Johannes Hoff Thorup joked he has Norwich City striker Josh Sargent ‘locked in his basement’ until after Friday’s transfer window deadline.
Sargent’s goals fired the Canaries into the Championship play-offs last season, and he has scored two in his first three league games of the new campaign.
MLS clubs showed interest in the US international earlier in the window, but Thorup believes Sargent is only focused on Norwich ahead of the 11pm deadline.
“He’s not in the building because he’s back home in my basement. It will not be ideal for us to let him go, and I think he’s in a good place,” the City chief told BBC Radio Norfolk. “He’s training well. Of course there was some interest from the MLS in the beginning of the window, and I think he’s over that.
“He’s actually in a state of mind where he’s focused on being here, and he wants to perform on a high level for us, and I definitely believe that he will also be here. I will say, for us and the way that we want to play, it would be very difficult for us to find a striker with his qualities.”
Norwich are looking to make Sheffield United’s Anis Slimane their seventh senior signing of the window, which has also seen the likes of Gabby Sara, Adam Idah and Jon Rowe depart.
“I think we celebrate with a beer when the window will close, and then we can start really working with the group being united,” he said, speaking at Colney ahead of this weekend’s trip to Coventry. “And, you know, it’s us going forward. That clarity is good for everyone, coaches, staff, players, just to have that certainty, regarding who’s here and who will be here for the next few months.
“I’m not going to use to word ‘hectic’, because everything has been planned. From day one I was here, and we started working, Glen (Riddersholm) and I, it was the middle of June and we sat down with Ben (Knapper) and Neil (Adams) and the recruitment staff, and we made a plan, and we said, ‘Okay, if, we’re about to sell a player from this position, make sure that we have at least three or four players lined up for what we do then.
“Everything we have done so far has been planned. Of course, you can never plan which clubs who will buy you players, or at least try to buy your players, but you can plan what you will do if it will happen, and that’s why we’ve been ready.
“The players that we have brought in has been players that we have actually scouted for several months, and also for some of them several years. We have the players that we know we can bring in if something happens.
“And of course, maybe one or two players out more than we expected, but we’ve been ready to execute on the new players.”
Thorup is prepared to sanction deadline day loan exits for younger talent. The likes of Ken Aboh and Jaden Warner have attracted interest from lower down the Football League.
“What we’re discussing mostly is actually whether it will be beneficial for them to go on loan and have some senior minutes,” he said. “League One or League Two football, or actually to stay here in this environment and learn every day with the way that we train and the approach we have to both training and games.
“It’s very much an individual decision, from player to player, that we have to take and some will definitely go on loan.
“I think also there will be some we actually decide to keep here, because we can see that they will benefit from the training, and they will also by being here, be closer to the team.”
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