Chris Hughton has confirmed Leon Barnett's future could lie away from Norwich City.

The powerful defender did not fly out to America for the Canaries' three-date tour of the USA and Hughton admitted Barnett does not feature in his Premier League plans.

Barnett still has a year left on his current Carrow Road contract and Hughton insisted any potential parting of the ways would be amicable.

'At the moment he is not in my plans. He has shown a desire to play regular football and of course I can understand that,' said Hughton. 'He went out on loan to Cardiff and what he would like to do is go and play somewhere where he is going to start on a regular basis.

'That is simply the only reason we have not brought Leon out here to America. He is a good trainer, he works hard every day and I have no problems on that score but certainly at this moment he is not one that would be in my plans for the season.'

Hughton delayed his own departure for the USA to work on attracting fresh talent to the club after a productive summer in the transfer market, but the City chief had a word of caution for those expecting imminent arrivals.

'Anybody putting two and two together would certainly get the wrong number. I did delay my arrival but what I would say about that is we have a responsibility to improve the squad where and when we can,' he said. 'That is what we continue to try and do. What I can say is there are no done deals but certainly the reason I came away a little bit later was because I felt I needed to be in the UK as we try to do some business. But certainly at this moment, no done deals.'

City have been heavily touted with moves for Italian-based strikers Fabio Quagliarella and Maxi Lopez as they bid to add fresh firepower.

'Yes, I have seen the reports that I was in Italy,' said Hughton. 'There are players that we would have an interest in bringing to the club but wanting to bring someone here and actually getting them here is two different things. The areas that we felt we needed to improve were the offensive areas. We brought Ricky (van Wolfswinkel) in but on the other side of it Simeon (Jackson) and Holty (Grant Holt) have departed so, yes, the forward area is one we are looking to do something.'