Gabby Sara deserves his big-money move to Galatasaray for Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup.
Gabby Sara deserves his big-money move to Galatasaray for Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup.
Sara was absent for the Canaries’ pre-season finale against St Pauli at Carrow Road on Saturday as he finalises a move to Turkey in a deal that could rise to £23m.
The 25-year-old Brazilian was a key figure in the club’s run to the Championship play-offs but will go with Thorup’s best wishes.
Gala officials flew into Norfolk on Friday to conclude negotiations to make Sara their club record signing.
Confirmation could come later this weekend with the player and his representatives scheduled to arrive in Turkey late on Saturday night after Gala’s Super Cup action against Besiktas.
“I think it’s obvious for everyone, of course, when we leave a player with his abilities out of the squad for a game like today because it’s getting close,” said Thorup. “It will not be ideal for us to play him with his head maybe being not somewhere else, but with a difficult decision to take.
“So it was an easy decision for us to take to leave him out. That’s a part of the game and if it will be a transfer for him, then it’s more than well deserved.
”First of all we should be proud that we have developed a player here to this level in his career. Also when we create these type of stories it helps to create the next ones that we can hopefully bring to this club to show them if you can perform in a good league at a good club then you are ready to take the next step.”
Thorup confirmed City will look to source a replacement for Sara and is confident City will add a left-sided defensive option ahead of next week’s opener at Oxford.
Manchester City’s Callum Doyle is set to arrive on a season-long loan, and the Dane admits there are other areas of the squad he does want to strengthen between now and the end of the summer window.
“There are but again, I think it’s important also to acknowledge that the players have done well in pre-season and we should not be too affected by results,” he said. “Because it’s against clubs from a higher level than where we are now. And that was the ambition with this pre-season programme.
“We have to see. But of course, we also need again to plan for the future, and see if we can strengthen the team a little bit in some areas.
“We have a clearer idea of what areas but also think if I told the media that it will just be more expensive for us.
”We have to look at the market, and we have been doing that for a while, to see where we can strengthen the squad and what do we need.”
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