Chris Hughton is set to be appointed Norwich City manager after the club were granted permission to speak to the Birmingham City manager.
Hughton, who is on a one-year rolling contract at St Andrew’s, expressed his desire to hold talks with the Barclays Premier League club and Birmingham could not stand in his way.
“Chris is a great manager and deserves the opportunity to speak to Norwich which is why we have granted him permission to speak to them,” Peter Pannu, the acting Birmingham chairman, said.
Hughton has impressed during little more than a season at St Andrew’s after being harshly sacked by Newcastle United in December 2010, taking the financially stricken club to the npower Championship play-offs, where they lost to Blackpool, despite continuing uncertainty off the field.
The 53-year-old will succeed Paul Lambert, who is expected to be unveiled as Aston Villa manager today. Norwich finished twelfth in the Premier League after Lambert guided them back into the promised land with successive promotions from League One and the Championship after being appointed in 2009.
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Norwich are understood to have agreed to meet the £2 million compensation fee demanded by Birmingham for Hughton. Colin Calderwood, his assistant coach, Paul Trollope, his coach, and Dave Watson, his goalkeeping coach, will make the move to East Anglia alongside him.
Hughton, the former Tottenham Hotspur and Ireland defender, was assistant to Martin Jol at White Hart Lane before moving to Newcastle, initially as coach, then caretaker manager.
Despite Birmingham’s well-documented cash-flow problems and the task of putting together a new-look side after their relegation from the Premier League, the club impressed in the Europa League and FA Cup in the 2011/12 season before eventually finishing fourth in the Championship and losing 3-2 on aggregate to Blackpool in the play-off semi-finals.
Norwich appear to have seen enough to approach Hughton. The East Anglia club had been linked with Malky Mackay, the Cardiff City manager, who made over 200 appearances for them between 1998 and 2004. However, he appeared to be ruled out when David McNally, the chief executive at Carrow Road, insisted that Norwich would conduct a “European search” for a manager with “top-league experience”.
Birmingham have revealed that they hope to publish their already-delayed financial accounts for the year ending June 30 2011 within the next week, a move that they hope will lift the transfer embargo that they were put under by the Football League in March.