With the City squad preparing to return to pre-season training next week, all eyes will be on any potential new faces and any absent Canary stars with the transfer merry-go-round now in full flow.
But one young starlet will definitely be missing, as full-back Andrew Cave-Brown embarks on the biggest challenge of his career to date.
The Gravesend-born defender is still to make a real impression on City's first-team picture; his big chance came last year when he started a Carling Cup tie at Torquay, but injury cruelly denied him a run of games.
But the 18-year-old was part of the Scotland Under-20 squad that flew out to Canada earlier this week to take part in the upcoming World Cup and the Scots kick off their campaign against Japan on Sunday.
Tommy Wilson's boys are 25-1 outsiders for the tournament but after reaching the Under-19s European Championship final last year, many fancy them as dark horses.
They should at least be able to safely negotiate their qualifying group anyway as after Japan, they face Nigeria and then Costa Rica, and with the top two and best placed third teams progressing from each group, you would be a brave man to predict otherwise.
They certainly have one other national team backing them for glory; Nick Dasovic, the assistant boss of home nation Canada, believes Cave-Brown and Co can go a long way, with the support of the Tartan Army being a major factor.
“Scotland have been drawn in group with Japan, Nigeria and Costa Rica, but having played them and after seeing a few of the other teams, I think the Scots have a good chance of going far, even winning it,” said the 38-year-old, who began his coaching career under Scotland chief Wilson at the SFA in Largs.
“Don't forget they are based in Victoria and they will have a number of Scots supporting them.
“There's a massive Scottish population throughout British Columbia and a lot of British tourists are always in Victoria as it's a beautiful area. So Scotland have that advantage from the very start. The Scots are also a very well organised team which comes down to coaching.
“They have a good coaching staff and I know they will be prepared as well as any team,” Dasovic told the Daily Record.
As for Wilson, you can certainly not accuse him of poor preparation ahead of what will be the biggest moment for some of his young charges in their career so far.
He will be leaving no stone unturned in his quest to put Scotland firmly back on the football map, this is where a certain Muhammed Ali comes in. Confused? Well don't be.
“We make motivational videos for the squad and we use a lot of Muhammad Ali quotes,” Wilson said.
“There's less emphasis on his knockouts and more on his mental approach, the way he psyched himself up and psyched his opponents out, and attention to training that we focus on.
“Ali said that he didn't become a champion in the ring, he became a champion in the gym and our footage concentrates on that. Some of our training sessions are absolutely fierce, albeit in a controlled way.
“We are a strong team without having a group of outstanding individuals like some of the other teams have. Also, we are a bit of an unknown quantity going against teams from other continents, which is something we haven't done before.
“Our game is less technical than theirs, and more reliant on physical strength, but I think we are getting close in terms of technical ability because we are playing more short-sided games.”
Wilson also revealed that there will be strict guidelines for his young players as one and all aspire to bring the World Cup home to Scotland.
Whilst most of their club team mates will have enjoyed a summer jaunt or two with a beer in one hand and a pretty girl in the other, the Under-20 squad have been training hard at Murray Park in Glasgow; and if they fancy their chances of sneaking off for a sly pint in the early rounds, they are sadly mistaken.
“We've set out parameters under which we were going to work and the players have had to agree to them,” Wilson added.
“That means no alcohol for them, even though they're old enough to have a drink. Players have to buy into that. We'll allow them some free time when we're away and we'll try to break things up.
“We made a mistake last year when we reached the finals of the Under-19 European Championships in Poland and kept the drinks ban going.
“There were only ourselves and Spain left and as we walked through town our lads could see the Spanish players, some of them relaxing with their parents, sitting having a beer and wondering why they couldn't have one.
“That's why this time if we get that far, then we'll let them have a couple of drinks to unwind – and if we win it, we'll be forcing them to have a bevvy!”
Tom Haylett
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