This, it seems, has been a week of certain disappointments for Norwich City, with the news that two rumoured targets have decided that their futures do not lie in Norfolk.
In the middle of the week came the news that Motherwell starlet, David Turnbull who is widely tipped as being the best young player in Scotland, had rejected the advances of Celtic and was instead, on his way to Norwich after the Canaries had met Motherwell’s £3.25m asking price.
That seemed to be that, after all it’s not often that a player doesn’t agree terms with a club once he’s reportedly on his way for talks.
As it turned out though, that is exactly what happened because despite the Canaries apparently bettering Celtic’s financial package by some way and the player being very impressed by the club and its set-up, young David decided he would rather go back to Celtic’s offer.
Turnbull has only had one breakthrough season (last season) and despite it being a brilliant one, he is also 19 and was reportedly earning “only” £1,000 per week at Motherwell. Celtic had reportedly offered him £12,000 per week and City had seemingly bettered that last figure by some margin. It’s not all about money though, is it?
The stark reality for Turnbull was most likely, in my opinion, that he was told that he was unlikely to be a regular starter in the Premier League for City – he may have even been a candidate for a Championship loan move. Obviously, his chances of regular first team football would be much better at Celtic and that looks to be what mattered most to him, which is fair enough.
David Turnbull has chosen to join Celtic rather than Norwich City for "footballing reasons, not financial", says manager Neil Lennon.
Full story ➡ https://t.co/LRp0kLOBr3 #SPL #bbcfootball pic.twitter.com/Mpdjc2YKAv
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) June 21, 2019
A player has to have the desire and drive to want to play for Norwich City and if he doesn’t have that then we move on, that seems to be the Stuart Webber mantra. It could well be that he will play regularly and score a hatful of goals for Celtic, that would see his value increase significantly. It’s a shame to miss out on such a hot prospect but not the end of the world.
Another player heavily linked with Norwich over the summer was Bayern Munich striker, Kwasi Okyere Wriedt. Plenty of clubs were reported as being interested in the 24-year-old who scored 24 goals in 34 games for Regionalliga Bayern (German fourth tier). Munich newspaper, Abendzeitung and reported here by the EDP, also suggest that Wriedt is going to be offered a new contract with the German giants – this rumour had “Daniel Farke” written all over it but alas, it looks like this is not to be, either.
On Saturday, a player that I have been following the progress of quite closely, Hannover 96 Captain, Marvin Bakalorz, has finally decided…that he’s going to stay at Hannover.
"Eine echte Identifikationsfigur": Marvin #Bakalorz verlängert seinen auslaufenden Vertrag bei #H96 um drei weitere Jahre. ✍️ #BakaBleibt #NiemalsAllein ⚫⚪💚https://t.co/MKgwDp9c6U
— Hannover 96 (@Hannover96) June 22, 2019
The defensive midfielder seemed to be a perfect addition to the Canaries but has rejected the overtures of both fellow Bundesliga 2 side, Hamburg as well as the Canaries.
Bakalorz has signed a new three year deal with Hannover and said “Of course, I could have made more money elsewhere, but I’ve always said that’s not all (I’m interested in.)
Once again, It’s a shame but we move on.
There’s also a little news regarding the future of Nelson Oliveira. Oliveira has been doing some fitness work with Reading’s fitness coach, Rui Santos, this summer and according to Get Reading, Nelson could be allowed to leave Norwich on a free transfer this summer. However, it seems unlikely at this time that Reading will be able to sign him after three years of excessive spending as Reading chased but failed to achieve promotion. As a result, they are under scrutiny from the EFL and are working under a “Soft transfer embargo.”
This basically means that Reading are unable to sign players without approval from the Football League. With Nelson thought to be earning around £30k per week and probably having an automatic promotion based, pay rise, Reading would be highly unlikely to be able to match those salary demands, unless the player was willing to accept a lot less.
Releasing Nelson or loaning him elsewhere seem the most likely options for City. That did seem to be the plan last summer as well but nothing materialised and he spent the first half of the season training with the U23s. On that sort of salary, even in the Premier League, City could do with moving their fiery Portuguese striker on.
Another little snippet unearthed by transfer rumour spotter extraordinaire, Cory@iwritethings23, concerns City’s young Irish Winger, Simon Power.
https://twitter.com/iwritethings23/status/1142523127248932865?s=21
According to The Mirror, Power has attracted the attention of the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, Lyon and PSV Eindhoven with his ballistic speed.
Power is very, very, quick and as we all know speed terrifies defenders. Dortmund have already shown that their scouting network stretches this far after they picked up Jadon Sancho from Manchester City for an absolute song, played him in their first team and turned him into a superstar with England Caps.
After those disappointments though, Norwich have been linked with Benfica midfielder, Filip Krovinovic in the last couple of days. The initial report came via Portuguese newspaper, Record as reported by the Pink ‘Un, which stated that the player was on the verge of joining another Portuguese side, Vitoria Guimaraes but that a “better offer” had come in from Norwich. Having been all set to move on loan to the Vitoria Sport Clube, (as they are also known) who finished fifth in the top flight Primera Liga last season, it seems that the chance to send their player to England for Premier League experience could be much more attractive with “everything indicating” that 23-year-old Krovinovic would join Norwich on a one year loan deal.
Krovinovic is, surprise, surprise, an attacking midfielder who can play as a number 10 behind the main striker. With the David Turnbull deal apparently collapsing, City look to be moving quickly to get the “number 10” that they are clearly keen to add to the squad this summer.
Last season was wrecked for Filip by an ACL knee injury but even when he was finally fit, he struggled for game time. Although with £100m rated Joao Felix ahead of him in his position in the pecking order, it was always going to be a tough ask to play much, hence a loan being mooted.
Record suggest that talks are at an advanced stage, so we could well hear a lot more about him in the next week or so, although West Brom are also rumoured to be interested and Vitoria Guimaraes are still very much in the running too.
OTBC