Norwich City have left their fellow Premier League new boys trailing in the transfer market this summer.

City may have followed QPR out of the Championship but the west Londoners show little sign of matching their proactive recruitment drive with the new season three weeks away.

Neil Warnock has spent most of the close season locked in a wearisome dance with his player-of-the-year Adel Taarabt. First the Moroccan and/or his advisors (delete as applicable) fancy the lure of a top four club in this country. Presumably after the phone never rang, Taarabt is happy to settle for foreign fields.

Paris-St-Germain have shown concerted interest in recent days but Warnock was claiming only yesterday he will see none of the cash from the proposed departure of his talisman. A strange state of affairs all round that, from afar, suggests all is not well amongst the high rollers at Loftus Road.

The Championship champions have recruited Jay Bothroyd and Kieron Dyer both on free transfers. Dyer has been ravaged by injuries. A once blossoming career now already entering its twilight.

Bothroyd catapulted himself into the England senior squad briefly during a purple patch at Cardiff. The former Arsenal trainee tailed off along with the rest of the Bluebirds' squad towards the end of last season. Neither come with a reliability tag.

Impressive Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers adopts the same measured approach to his transfer dealings as he did in plotting the Swans' eventual play-off success at Wembley. Steven Caulker – a regular in Canaries' rumour mill offerings during the early part of this summer – agreed a season-long loan switch from Tottenham. Experienced Portuguese international goal keeper Jose Moreira arrived from Benfica, presumably to help fill the void left by Dorus de Vries' switch to Wolves. Whilst Championship top scorer Danny Graham could be one of the most shrewd investments of this summer. Norwich's defence last season would testify to the 25-year-old's penalty box prowess.

Rodgers went on record in recent days saying he wants another four recruits. The Swansea boss has only a month left of the transfer window to deliver. Paul Lambert has already put the chequebook away. Seven fresh faces in the building. And time to drill them on the training pitch and in pre-season friendlies before City's Premier League adventure begins at Wigan.

Nor is it just the raw numbers that stack up alongside the Canaries' one-time Championship bedfellows. Look at the extra options. Ritchie de Laet is a defender comfortable anywhere along the back four. Kyle Naughton will provide some much-needed competition for the workaholic Russell Martin.

Bradley Johnson is extra midfield muscle to share the workload with the likes of Andrew Crofts. Anthony Pilkington and Elliott Bennett offer pace and threat from wide areas. James Vaughan and Steve Morison bolster a frontline that for periods during Norwich's glorious march through the Football League has been too heavily reliant on Grant Holt.

Critics label Lambert's signings Premier League-lite. The Scot and his squad will get their collective chance to prove the doubters wrong on the pitch. Right now, no-one can criticise that off it City have done the business this summer.