Stuart Webber feels ‘paranoia’ is fuelling the transfer market and warns Norwich City must play the long game to snare their targets.

The Canaries refused to get into an auction for Kris Ajer, who completed a big-money move to Premier League rivals Brentford from Celtic earlier this week.

Bournemouth’s Philip Billing is another target but the clubs are well apart in their valuation of the midfielder.

City have so far made six senior additions to Daniel Farke’s squad, and could be in the market for as many as five more before the end of this window.

But the Canaries’ sporting director admits the financial impact of the pandemic is having a major impact across the game.

“It is about who is available and who is willing to come,” he said. “If you look throughout Europe the market is very slow. We are probably a club who have done the most business, or one of, and we still feel we have quite a bit more to do. I think there is a paranoia around the transfer market at the moment with Covid.

"For sure, the money has been hit and people are concerned about selling at the wrong price and that player being worth a lot more in six weeks time. You can feel that paranoia from clubs.

“One of our strengths is we will look everywhere and anywhere to sign players and that does gives us an advantage at times. If we were set up in one market, that can become too saturated. We have to be realistic.

"We are one of the favourites to be relegated so we are not always going to be the top of a player’s list. It is about being smart, not rushing in. Being patient for sure.

“I took a lesson the last time in this league when we went from our top target to our bottom targets too quickly. You have to wait sometimes and be patient because as the window progresses those type of deals can get better.

“As frustrating as that is, because both Daniel and myself want the squad together early to work on it in pre-season. But we also have to respect the market dictates that. But I also sit here very confident that by the time the real business starts we will be in a really healthy place.”