January is one of the most difficult periods of the year for Premier League teams who are fighting relegation. With everyone needing to strengthen, bringing in the right players can prove extremely difficult. One of those sides who need help in escaping the drop are Dean Ashton’s former club Norwich City. We spoke to the former Crewe, West Ham and Canaries striker to see who 
he thinks his old charges should be looking for.
“Liverpool may have run away with it and there’s not going to be much excitement at the top end of the table,” says Ashton, “Every team in the Premier League can beat any other team, though, and it’s great to watch. I think avoiding relegation is going to be difficult for both Norwich and West Ham.”
The Hammers may have had a slight upturn since David Moyes took over, but it’s only been a small bounce rather than the kind of surge up the table that Watford have enjoyed under Nigel Pearson. Ashton puts that down to a lack of goals.
“They’ve struggled to score and don’t look as good in attack as they did last season. The shame for Norwich is that they’ve played so well and led in so many games but have been overpowered physically in a lot of games, which is a shame.”
One of Norwich’s stand-out results was their 3-2 home victory over Manchester City at Carrow Road, a result that still means they have a chance of pulling off shock results.
“I was at that game and it was amazing the way they played. They had a go when they had the opportunity to break. In other games, they ‘ve played well but haven’t got the goals that they’ve deserved then they’ve been punished which is what the Premier League is all about. You make a mistake and you’re behind, even if you’ve had a good game.”
Back in January 2005, Norwich City called on Ashton, signing him from Crewe for £3 million. It led to an immediate influx of goals, even if it couldn’t save The Canaries from the drop. The 4-4 draw with Middlesbrough at the end of January was one such game. Norwich were 4-1 down until Ashton scored and sparked an incredible fightback.
“For me, it was a dream come true to play in the Premier League for the first time. Because I’d scored 18 goals in the first half of the season, I was as confident as I’d ever been and that was key to the move – to be able to get into the team and make an impact straight away. I was full of confidence and always felt I was going to score. That made a big difference and is key in this window. That was the big thing the manager talked to me about when I joined, to have an influence, change games and impact the squad.”
Ashton had been a Crewe Alexandra player for five years. He’d played 158 for the North West side and close to 200 games in the Championship and League One. The time was right for him to step up.
“I was 21, but it wasn’t like I was coming in as an unknown who hadn’t found their feet. I knew who I was as a player. I was moving at a time when I felt confident and the pressure of the price or the fact that I was a record signing didn’t affect me. I was playing well and that’s where January singings can really work; if you bring in players who are playing and in form.”
Norwich City could certainly do with some help, as after 24 games they sit bottom of the table in 20th position on just 17 points. Ashton, however, thinks they need to prioritise the back line this month.
“I think defensively, there would always be room for a signing to come in from a team that are playing well and not conceding many goals. Norwich are too easy to score against, but they may also need someone to challenge Teemu Pukki or support him. When I signed for Norwich, they had strikers at the club, but it’s about bringing someone else in who’s slightly different and challenges other players to raise their game. The only thing is that these days it’s not a £3 million gamble like it was on me, it’s a £12m-£15m gamble.”
When Norwich were eventually relegated, Ashton was pursued by West Ham. Staying with Norwich until the following January, he ended up being in East Anglia for just one year.
“Norwich got relegated. I stayed, and we gave it a real go in the Championship. I scored 10 goals and we were mid-table. I played so many games at a Championship level that when West Ham came in, I had to be back in the Premier League. I’d be lying if I said it was hard. It wasn’t. When they came knocking, I jumped at the chance. I was sad because Norwich gave me my shot and they were a fantastic club. The people were too, but I was quite selfish at that point as to where I needed to be to reach my goals of playing regularly in the Premier League and playing for England. I was reasonably confident and hit the ground running with them.
Ashton’s career was tragically cut short when, on England duty, he suffered a horrific injury, one which despite several attempts to regain full fitness, he never fully recovered from to hit his best form.
“I was only just reaching my peak when I got injured. I was getting better all the time. Physically I was changing in terms of my professionalism. The way I trained, the way I ate. I wasn’t great when I was younger and even at Norwich clued up as to what I needed to do. I got called up to England after the F.A. Cup Final [in 2006] which I thought was one of the best games I ever played. I was only really getting started towards the levels that I could get to.
One of Ashton’s highlights from the autumn of his career was that goal he scored at Old Trafford. A spectacular overhead kick, the crowd was predominantly Manchester United supporters, but to a man the vast majority of them rose, this reporter being one of them.
“Whenever anyone asks me what my favourite goal was, it’s that. To score at the Stretford End against Manchester United, and a Sir Alex Ferguson side, having grown up admiring them and all the trophies they won, it doesn’t get better than that. It’s special to look back on now. At the time, we were 3-0 down and getting battered, so it didn’t feel as glorious at the time, but I was up against Rio Ferdinand and Edwin Van der Sar was in goal. To score a goal like that will always be something I can look back on very fondly.
Ashton admits that prior to his career-ending injury, he had dreams that would eventually lay unfulfilled.
“With West Ham, there was the opportunity to qualify for Europe, but my ambitions were to win trophies. That’s what you’re remembered by when you’re finished, it’s about trying to win things. If I didn’t feel like that was going to happen at West Ham, I probably would have looked to go somewhere where I could have won silverware.”
In each transfer window, player power is having an increasing effect on the market. It’s come down to money, and a lot of it.
“The money involved now has put a lot of power into the players hands. Clubs can’t afford to have them sat in the reserves or training with the kids for two or three years with the amount of money they’re on. Naturally that makes it easier to get a move. The money is so vast now, that for certain players, it takes the edge off their ambitions – where they want to play, what they want to win. The money is life-changing, so it’s difficult for any player to keep that focus. That’s why only the best get to the top teams.”
Having a winning mentality is something that Ashton had no problem with, it was in his DNA. Players now however, have a dilemma that he didn’t.
“If they get an unbelievable contract at a certain club, why would you leave to go to another club for half their wage to possibly win more silverware. Human nature tells us not many players do that. That’s what’s changed over the last three or four years with the money that’s come in from TV rights, leaving more clubs not needing to sell. Now you have to pay a real premium as Manchester United did for Harry Maguire – to get that player out of the club they’re in.”
Dean Ashton boosted both Norwich and West Ham’s chances of progressing up the Premier League when he joined each side. But who does he think will be relegated at the end of the 2019/20 season?
“For Norwich its such a massive ask considering the amount of goals they’ve conceded this season. I don’t think Daniel Farke will change the way they play and it could be too much to claw back. Bournemouth look doomed and they’ve got a lot of long-term injuries. Unless Aston Villa get a striker in, they surely won’t survive. They need to get a goalscorer in, but there will be a lot of teams in that mix who’ll still be in danger come the end of the season.”
Watching the season play out is something Ashton brings life to now as a regular on-screen pundit. Clubs threatened by relegation will need to find quick answers to the questions posed to them by opposition teams, their own fans and rival clubs bidding for that number nine who is able to score goals at will, someone like Dean Ashton himself. Who will escape could be the most fascinating part of this year’s Premier League season yet.
