Naismith deal is looking close
Norwich City look in pole position to sign Everton forward Steven Naismith following quotes from both club’s managers this morning.
In their pre-match press conferences, both Alex Neil and Roberto Martinez spoke about the situation regarding Steven Naismith and it seems as though a deal is not far off form being completed.
Martinez played down interest from Swansea in Naismith by claiming that another Premier League club have a deal in place to sign the Scotsman. That club is widely seen as being Norwich City.
There has been no approach [from Swansea]. There has been another Premier League club that has made a lot of progress in that respect.
There was speculation in the last week of December that Norwich had agreed a deal for Naismith and Martinez has all but confirmed this by admitting a deal has been in place since January 1st.
We are open to the Steven Naismith situation because in the last days of the previous window it’s an open secret Steven wanted to know about is future, and at that time we couldn’t replace him and it wasn’t right to do that.
That’s been there since day one on January 1. It’s never been a question of welcoming approaches and offers, it’s making sure we sit down with the player and he’s clear with the next step of his career.
Naismith is currently out with injury and Martinez has said he must work his way back before deciding on his playing future.
Everything is more or less agreed in terms of a possible transfer. But the situation with Steven Naismith is that he has a knock on his ankle, and that’s why he hasn’t been involved.
At the moment, the priority is to see Steven fully fit and available and then probably we will have a sit down and decide the next step.
Alex Neil also spoke about it by saying this:
(We) have done everything possible.
(We) have to wait and see.
It now seems like it is all down to whether Naismith wants to join Norwich. If he does want to join the Canaries; the transfer is almost certain.