Is there anything worse as a football fan than being out of the loop?
I returned from holiday the other day and switched on my mobile phone for the first time in a week. I quickly found myself under a barrage of text messages from fellow Canaries.
Within 30 seconds I was informed that Rob Earnshaw had gone, we'd signed Jamie Cureton and my mobile phone provider could have offered me cheaper calls had I needed to phone home while I was abroad. It's a lot of information to take in before your first coffee on a Monday morning.
It's not that I hadn't tried.
Whilst abroad I find it impossible to switch off entirely. The only English speaking channels I could find on the hotel TV set were Sky News and CNN so I considered myself to be up-to-date with events back home.
I knew I was facing a longer wait for the security check on the way home, I knew it had been raining at Wimbledon and I knew that Princes William and Harry had danced along to Rod Stewart at Wembley Stadium.
For some reason though, the big Earnshaw-to-Derby story never made it onto the international stage.
Terrorism, bad weather and the Princess Diana Memorial Concert had all been considered more important by the monster news networks than Jamie Cureton's return home after an 11-year absence.
So there I was in glorious isolation while Peter Grant was wheeling and dealing and spending his own summer holiday money.
It might have been a lot to digest in the early hours of a new week, but once I'd got through the first half of that first cup of coffee I realised that I wasn't at all surprised.
The links with Billy Sharp and Freddy Eastwood had made it clear that Earnshaw would be on his way. A player who can score 19 goals in a season during which he missed more than three months through injury was always going to turn heads.
His return to the side in time for the end of the season put a-side any doubts about his fitness and the departure of such a natural goalscorer was inevitable as soon as the Premiership vultures came circling.
The signing of Cureton was another no-brainer.
It's not often you find the top scorer in your division won't celebrate when he scores against you, openly declares his love for the club, hands in a transfer request at the end of the season and is available for about half a million.
Football doesn't through up many gift horses, this was one. A ready-made fans favourite who seems to have found himself in recent seasons shouldn't even be seen as a gamble.
Granted, Cureton might find it difficult to live up to last season's incredible goal-scoring exploits, but having interviewed him twice during the last campaign I'm sure he'll give it his best shot.
Just a year ago Cureton was unwanted by Swindon Town. Something of a road to Damascus moment for him.
He spoke to us on BBC Radio Norfolk on the pitch at Layer Road after scoring against the Canaries in March. He described how reaching his early 30's had made him realise he needed to knuckle down.
The all new, focussed, Cureton finally seems to have matured into the talent we thought he could be when he first broke into John Deehan's City side in the mid-90's. It's taken longer than expected, but is proof that the mental side of the game has a lot to answer for.
David Marshall's arrival was in the same category as Cureton's. It was always going to happen – the questionn was always when?
From the moment the player had declared he wanted to come to Norwich it was clear a deal would be done. Peter Grant, Gordon Strachan and Marshall's agent each opened their curtains to posture and flex their muscles so they could be seen by the others through the transfer window.
But like a WWF encounter, all the tough talking and the posing meant nothing. The result was inevitable and very good business for all parties.
The Canaries had more keepers than London Zoo last season so getting that position settled is huge. Especially with one of such undoubted quality.
All things being equal Marshall ought to be the latest in a healthy tradition of long serving No1s at Carrow Road.
Julien Brellier, by all accounts the midfield hard-man, and Jon Otsemobor, the solid right-back, are also purchases which make perfect sense in terms of filling gaps which have been obvious for all to see and part of the reason why mid-table obscurity has been the story of two successive seasons.
The transfer activity might so far have been relatively simple to call, but I can't say the same about Norwich City's prospects for 2007/2008.
Such an overhaul of a squad means it's a waste of time sticking my neck out and pretending I know exactly what the next ten months will hold. I have no idea. Nor have I any idea about Mr Strihavka's likely impact.
Losing a player like Rob Earnshaw was always going to be a blow but then the signings so far leave no room for complaint at all.
The addition of Charlton, Watford and Sheffield United all flushed with parachute payments, new money at Wolves and extra determination at play-off failures West Brom and Southampton on top of the huge drop in TV cash now available to City underlines what a challenge lies ahead.
When August comes around the spotlight will no doubt be shining on the Carrow Road new boys, but let's not forget about a couple of the more senior statesmen.
Against all expectations Dion Dublin is back and Darren Huckerby is entering the last year of his contract. Hucks has already made it clear that he'll be long retired by the time he gets to Dion's age so perhaps this time next year Norwich will be trying to replace both of them.
I can't think of many players more deserving of the sort of last hurrah we gave to Iwan Roberts in 2004.
It might well be pie in the sky but that's the glorious thing about the summer. You can dream.
Maybe when I'm out of the loop in summer '08 I'll be missing some signings ready for the Premiership. Whatever happens at least I know that I'll be able to bypass Sky and CNN and phone home to get the transfer gossip courtesy of the competitive rates I was belatedly informed of by my mobile phone provider…
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