Grant Holt has revealed he would have loved to play in a team managed by Daniel Farke and the Norwich City legend also hopes to one day follow in the German’s footsteps as the club’s head coach.
The former Canaries striker broke up his lockdown time at home with the family to hold a Q&A on his @HoltyGrant Instagram account with fans from his former clubs, including Shrewsbury Town, Nottingham Forest, Hibernian, Rochdale and King’s Lynn Town.
While also keeping things light when revealing he has switched from lager to gin and tonics as he tries to keep the calories down and keep fit, that Ozark is his Netflix series of choice at the moment and that he’s growing his hair because he doesn’t want his wife to cut it, Holt took plenty of questions from City fans - and couldn’t resist aiming a few barbs in the direction of Ipswich Town.
Asked if he would have liked to play in the attacking style which Farke has deployed during his time in charge of City, Holt replied: “Absolutely! Staying in the middle of the pitch, fantastic wingers, fantastic players bombing up and down, slipping things in the box ready for you to tap it in - it does not get any better than that as a centre-forward.”
Holt scored 78 goals in 168 games for the Canaries between 2009 and 2013, becoming the first player to win the Barry Butler Memorial Trophy in three successive years when he was voted player of the season in each of his first three campaigns with the club.
He sits sixth in the club’s all-time goal-scorers list and is now a club ambassador and part-time academy coach, still playing locally for Wroxham at 39 years old, having also enjoyed a stint as a wrestler in between media work and releasing his autobiography last year.
Asked if he hopes to move into management, Holt said: “Yes, I do. Coaching, management, that’s what I want to be, that’s where I want to go, that’s my steps and I’m doing everything behind the scenes to get there.”
So does he see himself as a future Norwich manager?
“Eventually. At some point, it would be fantastic if I could do that - but that’s a long, long way off,” he replied.
“I’m worrying about getting to where I need to be at the moment and we’ll see where we’re going to be after that.”
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Would he follow in his old manager Paul Lambert’s footsteps and cross the divide to take charge at Ipswich though?
The answer was simple: “No, I wouldn’t.”
Holt became a nemesis of the Tractor Boys for his talismanic efforts as City did the double over their bitter rivals during the 2010-11 Championship season, winning 4-1 at home and 5-1 away.
Asked if he enjoyed scoring against Ipswich more than his superb headed equaliser at Anfield in the Premier League after coming on as a substitute, he replied: “Hat-trick all day long, nothing better than beating your rivals, nothing better than slamming your rivals 4-1 at home and scoring a hat-trick - then going away and beating them 5-1, nothing better!”
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Holt’s successful spell with City came to an end when, having scored 15 goals in the Premier League during Lambert’s final season, just eight followed in another mid-table season in the top flight after Chris Hughton’s arrival.
He insists there was no bad blood though, saying: “I got on with Chris, he’s a fantastic guy, you can’t not get on with Chris Hughton!
“He’s a great guy, a great manager, he just didn’t fit what I wanted to do and I probably didn’t fit what he wanted to do - but we had a great relationship in terms of captain and manager.
“There were never any cross words or anything, it’s just his style of play didn’t suit what I wanted to do.”
The former Canaries captain also had words of praise for current City skipper Grant Hanley, when asked if he would come out on top of an on-pitch battle with the Scot.
Holt said: “That’s a good battle, Grant’s a good player, very underestimated, of how well he does and how difficult an opponent he is to get past.
“I think there’s a lot of people that look at Grant and don’t give him the respect that he deserves.”
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