Pukki representative brings an end to reports of Besiktas interest in City striker

Silly season is in full swing, with one of Teemu Pukki’s representatives having to intervene to calm speculation about the Norwich City striker’s future among fans of Turkish club Besiktas.

In recent days the Finland star’s social media accounts have been bombarded with thousands of messages simply stating ‘come to Besiktas’ by supporters of the Istanbul club, who finished third to qualify for the Europa League last season.

The concerted online effort followed a report in Turkish newspaper Foto Spor last week which claimed Pukki had been identified as the ideal replacement for captain Burak Yilmaz, who has left and signed for Lille on a free transfer.

The report claimed that contact with Pukki’s agent had been made, in spite of financial problems making it unlikely that Besiktas could afford to sign a player who scored 11 goals in the Premier League last season.

Hopes of signing the 30-year-old were knocked back further when well-known TV journalist Sercan Dikme of Haber Global posted on Twitter that Pukki was “not on Besiktas’s agenda” as they could not afford to compete with Premier League interest.

And the story looked to finally be brought to an end yesterday when Turkish newspaper Dirilis Postasi quoted one of the Finn’s agents, Andrew Thompson, as saying “the transfer of our player to Besiktas is impossible”.

The strange summer tale even saw Sky Bet install Besiktas as 5/2 favourites to be his next club, ahead of Burnley (4/1) and newly promoted West Brom (5/1).

Canaries head coach Daniel Farke has already spoken about his hope of the former Schalke and Celtic forward rediscovering his form in the Championship but it seems relegation and Pukki’s high-profile success with Finland in recent years will bring plenty of attention during the transfer window.

Meanwhile, Football Insider have followed on from Sky Sports’ claim that Norwich would be interested in bringing defender Ryan Bennett back to the club and suggested Wolves would expect a fee of around £3million.

The Express have also added Manchester United to the long list of clubs linked with Canaries defender Ben Godfrey recently, which has included Newcastle, AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen.