City fans are accustomed to boring transfer windows, with underwhelming addictions and weeks of transfer silence. Although we’ve been spoilt in recent years with some big-name signings, this summer has been particularly slow. This has resulted in Canary fans frequently having to search the Internet for possible transfer news to keep us entertained during the summer. (Keep checking Read Norwich!) And any City fan that regularly scans Twitter for transfer speculation would’ve seen accounts of those who claim to be “in the know”.
Twitter accounts claiming to have contacts at various clubs are nothing new, with some of them having tens of thousands of followers. The top accounts are widely seen as credible sources, often revealing potential transfers before the likes of Sky Sports News. Most say they’re football agents or work within the top tiers of major clubs; that gives them insider knowledge to potential transfers. The three accounts that claim to have at least some insider knowledge at Carrow Road are ‘Jeremy Gossip’, ‘UberNorwichCity’, and the infamous ‘norwich unknown’. So, are any of them worth listening to?
If you don’t take Twitter too seriously, ‘Jeremy Gossip’ was the one for you. Sadly, it was deleted shortly after the Cambridge game. But don’t be surprised if Mr Gossip reappears soon. It frequently claimed the club were hours away from announcing a huge signing, which obviously never happened. It’s clear this was nothing more than someone with a bit too much time on his hands, seeing if he could get a reaction from the gullible. It was good for a laugh, but not much else.
The newest account of this type is ‘UberNorwichCity’. Interestingly it actually doesn’t claim to be an agent or a club insider, but simply states it’s “worth listening to”. As ‘ITK’ accounts are known for constantly bragging about their high profile connections, someone trying to talk down their status in the football industry has caught people’s attention. It also doesn’t make outlandish claims and keeps tweets rather simple, possibly to provide wriggle room if they don’t come true. However, they did claim the Brady deal was back on just hours before Steve Bruce admitted the Irishman was as good as gone. It also correctly challenged ‘norwich unknown’ when he claimed Ricky van Wolfswinkel wasn’t going on the pre-season training camp in Germany. To use a classic transfer cliché, this is definitely ‘one to watch’.
Saving the best until last, we come to ‘norwich unknown’. As the name suggests, little is known the person behind the Twitter egg photo. The apparent Dutchman sprung up during our relegation season two years ago, claiming to be someone close to van Wolfswinkel. But he says he’s not an agent or working for City, so his supposed job title is remains a mystery. Most of his predictions are about Ricky and his place at the club. Last summer he correctly said that he wouldn’t play a proper game for them that season, and has claimed it will be the same this year. But being the most well known Norwich “ITK” account leaves you open to attack. Defender Ryan Bennett didn’t hold back when he claimed certain City players would be leaving the club. But more recently, City Chief Executive David McNally utterly mugged off ‘norwich unknown’. After saying he was surprised the media were “late to get my story” on Hooper’s supposed move to Sheffield Wednesday, McNally fantastically replied, “Because you made it up”. However, he has occasionally revealed things that would be extremely unlikely to come from some teenager with too much spare time. Amongst other relatively minor things, he correctly predicted the colours of the new training top. Hardly ground breaking stuff I admit, but it’s still information that no one outside the club knew. The strangest tweet, by a long margin, from the account was a picture of then-manger Paul Lambert walking his dog taken at very close range. He claimed it proved he had real connections with the club, but it probably raised more questions than answers. Although he’s yet to make any correct predictions regarding transfers that weren’t already known in the press, the enigma that is ‘norwich unknown’ remains an interesting story to follow.
Are any of them worth listening to? I think so. Just remember to take anything with a pinch (or a pint) of salt.
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