Norwich City have reportedly increased their bid for Stoke City forward Jonathan Walters to £2million and joined the race for Getafe's Alvaro Vazquez as they continue their search for a new forward ahead of the transfer deadline.

The Canaries reportedly had a bid of £1.5m for Walters rejected at the end of last week, on the eve of City's 1-1 draw with the Potters at Carrow Road.

The Daily Telegraph are this afternoon reporting that Norwich have increased that offer to £2m but again seen it rejected, as Stoke are still hoping to agree terms on a new contract with Walters.

That would tally with comments from Potters chairman Peter Coates in the Daily Mail this morning, saying: 'We don't want to lose Jon Walters. He is an important player for us and we've made that abundantly clear to him.

'We think we've offered him a good contract and we're still hopeful he will sign. We very much want Jon to stay. We are doing all we can to accommodate him.

'We've tweaked a bit of this and a bit of that and hopefully we can get there.'

News of City's interest in the former Ipswich Town attacker was greeted with mixed reaction by Canaries fans last week – but it seems Walters could still end up heading for Norfolk.

The hard working front-man, who played for teams including Wrexham and Hull City earlier in his career, is in the last year of his contract at the Britannia Stadium.

Stoke boss Mark Hughes accused the Canaries of 'mischief' after confirming the initial bid had been rejected last weekend, revealing that Walters was looking for a longer contract than he was being offered.

Hughes left Walters out of his team for the Canaries clash due to illness but then restored him to his starting line-up on Tuesday, with the former Tractor Boy on target in a Capital One Cup victory at Luton Town.

That took Walters' total for the club to 47 goals in 215 games, with the player himself also speaking out about the situation earlier this week.

'I want to stay. I've been here five years, this is my sixth season and it's the longest I've been at any club,' he said, talking to the Stoke Sentinel.

'When you've been here so long you get to know not just the players, even though there's been a huge turnaround, but the whole club and everyone involved. I've got a lot of friends here.'

He added: 'There's a contract there but (not one for me to consider). People behind the scenes know why and I'll leave it with my agents and lawyer. I can't really go too much into it.

'In my eyes if they valued me it would be there and it's not there so … talk's cheap when it comes to things like these and I'll leave it for the men behind the scenes to sort out.

'Of course I'd be disappointed if I had to leave the club. We've improved every year and I can give you every stat for those years and I'm probably in the top two for everything.'

Meanwhile, speculation on Vasquez's future has increased with the 24-year-old reportedly missing training on Friday ahead of Getafe's latest La Liga fixture.

Norwich, fellow Spanish top flight club Real Betis and Italian Serie A outfit Palermo have all been linked to the frontman, who reportedly has a £3.65m release clause in his current contract. Vasquez spent time on loan at Swansea in 2013/14 and scored nine goals in 26 appearances for the Spaniard's last season.

Spanish daily sports paper, AS, claim the Canaries are plotting a move for the frontman.