Because in spite of the fact that he turned in a vintage display and gave his team the perfect start with an early goal, by Tuesday morning Glenn Roeder had decided not to offer him a new contract.

Hucks made no secret of the fact that he would have liked to stay at Norwich, where he has been a favourite with the fans from the moment he arrived and went on to play such a key role in winning promotion to the Premiership.

The fans will expect Hucks' number six shirt to be worn by a highly rated new signing next season if the manager is to justify his decision in the cause of "building a team for the future."

Over the next three seasons the AVIVA name on Canary shirts will bring in money, but it remains to be seen how far that will go towards acquiring the players likely to be on Glenn's shopping list.

Of course, Hucks was not the only out of contract player to be shown the door on Tuesday. He was closely followed by eight others, including Ryan and Rossi Jarvis from Fakenham.

It has to be said that the comeback by the Owls on Sunday gave the City manager every reason to ring the changes in just about every position in the team.

The Canaries had enough chances to have had the game won by half-time, but were pegged back by a penalty that should not have been awarded, then given a lesson in finishing by the Wednesday forwards.

The game was all too typical of many over the past season in which City should have collected maximum points, but have come away empty handed.

In fact, Norwich ended the campaign in similar form to the way it began under Peter Grant, so there are likely to be a lot of new faces on show before August.