Stuart Webber is less than impressed Norwich City’s interest in Dennis Man has gone public – but reiterated that is the level of player they now want to target.
Every twist and turn of Webber’s recent trip to Romania for face-to-face talks on the Steaua Bucharest youngster appeared in the local media.
Webber has not yet pulled the plug, although the two clubs appear well apart in their respective valuations of the attacker.
City have been linked with another Eastern European-based wide player in the past 24 hours, with Polish Under-21 international Przemyslaw Placheta reportedly on the radar.
“I pop to Romania on holiday and the next thing I know it is being reported I am in the house of a football club owner and a very good player,” joked Webber, at Colney on Monday. “I can’t add too much to what has already been put out there.
“I am really disappointed it has come out. I don’t believe in doing business that way and I won’t give him the satisfaction of saying anything they can take and run with. We’ll see. We are in for lots of players at the minute and we are close on three or four things and I sure when the dust settles on this season we will quickly show our actions.
“What I would say is we are in a place where we can invest a higher amount in talented players, rather than trying to find talent on the cheap. Now we can invest more money in that area.”
City will have a ‘competitive’ Championship budget, but the boom and bust cycle is not an option on Webber’s watch.
“You will hear no excuses from me next season, in terms of finances, around the squad,” he said. “We won’t have the biggest budget in the Championship, or spend the most money in the Championship. What we have got is the tools financially to make sure we can be really competitive in that league. That is the first time in my time here.
“The one non-negotiable part of all those contracts last summer was what the salary would drop to if we were relegated.
“That is what almost killed this club before and why we had to sell top talent just to keep afloat. We had players on more than £40,000 a week in the Championship which is completely unsustainable for this club.
“We know how difficult it is to get out of the Championship but we have done it before and we back ourselves to do it again.”
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