Johannes Hoff Thorup is counting the days to the end of the transfer window, but deals for Gabby Sara and Adam Idah show Norwich City are not in the business of selling players on the cheap.

Sara left for Turkey in a move that could potentially earn the Canaries more than £22m ahead of the Championship kick-off.

While Idah is now finalising his move to Celtic, in a deal that guarantees the club £8.5m, plus a potential further £1m in add ons, and a 15pc sell on fee.

City rebuffed Celtic’s early summer approach, before the Bhoys returned to the table last week.

Now Jon Rowe’s future is the subject of intense speculation after he sat out the opening day Oxford defeat, following a transfer bid from Marseille well below City’s valuation.

Rowe will not be involved on Tuesday in the League Cup against Stevenage, as he trains with the Under-21s, following talks with Thorup and sporting director Ben Knapper.

Knapper's team are busy working on inward business ahead of the August 30 deadline, with a striker and a midfielder who can also operate in wide areas top of the agenda, but all that adds up to unwanted distractions for head coach Thorup.

“I know fans love this time of season where there are so many rumours and so many media stories, but I prefer the start of September,” he said. “That’s a good day for almost every coach, no matter where he is, whether it's in England or other places in the world, because they know how the squad will look, and you know which players will be here, and you know also which players have come in.

"So in other words what we can work with the group for a couple of months. That's a good day, and a day you're looking forward to as a as a coach.

“If you take Gabby’s case, when you talk about a transfer fee in that scale, I think every club in the Championship needs to listen and needs to be open to that.

"We're not a club where we just give our players away for free, so other teams can see that they have to pay, but end of the day we have to listen when an offer comes like that. It's important that we feel proud about a story like this, instead of the opposite.”

Sara was back at Colney over the weekend saying a proper goodbye to team mates and staff after his whirlwind Galatasaray exit.

“We all of us would have liked to see him here in the club this season as well. But when an offer like this comes on the table, and it's a player where he's ready to take the next step, it's also an important signal for us to send as a club,” said Thorup.

“If a guy like him were in Norwich for the rest of his career, then we could never get players with potential like that, and a performance level like that, to come to Norwich because we just have to respect that there is a higher level than us.

"If we have the ambition to bring in players with the potential and quality like Gabby in the future as well, then other players need to see that; that when you perform well here you also have the option to go to an even higher level.

"And it's really a player where I think I can speak on his behalf, in saying that he felt loved here, and he felt that this was actually his club.”