The 25-year-old was in attendance for Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Stoke to watch the Canaries, ahead of an expected £1.4m move that could see the winger make his debut in the upcoming FA Cup third round tie against Walsall.

Clement, however, would not be drawn on whether Ahmed is the first of his January transfer window arrivals.

“I can confirm that we are really close to signing a winger, so we hope to sign it in the next couple of days. We’re close to something, but it’s not fully done yet,” he said. “I’m not going to go into rumours until everything is arranged.

“Why? Because experience from the past tells me that some things can be stopped in the last split second, and then it’s not good for a player or for the other team and for us as a club, also, if I say a name where not everything is arranged.”

Ali Ahmed was at Carrow Road to watch Norwich City ahead of sealing a move from Vancouver Whitecaps (Image: Daniel Hambury/Focus Images Ltd)

Norwich blew a chance to escape from the relegation zone for the first time in over two months in a lacklustre offering against the Potters.

“I expected more of the team. We had good moments, but we had too many moments we threw away by playing with too much security,” he said. “Those type of things we had improved the last couple of weeks – being more brave on the ball, with our runs, with our passes. We lost several moments because we were not brave.

“Has it something to do with the pitch conditions or with the form of the players with the fourth game in a row? We will discuss it with the players.

“I expected to push in the second half, because we scored a really good goal in the way I want to see us play with a good breaking line pass, with a good cross, a good finish. The linesman decides it’s offside. but it was, for sure, on the edge.

“Maybe we needed that moment to score this first goal, to get this extra energy in the second half, because that’s what I expected, also with fresh players coming in, but we didn’t achieve that in the second half.

“I saw that our level dropped, and Stoke made a few changes that made them better, and that’s the story of the game. They deserved to win from the second half.”

The Belgian spoke exclusively to the Pinkun at Carrow Road on Sunday afternoon.