City boss Bryan Gunn is keeping his powder dry on the captaincy front as the Canaries racked up their second 1-0 tour win of the week this afternoon over Scottish Premier League opponents St Johnstone.
The on-trial Serbian striker Goran Maric grabbed the game's only goal midway through the first period to continue City's perfect start to pre-season; four games, four wins; 13 goals for, just two against.
In that same period, the City chief has already employed three skippers – new-boy Matt Gill for the trip to Fakenham, Gary Doherty at Dartford and again today and Michael Nelson for opening tour clash against Raith Rovers on Tuesday night.
Today and Gunn told reporters that he would wait on making his final decision a while longer.
“The captaincy has not been decided as yet,” he said. “Michael Nelson was brought in for his leadership qualities, there's no doubt about that, and he was captain at Hartlepool.
“Matt Gill in the middle of the park is another who showed good leadership qualities, so it's a case of seeing the boys with the armband on and making a decision. The more leaders we have on the pitch next season the better.”
In part, Gunn's delay might be down to seeing just who of his centre-half options is likely to start the more games.
This afternoon and it was the turn of Doherty and Danish triallist Jens Berkel Askou to post a second clean sheet of the tour following the similar feat by Messrs Nelson and Stephens at Stark's Park.
Gill remained among the unused substitutes; David Stephens' Youth team pal at centre-half Dario Dumic had to settle for a second-half outing at right-back as Jon Otsemobor returned to his usual haunts for the first 52 minutes of the contest.
With the recovering Dejan Stefanovic still to be factored into his plans and a decision to be made on the 6ft 4in Dane Askou, if Gunn's decision is narrowing down to either Nelson or the long-serving Doherty, it could simply be down to which of the two gets the starting nod.
The impressive summer form of Academy starlet Stephens could have put something of a cat among the pigeons; perhaps a Nelson-Doherty combination at the heart of that Canary defence isn't such a shoe-in as many might have expected.
The one downside to the week's second, 1-0 success was the 18th minute exit of Cody McDonald who limped off to be replaced by the on-trial Serb.
A handful against Raith, the former Barcelona B striker strengthened his case for a contract with the game's only goal in the 28th minute; slipping the ball beneath the advancing keeper after springing clear of the St Johnstone rearguard.
Fellow triallists Michael Bridges and Chris Craig also earning the chance to impress, Gunn continues to have plenty to ponder.
But with two wins and two clean sheets to his name, his ponderings are likely to be of the more positive variety.
“I'm very pleased,” the City chief told the club's official site afterwards.
“Certainly very pleased with the attitude of the players and the commitment that they've shown today.
“We got a few bumps and knocks, but nothing too serious and – hopefully – we'll get them out on the training pitch recovered and ready for Saturday's game at Airdrie.”
In the meantime, Gunn has confirmed that Preston winger Simon Whaley was moving ever closer to becoming his fifth signing of the summer.
Fee agreed with the Deepdale club, it was now a question of just getting the the Bury-born winger to put pen to paper.
“Yes, we've been speaking to Preston about securing his signature,” Gunn told BBC Radio Norfolk. “They've given us permission to speak to Simon so we're delighted about that.
“We want to make sure that Simon wants to come to Norwich City, first and foremost. But he's a player that I've admired over a number of years and if we do acquire his services, he's somebody that would add something extra to the squad that we're developing at the moment.”
Whether he will sign in time to feature in Saturday's third and final tour game against Airdrie is another matter.
“Simon has asked for some time to think about the offer, but hopefully the positive talks that have gone on already will come to fruition.”
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