Aftenbladet.no.

"Although it is a long time since I played there, I know the people in and around the club well. I've been over many times as a guest after I left the club, but now we will see what happens. It is guaranteed that many names will be mentioned in relation to the job."

Hareide was reported to have been interviewed by the Canaries in October 2006, after Nigel Worthington was sacked, and to have made the short list before Peter Grant was appointed.

"I have talked with them earlier, but then it was bad timing. We had just finished the World Cup qualifiers and were starting with qualification for the European Championships," he said.

"I have an agent working to examine options for me. In principle, I do not intend to take on a new job until after the summer, but if something interesting appears before that time, it could be earlier."

Meanwhile, former Canaries boss Dave Stringer has warned City's hierarchy that the club desperately needs a period of stability to halt the recent decline.

Stringer - part of the selection panel which appointed Glenn Roeder in October 2007 - said he could understand why the board had reached their decision.

"It is not ideal, to have had three managers in so short a space of time," he said. "I am quite sad to see that happen, because stability is needed at that football club.

"But if the team is not playing well on the pitch, then this is what is going to happen. Sometimes you need to stick with things if you can and get through the hard times.

"I think you have to be loyal to the manager you have appointed and give them every support you can. I feel the circumstances at Carrow Road have become so difficult for the managers to get that support, so it is a very difficult job.

"I think most people would find it hard to operate under those circumstances in terms of not having the resources to get the players they needed and that's a position I never found myself in.

"I came in at a time when Norwich had only had a few managers in 20 years and that sort of stability is what is missing now."

Stringer, who succeeded Ken Brown as Carrow Road boss in 1987 and led Norwich to fourth place in the old First Division and two FA Cup semi-finals before he made way for Mike Walker in 1992, believed Roeder had been unlucky with injuries.

"He hasn't had a settled back four all season," said Stringer. "Dejan Stefanovic and John Kennedy looked to be forming a good partnership, but then they both got injured.

"When you have that sort of thing happening you've lost the backbone of your team. It doesn't help when you have different players coming in and out of the side because they don't get the chance to form an understanding."

Stringer insisted City's playing squad should shoulder some of the blame.

"The responsibility of the players is to go on the pitch and give their all to the game," he said. "They have to show passion to play the game and you have to wonder if that happened in the game against Charlton."