FC Lorient winger Alexis Claude-Maurice rejected Norwich in the summer as he was not interested in being involved in a relegation scrap this season.
According to Michael Bailey, of The Athletic, Claude-Maurice was not prepared to reject the possibility of securing a move to a club playing European football to battle against relegation with Norwich in the Premier League.
He claims that Norwich would have smashed their transfer record to sign Claude-Maurice after agreeing a fee with Lorient, but they were unable to get a deal over the line with the player.
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If Claude-Maurice was not willing to be in a fight at the bottom of the table, Norwich have potentially avoided a problem within the squad by not signing him.
Had Norwich managed to convince Claude-Maurice to sign, with more wages/bonuses, etc, they would have had a player who is not fully committed to the cause and ready to give everything for the club when times are tough.
He clearly has lofty ambitions to play in the Europa League or Champions League, although he is currently playing in the second division in France with Lorient.
Norwich need to have every single player willing to work hard and put maximum effort in if they are to avoid being sent back down to the Championship, and Claude-Maurice seems as though he may have been a disruptive figure if things were not to go his way.
