As ever, Norwich City continue to be linked with every man and his dog this summer and with the transfer window now officially open, everyone wants to know who will be the first new signing of the summer.
Yesterday, we brought you news of a link to Hannover 96 Captain, Marvin Bakalorz. He is out of contract in the summer and seems set to leave Hannover after their recent relegation.
We also had a bit more on West Brom midfielder, Rekeem Harper and you can read about both of those players here.
Sunday is often the weekend’s biggest day for transfer rumours and so it proves again with a bit of an update on the chase for Bolton Wanderers midfielder, Luca Connell.
According to the Daily Mail and reported here by The Pink ‘Un, Glasgow Rangers are leading this particular chase over Norwich City although the Mail reckon that Southampton, Wolves, Leeds and Preston are also all interested. A compensation fee of around £300k would reportedly be enough to secure his signature from Bolton, who are in horrible financial difficulties at the moment.
In other news and according to The Sun on Sunday and reported here by HITC Sport, Norwich are keen on the permanent signing of Jordan Rhodes from Sheffield Wednesday.
Rhodes spent last season on-loan with City, scoring 7 goals along the way but ultimately having to play second fiddle to Teemu Pukki for almost all of the campaign.
He has though proven himself to be a great squad player and generally a top bloke to have about the place.
The stumbling block, as always, will be money and The Sun suggest that the Canaries are hoping that Wednesday would be willing to take a small fee to move him off the wage bill.
Rhodes signed for the Owls two years ago for a reported £8m fee, although his value will have dropped significantly due to not re-capturing his Blackburn form with either City, Wednesday or his previous club, Middlesbrough.
He is thought to be earning around £45k per week at Hillsborough, which is surely an unsustainable wage in the Championship.
A small fee and perhaps a slight salary drop to move to Norfolk, which he and his partner seem to love, could be good for all parties though.
I’ve heard from a source that I can’t name, that Rhodes cost Norwich a £1m loan fee plus the promise of another six figure payment due on promotion, as well as covering all his wages last season.
Is Jordan Rhodes good enough to play in the Premier League? Not ahead of Teemu Pukki, obviously, but City are highly unlikely to be signing anyone who will play ahead of Pukki in any case.
It’s a bit like being a striker and hearing that Spurs are interested in you. In your head you might be interested but you just know that Harry Kane is going to be the number one choice and it’s a similar scenario at Carrow Road with Pukki.
That might suit Rhodes though and he’ll know exactly what the situation is here. Proven strikers cost big money and that’s something we don’t have at the moment, so who do you turn to?
A player who you already know everything about is always going to be in the running.
Another striker linked to Norwich, which we brought you news of in the week is Alex Claude-Maurice and you can read all about that link here.
Unfortunately though, according to The Mirror, it seems that Arsenal are also tracking the U20 French international. Arsenal are reportedly working with a budget of only around £40m this summer, which will mean they need to be smart in the transfer market, something Norwich know all about.
If true, it means that Claude-Maurice would surely be joining Arsenal as a back-up to Lacazette and Aubameyang, not an enviable position to be in. If he joined Norwich though, his chances of game time would most likely increase with arguably, only Teemu Pukki ahead of him but with a Head Coach in Daniel Farke who is willing to give young players a chance.
A €9m fee is mentioned with Norwich reportedly willing to pay that much but if Arsenal do become involved, even with only £40m to play with, they will surely still have a bigger wedge of cash to tempt Lorient with.
Finally, we have the ridiculous story of the week award in which the Daily Mail suggest that Norwich are one of several teams keen on signing Liverpool keeper, Simon Mignolet.
The ridiculous part is that the fee is supposedly £15m. That is plainly well out of City’s reach although Bournemouth and Watford could probably afford him at that price.
If it was a loan it might make more sense but Mignolet’s reputation is in tatters at Anfield and I’d rather keep Tim Krul.
Read more about it courtesy of the EDP here.
It’s getting interesting, with plenty of rumours around. Who will be the Canaries’ first new summer signing though?
OTBC