[2] He was initially less successful after leaving Villa Park in September 1979 to sign for Villa's local rivals West Bromwich Albion, managing just five goals from 47 league games over the next two years, but recaptured his form after joining Norwich City in December 1981 and helping them seal promotion to the First Division that season.
[3] In the summer of 1986, he left Norwich to join Ipswich Town in a player exchange deal that saw Trevor Putney move to Carrow Road.
He helped coach an unfancied Canaries side to a surprise third-place finish in the inaugural FA Premier League (season 1992–93), and was promoted to the manager's seat the following January when Walker moved to Everton.
Norwich finished 12th in the Premiership in 1993-94 and started the following season reasonably well despite the (then) record English sale of Chris Sutton to Blackburn Rovers for £5 million.
Despite the loss of Sutton, and the sale of Efan Ekoku shortly afterwards, the Canaries were seventh in the Premiership by Christmas and were in contention for a UEFA Cup place.
An injury to goalkeeper Bryan Gunn then sparked a dramatic loss of form, and by the time the Canaries lost 3–0 to Newcastle United on 8 April 1995, they were heading for the relegation zone.
After safeguarding Wigan's survival in 1997–98, he accepted the assistant manager's job at Sheffield United and for one season worked under Steve Bruce.
After leaving the Yorkshire club, he made a football comeback with Aston Villa when he was appointed assistant manager to John Gregory in July 2001.
[8] In November 2007, Deehan was employed as a scout by Premier League side Bolton Wanderers who were looking for a number of former professionals to head their recruitment drive led by former Everton manager Colin Harvey.
[12][13] On 17 March 2010, he was announced as Head of Recruitment (Director of Football) at Grimsby Town in order to work with manager Neil Woods and his assistant Chris Casper.