Norwich City: Price revealed to complete Sheffield United, Anis Ben Slimane summer deal | OneFootball

The Canaries have the chance to make the midfielder's Carrow Road stay a permanent one.

The buy-option fee that Norwich City will have to pay Sheffield United if they want to sign Anis Ben Slimane permanently next summer has been revealed.

Since making his late window loan move to Carrow Road, the Tunisian international has been a bit of a mixed bag. The recent spate of injuries to Johannes Hoff Thorup's players have opened the door for him to start much more regularly as of late, but he struggled to make the first XI soon after his arrival.

He was able to net his first Norwich goal in their second most recent contest - a 6-1 home win over Plymouth Argyle - in which the 23-year-old entered into the box at just the right time to meet Jack Stacey's low-driven pass, to which he was able to apply a firm finishing touch.

Anis Ben Slimane buy-option price revealed

The Canaries have the option to make Slimane a permanent part of their squad next summer, if they so choose, but it will come at a price. Danish outlet Tipsbladet have reported that they will need to cough up €1.7 million (~ £1.4 million) in order to secure the midfielder's services next summer.

This is just an option at the moment. However, if City were to finish in the top six and Slimane were to start half of the games, then this would become a mandatory clause, as per Tipsbladet.

The chances of it becoming mandatory aren't slim. The Blades loanee is currently on pace to start at least half of the club's league fixtures this season, plus the Canaries are just five points off the top six's pace, as things stand.

Slimane was one of the players that his parent club were looking to move on from this summer. Hoff Thorup was pretty open about his desire to sign him; the midfielder had played in the Danish league while the Norwich boss was in charge of FC Nordsjælland.

Norwich may be tactical with their Anis Ben Slimane buy option

Depending on whether they want to sign the Tunisian at the end of the season, and where they are in the league, the Canaries can be quite cute with the way that they manage the situation.

If Norwich have a good chance of making the play-offs, and they decide that they would like to keep him, they can then choose to start him more often so that the clause becomes mandatory, therefore guaranteeing that he will stay with them.

Or, on the flip side, if they are in a similarly good position but come to the conclusion that he's not for them, then they can purposely use him less and less so that they aren't obligated to take him on at the end of the campaign.

It's actually quite a good position for City to be in.