David Wagner insisted Norwich City are in ‘full control’ of what happens to Jon Rowe in the January transfer window – with no further talks planned until the end of the season.
Wagner delivered a clear response on Thursday at Colney to fresh speculation in recent days linking the freescoring 20-year-old with Premier League clubs next month.
Crystal Palace are believed to be long time admirers, while Wolves reportedly made a £15m approach in the summer.
Rowe is under contract at Carrow Road until 2025, with the club holding a further one year option, and Wagner revealed sporting director Ben Knapper has reached a common position with Rowe’s camp.
“The truth is Ben is in conversation with his parties. The truth is as well, he is happy with his contract, we are happy with his performance and we agreed, because he has two-and-a-half years left and we are in total control, we agreed to sit together at the end of the season,” said Wagner. “Let’s try to perform the second part of this season like the first part of the season, let’s be only focused on this, then everyone will be very happy at the end of the season.
“Then it makes sense to speak about anything else in terms of contracts. Anything else now is not the right thing to do, because Jonny should do what he has done so far – be focused on the pitch and on performances. We will try everything to support him as best as we can. This is what I said after Ipswich, that he can do this.
“Yes, he scored a lot of goals. Yes, he is very young, but at the end of the day, and this is very, very good, he’s very clever in his head. He knows exactly that some of the recent performances were not on his level – he is better than what he has shown – and this is what we have to make sure that he performs consistently on his highest level.
“He’s a player who can be very important without ball possession as well, because he’s football intelligent, and obviously in ball possession, with his attacking threat he’s always dangerous for goals.”
Both Wagner and finance and operations director, Anthony Richens, had already publicly stated City do not need to cash in on the likes of Rowe or Gabby Sara in January.
“For me, the most important thing is that everyone is in conversation with everybody. And then it’s important that you have a clear picture of how you like to progress,” said the City head coach. “And we said very clearly we will progress this at the end of the season. Until then focus on your performance and try to do in the second half of the season what you did in the first.
“As I said, we have full control and this is exactly I think the right thing to do. And this is what Ben agreed with Jonny’s party.
“We have to make sure that Jonny stays healthy so that he can perform on a very high level consistently. And then more goals for him will come, because he’s a natural goal scorer and quite calm front of the goal.”
