Michael Bailey Norwich City academy product Rossi Jarvis has admitted he would be tempted to join up with former team-mate Ian Henderson at Northampton Town - if he does not feature in Glenn Roeder's plans.

Michael Bailey

Norwich City academy product Rossi Jarvis has admitted he would be tempted to join up with former team-mate Ian Henderson at Northampton Town - if he does not feature in Glenn Roeder's plans.

The 20-year-old midfielder has yet to make an appearance since Roeder took charge of the Canaries last November and has been linked with a move to the Cobblers.

There were also reports before this year's transfer window closed in January that City's Coca-Cola Championship rivals Blackpool were interested in making a move for Jarvis, whose contract expires this summer.

And while he would dearly love the club to exercise its one year option and extend his stay at Carrow Road by 12 months, Jarvis knows he may have to prepare for life away from Norwich to play football on a regular basis.

Jarvis, who has made 11 first team appearances for City, said of the recent transfer speculation: “I haven't really heard anything. I'm just concentrating on keeping myself fit and ready to play here. But if that doesn't happen then I'll need to move and I'm ready to do that.

“I speak to him (Henderson) quite a lot. I was on loan at Rotherham with him last year and it's a decent club, so it would interest me. My ideal aim is to stay at Norwich but I'm getting to the age where I need to play regular football and if I don't get that at Norwich, I would have to look elsewhere. And I'm willing to drop a level now to come back up later, if it means playing regularly.”

Ryan Jarvis, Rossi's older brother, was shipped out on loan to League Two Notts County by Roeder at the end of January, with his own Carrow Road deal also set to expire in June.

And with Rossi following his brother's progress closely, he admitted following in his footsteps and having the opportunity to get a run of games under his belt is appealing.

“He's enjoying playing football week in, week out and he feels a lot sharper,” said Rossi Jarvis. “Ideally he wanted to stay at Championship or League One level but he's just happy to be playing football. If you're on the fringes of the first team and if you do break through, you're not really sharp and you struggle to do yourself justice.

“He's just enjoying his football a lot more. He had a couple of chances here but it's hard to make a great impression when you're not sharp, so ideally that's what I want to do to further my chances.”

While it seems he could go the same way as his older brother come the summer, Rossi has no complaints with the way Roeder has treated him, despite his own frustrations.

“The club have got a year's option and I've talked to the gaffer but nothing is finalised. He's been fine with me. We've had chats over the time he's been here and obviously he felt he needed to go and bring in some new players.

“It's been frustrating for me, I would be lying if I said it wasn't, but that's part and parcel of football. All I have got to do is knuckle down and if he doesn't think I'm going to make the grade, then I'll be moving on and playing my football somewhere else.”