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Norwich Striker On Besiktas Radar

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Norwich City are hoping to receive offers for out of favour striker, Nelson Oliveira in January says Stuart Webber.

The Canaries’ Sporting Director was asked about the Portuguese international’s future at Thursday night’s AGM by the EDP and said what has been clear for a while, that Nelson’s Norwich career is over.

“If he stays, no one really wins,” he said. “We are open to offers for him in January. He is open to leaving because he knows he needs to play football.

“As a club we have an expensive asset sat there and for him his career is disappearing and you only get one opportunity. He knows that. Nelson and I have an honest relationship.

“We speak at least once a week on it. It is very professional. There are no problems.

“He has not been banished out of the group. He trains every day. I can’t speak highly of how he has handled it.”

Nelson played for the U23s against their Southampton counterparts in Friday evening’s 0-0 draw at Colney. He played for an hour before being substituted, as Grant Hanley also got some competitive football under his belt.

Despite offers for Nelson being reportedly rejected in the summer of 2017, one of which was a supposed £12m bid from Swansea, it seems that there hasn’t been anything concrete of late.

“We never had anything direct. Hopefully that changes this winter,” Webber added. “No direct offers to us (last summer). There was some interest guided to us from his agent, which his agent said were not of interest to Nelson. We respected that.

“We were very honest with him towards the end of last season. He was honest with us.”

On Friday afternoon, a report surfaced from Turkish media outlet fotospor.com suggesting that Nelson is one of two strikers being tracked by Besiktas, the other being Watford’s Andre Gray.

With January fast approaching, it seems sensible to assume that most clubs will have transfer plans in place and there will clearly not be any issue in signing Oliveira for any prospective suitor, as long as the deal is right for City and the player.

Sadly, the Nelson Oliveira that we saw in 2016/17, who scored 15 goals in 32 appearances, lost his way under Daniel Farke and effectively exiled himself as a result.

The signings of Jordan Rhodes and Teemu Pukki have meant that Nelson hasn’t been missed in the City squad this season, despite being a very talented and skilful player. He’s not going to be worth £12m anymore but he will still have a decent value.

Hopefully a resolution to the situation can be found in the winter window that suits everyone.

OTBC

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Editor - a forty something Canary, who has been following Norwich for 30 odd years. Family man with wife, kids, dog and a love of sport. Fan of Boxing, Vale 46, F1 and Rock.

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