Chris Lakey One down, one to go - but Bryan Gunn admits his pursuit of Crystal Palace striker Alan Lee may not be as successful as his quest for a new goalkeeper. The City boss ticked one major box yesterday when he handed the number one jersey to goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos - leaving the pursuit of a target man as his exclusive priority.

Chris Lakey

One down, one to go - but Bryan Gunn admits his pursuit of Crystal Palace striker Alan Lee may not be as successful as his quest for a new goalkeeper.

The City boss ticked one major box yesterday when he handed the number one jersey to goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos - leaving the pursuit of a target man as his exclusive priority.

Lee, who finished the season on loan at Carrow Road, is his top target, but word from Selhurst Park is that Palace boss Neil Warnock wants more than Gunn has offered.

So is Lee on or off?

"It's in between at the moment," said Gunn. "We have spoken to Palace about the situation. I have spoken to Neil Warnock and (chief executive) David (McNally) has spoken to their chief executive Phil Alexander so those discussion are still on-going.

"Alan obviously enjoyed his time at Norwich and we enjoyed having him here, but there may come a time when we may have to look elsewhere.

"We have to make sure we are covered just in case of any eventuality. There are irons in the fire and other options available to us and it is down to us to progress and make those final decisions."

Gunn says he will continue a Norwich tradition and try to keep details transfer activities in-house - even if other managers aren't quite so obliging.

"We are working hard behind the scenes to make things happen," he said. "Whether it's helpful or not that there are comments coming out from other clubs in terms of what we are trying to do and what we are trying to achieve - we are trying to do our business as professionally and quietly as possible, but we have suffered from a couple of comments that have come out.

"It's an awkward situation because we have made moves and we will continue to make moves in different areas as well. I think the policy certainly at the club in the past has been to try and keep things as tight as possible and certainly now working with David and (chairman) Alan Bowkett and another new director, Stephan Phillips, it's what we want to do - to not shout about things until contracts are signed and sealed and we can deliver a new face into the building.

"It creates a little bit of confusion for supporters, it might send out sometimes the wrong signals as well, but I can assure the fans that there is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes in the efforts to freshen the squad up and bring players in that hopefully will give us the best chance of being as competitive as possible in the league."