Hughton confirmed as new Norwich boss

Chris Hughton has been confirmed as the new manager of Norwich City.

The Canaries were granted permission by Birmingham to speak to the 53-year-old on Wednesday.

And, following successful talks, Hughton has signed a three-year deal to succeed Paul Lambert, who quit last week to take charge at Aston Villa.

Hughton guided Birmingham to fourth place in the Championship last season despite the club struggling financially and had also been linked with the vacant West Brom post.

The former Republic of Ireland international has previous experience of managing in the Premier League with Newcastle, where he was surprisingly sacked in December 2010 despite having led the Magpies to promotion from the Championship and his side sitting 11th in the Premier League at the time.

"As soon as the call came, due to the standing Norwich have, and their Premier League status, it was something that excited me," Hughton said.

"I'm very excited about the challenge ahead. It has all been done so suddenly and I am delighted to be here."

Hughton has also taken assistant manager Colin Calderwood, first-team coach Paul Trollope and chief scout Ewan Chester to Carrow Road from Birmingham.

Acting Birmingham chairman Peter Pannu said: "We'd like to thank Chris and his team for their efforts over the last 12 months and they leave with our best wishes.

"Chris is a great man and a proven manager and we didn't want to stand in his way when Norwich made an approach with the offer of a top flight managerial position.

"We will now actively seek a new coaching team to build on the good work done during the 2011/12 season."