PAOK striker Christos Tzolis has already passed his medical at Norwich City and will wear the number 18 shirt at the Premier League newcomers, as reported by Greek publication Sports Room.
The Canaries appear to have learned some rather harsh lessons from a disastrous 2019/20 campaign.
After storming to the Championship title two years ago, Norwich failed to adequately reinforce their squad, prioritising loan deals and free transfers.
And after finishing bottom of the top-flight table that season – picking up just five wins and 21 points along the way – Daniel Farke, Stuart Webber and co are looking to ensure history does not repeat itself.
Have Norwich learned from their 2019 mistakes?
For the second time this summer, Norwich are set to shatter their transfer record on an exciting young attacker.
Two months after snapping up Milot Rashica from Werder Bremen, teenage sensation Tzolis is set to swap the Aegean Sea for East Anglia; a club-record deal worth around £9.5 million on the verge of completion.
Tzolis underwent medical tests earlier this week and is expected to don the number 18 shirt left vacant following the departure of Marco Stiepperman.
While the Greek international is far from the finished article just yet – he will not turn 20 until January – the stats speak for themselves. Tzolis, a left-winger who can also play through the middle, fired PAOK into the European places with 16 goals and ten assists last season.
If he can come close to replicating those sort of numbers during his debut season at Norwich, you would think that Farke’s side will make a much better fist of ensuring their return to the top flight is not merely a flying visit this time around.
Tzolis’s arrival will take Norwich’s summer spending past the £50 million mark, the Canaries having already snapped up Josh Sargent, Angus Gunn, Pierre Lees-Melou and last season’s loan star Ben Gibson on permanent deals.
Billy Gilmour, the supremely gifted Scotland international, has also arrived on a short-term basis from Chelsea.
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