City boss Bryan Gunn admitted that money might still talk with regard to Wes Hoolahan's footballing future.
But, for now, no-one had even asked the question.
On Saturday the 27-year-old Dubliner continued where he had left off at Selhurst Park in mid-week, by pulling all the strings in another excellent Canary victory – this time over Premiership visitors Wigan Athletic.
Hoolahan capped his afternoon off with a peach of a sweeping, crossfield pass into the on-running feet of Simon Whaley who proceeded to add his second, winning goal in as many games to seal Norwich's morale-boosting 3-2 success against the Latics in their final dress rehearsal ahead of the new, League One season.
And as much as Jon Otsemobor might have caught the sponsors' eye with his Man of the Match efforts at right-back, it was inevitable that Hoolahan's name would crop up afterwards.
He came as close as anyone to stealing the show; Latics substitute Michael Brown throwing all his toys out of the pram as the Canary playmaker led the visitors a merry dance once too often after the interval.
“Yes – I have got worries about hanging onto him,” admitted the City chief, with Hoolahan widely linked to a switch to Crystal Palace over the summer as part of an Alan Lee swap deal.
The clue, probably, lies in the word 'swap'; that Palace boss Neil Warnock might not have too much cash to play with this summer as Eagles owner Simon Jordan tires of pumping million after million into the South-East London side.
But on this summer's evidence, Hoolahan is clearly too good for League One. But the more Championship players Gunn can have at his disposal in League One, the more likely he is to be playing Championship manager next season.
“Wes is a quality player, but his commitment has been to Norwich City,” said the City chief.
“And I think that you've seen throughout pre-season that any time he's taken the pitch he's performed well and, hopefully, will continue to do that for Norwich City.
“But we understand that money talks.”
That far, however, it hasn't. There are, of course, still another 28 days until the summer transfer window slams shut.
“Up until now there hasn't been any interest and it's down to other clubs to create that, but certainly we won't be encouraging it – he could be a very important player for us in League One.”
Particularly if the Canaries opt to set their stall out again in the same 4-5-1 fashion that they did against Roberto Martinez's Premier League outfit; do that and install Chrissy Martin in Hoolahan's usual left-sided slot and the one-time Blackpool favourite has the kind of stage that he revels on – that licence to pop up wherever and when ever he wants.
It comes with one or two risks; not least if City become over-reliant on his creative talents. Equally, he can be guilty of playing with his party pieces in the wrong position – a full-on dummy 20 yards outside your own penalty area looks wonderful when it works. When the opposition player reads it right, it's a potential disaster – as the watching Gunn, sat next to his Reserve team boss Ian Crook in the directors box, would have noted.
But, at League One level, Hoolahan is likely to get away with such murder. As, of course, he proved at Bloomfield Road under Simon Grayson.
“He remembers back to League One himself for Blackpool – I think he was actually Player of the Season for League One – and people like Wes will help us get out of League One more quickly if we hang onto them.”
He is certain of a start against the Us; whether as part of flat, midfield four or whether as part of a Swansea-style five-man midfield arrayed in, off, around and behind Grant Holt is just one of the many questions for Gunn, Crook and City No2 Ian Butterworth to ponder long and hard this week.
The players' performances haven't made their jobs particularly easy – in the best possible way. It would be hard, for example, to shovel the two-goal Chrissy Martin out of the way to accommodate, say, new-boy Goran Maric whose international clearance papers failed to arrive in time for this weekend's game.
“Certainly with the standards that they've set today, a lot of them have done themselves good in terms of team selection for next week – and it's given me a very difficult problem when they all report for training on Monday morning when they're all fit and well; and when we do get international clearance for Goran [Maric] and Jens [Berthel Askou],” admitted Gunn, still with a virtually fully-fit squad to select from.
“We've got a very competitive squad and that's something I encouraged the board to give us – and they've certainly helped us deliver it.”
The implication from the board's point of view would be clear; we've delivered on our side of the bargain, Bryan, now you deliver on yours…
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