DEFENDER POISED TO JOIN
Posted on: Fri 17 Jun 2011
CITY can confirm the signing of Manchester United defender Ritchie De Laet on a season-long loan, subject to the relevant paperwork being completed.
On securing the services of the 22-year-old, City boss Paul Lambert said: "He'll be great for us. He's young and one of his main strengths is pace and he comes from a great Club where he's played first team football.
"He'll come in and help the other lads out. He's played a lot of first team games out on loan last season and I'm sure he'll do great for us."
Although primarily a central defender he is also comfortable playing full-back where he impressed on his first team debut for the Reds at left-back in a 1-0 win at Hull City on the final day of the 2008/09 season.
He has made five further first-team appearances for United, in Carling Cup wins over Wolves, Barnsley and Tottenham, plus Premier League starts against Wolves and Fulham. The Reds kept clean sheets in four of those five games.
The Belgian player signed for United in January 2009 after joining from Stoke City having arrived at the Britannia Stadium two years earlier from Royal Antwerp. He also spent a short loan spell at Wrexham during his time at the Potteries.
De Laet has been a prominent member of United's Reserves where he was part of the squad that won the Torneo Calcio Memorial Claudio Sassi-Sassuolo in April 2009. De Laet featured in three of United's five games in Italy and converted a penalty in the semi-final shoot-out win over FC Modena. The Reds later beat Ajax 1-0 in the final to secure the trophy.
He has also been recognised with the Denzel Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Season award for 2009-10.
The defender will be familiar to Canary fans having plied his trade in the npower Championship last season with loan spells at Sheffield United, Preston and most recently Portsmouth. The Belgian played right-back for Pompey against City when they won automatic promotion to the Barclays Premier League at Fratton Park on May 2.
A regular at Under-21 level he won his first senior cap for Belgium in their Kirin Cup match against Chile in May 2009.
There is no recall clause on this loan deal.
De Laet told canaries.co.uk exclusively: "I'm really pleased to be able to continue my development as a young player with Norwich, where the manager has given me this chance to come in and fight for a place in the Norwich team.
"I know it's going to be very tough because the lads there have done really really well and it's going to be a big challenge to get into a team which is really used to winning and is a great, tight-knit group.
"The fans there are great as well. I remember that game at Portsmouth when Norwich went up and the fans were superb. You could see how much it meant to them and to the Club to get back into the Premier League after some difficult years.
"I took a look at the fixtures when they came out this morning and I'm sure everybody can't wait to get going. Every game will be very tough and competitive, that's what the Premier League is all about.
"I'm looking forward to joining in with pre-season training and getting to know the rest of the lads as we all start getting down to some serious work and then the friendlies before the Premier League starts."
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