McNally pours cold water on Wes Hoolahan escape bid

Hot Lips Houlihan

Norwich chief executive David McNally has virtually ruled out a move to Aston Villa for Wes Hoolahan in a statement today.

Hoolahan rumours have been circulating for days and the national papers ran stories overnight claiming that Wes had made a transfer request and Villa had made a bid, thought they couldn't agree on the amount of that bid with figures ranging from £750k to £2million being bandied about.

McNally

McNally put a big spoke in the rumour mill by proclaiming, "As we’ve always said, no players will be sold against our will. We’ve received no transfer requests this season and have no intention of releasing any of our senior players."

He went on to huff, "Our focus this January, as with every transfer window, is very much on improving the squad."

Tellingly, there was no denial that a bid had been received. It's been strongly rumoured that Hoolahan would have welcomed the chance to link back up with Paul Lambert as he hasn't been the apple of Chris Hughton's eye, though he has seen more game time in recent weeks.

While some will claim that the breakdown of Lambert's relationship with the Canaries' hierarchy has been a sticking point, it's more likely that the East Anglians aren't overly keen on improving the squad of fellow relegation candidates.