Norwich City facing clear Borja Sainz exit threat as new clubs table offers | OneFootball

The Spaniard wants to play at the highest level one day.

Norwich City have received bids from unnamed clubs in Italy and Portugal for star forward Borja Sainz.

The immense scoring run that 24-year-old Sainz went on from the start of last season until December launched him onto the watchlists of many teams across Europe. La Liga outfits like Atletico Madrid and Girona were supposedly interested in January, but now the Canaries have officially had offers for the Spaniard.

As first reported by Chris Reeve, teams in Italy and Portugal have made proposals to the Norfolk side to acquire Sainz this summer. He also added that there remains interest from Turkey, plus The Pink Un has said that Spanish and English top flight clubs are also keen on him.

Sainz's attacking partner in crime, Josh Sargent is also the subject of European intrigue. The American has been linked with a move to AS Roma this week by Gianluca Di Marzio, although the poor financial situation may make a move for the 25-year-old, whose contract expires in 2028, difficult.

Unlike Sargent, Norwich's matador only has one year left on his deal, leaving the Canaries a bit more exposed to the offers from Italy and Portugal that Reeve has reported.

Mark Attanasio, the club's owner, did say at the most recent AGM, in November, that the Canaries weren't in a position where they needed to offload Sainz or other top commodities in order to generate spending money. "We can control what we can control, so we don't need to sell Borja (Sainz) in January.

"Frankly, we don't need to sell him ever, it's just at some point there's an element of fairness, if I understand the ecosystem, where you're getting paid a very full price - it doesn't have to be an extreme price - and it's something that someone wants to do."

Sainz has since revealed his ambitions to one day play at the highest level, whether that be in this country or back home in Spain.

Liam Manning could end up in similar Johannes Hoff Thorup position

Norwich only announced the appointment of their new head coach, Liam Manning, on Tuesday, and on that day, and in the following days, two of his biggest weapons have been linked with moves away from Carrow Road.

The same sort of thing happened with his predecessor, Johannes Hoff Thorup, although not quite as quickly. Jonathan Rowe and Gabriel Sara, two of Norwich's best players from the season before the Danish boss arrived, both left Norfolk before he took charge of his first competition match.

There will be a bit more confidence in Manning to overcome issues like this if they do present themselves given what he has already done with a Bristol City side that wasn't lined with superstars. What it certainly won't help, if either, or both, of the attackers depart, are his chances of getting Norwich back to the promotion-pushing position that they would like to be.