Sitting in the Barclay on Saturday, watching Norwich City’s excellent 3-1 win over Bournemouth, it began to dawn on me that I was watching a player who had the ability to bring back all the excitement and giddiness for me that I used to get from watching football as a child.

I feel that Wes Hoolahan is a player we need to cherish while he is still around. Sometimes nicknamed Wessi, Hoolahan did exactly the same job for Norwich at the weekend as the Lionel the name alludes to does for Barcelona – he pulled the strings. He made things happen. He was the playmaker every team craves – creative, quick, making the right decisions.

Hoolahan is City’s longest serving player, joining in June 2008. Yes, he appeared to be angling for a move to Aston Villa two seasons ago – refusing to celebrate after scoring against the side then managed by Paul Lambert, and reportedly making some derogatory comments about the club to a journalist – but he stayed with us, as he has done throughout some very good times and some very bad times in the recent history of the Canaries.

The Irishman cost Norwich £250,000. His career with the club started slowly, stalled as many things were by the awful reign of Glenn Roeder, but few would argue now that for what Hoolahan has brought to City the transfer fee was a bargain.

Part of the ‘holy trinity’ during the League One campaign alongside Grant Holt and Chris Martin, Hoolahan is like most creative players in that he can delight and infuriate in equal measure. Some days he will give the ball away cheaply, try one mazy dribble too many or simply get eased off the ball, but when he’s on form he is an absolute joy to watch.

On Saturday, Wes Hoolahan was most definitely on form. He’s 33 years old now, but he seems to have found even more pace from somewhere and Bournemouth couldn’t handle him. Skinning a defender and cutting back for Cameron Jerome to put Norwich ahead – all whilst carrying his shin pad in his hands – and then scoring one of his own, brilliantly finishing past goalkeeper Artur Boruc when he could have passed left or right, punctuated an excellent display from a man who is now a regular in the Republic of Ireland team and was earlier this year named in the Football League Team of the Decade.

I think it’s time to start talking about him in the same way we do the likes of Darren Huckerby, Iwan Roberts and Grant Holt – because in my eyes Wes Hoolahan is already a Norwich City legend.