When Peter Crouch arrived at Carrow Road on a 3 month loan move from Aston Villa in September 2003 his career had hit a crossroads. Villa had paid Portsmouth £5m for Abby Clancey's other half in March 2002 after he had scored 19 goals in 39 appearances for Pompey. However Crouch who is over 2 metres tall scored just 6 league goals for Villa and Nigel Worthington signed a striker branded a flop. However Crouch's Norwich move helped rejuvenate him and after scoring 4 goals in 15 appearances for the Canaries, Villa sold him to Southampton for £2.5m in July 2004. Crouch was a revelation for the Saints and his excellent form earned him an England call up by Sven Goran-Eriksson. In July 2005 Crouch joined Liverpool for £7m where he won FA Cup and UEFA Champions League winners medals. Further transfers to Portsmouth again, Spurs (where he began his career without playing a game) and Stoke totalled over £30m. Crouch has scored 22 goals for England and has been capped 42 times.

David Bentley was once described by former England manager Steve McClaren as "the next David Beckham" but Bentley never fullfilled his early potential. Arsene Wenger descibed him as being "technically top, top, top" and when Norwich signed him on a season long loan in June 2004 Canary fans licked their lips...sort of. Unfortunately Bentley couldn't prevent the Canaries being relegated but he had a decent season making 28 appearances, netting twice. Bentley joined Blackburn on loan the following season and later made the move permanent. After some impressive performances for Rovers he received his first England call up and made his debut in 2007 against Israel when he came on as a substitute for Shaun Wright-Phillips. However Bentley's attitude came into question when he pulled out of the under 21 squad for the European Championships in the Netherlands blaming it on fatigue. In July 2008 Spurs paid Blackburn £15m for Bentley but his time at White Hart Lane was not a happy one and was released by the club in June 2013. Bentley played 62 times for Spurs, scoring 6 goals. Whilst at Spurs Bentley was loaned to Birmingham, West Ham, Blackburn and FC Rostov in Russia. He has 7 England caps. In June 2014 at the age of 29 Bentley announced his retirement from football because he has "fell out of love with the game."

Kieran Gibbs has been capped 3 times by England (making his debut against Hungary in August 2010 when he still only 19) and as I write has played 130 games for Arsenal, scoring 4 goals and 15 assists. The Lambeth born left-back had made only 2 first team appearances for the Gunners when Glenn Roeder signed him on loan in January 2008. Gibbs made 7 appearances for the Canaries and was originally a product of Wimbledon's academy.

Fraser Forster became the latest former Norwich loan player to make his England debut when he played the full match against Chile at Wembley in November 2013. Forster of course had a brilliant season for the Canaries during 2009/10 when his 18 clean sheets in 38 league appearances helped Norwich win the League One title. Forster on loan from Newcastle was sent off twice during that momentus season against Gillingham and Tranmere respectively. After his successful loan spell at Carrow Road Forster joined Celtic on loan in August 2010 before signing for them on a permanent basis for a bargain £2m in July 2012. Forster didn't play a single game for Newcastle during his 6 years on Tyneside, more fool them. On August 9th 2014 it was announced that Celtic were to sell Forster to Southampton for £10m.