THE ink was barely dry on Dion Dublin's new one-year contract, but the veteran was already plotting success for the Canaries next season.

And the 38-year-old said the Norwich needed to ditch their "nice" image and discover a nasty streak to win promotion back to the Premiership.

In short, Carrow Road was becoming too easy a ground to visit in the opinion of the former England man. And City would need to get ruthless if they had any intention of making a promotion charge in August.

"And what we need to do is to turn Norwich City round as a club, as a bunch of fans and as a team," he said.

"We need to make Norwich City Football Club a fortress. We don't want to make it a pretty place to come and play. We need to make it a place that people do not want to come and play - because it's hard, because they get a hard time, because they are a hard team to play against, because the fans don't stop singing. We need that at Norwich City in order to go forward.

"Everything about Norwich City is 'nice'. We need to get rid of that 'nice' tag and become a little more horrible."

Dublin makes a fair point. Last season the Canaries lost eight times on home soil, a poor return for a Club which has previously built its success on solid foundations at Carrow Road.

But Dublin said he honestly believed the team could achieve great things next season, and would not have signed on the dotted line if he thought otherwise.

"The manager spoke to me lots last season on a one-to-one basis and he was telling me what he wanted to do and what his plans were and that he wanted me to stay, and at 37, 38, for a manager to want you to stay and for the whole club to want you to stay, I must have done something right," he said.

"Everything the manager has said to me and I've said to the manager, hopefully it will spark a good reaction to the football club, and I think we can do something. I'm not signing just to have a middle of the road season as an individual.

"I'm not signing to have a middle of the road season as a team. I'm signing hopefully to help the team get some silverware this season."