Plymouth chairman Paul Stapleton has blamed promises made by former manager Ian Holloway for David Norris leaving the Pilgrims. The midfielder joined the Blues after a lengthy transfer saga on the final day of the transfer window for a fee of £2 million.

Stapleton outlined the Norris situation in a very lengthy statement explaining the circumstances surrounding the numerous January transfers out of Home Park on the official Plymouth website: "David Norris gave Plymouth Argyle very good service, he was energetic, a very good player, a talisman.

"The problem began because last summer he was told by Ian Holloway that he could leave the club in January.

"David got a bit confused, I think, and believed that the board had agreed he could leave in January.

"I spoke to David for two hours the evening before our game at Stoke in September, to try to get him back on board for us. I had to tell him that I'd never promised anything about a move but I promised him we'd review his situation in January.

"January 2nd came and he came to see me saying he wanted to go. He saw me many more times in January, each time saying he wanted to go.

"At one point he said he would stay if we gave him £10,000-a-week for the rest of the season and let him go in the summer for £500,000.

"I told him there was no way we could sanction that, not necessarily the weekly wages, but we could not let him go to any club that offered us £500,000.

"He badgered us to death, all the time saying that he had been promised that he could go, a promise made last summer by Ian Holloway.

"It took until January 31st for him to go because, all the way along the line, we told him we didn't want to lose him. I had six meetings with him in January and every time I said we were not letting him go. I saw Norris more times in January than I saw my family.

"Two days before the transfer deadline, he told me he was never going to play for Argyle again. That phonecall seemed conclusive in my mind.

"We had a player who categorically stated he wanted to go, that he didn't want to be at Argyle any more, wanted to safeguard his future, wanted to be near his family and was adamant he'd been promised a move.

"I believe it was all down to this promise. Ian not only told him that he would get his move at Christmas, but that he would get his wages increased in September.

"Ian came to the board and told us that and we said we couldn't see the point of increasing his wages in September and then letting him leave in January. Where was the point of that?

"We wanted to look at his contract in January, to give him another year and more money. Ian got upset at that because he had already promised the player something different, something that he had not come to the board about.

"Paul Sturrock said we should only let David Norris go if we received money that represented good value and even on January 30th, when I spoke to Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks, we weren't of a mind that we would definitely do the deal.

"It was only when Ipswich came up with a significant amount of money and the friendship of the Bolton chairman and Ipswich chairman, who negotiated over a sell-on clause included in David's move to us from Bolton, that the transfer went through."

Holloway, now with Leicester, stated his new club's interest in Norris on a number of occasions before and during the transfer window, but never made an offer for the 26-year-old, who made his debut for the Blues at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

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