Norwich City's £250k bargain: The Canaries masterstroke that shaped a Carrow Road decade | OneFootball

Securing Wes Hoolahan's signature in 2008 was a fantastic piece of business from Norwich City. He shaped a Carrow Road decade

Arriving from Blackpool in the summer of 2008, Wes Hoolahan went on to become an iconic figure at Norwich City during his 10-year stay in Norfolk.

The classy Irish midfielder was central to the club's Premier League charges in the early and mid-2010's, and showed loyalty that continues to become more and more rare in the modern football landscape.

For a fee of just £250,000, the securing of his signature turned out to be one of the best pieces of business in Norwich's history, and given their track record of bringing in quality for a bargain fee, Hoolahan's success is even more remarkable.

Leaving the club in 2018, Hoolahan helped to shape a decade at Carrow Road, and a bargain deal in 2008 made it all happen.

2008 signing of Wes Hoolahan was a Norwich City masterstroke

After 12 goal contributions for the Tangerines in the 2007-08 season in the Championship, Norwich offered Blackpool a player-plus cash deal that saw the Canaries' second-choice goalkeeper Matt Gilks move to Bloomfield Road, alongside a £250,000 fee.

The East Anglian outfit were relegated to League One in his first season at the club, as the Irishman suffered with injuries throughout the campaign. However, he would go on to become talismanic in the third tier, which would set him up to be a club icon in years to come.

Featuring as an attacking midfielder, Hoolahan scored 11 goals and registered 13 assists as Norwich secured an immediate return to the Championship. The Canaries would not stop there as they managed to achieve promotion for the second year in a row, this time to the Premier League under Paul Lambert's management.

And as Norwich secured a 12th-place finish in the top-flight, the Irishman would provide 11 goal contributions - this was followed by an 11th-place finish in the subsequent 2012/13 season, with Hoolahan once more being a regular figure in the upper echelons of English football.

Reality would set in somewhat the season after for the Canaries by the 2013/14 season, though, as they would go on to be relegated back to the Championship, with Hoolahan limited to just 16 league appearances.

Back in the second tier, Hoolahan was able to relight his talismanic spark, becoming the main creator for Norwich as they bounced between the Championship and Premier League from 2014 to 2017.

He managed 30 assists in this period and would put his name on the list of one of the most creative in second-tier history, providing the final pass to 38 Championship goals in that timeframe.

After scoring and assisting in a 2-1 win in his final appearance at Carrow Road against Leeds United, Hoolahan would leave the club at the end of the 2017/18 season, joining West Bromwich Albion as they prepared for life back in the second tier.

Wes Hoolahan provided loyalty largely unseen in modern football

In a modern football landscape that is becoming more and more commercialised, with players often treated as an asset rather than a human being, seeing players wear the same colours for a decade is becoming more and more rare.

At 35, Hoolahan's best days were in the past. However, his Norwich departure was a remarkably sad one, given his length of time wearing Canary yellow and the success that he had been a part of.

Being inducted into the Norwich Hall of Fame in 2012, while playing 43 times for his country, Hoolahan was a model professional throughout his time at Carrow Road.

After 351 appearances for the Canaries, Hoolahan departed as one of the best to ever do it for the club, and the decision to secure his signature in a bargain 2008 deal shaped the upcoming decade for the club.