With BBC Radio Essex busily proclaiming this afternoon that Jamie Cureton's hopes of an emotional return to Carrow Road this summer were about to be answered – and the official City site duly confirming it – Canary fans found matron handing out a small spoonful of sugar this evening to go with the bitter pill of Robert Earnshaw's ?3.5 million 'get-out' to Derby.
That Cureton wants to come to Norwich for all the right, yellow-and-green blood reasons is not too hard to dispute.
He is, it is fair to assume, unlikely to demand a similar get-out clause to Earnshaw in his three-year Carrow Road contract. Age for one thing is against him; as is inclination.
Earnie – for all his many qualities – always had that slight 'hired gun' air about him; there was no immediate evidence of him putting down some Norfolk roots in the manner of a Darren Huckerby.
Inside the dressing room, the 26-year-old's biggest pal was his fellow Welsh international Carl Robinson; not that his exit to the MLS last January left Earnshaw wholly alone and without a friend, it just gave a further sense that the City striker was more of a one-man band than most.
That wherever Earnie finds room to park his 'Hummer', that's where he will call home.
Cureton will be an altogether different beast; his Norfolk credentials are nigh-on impeccable.
For just as Billy Sharp clearly bore no ill-will towards the Blades after they opted to let the one-time Bramall Lane Academy starlet fly the nest for ?100,000 in 2005, so the passing years have failed to wither Cureton's affections for either the club or the city.
Pointedly he refused to celebrate his goal in this season's painful 3-0 defeat at Layer Road and having handed his transfer request in this summer as he watched his big strike pal Chris Iwelumo sign a lucrative, three-year deal at Charlton, he again made it clear how much his heart belonged to Norfolk.
“I have always said that Norwich would be my preference because it's where I started my career as a kid,” Cureton told the East Anglian Daily Times earlier this month.
“I owe them a lot, because I probably didn't do myself justice in the first team at Norwich. It is a club that is close to my heart.”
Having picked up the Championship's Golden Boot for his 24 goals last term, City boss Peter Grant was always going to be interested given the head-start that Cureton's natural affections gave him.
The one minus was his age – Cureton will be 32 in August and will lack the potential re-sale value of a Sharp or a Varney should both flourish at Championship level.
That said, however, both players have little more than one very good season in League One behind them; Cureton has been scoring goals for fun in the Championship for many a year and has long deserved one decent contract – his daft as a brush days, to quote then manager Mike Walker, being long behind him.
“I was asked whether I would like to go back to Norwich, and of course I said yes,” Cureton told the East Anglian.
“And if they get in touch, then I'll be interested. I certainly wouldn't rule it out. Norwich are the type of club that has ambition to progress forwards and push on. I also want that.”
That, explained Cureton, was his problem at Layer Road. That having signed a two-year deal last summer when he arrived on a free transfer following a relatively quiet spell at Swindon Town, in his eyes the prospects of the Us pushing on another level from that excellent tenth-place finish were limited – particularly once Iwelumo walked out of the door on a free.
“I've really enjoyed the last year at Colchester and in a way it's disappointing that it's come to this,” said Cureton, as he repeated his determination to get away this summer.
“Colchester United is a great club and the people here are brilliant. I've been very happy at Colchester, and if I was 21, rather than 31, then I wouldn't be wanting to leave,” he explained to the East Anglian.
“I know that Colchester can't compete with most other clubs in the Championship, and I have never wanted to put the club down. But I think that I'll probably be at another club next season. The time is right for me to leave.”
Should that time be now then Grant will find himself with Cureton in for Earnshaw and the better part of ?2.5 million still to play with – enough to fund bigger and better forays into the centre-half market, for example.
That, in turn, has been helped by the ?2 million 'loan' that the Turners gave the club on their arrival in the boardroom.
“We made it clear when Andrew and Sharon Turner put the ?2 million into the club that any money raised from player sales would go into Peter's budget,” City chief executive Neil Doncaster this afternoon told the club's official website.
“All of the Earnshaw money will go back to Peter Grant.”
No Earnie, but Jamie back where he belongs and ?2.5 million sat in the bank. Good deal?
Debate all you want, but you'll have your answer sometime around the first few weeks in October by when – a dozen games into the new season – we will all have a far clearer idea of just how Norwich's season is panning out.
Besides, the real transfer fun has only just begun. There's another nine weeks of this before this summer's window finally closes.
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