Jack Stacey says Norwich City’s players can’t afford to write off a season even amid talk of long-term transition.

The Canaries have embarked on a new project under Johannes Hoff Thorup, with the aim to achieve Premier League sustainability at Carrow Road.

The Dane’s assistant Glen Riddersholm has set a three-year target for when he expects to be promoted to the top flight, claiming that doing so in 2027 would be making par, while much of the focus among fans has been on patience.

But experienced full-back Stacey, whose contract runs until 2026, says the short career of a footballer leaves no room for focusing solely on the bigger picture.

"Of course you never want to write a season off just to transition," he told the Pink Un. "You accept that the club has longer-term plans, and of course that's how a well-run club should be, but some people are talking as if we should just sacrifice this season and look forward.

"I don't think we should do that. We've gone to places and matched good teams, so I see no reason why we can't achieve a little bit sooner than maybe others think."

The drastic change from David Wagner's tactics to Thorup's has been part of that transition debate, and Stacey admits there are elements of the new setup that City are still getting to grips with.

He and his defensive colleagues are keen to iron out errors at their end, however, having conceded 14 times in their last seven fixtures.

"I think when you lose games it's never a positive thing," he continued. "But you just have to believe in what we're trying to build in terms of the style of play.

"Every style of play is going to have its pros and cons, and I think if you want to be an expansive football team that keeps the ball and scores goals like we have then sometimes you can be caught in transition.

"We've played good teams as well, so we've scored against them and they've scored against us. We have a lot of defensive meetings, and we don't want to concede goals. It's something we'll try and improve going forwards."