How much Norwich City are paying to sign Pape Diallo from under Watford FC’s nose | OneFootball

Watford had been expected to sign the talented Metz winger Pape Amadou Diallo. Norwich have snatched instead, but it'll come at a cost to them.

Norwich City are believed to be closing in on the purchase of Pape Amadou Diallo from the French club Metz for €4.5m, as per L'Equipe.

Norwich City are certainly showing ambition in the transfer market this summer, following an extremely underwhelming Championship season which saw them finish in the bottom half of the table at the end of 2024-25.

And one of their most audacious moves of the summer so far has been the apparent hijacking of a deal that Watford thought they'd had to take the talented young Metz winger Pape Amadou Diallo to Vicarage Road.

But while Diallo's signature is welcome news for Canaries fans, it also remains the case that this won't be a cheap agreement.

Watford were reported to have a deal lined up and ready for the player to head for Hertfordshire at the start of the July, but the fact that he's now apparently Norfolk-bound instead indicates that either Norwich have out-gunned the Hornets to secure his signature, or that the Hornets lost interest in the player once agreement had been reached.

Watford interest in Diallo reported to have "cooled" since agreement reached

At the start of July, Watford were reported to have agreed a fee of £4.3 million with Metz to secure Diallo's transfer to Vicarage Road.

​​​​​​​But the Watford Observer then reported that Watford had also been heavily linked with a move for Caen forward Alexandre Mendy, with their interest in Diallo subsequently cooling.

Had Diallo left at the end of June, he would have been the seventh new player to arrive at Watford this summer. This has been a very busy transfer window for them, with the appointment of Pezzolano. But the suggestion of this cooling of interest could mean that the fee that Norwich will be paying for him will be in a similar ballpark to that which Watford had agreed.

Both Diallo and his club had a successful 2024-25 season

Pape Amadou Diallo is a talented winger, and the 2024-25 season was a successful one for both him in terms of his performances and his club, Metz, who were promoted back to Ligue Un at the first attempt through the play-offs after finishing in third place in the table.

Diallo made his Ligue Un debut for them in September 2023, having signed professional forms with the club the previous February. His involvement couldn't prevent relegation at the end of the 2023-24 season, with the club finishing in 16th place in the table, but the 2024-25 season brought seven goals, four assists, and a string of impressive performances as Metz bounced back to promotion.

It has been suggested that Elite Significant Contribution (ESC) slots - those which allow young players deemed to have significant potential at an elite level and who will make a significant contribution to English football to get a work permit to play here - could be an important factor.

Each club has two, with the potential to expand to four, and it could be that Watford, who have been busy in the transfer market themselves this summer, have decided to hold back one of theirs for another player. Diallo is already a Senegalese international, but these rules are an extra consideration that clubs have to take into account.

If Diallo is a hit at Carrow Road, the price paid for him will turn out to be a bargain. Promotion to the Premier League would certainly make it so. But hindsight is the one metric that a club can't use when they're signing a player, so there's an element of gamble about every new signing a club makes, whether that's in terms of the fee being paid or the wages agreed. £4 million will be cheap if the transfer works out and expensive if it doesn't. It really is that simple.