Daniel Farke revealed Norwich City made a late bid to bring in a new centre back in the transfer window, following the exits of Ben Godfrey and Timm Klose.

Farke was keen to see reinforcements and admitted on Friday the Canaries have left themselves ‘light’ with Christoph Zimmermann, Grant Hanley and Ben Gibson now expected to carry the load over the coming weeks.

Zimmermann is ruled out of Saturday’s Championship trip to Rotherham with a calf issue, but the lack of quality available and the cost pushed Farke’s priority into the January window.

“Believe me we tried everything and Stuart (Webber) was working his socks off to try and make this happen,” he said. “I tried to push it because I had in my mind Grant and Christoph have struggled in recent seasons with injuries and Ben has not played that much. To bring a proper option to improve us was too expensive.

“We know we are a bit thin and in January we definitely need to do something because you need four proper centre back options with so many games. That is the only position that worries us a bit.

“This topic came up in the last days of the overseas window with the unexpected loss of Timm.

“We tried everything to sort something out abroad and bring in a centre back but the time was against us and we would have had to spend an unbelievable amount of money.

“We were also watching the homegrown market because we got the feeling it would be good to have a fourth centre back option. In the end we decided it doesn’t make sense to make a decision just on numbers. We have younger centre backs, Alex Tettey and Jacob Sorensen can play this position.

“If we sign a player we want one who can improve us.”

The on-going financial impact of the pandemic, with supporters barred from stadiums, is increasingly a factor in City’s strategic decisions.

“I have to accept we are in a pandemic and that causes financial considerations,” said Farke. “You have to keep in mind the current situation with no supporters and not being able to sell tickets.

“We don’t know how long this goes on for so although I definitely wanted a centre back I know the situation.

“The UK market is difficult. We were not far away but either the transfer fee or the loan fee or the salary was too high.”