Naismith on his way to Norwich

NORWICH hope to seal the signing of Steven Naismith as early as today. Judging by how bluntly ineffective their attack looked against Bournemouth, he can’t arrive quickly enough. Sportsmail understands the £8million deal to sign the Everton front man is largely done, with Alex Neil desperate to call on a player who convinced him in their playing duels in Scotland that he is a kindred spirit. The hope is for Naismith to serve as a catalyst in a side that has not been in overly bad form, but which has lost twice on the spin and now faces a quite brutal run of fixtures. Those circumstances have necessitated Neil to order his recruitment team to value ‘guts and character’ as highly as quality in transfer targets. Neil, who is also closing in on Wolfsburg defender Timm Klose, said: ‘Steven is a whole-hearted player and so was I. We played each other. He was playing at Rangers when I was playing for Hamilton. ‘He is a good player and would give us energy. He has goals in him, too. He scored a hat-trick against Chelsea earlier this season. Those types of players are hard to come across.’ He added: ‘Any team in the bottom half of the table, if you don’t have guys who are passionate and want to roll their sleeves up and fight for the cause, it’ll be difficult. ‘Sometimes, quality isn’t enough. You need a bit of character, a bit of guts.’ Bournemouth battered Norwich 3-0, with goals from Dan Gosling and Charlie Daniels before £12m striker Benik Afobe added a third following his move from Wolves. With games against both Liverpool and Tottenham next up, a baptism of fire could yet await Naismith.