Top-flight Loan For De Laet

Ritchie De Laet's learning curve is set to continue in 2011/12 with a season-long loan at Norwich City.

By joining the newly-promoted Canaries, the versatile Belgian defender will get the chance to pit his wits against Barclays Premier League opposition every week, having previously been on loan in a lower tier. In fact, De Laet played for three different teams in the Championship last season - Preston North End, Sheffield United and Portsmouth.

An article published on Norwich's official website at 17:00 on Friday read: "Norwich City can confirm the signing of Manchester United defender Ritchie De Laet on a season-long loan, subject to the relevant paperwork being completed."

Canaries coach Paul Lambert told his club's site: "Ritchie will be great for us. He's young and one of his main strengths is pace and he comes from a great club where he's played first-team football. He'll come in and help the other lads out. He's played a lot of first team games out on loan last season and I'm sure he'll do great for us."

United Reserves coach Warren Joyce recently spoke to ManUtd.com to review De Laet's 2010/11 season out on loan.

"De Laet had an outstanding season in the Championship, I’m sure all three managers he played under were delighted with him," said Joyce.

"He produced some real high-quality performances in the Championship and looked really strong. He played in a variety of positions and ended up at right-back with Portsmouth. That's not a position where he’s played a great deal at United, either for the reserves or the first team. But he did really well there for Portsmouth. Previously he was left-back at Preston and did well, and he played in both full-back positions and at centre-back for Sheffield United so he had a good year."

Ironically De Laet's final home game for Portsmouth was against Norwich on 2 May, when the Canaries clinched promotion to the Barclays Premier League by winning 1-0.