A day after the club’s chief executive had made it clear Norwich had not received any transfer request from Wes Hoolahan and suggested he would not be in any hurry to do business with Aston Villa regarding the
Dubliner, Chris Hughton has insisted the player is very much a part of his plans right now.
"Wes is a player who is first and foremost under contract," said the Norwich boss. "Apart from the recent FA Cup tie, he had played in the last two Premier League games. He is as important as every other player in this squad. What we are trying to achieve here is to be as good a team as we can in the best league position we can. For that to be the case, we want to have as strong a squad as we can. At this particular moment, Wes is very much a part of the squad."
Reluctant
Villa are reported to have bid for the midfielder last week and Hoolahan is believed to want to move but Norwich are understandably reluctant to sell to a club who are potentially relegation rivals and to a manager with whom they parted company on poor terms a couple of years back.
Former Republic of Ireland international Liam Lawrence is meanwhile training with Championship strugglers Barnsley with a view to signing for them .
The 32 year-old is with Greek Super League outfit PAOK but, despite getting a taste of Champions League football, has only featured twice for them in the league this season.
Barnsley boss Danny Wilson is said to be keen to add experience to his squad as he prepares to battle relegation.
Lawrence had spells with Mansfield, Sunderland, Stoke, Portsmouth and Cardiff before heading to Greece in 2012. He earned 15 Ireland caps and was a regular for Giovanni Trapattoni before falling out of favour.
Going nowhere
Hull City had to deny yesterday they were on the verge of signing Shane Long, whose wife subsequently said via twitter the striker would be going nowhere this transfer window.
“Not going anywhere!” said Kayleah Long, who is expecting their second child. “Told Shane happy here & with baby on way it not worth the stress when still in contract! He agreed #happydays.”
Paddy Madden’s €350,000 move to Scunthorpe should be completed this morning after the player agreed terms and underwent a medical for the League Two leaders yesterday afternoon. Tim Clancy is one of four players to have been told to look for another club by Hibernian as Terry Butcher looks to reshape the squad he inherited from Pat Fenlon.
