Harry Toffolo has praised Norwich City’s faith in young players this season, despite it contributing to the end of his long association with the Canaries.

The left-back was allowed to leave for Millwall in January 2018, after returning from a League One loan spell at Doncaster and following the emergence of Jamal Lewis.

He didn’t feature for the Lions so joined Lincoln City on a free last summer and is enjoying a fine season with the League Two leaders, with eight assists and two goals to his name from 42 appearances in all competitions.

“I’ve got massive respect for what Daniel (Farke) has done with the youth players,” Toffolo said. “Max (Aarons), Jamal, Todd Cantwell – they are all lads I played with and they’ve suddenly just shone.

“I trained with them in the under-21s and could see the ability. We all knew that they’d probably be the ones who came through.

“But you’ve got to seize the opportunity and they absolutely have. To make the impact they have is testament to them and to the academy at Norwich.

“Do I ever think ‘what if?’ – no, I’ve never lived my life like that. In professional football, there are probably a thousand other people gunning for your spot.

“Young lads coming through, players out of contract – all of them would love to be in my position now. I’m just immensely grateful to be playing football, and at a great club.”

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City’s 2013 FA Youth Cup winner has helped the Imps move within reach of a return to the third tier for the first time in 20 years.

“If you go round and look at our facilities, it’s a Championship football club,” Toffolo told the Football League Paper, ahead of last night’s derby at Mansfield.

“The training ground, the stadium, the management team. We get over 9,000 consistently at home games. We’ll take 3,000 to away games, if they’ll give us the allocation.

“You look in the Premier League and Bournemouth are averaging what, 10,000 this season? I think Lincoln would get far more than that. It’s a club that deserves to be further up but to achieve that we have to focus on one job at a time.”