Norwich City join race for Portsmouth target as Championship transfer chase hots up

Norwich City have joined the pursuit of Pelle Mattsson, according to reports.

The Canaries are said to have had a bid in excess of £1.7m rejected for the midfielder, who is high on the list of Pompey’s midfield targets this summer.

Pelle Mattsson transfer plot thickens with £1.7m Norwich bid

The News understands there’s a host of Championship sides keen on the man valued around £2.5m by Danish Superliga outfit Silkeborg.

And Norwich have now made their move and solidified their interest, according to Bold.dk, though the 23-year-old’s club are not interested in doing business at that price.

Silkeborg have been consistent in their stance they are not looking to let Mattsson leave at present, with the player having 18 months to run on his contract.

That position is based around their Uefa Conference League involvement, with the club’s homegrown talent wanted for their qualifying fixtures.

They begin against Icelandic side KA on July 23 and could run until the final play-off game on August 28 - four days before the transfer window closes at 7pm on September 1.

Silkeborg’s sporting director, Jesper Stuker, made it clear this week it would take an extraordinary offer to convince his club to do business before the end of next month.

And now the club appear to be showing that’s not empty rhetoric, after asserting Silkeborg position on Mattsson.

He told Midtjyllands Avis: ‘Here and now we have no intention of selling any of our key players.

‘We are just getting started, and we have some really important games to play in Europe.

‘We want to see if we can get all the way to the group stage, so it would also require something quite extraordinary at this time.

‘We are not there (deals to sell agreed) with any of the players - and that also goes for Pelle.’

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Pompey face battle with Championship rivals with superior resources

It’s clear there’s still a long way to go until anyone seals a deal for Mattsson, with Pompey pushing on with their recruitment plans this summer.

The £2.5m figure mentioned around Mattsson is viewed as high by the Blues, though there’s obvious space for negotiating once his European obligations are out of the way.

Naturally the more interest there is from the Championship, or anywhere else, the more that is likely to drive up the figure which Silkeborg will agree to sell Mattsson for.

Then there is the challenge of putting a package together which satisfies the player’s personal terms, with Pompey going up against rivals with greater financial clout than they are operating with at present.

Mattsson is one of a host of midfield players to be linked with Pompey this summer, with the likes of Shandon Baptiste, Mark Kosznovszky, Nectar Triantis and Charlie Savage also mentioned so far.

Pompey are currently in Slovakia at a pre-season training camp which runs through next week.

There were no new signings on the plan as the players left England yesterday, though there is the possibility of a deal getting over the line and a new signing joining the group this week.

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