Norwich City will today try to wrap up a deal to keep Leroy Lita at Carrow Road after a renewal of his loan spell failed to go through yesterday. Manager Glenn Roeder and his opposite number at Reading, Steve Coppell, had both indicated that the deal was almost certain to go through after the weekend's trip to Burnley.

Norwich City will today try to wrap up a deal to keep Leroy Lita at Carrow Road after a renewal of his loan spell failed to go through yesterday.

Manager Glenn Roeder and his opposite number at Reading, Steve Coppell, had both indicated that the deal was almost certain to go through after the weekend's trip to Burnley.

But there was no announcement yesterday, with City's chief executive Neil Doncaster declining to comment while the wheels were in motion.

Lita scored four goals in six starts, including a hat-trick against Wolves, and should the deal fall through, Roeder will have to look to his back-up strikers, Arturo Lupoli and Jamie Cureton, although both have fallen out of favour recently.

Lupoli has scored three times this season, but has started only one game since opening the scoring in the 2-1 win at Plymouth in mid-September and has been told by Roeder that he needs to get used to the strong-arm tactics of Championship defenders.

The Italian hasn't featured in the last three City squads, while Cureton hasn't started a game since August 23, at Cardiff - and hasn't scored since last Easter.

Lita, in the final year of his contract at Reading, has been linked with other clubs, including West Brom, Bristol City and Crystal Palace, with Reading expected to be asking around £2.5m for the former England Under-21 international.

However, Palace boss Neil Warnock said yesterday he had no interest in the 23-year-old after reports that he wanted to offer midfielder Ben Watson in a swap deal.

“I've no intention of letting Ben go at the minute - even in August I didn't want him to leave,” said Warnock. “I'm not interested in Lita.”

The Canaries have also been linked with a move for Bolton striker Ricardo Vaz Te.

Sources in the north west suggest Roeder is keen on the Portuguese 22-year-old although Cardiff are favourites to snap him up on loan ahead of their game with QPR this weekend.