Daniel Farke refused to comment on a reported bid for Nelson Oliveira from Reading but the Norwich City boss has said he wants to keep the Portuguese striker.
The Canaries continued their pre-season preparations with a 5-1 victory at Lowestoft yesterday, with goals from Steven Naismith, Cameron Jerome, Marley Watkins, Oliveira and Mario Vrancic doing the damage.
On the eve of the game football website HITC claimed Reading had seen a bid for Oliveira accepted but it is understood that report was wide of the mark.
That report has since been repeated by the Reading Chronicle, quoting a source suggesting the Royals do have the funds to tempt the Canaries, as saying: 'The new owners have given the club money to spend.'
However, there was little evidence of Oliveira leaving at Lowestoft, coming on at half-time and scoring, happily signing autographs and chatting with fans afterwards, and City head coach Farke was relaxed about the link.
'I've said several times, I won't comment on any rumours about any of my players,' Farke said yesterday, who works alongside sporting director Stuart Webber in dealing with transfers.
'Nelson is in pretty good shape and he's pretty motivated, he's my player and we worked a lot in the last two weeks and I'm pretty content.
'I won't comment on any speculation or rumours, that's not my job.'
The 25-year-old was signed from Benfica in a deal worth around £5million in August 2016 and has proved a hit with fans, having scored 12 goals in 30 games last season.
When pressed on the issue, the German continued: 'It's football business because there is a window until the end of August. There is no player in the world you can say 100 per cent that he will be here, although they have got contracts.
'It's part of the business, we need to live with the speculation, Nelson is our player, we know how good he is and what his value is to us.
'I like to work with him and that's all I would like to say.
'In general I want to have the best players, I went to have very good players and I'm pretty content especially with Nelson, I like to work with him.'
Oliveira played the second half of the game but Russell Martin was still absent with a back problem, Ivo Pinto (hamstring) was not ready to play his first game of pre-season and Timm Klose (leg) was pulled out of the team late on with a niggle but should be okay to train ahead of Tuesday's friendly at League Two side Stevenage.
Alex Tettey and Wes Hoolahan were rested as well following the 5-0 win at Cobh Ramblers in Ireland on Wednesday night but Farke was pleased with his team's efforts against Lowestoft, who play at step three of the non-league pyramid.
'It was a pretty exhausting week for the guys, we were on the training camp and have done much work,' Farke said. 'We arrived late yesterday, had a hard session this morning and then straight to the bus to come here.
'The weather was really warm, the sun came out, it wasn't perfect and it was a pretty hot day so we have to be content today, we scored five times.
'For sure, we could have scored at least 10 more, there were chances for 17 or 18 goals but it's quite normal when you are tired and a little bit exhausted that you are not able to take every chance so I don't mind.
'I was a little bit angry with the goal we conceded because I don't like to concede goals, especially on such an annoying thing but all in all I'm pretty content with the work and the game today.'
The new Canaries boss was not happy with the goal that saw the hosts take a first-half lead in Trawlerboys legend Micky Chapman's testimonial though, after Christoph Zimmermann had given away a clumsy free-kick and the resulting set-piece was not dealt with, allowing defender Travis Cole to bundle in.
'In football it is always about detailed stuff,' he added. 'We gave away a pretty annoying free-kick, we had a clear idea how to defend it and the guys were not in their normal positions.
'Then there was a little bit of discussing about a foul and an offside, and all those things came together. We didn't give away many chances in this game, just a free-kick from a position where you can't concede a goal but we did, that was the only annoying thing – so all in all I'm pretty content.'
• Watch part of Farke's interview in the video above
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