Norwich City: Sara, Nunez and recruitment

The brilliant Brazilian departed for Galatasaray in the summer after an eye-catching Championship season, in a deal that could rise above £22m.

Sara and Marcelino Nunez were the first recruits from the club’s South American scouting network in 2022.

Now City head of recruitment, Lee Dunn, has reaffirmed the Canaries are keeping tabs on a number of players in the same region.

“It's fair to say we have some long term targets in that market,” he said. “We have two scouts based in South America that are working very hard for us. Scouting players from under-14s and under-15s up to the senior level. So that never stops.

"To be honest, it doesn't really matter where they're from for us. Whether it's me flying to Brazil or Argentina or South Korea, it doesn't necessarily matter where they are.

“It's just trying to make sure they're the right fit. I've travelled to the Far East a few times. All markets are important for us.

"We do a lot of video scouting, because you can't go to Japan every week, but that plays a large part in our process, video scouting, data scouting, and obviously live scouting. It's important to go live, and certainly in these kind of markets where we're less familiar, because you learn so much from just the context.

"It might be a throwaway comment, but can this player come from Brazil and perform at Stoke on a wet Tuesday night? You need to feel this because it gives you a lot more context to make a decision.

“You watch them against some top teams in full stadiums, where the fans and the atmospheres are something you can't describe and you can't compare to England. But when I see a reserve game in Argentina, we think England's physical, and they are smashing each other. You need to feel this, because it gives you a lot more context to make a decision.

“We signed Jose (Cordoba) from Bulgaria this past summer. For us, it's about the player. And that can be from Norfolk, or it can be from Argentina, or wherever.”

City signed Sara for an initial £6m from Sao Paulo.

“The club needs to be really proud of that work, not individuals, I think the club need to take so much pride in that,” said Dunn. “It's almost the perfect case study of scouting a player, recruiting a player, developing a player, and then selling the player.

"There was a large body of work that went behind that signing over an extended period of time, probably four years. And again, it comes down to timing in that summer we signed Gabby, we wanted a box-to-box midfielder looking to score goals.

“When that remit is drawn up, you go and see your list, and you see who's suitable. And obviously Gabby ticked a lot of boxes for us.

"A lot of bravery to sign him at the time because we came off the back of a relegation, and I think it's fair to say the atmosphere wasn't overly positive at that time, and there were many safer options to recruit in that window, but bravery from Stuart (Webber) to back that, the board to back that, but also Dean Smith, because, Dean would want to get promoted at the first attempt.

"I'm sat in front of him, telling him to sign this Brazilian who's got an ankle injury that won't be fit for pre-season, and he's going to cost a decent amount of money, but I think would be a Premier League player.

“So there's a lot of reasons to say, ‘No’ in that scenario but the club needs to take huge pride in that. Recruitment is only the first part because then it's adapting him to our country, into our club, and then the player development piece, which often gets lost.

“We've got very good staff that work with the players, day in, day out, coaches, physical performance specialists and so on and without any of that work Gabby could quite easily have been going back to Brazil at some point.”

Watch or listen to our full chat with City head of recruitment, Lee Dunn, covering his background, time at Norwich, the club's recruitment approach and set up, which markets City are looking in, and an assessment of the most recent summer transfer window.