Canary won't fly north to Clarets (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Canary won't fly north to Clarets

8:06am Monday 16th July 2012 in News By Chris Flanagan, Sports reporter

CHRIS Martin’s agent has insisted that the striker is keen to stay at Norwich City despite links with a move to Burnley.

The 23-year-old has been reported to be interesting the Clarets after slipping out of first team contention at Norwich since their promotion to the Premier League.

Burnley want to bring in a striker this summer and Crystal Palace have also been linked with a move after Martin impressed on loan at Selhurst Park last season.

But Martin’s agent Matt Kleinman says his client has his sights set on proving himself to new Norwich boss Chris Hughton, who replaced Paul Lambert at the helm at Carrow Road last month.

And he added that he was currently unaware of any interest from the Clarets.

“There is always a lot of speculation at this time of year,” Kleinman said.

“At the moment there is a new manager and Chris is back in pre-season with Norwich.

“He is looking to prove himself at Norwich and play in the Premier League.”

Martin was loaned out to Crystal Palace last November after it became clear that he did not feature heavily in Lambert’s plans.

The striker wanted to play first team football at the time and his agent does concede that he may look for another loan move this term if it turns out that he will not be in contention for the team at Norwich.

“We’re not expecting anything at the moment, although things can always change in a couple of weeks,” he added.

“If it materialises that he is not in the manager’s plans then he might look to go out on loan.

“But right now he is in pre-season with Norwich and looking to stay there.”

The 6ft 1in forward came through the youth system at Carrow Road before enjoying a successful loan spell in League Two with Luton during the 2008/09 campaign.

He went on to score 23 goals in the following season to help Norwich to promotion from League One before netting six times as they then progressed to the Premier League.

But he made only four appearances for the Canaries last season before going on loan to Palace, where he scored seven goals in 28 games.

Highly-rated Australian goalkeeper Mat Ryan is now set to travel to England for a trial with Tottenham.

Burnley had attempted to take the 20-year-old on trial but were refused permission by his club Central Coast Mariners. QPR, Fulham and West Bromwich Albion remain interested.

The Clarets’ development team opened their pre-season with a 2-0 victory at Mossley on Saturday, with Joe Jackson and Wes Fletcher on target.

* Jay Rodriguez scored his first goal for new club Southampton as they faced Arsenal in the Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup on Saturday.