Canaries starlet Josh Martin has a good luck message for his former team-mates now looking for new clubs in uncertain times.

It’s the time of year when football clubs all over the country, and at many levels, have to make tough decisions on who to keep and who to let go.

City have released seven of their Under-23s players, but Martin is one of the lucky ones.

He stays, with the ink barely dry on a contract extension that ties him to the club until 2023.

Their stories could hardly be more different, but Martin – who joined City from Arsenal in March last year – says there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“I wish all of them good luck as well,” said the 18-year-old. “Being released doesn’t mean your career is over, you just have to keep working, keep fighting.

“That’s one thing that I’ve learned, to keep fighting and never give up.”

Josh Martin on his new dealMartin’s battle is very different - to prove to City boss Daniel Farke that he is capable of following the other young stars like Max Aarons and Todd Cantwell into the first team picture when the Premier League resumes later this month.

“I just have to keep working, keep fighting, because we’re all in the same boat, doing the same thing,” he said.

“To leave Arsenal and come to Norwich was a very difficult period for me because I was at Arsenal my entire life, so it was all new to me.

“I adapted after a while, it took me a long time, it took me a while, but that’s the main thing for me, adapting.

“I feel like that’s the thing I’ve learned the most coming to Norwich because I’ve gone from the youth team, to 23s to the first team in such a short time.”

Martin’s hopes may have been enhanced by Thursday’s Premier League clubs vote to increase the number of substitutes allowed in a match to five for the remainder of the 2019-20 season.

Teams will now be able to have nine substitutes on the bench, the league has confirmed.

It follows a temporary dispensation introduced by the game’s law-making body the International Football Association Board.

Substitutions can only be made at a maximum of three points in a match, to avoid unnecessary delays.