The Tuckster reports on the announcement that a deal has been struck to sign Ricky van Wolfswinkel on 1st July…
Norwich City announced late last night that a deal has been struck with Sporting Lisbon for their striker, Ricky van Wolfswinkel.
The Dutch International will join up with his new team mates on 1st July after a deal was agreed, believed to be in the region of 10m euros.
24-year-old Ricky has scored 82 goals in 188 appearances in a career that started in Holland with Vitesse Arnhem and then FC Utrecht before moving to Portugal, and he has won one senior cap for Holland.
The Norwich manager, Chris Hughton, said: ‘Ricky’s profile is a perfect fit for us. He’s young, ambitious and a proven goalscorer.
‘He has an excellent goalscoring pedigree and he’s a young man very keen to continue his personal progression and to play in England. He’s already an exciting talent but he still has more development as a player ahead of him.
‘I’m delighted we’ve been able to agree a deal with Sporting Lisbon and with Ricky and we look forward to welcoming him to the squad in July, once all of the paperwork gets sorted out.’
This transfer has been mooted for quite a while and clearly there was no smoke without fire. RvW has plenty of European experience as well, having scored goals in the Europa league against Lazio and against Manchester City, last season.
My immediate reaction to this signing is ‘WOW!’ It underlines for me the journey that City have taken and how quickly it has all turned around. I think I’m right in saying that it has taken us until this season to finally beat the club’s transfer record (£3.5m for Robert Earnshaw) with the purchase of Seb Bassong.
If the figures being mentioned are true then that record has been well and truly smashed.
RvW’s goal scoring record is impressive and Youtube holds most of them – go check it out.
He is tall, the right age that there can be re-sale value, which has to be good for a club like City, and has an eye for goal.
Sporting are in a financial mess and the unusual timing of this deal suggets that our Chief Exec, David McNally has struck a deal.
Reports suggest that Norwich have paid part of the fee now to allow the club to pay player’s wages, which hasn’t been done for a few weeks now.
Also, this means we have stolen a march on our rivals in the EPL who have been linked with the lad.
Bravo to all involved, Hughton has got his man and all I can still say is ‘WOW!’
OTBC