Reports: Michael Turner To Cost Norwich £1.5m, Deal Apparently Close

Updates are emerging on the deal to take Michael Turner from Sunderland to Norwich City as Martin O'Neill confirmed things are now down to the player himself and The Canaries to come to a deal.

Speaking at his Thursday press conference today, O'Neill stated that;

Negotiations are taking place this minute with Norwich, and he's been given permission to go down and speak to them. So we're just waiting to find out what will happen. I think Norwich have been very keen. A fee has been agreed, and we'll just wait to hear from Norwich and from Michael.

Turner has been a hit and miss player with Sunderland fans throughout his tenure at the club, not helped by an inability to stay fit, with 20 games last season proving to be his longest run in red and white stripes. The 28-year old has managed only 77 appearances since 2009.

In this morning's Journal, the usually reliable Mark Douglas put the reported fee at the £1.5m mark, which all things considered - age, injuries, being in the final year of his contract and so forth - is about all we could realistically expect, despite it being a little cheap.

I'm sure we would all rather that Titus Bramble and/or Matt Kilgallon were out the door, but you have to take the offers that are on the table at the time. On the plus side, those two may well be on the slide as it's been revealed this week that O'Neill is keen on Louis Laing and John Egan, with the latter in line for a game against Hartlepool United having been held out of action against Spennymoor United last night.

If the deal goes through, we'll certainly wish him well. While he's had his knockers, us included, towards the end of last season he was exceptional for us, as was proven statistically. That's not enough however though, and with Wes Brown's knee injury seeming not as bad as first feared, Turner is an expendable option in a deep defensive unit.