Nor even Daniel Farke, who made the likes of Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis the cornerstones of his first Championship title success in 2019, and then added Ben Godfrey and Todd Cantwell to the mix.

Youth was also at the heart of City’s 1985 Milk Cup Wembley success against Sunderland. A quartet of starters that day, Paul Haylock, Mark Barham, Peter Mendham and Louie Donowa, all progressed through the junior ranks.

Ken Brown was the beneficiary but City’s League Cup winning boss credited the role of John Sainty in turning Norwich’s youth set-up into one of the best in the region.

Sainty, along with Brown, was part of John Bond’s coaching team before following Bond to Manchester City in 1980 – a move which saw Brown then move centre stage at Carrow Road.

The former Tottenham Hotspur schoolboy died in April 2023, but his life in football has been turned into a book: ‘Last Man Standing’.

Sainty’s enduring success in Norfolk could be measured in the club winning the 1983 FA Youth Cup, as well as the backbone of the side who achieved that special Wembley feat two years later.

Ahead of Monday's 40th anniversary of that famous day, Sainty described in his own words how he helped build such a legacy.

John Sainty's youth development work in the John Bond era paid dividends in Norwich City's 1985 Milk Cup Wembley win (Image: Pitch Publishing)
At the age of 28, I joined John Bond and Ken Brown at Norwich City, to set up........

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