Ben Knapper drops Norwich City transfer update with Sainz, Sargent exits likely | OneFootball

The Canaries' two premier forwards will be wanted men this summer.

Ben Knapper has stated that the club are more focused on their incomings than their outgoings this summer, with pressure expected to mount on them to sell star attackers Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent.

The American striker has already had a taste of what it's like to play at the highest level, for both club and country, while his counterpart is dreaming of the day when he can represent Spain and play in the Premier League.

Sargent has attracted interest from the top flight for a while now and knows that there will be multiple options on the table for him this summer. Clubs from his former home, the Bundesliga, and the English first division are reportedly keen on the 25-year-old, who has also been linked with a move to newly promoted Leeds United.

For Knapper, Norwich's sporting director, this summer isn't about how much money they could make from the pair, but rather how they can improve to get back to challenging for promotion, following their disappointing season.

Ben Knapper's Norwich summer transfer window claim amid Sainz & Sargent worries

"We're ambitious as well," he stated, via The Pink Un. "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."

Funds will need to be generated in order for Norwich to make the splash in the upcoming transfer window that they would like to. Offloading Sainz and Sargent is not how the former Arsenal loans manager intends to do that, though.

"We're a business at the end of the day, so we need to make sure that things balance. We're not completely bound by having to sell players before we can do anything. It's not a situation like that. But of course, it's a factor.

"We work multiple windows in advance, where you try to model what may or may not happen and what that might mean for your strategy. That's normal. That's the same with any club going into any summer.

"There's another dynamic you have to consider, which is the player perspective. We understand where we sit in the broader kind of landscape, and that has to be a factor in what happens as well.

"If a player gets a fantastic opportunity to go and play in the Premier League or in a Champions League level, and a club steps forward with a proposal that is of a requisite level, then you have to be reasonable as well. That's just a dynamic that all clubs face when you've got good players in a good squad."

Norwich have to be ready for life without Sainz and Sargent

When Norwich finished in the top six in David Wagner's last campaign in charge at Carrow Road, and was then succeeded by Johannes Hoff Thorup, the hope wouldn't have been to then sell Jonathan Rowe and Gabriel Sara.

The sales brought in good money for the club, how well it was spent is very debatable, but that's not the outcome that City would have hoped for at the start of the summer, and yet it happened, and the same could happen this summer too.

In a way, Norwich should already be a bit prepared to live without the two talented attackers because of Sargent's injury record, for one, and Sainz's poor second half of the season. Even though they didn't contribute to a winning season, that's not an excuse for the Canaries to not replace the two of them if they do leave, like they failed to do with Rowe and Sara a year ago.