Christos Tzolis is reaching a tipping point at Norwich City. Literally.

The Greek international winger, the player Daniel Farke once labelled among the best of his peers in his position across Europe, will have reached the midway point of his Carrow Road contract by the time the new Championship season kicks off.

That the man himself, those who recruited him, those who have played alongside him, and the fans who follow are yet to really see Tzolis move beyond untapped potential must be a source of huge frustration.

Perhaps now, in hindsight, Farke’s words and the weight of the transfer fee that brought a talented but unproven teenager to the Premier League did him no favours at all.

Tzolis has fallen through the gaps in City’s turbulent bounce between the top two divisions. Never ready for elite combat, perhaps never trusted by successive head coaches for the Championship version.

But in David Wagner he would appear to have a fan. So much so Wagner pressed for his early return from a proposed season long loan move to Holland interrupted by a knee ligament injury.

By the time Dean Smith had been replaced by the German, Tzolis was back in the FC Twente squad. But Wagner sensed an opportunity, and Stuart Webber’s perseverance and the willingness of the player saw him back in Norfolk.

From there it was a 13-game Championship sample, and the highlight of his first league goal for the Canaries. A majestic curling finish from the edge of the area in front of the Barclay to seal a 3-1 win over Birmingham City in February.

That was also the game that saw the end of Kieran Dowell’s campaign through injury, and in turn his Carrow Road career. Dowell looked to be emerging as a key figure under Wagner’s stewardship. Tzolis’ challenge is to become the same, in an area of the squad where he surely backs himself to step forward.

Milot Rashica is not expected to resume his fitful Norwich career after a successful loan with Turkish champions-elect Galatasaray.

Arsenal loanee Marquinhos has helped Brazil surge into the quarter-finals of the Under-20 World Cup, but failed to convince in a Norwich shirt. Tony Springett and Jon Rowe are raw homegrown options, Onel Hernandez a more experienced foil, but Tzolis must feel when he returns for pre-season in late June it is now or never.

His season only finished last week, with a goal in an under-21 European Championship qualifying draw for Greece against Belarus – his third in three appearances in that competition for his country.

That is the type of profile Tzolis still commands at home. But he needs a breakout club campaign to realise some of the potential Wagner identified long before he pitched up in Norfolk.

“I followed Christos when I was in Germany, so I know him for about three years. I always liked what I’ve seen,” he said, shortly after engineering his recall from Holland. “But there is a difference between potential and quality. He has potential but he was not able to show his qualities so far.

“And it’s up to me, and my backroom staff to help him, to support him, that he’s able to show his quality consistently. He only turned 21 recently, which is still very, very young.

“The biggest thing is he was keen to come back here. He absolutely wanted to come back. And I was very keen to have him here as well. Because, as I said, if you make a loan it makes only sense if that player gets a lot of minutes, and confidence because he’s playing game in, game out and scoring goals.

“This wasn’t the case at Twente. Now we can get our idea across as soon as possible and hopefully we can then improve him, and make him into the player which we all together think he can be.

“He needs time, for sure, because he’s still very young. But he has potential and as I said, we have to make sure that this potential will turn into quality consistently.”

No doubt at that point Wagner hoped Tzolis could provide a spark to ignite a play-off push, before the campaign tanked in depressing fashion.

It is not solely about new signings this summer to change the mood. It is about unleashing the threat from those already in the building.