Norwich City legend Grant Holt believes an immediate impact is needed to salvage survival hopes, from whoever ends up being appointed the Canaries’ new head coach.

Frank Lampard had been one of the candidates to hold talks with City sporting director Stuart Webber but national media outlets with sources close to the Chelsea legend’s camp revealed that the former England midfielder had dropped out of the running.

Former Aston Villa boss Dean Smith is believed to be one of the candidates to have held talks about succeeding Daniel Farke but Canaries fans are having to be patient for the white smoke to emerge from Carrow Road.

“There’s always that chance in the Premier League, we’ve seen it happen quickly, it can soon change,” said former Norwich skipper Holt.

“Someone has got to come in and get a bounce straight away, they’ve got to get the players believing and getting a little bit of confidence.

“I think the trouble with Daniel, in the end, was they did it last time in the Premier League and went down with a whimper. They didn’t want that to happen this time.

“Whoever goes in there has got a big job to do to try and turn it around because, yes, they are in trouble. If they can do that, fantastic, if not, they’ll have to try and build all over again.

“If we did go down and Daniel was still there, do you give him a chance, because we know his pedigree to get us out of the Championship? So I think that was a problem that the club had and I think they acted at the right time.”

Smith was Holt’s captain at Sheffield Wednesday during his playing days. At the time of speaking, in an interview with Sky Sports, Lampard was still in the race and the former striker had said there were “two good options” being talked about.

The 40-year-old, who scored 78 goals in 168 matches for Norwich, stressed that City would need a head coach who could build on Farke’s development of youth into big-money sales.

“The whole club ethos is about developing players and bringing them through, look how successful they’ve been in the last few years at bringing them through,” he continued.

“That is a big part of what it’s going to be and I’m that is the process that the club is thinking about, they’re not just going to appoint someone for the first team staying up, there needs to be a whole development plan.

“If you look at what Norwich have done over the last few years, it’s all about development and having a plan to move forward.

“The club has had its critics for how they try to do stuff but in terms of where they are and what they’re trying to do behind the scenes, they’re in a good place and whoever gets the job will be going into a place that’s ready to move on.”

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