Norwich City: Ricky Van Wolfswinkel Purchase Confirms Canaries Ambition

Norwich City sent their fans into dreamland on Friday night with the news that Sporting Lisbon's Ricky van Wolfswinkel will officially sign for the club on July 1.

A late night tweet confirmed that the prolific Dutchman has agreed to a four-year contract with the Canaries, with Norwich paying an undisclosed fee for his services.

Not even a reported last minute attempt to scupper the deal by Tottenham Hotspur (via The Metro) could prevent the Norfolk outfit from getting their man and completing arguably the most important transfer in the history of the club.

The transfer caused a stir in the virtual world, and world-renowned Norwich supporter Stephen Fry even took to Twitter to express his delight at the move:

In all honesty, it's hard to put into words just how much signing a player of this calibre means to Norwich City.

To have been able to attract a striker widely regarded as one of the most exciting prospects in European football is something that Canaries fans could only fantasise about just a few campaigns ago, and that is why it is all the sweeter.

Just three seasons ago, such a stellar buy seemed light-years away with Norwich plying their trade in League One, but fine management at the very top of the club has meant that City have enjoyed almost constant success since then.

Now, it seems that Norwich have targeted next season as the year to really push on and ensure that they are an established outfit for years to come.

The way in which the club have built over a sustained period of time, in comparison to looking for a quick fix in the Queens Park Rangers model, means that they have laid down the foundations to be successful in the top flight.

If Norwich are to stay up again this year, then they will have done it largely on the cheap, working with undoubtedly one of the smallest budgets in the division.

However, it appears that such an approach was all part of a wider master plan with Norwich having accumulated money courtesy of the vast riches of Premier League football in preparation to spend it when the moment was right.

With van Wolfswinkel's purchase and City potentially looking at their third consecutive season in the top flight, that moment could well have arrived. 

The club is so well run nowadays that you can be rest assured that the Canaries will not go over the top in the summer transfer market, but fans can certainly expect an upgrade in quality regarding the players coming through the Carrow Road gates over the coming months.

Signing players of proven ability like van Wolfswinkel is exactly what's needed to progress onto the next level and you would expect that other potential summer recruits will have been impressed with the ambition shown by Norwich to sign the Dutch International.

van Wolfswinkel may ultimately turn out to be a flop in the top flight, but whatever happens, for Norwich City to have been able to lure the Sporting Lisbon No. 9 to Norfolk is unquestionably a watershed moment for the club.

The Canaries have laid down a marker to the rest of the league that they mean business, and you would like to think that such an impressive capture will go a long way to extinguishing the "Little Norwich" myth.

Norwich have earned the right to be called a Premier League club as much as any other team, and with signings like van Wolfswinkel, it appears that they are serious about staying there for the foreseeable future.

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