Norwich City have no option but to be ‘creative’ in their transfer business to bridge a growing gap to the Premier League, in the view of one of Ben Knapper’s key recruitment aides Mariela Nisotaki.

The Canaries’ highly-rated head of emerging talent has played a big role in establishing the south American pipeline which signed Gabby Sara and Marcelino Nunez.

Borja Sainz arrived on a free transfer last summer from Turkey, and Jose Cordoba’s move from Levski Sofia in recent days, despite strong interest from the likes of Rangers and Brondby, is another signal City aim to stay ahead of the game.

“We are looking for under-valued players in the market. We are trying to be open-minded. We believe the talent is everywhere,” she said. “So we don’t want to show any bias, we want to be creative with our scouting.

“We’ve seen in general, not just Norwich, even this year the gap between the two leagues is growing. It is never easy to put a squad together that is ready to compete (in the Premier League) and stay when you get there, rather than changing an entire squad. We have seen clubs who go up try to do that, and in the majority of cases it doesn’t work in terms of staying there.

"The nature of our club is we always have to look for players capable of playing in both leagues and be prepared for both – whether that is the Premier League or Championship. We start from the standpoint of looking for players who can potentially play with us in the Premier League.”

Mariela Nisotaki has been Norwich City's head of emerging talent since September 2021 (Image: Norwich City FC)

Nunez has been touted with interest from Turkey, while Sara is being linked with Premier League clubs this transfer window after a stunning second season in England following his initial £6m from Brazil in 2022.

“After Brexit it has become more of a mainstream market for English clubs, but when we started four or five years ago not a lot of English clubs were tapping into that market,” said Nisotaki, interviewed on the ‘What the Footie podcast’ prior to the opening of this summer’s window. “We are looking for under-valued players in the market.

“A club like Norwich is a self sustainable club and we are trying to find young players, either develop them from the academy and they go all the way through to the first team, and when they get that experience in a lot of occasions we have to sell them.

"But emerging talent is trying to find those players who are young we can potentially sign when their value is not at the highest, but they can come and get that experience and in the end if they perform then this is not the last step for a player. We know that.

“If they perform at some point they might out-grow us, and then we have to think about selling. So my role is about trying to find value in those 17 to 21 ages in different, less traditional markets.”