Simply flashing the cash this summer is not the key to transforming the culture around Norwich City.

Dean Smith highlighted the losing mindset he must eradicate after last weekend’s Premier League home defeat to Newcastle.

That inevitable relegation could be confirmed by the time Smith and his squad depart Villa Park on Saturday.

Then it would be onto the next phase of his Carrow Road strategy. An injection of new blood is part of the equation, even if the scale of the transfer window spend is likely to be more modest that 12 months ago, but Smith will also demand a new way of thinking.

“In any walk of life, any business that you go into, any football club, any sports industry or team, the culture is the most important thing,” he said. “You're always working on it and I'm guessing Jurgen Klopp will say he's still working on the culture at Liverpool, despite all the successes that they're having at the moment.

"As a coach it is an ongoing thing. It’s making sure that we have the right foundations, which I believe we have, which is one of the reasons why I came here, but it's then myself, Shakey (Craig Shakespeare) and Liam (Bramley) adding to them as well.

“The players here at the moment will be thinking that they could have done better. Nobody likes to be sat where we are in the league.

"They've earned the right to become Premier League players, but we probably haven't done enough at the moment to prove that their Premier League-level players. The key to it is always consistency.

"A lot of these players have proven they can be consistent at a level just below the Premier League. Unfortunately, we haven't proved that we can be consistent in the Premier League.”

Smith flagged the lack of any visible anger from his players as Newcastle coasted to the line at Carrow Road last time out as a symptom on the underlying issue.

“I believe we have players who can get angry on the pitch, but that's part of our job to work on the culture regarding how we display our character,” he said. “If we can bring our personalities on the pitch I think it'll be a lot better team.

"One of the biggest things I've always said is that if somebody comes off the street who doesn't know anything about this football club, they come and watch your training session and they can see, hear and feel the culture.

"Every day we need to be upping our standards. We can't just settle for a certain standard. We've got to strive for more. That's what I want. I want a hunger and a desire to get better every day. We're working with individuals, we're working in the collective, not only technically, tactically, but mentally as well.

“At both Brentford and Villa I renamed the analysis room the ‘Learning Zone’ and I will do the same here. The football club wants to be a learning place where people can get better.

"The idea is to bring footballers in we can improve, but myself as a head coach also needs to improve and I know Stuart (Webber) has a burning desire to improve. It's all about having that environment that allows the culture to improve day in, day out.”

Smith is without one of those he may consider a cultural architect within his current group for his first Villa Park return, after confirming yesterday Christoph Zimmermann is ruled out with a hip flexor issue.

Lukas Rupp (knee) and Josh Sargent (ankle) are back in the mix after recent lay-offs. Kenny McLean is available despite a light week of training with a broken toe.

“It’s a fracture but it’s not the big toe,” said Smith. “Years ago you probably taped it up and got on with it. But we have a medical department who can take the pain away. He has been doing non contact work so he is available.”