Stay in control of the latest Blues news with our Everton newsletter Sign up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Everton have rejected a bid of up to £8m from Norwich City for Steven Naismith.

The Canaries made a surprise move for the Blues forward today but their offer has been turned down.

Everton see Naismith as an important member of the squad and told Norwich that they would not sell the Scotland international.

The forward, who signed a three year contract extension in December, was not pushing for a move away from Goodison.

But having started the Premier League season on the bench, the 28-year-old is keen for regular game time, especially with a number of crunch Euro 2016 qualifiers on the horizon for Scotland.

He told the ECHO last month: “At this moment in time, this first month is ok because you’ve had pre-season and training is still quite intense but as the month goes on and you weren’t playing that much then you would need to re-evaluate and see what you need to be doing to get in the team and get more games.”

But Everton rejected Norwich’s advances and Naismith remains with the Blues.