North End boss recruited Hoolahan for Blackpool in 2006
PRESTON North End manager Simon Grayson knows better than most the danger Norwich City's Wes Hoolahan could provide when the two sides meet at Carrow Road on Saturday (3pm).
Grayson brought Hoolahan to England ahead of the 2006-07 season, recruiting him for Blackpool on an initial loan deal from Scottish side Livingston.
Hoolahan helped Grayson's Tangerines earn promotion to the second tier via the play-offs at the end of that campaign, spending a further year with the Lancashire outfit before joining City in 2008.
As part of an exclusive feature on Norwich's talismanic midfielder last season, Grayson told canaries.co.uk: "He was that good a player he could just win games out of nothing.
"We had to accommodate him to a certain degree. We would play him wide left in a 4-4-2, but next thing Wes would be picking up the ball at right-back!
"He'd go past a few people and then pick some passes out. Strikers knew that when he picked it up, they would get opportunities.
"There would be situations where he could drop the shoulder and he'd get out of it. You would think he had no right to do that."
Grayson brought Hoolahan to England ahead of the 2006-07 season, recruiting him for Blackpool on an initial loan deal from Scottish side Livingston.
Hoolahan helped Grayson's Tangerines earn promotion to the second tier via the play-offs at the end of that campaign, spending a further year with the Lancashire outfit before joining City in 2008.
As part of an exclusive feature on Norwich's talismanic midfielder last season, Grayson told canaries.co.uk: "He was that good a player he could just win games out of nothing.
"We had to accommodate him to a certain degree. We would play him wide left in a 4-4-2, but next thing Wes would be picking up the ball at right-back!
"He'd go past a few people and then pick some passes out. Strikers knew that when he picked it up, they would get opportunities.
"There would be situations where he could drop the shoulder and he'd get out of it. You would think he had no right to do that."