What links Norwich City and Barcelona this summer? No, not Max Aarons but the Catalans pursuit of Nico Williams, and a Borja Sainz by-product.
Sainz’s 18-goal Championship haul last season raised the profile of a talented if temperamental 23-year-old wide player.
The scale of club who have either tested City’s resolve already this summer or, in the case of Athletic Bilbao, are expected to open formal dialogue should European Championship winner Williams leave for a European superpower, testify to Sainz’s impact in green and yellow.
The Estadio Deportivo outlet claimed on Saturday the left winger is the ‘number one target’ for the Champions League qualifiers.
Williams has reportedly agreed personal terms in recent days to head to the Nou Camp and resume his international double act with Lamine Yamal, and Barca are willing to meet Bilbao’s hefty £53m buy out clause.
The path would appear to be opening up for Sainz’s boyhood club to bring him home. Porto and Napoli were faster out of the traps, but both are considering a number of other wide options.
The newly-crowned Italian champions are in the race to sign Jadon Sancho from Manchester United, while Porto are credited with an interest in Southampton prospect Tyler Dibling.
Norwich City sporting director Ben Knapper is driving the Canaries’ transfer strategy (Image: Sonya Duncan/Newsquest)
But in Ben Knapper, City have a sporting director who has demonstrated he does not operate a transfer policy heavy on sentiment.
Sainz may crave a return to his roots, but only if Bilbao hit the right number, despite a Carrow Road contract that can now be measured in months rather than years, unlike Josh Sargent, which could suggest Knapper is playing a weaker hand.
Adam Idah was desperate to get his wish for a swift Celtic reunion after a trophy-winning loan spell. But it proved a saga that spanned the duration of last summer, and included a pre-season touring disciplinary episode to underline City’s resolve.
Marseille found likewise when they had to return with multiple offers before Jon Rowe followed Idah out of the exit. Abu Kamara’s transfer request, after the season had started, only served to harden the resolve which forced Hull to agree a deal that may still rise to £4.5m for a young player who never made a full league debut for the Canaries.
Knapper was lauded for his overall transfer strategy 12 months ago, even if the declining end product on the pitch cost Johannes Hoff Thorup his job.
Liam Manning now has the task of extracting more from the available resource. The pending signing of Jakov Medic from Ajax will take Norwich’s early transfer spending to around £5m. Yet how Knapper and his team handle the delicate balance of Sainz, Sargent, maybe even Marcelino Nunez’s status this summer, could colour whether City have had a good window or not.
Knapper acutely understands this twin challenge. Norwich have to be equally good at recruitment, and a selling strategy, within a broader player trading model that must balance the books, but also equip Manning with a competitive squad capable of targeting the top six.
“Going forward, it’s key to our strategy. And things have to be right for us, and that’ll be no different this window,” he said, at the new head coach’s recent unveiling. “Sometimes in football you can place so much emphasis on the recruitment of players, and you spend so much time and energy really trying to recruit in the smartest, best possible way, but you have to apply that same level of attention the other way as well, and selling players is equally important.
“I think we’ve managed to do that well, historically, it’s a big focus for us. We’re ambitious as well. We want to create a team that can compete at the top end of this league.
“For any team that’s got good players you’re always going to face that challenge. That is natural. You have to walk towards that challenge and know that that’s just part of the process.
“But I think what this club has always shown, and particularly the new owners, is we are a club that trades. I think when clubs use that phrase ‘player trading’, often it just means player selling and maybe then re-investing a very small proportion of that into transfer fees.
“We’ve shown in the last two windows that we will go and target really high quality players, and pay substantial transfer fees, and that’s something that we would do again, if that situation was to present itself.”
If it was about crowd pleasing rhetoric then Sainz could have already been deposited in Portugal. Porto’s offer was below the club’s valuation. No deal.
Josh Sargent has been linked with clubs in Italy, the Bundesliga and Premier League (Image: Focus Images Ltd)
Likewise those fanciful reports of rumoured Italian interest in Sargent, for figures only a few million north of what City shelled out originally. An unproven Bundesliga prospect who has now matured into the best of his type in the Championship, with a multi-season goalscoring record to prove it.
Knapper, Mark Attanasio and Norfolk Holdings are all committed to driving value both in squad additions and on the balance sheet
For some Norwich fans the jury is understandably out on the sporting director, before he delivers tangible improvement on the park.
But the manner he navigated last summer’s market pitfalls, and the early statements and signings this time around, should engender confidence it will not be Sainz or Sargent, or any other player in the ranks, who will call the shots.