Norwich City and Coventry City in chase to sign ex-Burnley star | OneFootball

Championship rivals Norwich City and Coventry City are reportedly interested in signing Lens winger Anass Zaroury.

Norwich City and Coventry City are both among the clubs that will be aiming to launch promotion challengers this season, and they are both now reportedly locked in a battle to sign former Burnley attacker Anass Zaroury from Lens.

Norwich have embarked upon an extremely busy summer transfer window that has seen some big money moves made following the appointment of Liam Manning, who they managed to poach from Bristol City after he led the Robins to the play-offs last season.

The Canaries have brought in several new faces this summer, including the ambitious signings of Mathias Kvistgaarden and Jakov Medic from Brondby and Ajax respectively.

Coventry, on the other hand, reached the play-offs last season and so have been slightly more circumspect in the transfer window, with Frank Lampard enjoying his first pre-season in charge of the Sky Blues.

They will be aiming to be in the top six of the Championship once again, though, and have still added the likes of Miguel Angel Brau, Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Carl Rushworth so far this summer.

Now, with the 2025/26 Championship campaign less than two weeks away, both clubs are chasing what would be another ambitious move in the form of Anass Zaroury.

Norwich and Coventry interest in Zaroury

According to L’Equipe, it is believed that Anass Zaroury could leave Lens this summer, having joined the Ligue 1 outfit from Burnley under the management of Will Still last year.

Still has since left for Southampton in the Championship in the last couple of months, and now the Morocco international is set to be deemed surplus to requirements at Stade Bollaert-Delelis.

The report suggests that Zaroury is unconvinced by how prominent he will feature at Lens, following the appointment of former Olympique Lyonnais boss Pierre Sage in the north of France.

It has been reported that both Coventry and Norwich have shown an interest in the 24-yer-old attacker, alongside Greek Super League giants Panathinaikos as well as La Liga’s Espanyol, who have recently signed Tyrhys Dolan, following the expiration of his contract at Blackburn Rovers.

Zaroury joined Burnley joined Burnley in the summer of 2022 and formed a key part of Vincent Kompany’s Clarets side that stormed to the second-tier title that season.

Having struggled for game time in the Premier League, though, he was loaned out to Hull City for the second-half of the 2023/24 campaign, before moving to France to link up with Lens.

Norwich & Coventry will be aiming for the top six this season

The appointment of Manning at Carrow Road is expected to see a shift in the shape, with the former Oxford United and Milton Keynes Dons having almost exclusively played a back three throughout his managerial career, especially in England.

As well as Kvistgaarden and Medic, Norwich have also brought in goalkeepers Vladan Kovacevic, Daniel Grimshaw and Louie Moulden, as well as defender Harry Darling, midfielder Jacob Wright and wide men Jeff Schlupp and Papa Amadou Diallo.

The expectation will be that Norwich can mount a serious challenge for the top six this season, with a more deliberate and controlled style of Manning to balance against their abundance of attacking potential.

Coventry very nearly reached the play-off final last season before a heartbreaking loss to Sunderland in the semi-finals, with Daniel Ballard scoring a winning goal in stoppage-time in the second-half of extra-time at the Stadium of Light.

Frank Lampard has had an excellent start to his time at the Coventry Building Society Arena, and the signing of Zaroury would also represent something of a statement of intent in this window.