Did Hughton get it right?

[The Great Mass Debater]

Now Im not one to give Chris Hughton any more credit than he deserves, but on reflection, was Hughton on the verge of a masterstroke when he brought Harry Kane to the club?

Considering how Kane has played this season, do we have to give Hughton a bit of credit for recognizing Kane's talent?

 

[It's Character Forming]

Kane clearly wasn't ready for the Prem then so I'm afraid you'd have to also recognise that.

With the best will in the world, Hughton didn't show any grasp of the striking end of things. It's a shame he is the only manager in our history who was able to spend £13.5m on a pair of strikers.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

I was surprised to read that Kane only played two games for us, making his debut in the West Ham game, with what proved to be the lasting memory of him in a Norwich shirt (spurning a rare clear cut opportunity a confident striker would have dispatched) and then breaking his metatarsal against Doncaster in the cup. I thought he'd not cut the Colmans over a longer period than that. I remember that it was only two games now, but thats not how Id originally remembered him.

I agree totally that he did not look ready, but we based that on one appearance, now we know what we do about him, is it plausible that if his loan had not been cut short by injury, and he'd had a run in the team, the Harry Kane we're seeing now could have emerged in yellow and green?

Its all hypothetical, and as one of Hughtons strong critics, I would by default return to the position that Hughton knew sod-all about strikers and that if Kane had emerged it would be more by luck than judgement, but I wonder what other people might make of it?

I still maintain that Kane would have been nowhere near our side if he wasnt a Tottenham player. We've seen it with other Norwich managers who have a boner for their old club that a player with that connection is seen as a marquee signing for them. Kane came purely because of Hughton's Spursophilia. When it went tits up I was more than happy to use it as a stick to beat that nice Mr Chris with, but wondering if I should be retracting that position? I still believe that developing someone elses youth when you're a Premier League club is a bad move and somewhat demeaning - unless its someone like Lukaku

 

[Suffolk Canary]

Kane clearly wasn't ready for the Prem then so I'm afraid you'd have to also recognise that.

With the best will in the world, Hughton didn't show any grasp of the striking end of things. It's a shame he is the only manager in our history who was able to spend £13.5m on a pair of strikers.

Completely agree.  He went on loan to Leicester after us and was poor for them as well. Hughton really didn't have a clue in terms of strikers. 

 

[Canaryboy]

Hughton failed miserably with the £15m he spent on strikers (£1.5m loan fee for Elmander wasn't there?). Do we also count the Becchio signing? How much was he?

But we should also recognise that it was a huge task. In his first season with Grant Holt, Steve Morison, Simeon Jackson and James Vaughan on the books.

Now, Vaughan has shown since that he has something about him, but he's still ridiculously injury prone. The other three Holt, Morison and Jackson have all struggled in lower leagues since leaving. That isn't because Hughton "ruined" them, it is because they are simply mediocre players and not Premier League standard (Holt's decline owing to age rather than ability, the other two just aren't the required standard).

So Hughton did have a difficult task, if we buy into the idea that keeping Holt wasn't feasible and that he was desperately unhappy here (who knows whether he just needed an arm around the shoulder?) then we could also say that the need to replace the entire strikeforce in one summer was also unprecedented.

Hughton's mistake was perhaps not signing at least one striker who was already playing and scoring in the premier league, Hull signed Jelavic for example. Perhaps Stoke supersub Cameron Jerome would have been an option! 

 

[Canaryboy]

Perhaps the flaw in my defence of Hughton is that Chris Martin is currently one of the best strikers in the Championship and has just had 18 months of playing like a 2010 Grant Holt. Released on a freebie! 

 

[GJP]

I was surprised to read that Kane only played two games for us, making his debut in the West Ham game, with what proved to be the lasting memory of him in a Norwich shirt (spurning a rare clear cut opportunity a confident striker would have dispatched) 

It wasn't a clear cut opportunity. I mean, it was a clear chance to get a shot on goal but it wasn't like it was a sitter. He was just inside the penalty box, it came to him on his weaker foot. He got a well placed shot away but it didn't have the power behind it.

You wouldn't bank on any of our current strikers or any we've had in recent seasons scoring it.

What stood out for me from his appearance in that match was when he sprinted the length of the pitch to help us defend.

I don't think he was what we we really needed at the time. Maybe he could have been backup to a couple of good, proven strikers. But I thought you could tell he tried to play the game in the right way, make the right moves.