AFTER three Academy youngsters signed their professional contracts with City earlier this week, Academy Manager Ricky Martin says he hopes there'll be more to come.

David Stephens, Dario Dumic and Sam Habergham put pen to paper, securing their professional places with the Canaries. Talking to canaries.co.uk, Martin said he was thrilled for the young trio.

"I'm absolutely delighted," he said. "And then, all we need is for them to progress on into the first team squad so we're halfway there. The three of them - David, Dario and Sam - join Tom Adeyemi now, and in that year group we've got four players.

"That's a real achievement, and it's certainly the highest amount we've ever had at the start of a season. For the remaining five players in that year group, I'm sure they'll all be eager to join them, and I feel there is potential for further professional signings from the rest of that year group.

"We've got eight new scholars too, and they're taking on their new life as a footballer. They've gone from two evenings a week training to every day training - one thing the new intake always bring is freshness and excitement, and high energy levels because it's all new to them."

With the Academy fixture list recently announced, Martin was asked how he felt looking ahead: "I'm looking forward to the season ahead, we're now back to training and the fixtures came out yesterday too. It's always nice to know who we're playing, and we have a trip to Leeds United the first game of the season, and then we're playing Barnsley at home the following weekend.

"The lads are physically very fit, and it's a strong group too. As well as our pre-season games, we have a trip to Holland which we're looking forward to. It's a tournament of a high pedigree, and it includes high intensity matches over a short period of time. It's a competition as well, so it brings teamwork and team bonding, so it should be a great experience all round."

The 2009-10 season will see City return to the reserve team league - something which the Academy manager says can only benefit his players. He commented: "I expect the majority of the team to be made up of the Under-18 squad, so the Reserves will certainly benefit the Academy.

"I'm working closely with Ian Crook too, so the lads will benefit from working with him, and I'm sure they'll take advantage of all the information Ian passes on to them."

After his fledgling Canaries reached the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup last year, Martin added he hopes for similar, if not better, success this season: "I'd like to see a repeat of last year's success, if not one better - being in the semi-final would be a tremendous achievement.

"We understand we're going to have to work even harder this year as we're coming in to the Cup earlier due to the first team's status. We know it's going to be tough, and we know teams will be aware we got to the quarter-final last year so they'll be wanting to get one over us. We'll deal with that, we'll see what the draw is and take each game as it comes."