Norwich City have run the rule over West Ham midfielder Andy Irving as they assess late transfer window market moves.
Ali Ahmed arrived from Vancouver Whitecaps in the early days of trading this month, but head coach Philippe Clement admitted City might have to be patient to land more creativity.
Irving fits the profile of central midfielder the Championship strugglers will aim to add to ease the load on first choice duo Kenny McLean and Pelle Mattsson, after Mirko Topic’s season-ending injury.
The 25-year-old left footer has only played seven minutes of Premier League football for the Hammers since late October, and is now in the final six months of his current deal.
Irving, who was an unused substitute for West Ham’s FA Cup extra-time win over QPR on Sunday, is believed to be attracting interest from Championship rivals, and clubs abroad after a previous spell in Austria.
A number 10 is also a priority position for the Canaries, but Clement warned recently Norwich must hold their nerve.
“It’s difficult. That’s a little bit the story of the casino. You need some luck in things, and you can wait also and wait and then you’re empty-handed,” he said. “So this is always a really, really tricky window for everybody, for every manager, for every club.
“If you never lived the life you understand it less, like maybe for fans. But it’s a really complicated window to get players in who are a direct fit to play, sometimes you need to make choices, to choose somebody more for long term and to get them in because he was playing less in his old team, but because of that, is now available on the market, for example.
“Those are also choices that you need to make, or you take. Maybe somebody who is less talented than the other one, but you can step in directly and do something directly now. So I hope we have a few choices.
“That’s already the challenge the recruitment team are working really hard on that, and we will see what happens now in this next two, three weeks. But what’s really important is that everybody’s working really hard. So I’ve been here many hours in the club every day, but the recruitment team even more so.
“I’m happy that there’s a lot of open communication in the club around every file that we have with players, and the talks are really open and honest. It’s not about the quantity, it’s about the quality that we need to strengthen the squad. It’s an exciting time.
“We have a really, really young squad, by far the youngest in the Championship. So there’s a lot of room for development there, and we need a few added players.”
City are locked in a Championship relegation dogfight, but will not be dragged into paying over the odds for potential targets.
“You can bring in straightaway, but probably they’re not affordable. That’s the reality of this market,” said Clement. “We don’t want to let go also players who are important for us and every other club. So then you go to players who played less so they probably have less rhythm to play.
“You need to make decisions around that, what is best for the club, short term, but also long term. And we will make the right decisions. There are much more talks (this month), because we are also not the only team who’s looking at the market.”
