Norwich City will be keen to see the back of the transfer window – Mark Armstrong looks as three key issues ahead of the 5pm deadline tomorrow
The EFL transfer deadline closes on Friday and there are several issues still up in the air from a Norwich City perspective.
English clubs have until 5pm tomorrow to complete their transfer business when speculation will be put on hold before we all start again in just over two months’ time.
Here’s a look at some of the potential problems the City hierarchy at looking at with just over a day to go.
Over the Todd
For all the talk surrounding Todd Cantwell and Leeds United this summer there hasn’t ever been a formal bid made.
At this stage of the window it would now be a surprise if Norwich relented on their reported £25m asking price and grant Cantwell the Premier League move he desires.
The fact is Leeds are reluctant to spend any more money in this window having plundered north of £70m on new blood this summer in the form of Rodrigo (Valencia, £26m), Diego Llorente (Real Sociedad, £18m), Robin Koch (Freiburg, £12m) and Raphinha (Rennes, £17m).
Leeds would like to bring in a creative midfielder and Cantwell, as well as Derby’s Louie Sibley, fits that mould but they would prefer to look at the loan market and Norwich wouldn’t entertain this without the Yorkshire side matching their asking price along with a firm ‘obligation’ (not option) to buy in the future.
It now seems far more likely that Cantwell will have to start building bridges at Norwich and get back into head coach Daniel Farke’s good books to get the game time he needs between now and January when undoubtedly the speculation will ramp up again.
Case for defence
From having a wealth of options at the heart of their defence midway through the summer it now feels like Norwich are a little short.
The departures of Ben Godfrey and Timm Klose to Everton and Basel respectively have given some fans the jitters over the club’s central defensive options. The Canaries still have Ben Gibson, Christoph Zimmermann and Grant Hanley as front line options but some see relying on this trio as too much of a gamble bearing in mind the problems Daniel Farke had last season.
However, it would be a huge surprise now were Norwich to enter the market again. Arsenal’s William Saliba and Manchester City’s Joel Latibeaudiere have been linked with loans but these are both non starters as Norwich wouldn’t be able to guarantee the first team football required to make these deals happen.
Farke would prefer to use Alex Tettey or Jacob Sorensen as emergency cover if injuries or suspensions bite whilst the German has been impressed by the emergence of Andrew Omobamidele, who was on the bench for City’s Carabao Cup defeat at Luton.
City will also be keeping a close eye on Akin Famewo, who they have loaned to Charlton, and don’t be surprised to see the young centre half brought back into the City fold come January.
Three isn’t magic number
It was made clear early on in the window that Moritz Leitner, Josip Drmic and Tom Trybull don’t have futures at Carrow Road. All three have been training with City’s Under-23s and whilst fans have been calling for the creativity of Leitner in particular to be re-introduced it isn’t going to happen under Daniel Farke.
Having seen the European deadline pass without any movement, the trio can now only look to domestic clubs if they are to get a move away. However, it has been worryingly quiet from a City perspective after none of them was given squad numbers for the campaign ahead.
Leitner made 10 appearances last season, his last in the FA Cup win at Preston, and Farke has always insisted there has been no fall-out between himself and his fellow countryman.
Trybull made 20 appearances last season but missed the run-in due to “personal reasons” according to Farke. Both are under contract until 2022 but it has surely got to the stage now where Norwich just want to get their salaries off their books along with Drmic, who has struggled since arriving on a free transfer last summer from Borussia Moenchengladbach. Will a club come in for any of them though?
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