Dean Smith is not expecting any fireworks from Norwich City in the closing stages of the transfer window – but Jordan Hugill may be poised to cut short a frustrating West Brom loan spell.

Hugill has notched one goal in 20 appearances, but his last game for the Baggies came on December 27, since when the Championship promotion hopefuls have signed forward Daryl Dike.

Smith spoke to the striker last week and is also in regular contact with sporting director Stuart Webber and assistant Neil Adams, but it remains a watching brief in and out at Carrow Road ahead of the January 31 deadline.

“It is still quiet at the moment. We're monitoring a lot of different situations and I'm having a lot of discussions obviously with Stuart and Neil,” he said. “Potentially (things are) changing for Jordan. I had a chat with him to just get his feelings on where he was and how he was at the time. He's a little bit frustrated because he's not been playing at West Brom.

"He's been in and out of the team, getting some minutes, and in and out of the squad as well. When players go out on loan, they're going out to play football games and get the minutes they require. Obviously at the moment, he's not so I said it's something that we'll look at.”

Smith is on record this month insisting getting his key players back from injury would feel like a good window. But Adam Idah’s emergence as a Premier League goalscoring threat is another boost, after his landmark strike against Everton.

“He's not going to rest on his laurels,” said the City boss, speaking on Thursday morning ahead of a big trip to Watford. “He appears to be the type of guy that just wants to keep getting better. I said to him, you had one positive performance against West Ham. He's followed that up with another positive performance. The question is, when was the last time you had three?

"Can you go and have three good performances on the trot? That's the question I'll be putting to him. I'm sure he'll want to make sure that consistency is going in the right direction.”

City did make one signing earlier this week with Liam Bramley becoming first team coach after a reunion with Smith and Craig Shakespeare.

“He's a really good knowledgeable coach, a young coach,” said Smith. “I really liked watching him at Aston Villa, he was with the 18s, who won the FA Youth Cup, and then we promoted him to elite development coach.

"So I've watched his work first hand and been really impressed. And he's impressed in the first couple of days.”