Portsmouth's Championship rivals 'join £4m race' as Leicester 'prepare £20m bid' for star striker

John Mousinho and the Fratton Park board are set for a busy summer transfer window having bid farewell to ten first-team players two weeks ago. The Pompey boss is hopeful of strengthening his squad ahead of the club’s grand Championship return and is aware that his side will soon be coming up against teams with huge spending power.

With just two weeks to go until the summer transfer window opens up, the soon-to-be Premier League side Leicester City are ready to cough up £20 million for their preferred Championship target while Norwich City have begun to seek out future talent with the hope of Premier League football to tempt stars from across Europe to Carrow Road.

Here is the latest news from around the Championship...

Norwich join £4m transfer race

Norwich. are back in action tomorrow night, taking on Leeds United in the second-leg of their Championship play-off semi-final. The Canaries failed to capitalise on the home advantage at Carrow Road over the weekend and head to Elland Road off the back of a 0-0 draw. However, while their Premier League dreams hang in the balance, the club have already begun to look into how they can strengthen their squad ahead of the 2024/25 campaign with the Carrow Road side joining a ‘highly-competitive’ transfer race.

Swedish outlet Fotbool Direkt has reported that Norwich City have joined the battle for the AEK Athens star Niclas Eliasson. The star, who could be available to sign for between £3.4m and £4.3m is, however, also of interest to the Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven and Ligue 1 side Nantes.

The 28-year-old left-winger won the Greek Super League title last season and has gone on to score eight goals and contribute 12 assists across all competitions this season for a club on the cusp of securing yet another league title.

The Swedish former youth international previously spent three season at Bristol City before heading to Nimes, and subsequently AEK Athens, and is viewed as ‘a perfect replacement’ for Norwich City’s Jonathan Rowe who has been linked with a move away from the Canaries this summer.

Leicester prepare £20m bid for Championship star

The champions of the Championship Leicester City are reportedly preparing to make a bid for former Pompey target Sammie Szmodics.

Leicester, who have achieved promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, are ready to put in place plans that will prevent another Premier League relegation battle next season.

With the transfer window opening up next month, Blackburn’s Szmodics has already been viewed as a key target for Enzo Maresca’s side, but according to reports from GiveMeSport, Blackburn have placed a £20m price tag on their star man.

The Republic of Ireland international enjoyed an impressive campaign in EFL’s second-tiered competition, winning the Golden Boot after scoring 27 goals for a Rovers side which narrowly avoided relegation down to League One. The Foxes also endured first hand experience of how dangerous Szmodics was with the 28-year-old scoring a brace at the King Power Stadium on the final day of the season.

With Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho entering the final weeks of their respective contracts, Maresca will be keen to identify effective replacements and the Foxes are reportedly ‘primed to make an offer’ for the Blackburn sensation.

Szmodics waswas linked with Pompey in 2020 when Kenny Jackett was boss.