Norwich City Under-18s coach Greg Crane says his side are looking forward to the new season, ahead of Saturday's opening fixture against Leicester City.
The Under-18s host Leicester at the Lotus Training Centre as they begin their Under-18 Premier League South campaign.
"I'm really looking forward to the new season," Crane says. "It's been a good pre-season, lots of ups and downs.
"It's been really good for the new group of players, it's a new intake and they're all still settling in, but I'm sure they're as excited as me to get going into the new season and play some competitive games.
"The new scholars are a lively group, they've mixed well with the second year scholars. There's a good mix of different positions, different types of players, and a good variety. It's probably the first time we've taken this many on.
"It'll be interesting to see how they all compete for places, when they're playing and when they're not. It'll be an interesting season for them."
The Canaries claimed wins against Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic and Diss Town in pre-season, but ended on a defeat against Wolves.
"It was all good preparation. We played a men's team, then against Charlton, and we played Ipswich and that's always a competitive game. Both sides are category two sides.
"Then we played Wolves, which was a different type of game. Obviously not in our league but at the same level, another category one side who we can compete with.
"It was a real good variety of teams I felt. It was a shame we couldn't get our game during our tour in Slovenia due to the weather, but we've been working on how we want to play, how we want to press, I think they've had a good go at it.
"And they're obviously not going to completely get it in the first five or six weeks, it's going to take time and patience."
The Canaries host Leicester, and Crane is expecting a good and competitive game against the Foxes.
"We played Leicester at the back of last season with a young squad, and they're always a competitive side. It's always a good game against them.
"We always like to compete, so hopefully the lads do that. They need to show the right mentality, and make sure our intensity and game-management is right, then try to take the game to Leicester. But they'll be the exact same thing to us, so we need to be prepared for that as well."
Live updates from this game will be on our Academy Twitter account (@NorwichCityAcad).