Fer-tastic! Norwich City’s new midfielder could be a star in the making

That figure alone could be a sign that several players have so far found it hard to get going and find the consistency needed to play at the highest level.

It could also signify that Chris Hughton is still trying to decide upon his preferred line-up. In reality it's probably a bit of both.

And when you look at the squad list there's probably only a handful of players who would themselves say they have been completely happy with their form so far.

Michael Turner and John Ruddy have been as solid and effective as we have come to expect, Nathan Redmond has at times dazzled on the wing and Jonny Howson deserves more credit than he often gets.

The core of the squad however, and that list includes Javier Garrido, Ryan Bennett, Martin Olsson, Bradley Johnson, Russell Martin, Sebastien Bassong, Steven Whittaker, Robert Snodgrass, Alex Tettey, Anthony Pilkington, Wes Hoolahan, Johan Elmander, Gary Hooper and Ricky Van Wolfswinkel, have either been in and out of the side (through injury or having been dropped) or not really reached the peaks we know (or at least hope) they can.

It's early days of course and I'm fully confident most of these will go on to have a successful season personally - as will the club.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed one Canary regular is missing from this list - and deliberately so.

That's because the undoubted star of the season so far - and the player who deserves to be singled out for a fantastic start to his Norwich City career - is midfielder Leroy Fer.

Many were rightly excited when the club revealed in the summer we'd signed the 6ft 2in powerhouse from Twente.

However, there's a big difference in standard between club football in Holland and that in England - so it was still very much a multi-million pound gamble by manager Hughton.

But on the evidence of his first seven games in the yellow and green, it will be a gamble that more than pays off.

I've been impressed by the 23-year-old despite not always being best pleased by the way he's been deployed.

One of our biggest weaknesses so far this season has been the link-up between midfield and attack.

They haven't linked up often enough, whether that's from the centre of the midfield or the wings, and that's one reason Van Wolfswinkel has struggled for chances and subsequently goals.

What has been evident so far from Fer is his fitness, desire, power, tackling ability and eye for a pass are top class. Yet all too often most of his work has been defensive, rather than offensive.

Against Aston Villa, for instance. I wondered if there was some invisible forcefield put in place by Hughton stopping him from leaving certain central areas of the pitch. He needs to be free to join the attack more than he has.

Because when you look at his record prior to joining Norwich there's a danger we waste some of his talents.

Because with 35 goals in his 174 games for FC Twente and Feyenoord, this lad certainly knows where the onion bag is. He's used to finding it on average every five games.

A system, therefore, is needed to ensure we make the most of his skills going forward, as well as his ability when we need him to defend.

The same in fact could be said for Howson, a player who scored 28 goals in his 193 appearances for Leeds (a goal every seven) but has only rarely been given a bit of freedom for Norwich.

Hopefully, in the past couple of weeks, Hughton himself has worked this out.

Against Watford we saw the sort of incisive, forward passing that we have missed so far this season. And lo and behold it led to goals - in particular the fantastic winner set up by Fer and slotted home by Hooper.

Meanwhile, the inclusion of Tettey against Stoke gave both Fer and Howson the freedom to play closer to the lone man up front. Again this led to the decisive goal.

Could it be, in fact, that Hughton has found a midfield system that can both protect the front and support the attack? And hopefully bring success by doing so?

Let's hope so because I'm already in no doubt Fer has what it takes to play for one of the top 10 clubs in this country.

Let's just hope that club is Norwich City.

1: Patience. It's a declining commodity as far as trigger happy boards and a lot of twitchy fans are concerned. Just a few games into the season and certain supporters already appear to have written off Hughton and his squad. Hopefully Stoke has allayed some of those fears - for now at least. I'm also hearing discontent rumblings about summer signing Van Wolfswinkel. Do people seriously expect the new signings to be firing on all cylinders after just a few hours in a Norwich City shirt?

2: Something the manager rarely gets credit for is his ability to sell Norwich City as a club to potential new recruits. Redmond reportedly had all sorts of suitors but signed for City, citing Hughton as a big reason for that. I seem to remember Van Wolfswinkel and Bassong telling how he also sold the the club to them. And this weekend Fer did the same, while revealing Everton had been back in for him in the summer. Surely that's a positive trait even the grumblers have to credit?

3: Just who is it at Sky Sports tasked with the job of choosing which live games are shown on television? I can only assume they arrived at work on Monday to receive a hefty rollicking for selecting last Sunday's dire lunchtime game? They clearly didn't do their homework, because three of our four games against Stoke in the last two previous seasons also ended in a 1-0 scoreline. I assume Saturday, March 8, Stoke (H) is one 3pm kick-off we can all bank on.

4: Manchester United in mid-table and the minnows of Southampton and Hull in the top eight, this is how football used to be - competitive and unpredictable. A few more goals per game and this could turn out to be one of the best Premier League seasons in years. My favourite joke doing the rounds? David Moyes has spent years trying to make Everton better than Manchester United, now he's joined the Red Devils he's finally made it happen.