Neil Doncaster showed the Canaries' ambition when he managed to tie Ashton to a new deal to ward off the advances of the Premiership in August. The striker was to change his mind in January, however, and sealed a move to the Hammers for over £7million.
“With the benefit of hindsight, would we have done some of the things we did this season? When we turned down bids in the region of £6million for Dean Ashton from Manchester City and Wigan Athletic last summer, was this the right thing to do?” asked Doncaster in his Eastern Daily Press column, as much of himself as anybody else.
“Persuading Dean to stay and signing him up on a longer, improved contract was done absolutely for the right reasons, and if we had sold him then we would no doubt have been accused of a lack of ambition.
“But, with the benefit of hindsight, it would perhaps have been better to cash-in and reinvest last summer, rather than in January, when Dean was making it very clear that he no longer saw his future with us.”
Ashton is facing a race against time to recover from a hamstring strain in time to appear for his new club against Liverpool in the FA Cup Final.