Grant Holt became Norwich's biggest signing of the 2009 pre-season when they paid a fee rumoured to be £400,000 for his services to Shrewsbury.

In his early career, Grant played for a number of non-league sides including Barrow, Workington, Halifax Town and in Singapore with Sengkang Marine, before he was signed by Sheffield Wednesday in 2003/4, for whom he would make 30 appearances, scoring 4 goals.

Released to Rochdale in January 2004, Grant scored 42 goals in 83 appearances and earned a £300,000 switch to Notts Forest in January 2006. He had a slow start to his Forest career and nearly joined Bristol City in November 2006. He persevered at Forest and eventually scored 21 goals in 96 games. During this period, he was loaned to Blackpool

On 24 June 2008, Shrewsbury Town broke their club transfer record by signing Holt for £175,000. During the 2008/9 season, he scored 28 goals in all competitions for the Shrews including five in their 7-0 Football League Trophy win over Wycombe on 7th October 2008.

Holt made his debut for Norwich in the 7-1 shock home defeat to Colchester on the opening day of the 2009/10 season but scored a hat-trick in his second appearance; the 4-0 Carling Cup victory at Yeovil on 11th August 2009.