Canaries chief explains transfer saga following midfielder’s Celtic move

Stuart Webber will be keeping a close eye on David Turnbull’s development at Celtic, after accepting his heart wasn’t in a move to Norwich City at this stage of his career.

The Scottish champions agreed a £3.25million deal with Motherwell for the goal-scoring midfielder only for talks to break down and for Celtic to take the unusual step of posting about negotiations on Twitter, saying that a 'magnificent offer' had been shunned.

Reports in Scotland suggested £12,000 a week, yet Turnbull still wanted to speak to Norwich - who had also agreed a £3.25m deal - only to decide Celtic was the best move for him this summer.

"He was with us on Thursday, talks went well and we rolled out the red carpet - as we would - and he chose Celtic, which was his choice," City's sporting director explained.

"Good player, good lad, good representatives, he's chosen a great club. I'm not sure I would have chosen them after the way they spoke about me in the media but that's his choice. He's chosen a great club and I'm sure one day he'll want to play in the Premier League because it's the greatest league in the world, and hopefully he'll get that opportunity."

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The 19-year-old scored 15 goals in the Scottish Premiership last season but was unlikely to be a first-team regular this season for Norwich if he did sign.

Webber, speaking to Talk Norwich City, continued: "When you get turned down it's never nice but at the same time, there's always another player and we want players who genuinely want to be here.

"As I said to him when he was trying to decide: 'listen mate, have no regrets, you've got to go where you want to go and if your heart is set on Celtic, it's set on Celtic - because you'll be here and in a month thinking you're going back up to Scotland'.

"One of the things with the group of players who have done so well here is, they have genuinely wanted to be here and they love it. They work hard and they give everything in their lives - and their families have - to be a success.

"The ones who don't, it normally doesn't work. So fundamentally he's made the right call and good luck to him. Hopefully I'll enjoy seeing his development there."

- Webber featured on the latest podcast of Canaries fan channel Talk Norwich City, you can watch the full interview above or at YouTube.Com/TalkNorwichCity