Introducing… Yanic Wildschut

Norwich City’s track record of signing Dutch players has recently been less than exemplary including such illustrious names as Raymond De Waard, Jurgen Colin and of course, Ricky Van Wolfswinkel.However, such negative thoughts of the past are banished this week as City have clinched their second Dutch signing in a matter of hours. We’ll resist the “double Dutch” pun. It’s too wooden and will just clog things up.

Step forward Mr Yanic Wildschut.

The rapid, right footed winger has joined from Wigan Athletic for a fee believed to be in the region of lb7million.

So what does lb7m get you these days? We spoke to two Wigan fans @WeahsCousin and fan podcast @pieatnight for the lowdown.

Given we only have 1 left back at the club and he’s brand new, we asked @WeahsCousin could he fill in?
“No. He wouldn’t be any use at left back and is very right footed. He has played up front a couple of times though.”

Hmmm. So what is he good at?

“He’s very good at running fast, but not very good at shooting or crossing. He’s a dangerous player, but also inconsistent”.

Will Wigan miss him then? We asked respected Wigan fansite @pieatnight;

“Time may tell that the fans will miss him much more than the team.

Yanic has been a key player this year and, the more we’ve struggled, the more we’ve become over reliant on him as our attacking outlet. The opposition know that if they stop Yanic then we’ll have nowhere to go and even if they don’t he’s as likely to run out of pitch or into a brick wall as he is to create anything. He’s got Premier League pace, but not Premier League know-how.

However we’ve shown, in recent games against Forest and Brentford, that we’re more than capable (maybe more capable even) of getting 3 points without him in the team.

Despite that, Yanic has obvious potential, he’s one of those players that gets the fans going, whether it’s his turn of pace, his hammer of a right foot or his Bernie Clifton impersonation, he’s got character and that’s a rare commodity these days.”

Bernie Clifton?

“It started with a photo of him riding an ostrich, ended up with him at the League 1 trophy presentation in one of those bird suits Bernie Clifton used to do the London marathon in. That and his potential are worth lb7m of anyone’s money, surely?”

Fingers crossed.

Wildschut began his career at Zwolle, moving to VVV Venlo 12 months later. An early career return of a goal every 8 games or so, plus his fleet feet earned him a move to Heerenveen, before Middlesbrough brought him to England.

12 games for Boro brought 2 goals, including one against City in the 4-0 Riverside demolition that did so much damage to Neil Adam’s tenure. However Wildschut was unable to nail down a regular spot in the team, so moved on loan to Wigan, before making the switch permanently last January.

Since then he has been an almost permanent member of the first XI at the DW and just last month netted twice against those friendly chaps from Portman Road.

Yanic. On an ostrich.