Norwich City manager Peter Grant hopes the change of management at Fulham will not bring Tony Warner's loan spell with the Canaries to a premature end.

Norwich City manager Peter Grant hopes the change of management at Fulham will not bring Tony Warner's loan spell with the Canaries to a premature end.

Fulham chairman Mohammad Al Fayed has brought in Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez until the end of the season in place of Chris Coleman after the Cottagers slipped to just four points off the Premiership relegation zone.

And Grant hopes that when Sanchez looks at his goalkeeping options he will decide to let Warner see out his loan period with Norwich.

With the City boss already facing an injury crisis the last thing Grant wants is to have his first choice goalkeeper plucked away from his already threadbare squad.

When asked whether Sanchez's appointment will affect Warner's City future, Grant said: “I hope not. It depends when the new manager comes in what he thinks of his goalkeeper. But we're hoping that Tony will stay with us for the remainder of the season.

“But obviously we know how things have changed and that would probably be the icing on the cake.”

Antti Niemi is likely to remain Fulham's first choice keeper but should anything happen to the Finland international then Sanchez only has the inexperienced Jan Lastuvka to turn to. The Czech goalkeeper is on loan from Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk and Sanchez could decide that Warner offers better cover for Niemi and recall him back to Craven Cottage, leaving Grant with Paul Gallacher as his only senior goalkeeper at Carrow Road.

Meanwhile, City transfer target Neil Alexander has admitted he will be leaving Cardiff City in the summer after failing to agree a new contract.

Grant has identified the 29-year-old as a possible solution to his goalkeeping problems after using five different 'keepers since taking over in October.

Alexander revealed last week how he was “flattered” to be linked with Norwich and his failure to agree a new deal with the Bluebirds appears to pave the way for a move to Carrow Road.

Alexander said: “I won't be a Cardiff City player next season. The club offered me a contract, but we couldn't agree on it.

“They gave me until March 31 to sign it. Unfortunately, things didn't work out. That date has gone, they've withdrawn the contract now, so I'll be leaving in the summer. I don't really want to go into too much detail about what went wrong, it's just one of those things.

“Unfortunately they offered me something and I just didn't feel it was the right contract for me at this moment in time.”

Alexander admits he doesn't know yet where he will be playing next season but refused to rule anything out.

“I haven't got anything else lined up at the minute, I'm just concentrating now on playing the rest of the season,” he added.

“When the summer comes, my focus will move elsewhere with the emphasis being on finding another club. I'm not ruling anything out whether it be England, Scotland or even abroad, I don't know yet.

“But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. At the minute I'm just concentrating on doing my best for Cardiff City.

“But my time here is up and there'll be new adventures elsewhere for me now.”