Norwich City have accepted a club record fee for Ben Godfrey from Everton reports The Athletic journalist and friend of the site, Michael Bailey.
Yep. Norwich City accepted bid from Everton tonight.
£25m plus add-ons – how much in add-ons a complicated one. But it is still a record sale for the club. Medical in the next 24hrs.
Norwich already have their replacement of course, in Ben Gibson. #NCFC @TheAthleticUK
— Michael Bailey (@michaeljbailey) October 1, 2020
The fee, £25m plus add-ons is more than the Canaries received from Leicester City for James Maddison back in the summer of 2018 with the “add-ons” likely to take the eventual fee to closer to £30m.
The 22-year-old has played in all three of City’s Championship games so far this season and has been been one of the first names on the team sheet ever since he made his league debut for Daniel Farke back in December 2018 when he replaced Timm Klose in the starting XI with just fifteen minutes notice, after Klose was injured in the warm-up.
Norwich have, as we can now see, already moved to replace Godfrey with the signing of Ben Gibson from Burnley. With a central defence berth alongside Christoph Zimmermann now apparently free for Saturday lunchtime’s home game against Derby County, it seems likely that Gibson will make his Canary debut.
I won’t pretend not to be disappointed by the sale of Godfrey because he is an excellent young player with all the attributes to be a top centre-half. Under the tutelage of Everton boss, Carlo Ancelotti, he will no doubt achieve that potential.
Best of luck for the future, Ben and thank you.
OTBC