Philippe Clement believes his Norwich City squad is stronger and deeper after the summer transfer window closed.
The Canaries ended the period with five new additions and saw 12 leave as they sought to equip Clement with a squad capable of challenging towards the top end of the Championship table.
Andre Brooks was the headline arrival while Darlin Yongwa and Bruno Alves filled key defensive holes. Sam Field returned after a positive loan stint, and City moved quickly to secure Anthony Musaba on a loan deal from Fenerbahce after Ali Ahmed's ACL injury.
Clement acknowledged Norwich had not secured every target, but praised the way the club had used its available budget and believes the new arrivals have strengthened both the current group and its longer-term prospects.
"A lot of things, yes. Of course, you always have certain targets and names. It's impossible to obtain all your goals, what you wanted before.
"I think with the money that was available to use this window, the club used it in a really good way, with interesting profiles and players with qualities," Clement said.
"Again, there were a lot of young players coming in, but with really good potential for the future. I think we have a better squad now than we had last season, with all respect for the players who were here last season. So, that's another step made."
The increased competition leaves Clement with greater variety across the pitch, but also brings a fresh challenge in managing the players who miss out on matchday selection.
Having spent much of last season relying on a smaller core group and asking several players to operate outside their preferred roles, Clement now has the depth to rotate more freely, but must keep those on the fringes engaged as minutes become harder to come by.
"That's what I wanted, and the players need to learn that also. There's a next step now with this group: how they deal with that, and it's in some position with three players.
"You have the story that you cannot have 11 players on the bench, so you have two on-field positions that you need to fill in with players who can play different positions. That means at least two are out of the selection. Those are things that the players need to adapt to.
"Now, after a season where everybody got minutes, even in positions that they were not used to playing, they got the minutes and now it will be more of a fight for minutes.
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