City boss Bryan Gunn tonight duly completed his second major signing of the summer as Owain Tudur Jones signed a three-year contract with the Canaries.
With Swansea City enjoying a one-year option on the 24-year-old Welsh international, he arrives at Colney for “an undisclosed fee” – the final value of which will hinge on appearances and promotion success.
The deal, revealed the Canary chief, was all-but done following the player's return to the international fold and Wales' recent win over Azerbaijan.
At six-foot three-inches tall, he is – in the modern parlance – a big unit; one that Norwich has been notably missing from the heart of that Canary midfield since Dickson Etuhu left to find Premiership fortune, if not fame, first with Sunderland and then Fulham.
With fellow new-boy Matt Gill no slouch at 5ft 11in tall, Gunn is clearly working to a blue-print; Tudur Jones would also appear to pass the 'character test' – it is no mean feat to spend three years out of the game and fight your way back into John Toshack's World Cup plans.
Likewise when his former boss at The Liberty – the Wigan-bound Roberto Martinez – earmarks you as a future Welsh international skipper, then Gunn might be forgiven for thinking that today was a good day transfer-wise; a big piece of his 2009-2010 promotion puzzle had just dropped into place.
Given his wretched luck with injury, Tudur Jones could well prove a young man in a hurry; he has still to hit the heights expected of him when he first broke into the Swansea first team as a tender 20-year-old.
“I know Owain is hungry to do well for Norwich City,” Gunn told the club's official website this evening.
“And I'm delighted that we have managed to stave off a number of other clubs who were interested in signing him to get him to join us.”
Given the strength of Gunn's friendship with one Craig Bellamy, you can't help but wonder whether tonight's reference to “others in the game” referred to the one-time Canary Academy starlet who will have known all about Tudur Jones from his arrival on the Welsh international scene – kicking off with his full debut for Toshack last March in the game against Luxembourg.
The one-time Chelsea and Aston Villa triallist has another big string to his bow – he has three years in League One with the Swans under his belt; albeit if the majority of those were spent on the sidelines.
“It's going to be tough,” warned City's latest signing tonight – handed the No7 shirt for the campaign ahead.
“But as long as everybody at the club realises it's going to be tough and a huge challenge, then I'll think we'll be all right,” he added.
He at least shares one trait with a genuine Canary legend – for like Iwan Roberts, he speaks fluent Welsh.
And at 24 – provided his injury nightmares are a thing of the past – he is also coming into his prime as a footballer.
“I'm really looking forward to the challenge,” he said tonight; the prospect of regular first team football being one of the obvious draws; the fact that Martinez has also moved on might have made his exit from South Wales that much simpler. It was time for a change.
“I've spoken to the manager and listened to his plans for building the club and I want to be part of that,” he told the club's official site.
“The club's obviously been having a couple of rough years and it is time now to get back to the drawing board, start again and try to get the club climbing back up again.”
The big question will, of course, concern that rebuilt knee and whether it has been rebuilt to last this time.
It survived a fairly tough examination on loan at Swindon towards the end of the season as Tudur Jones did much to dig the Robins out of relegation trouble in his 11-game spell at the County Ground; it now has a World Cup outing to its name, too.
Word was this evening that the player's medical had put said joint right under the microscope – that new City chief executive David McNally was not about to ship a crock on board for three years.
Proof, as ever, will only come in the pudding. But at six-foot three, a fully-fit and fully-firing Tudur Jones will give the Canaries both a presence and a height in that central midfield area – something they have sorely lacked of late.
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