Will Jennings on Sydney, son of Pierre - and the 'experts'

And by bizarre coincidence, one of the retro strikes that featured was Pierre van Hooijdonk netting a dramatic late free-kick to rescue Nottingham Forest a point against Liverpool at a rocking City Ground.

Moments earlier, I had discovered that City were eyeing up a late January bid for Sydney van Hooijdonk, son of the divisive Dutch striker who famously went on strike after falling out with the Reds’ hierarchy following the 1998 World Cup.

With Adam Idah then reportedly on his way to Celtic, the recruitment of a replacement was essential and naturally, any football fan gets excited when they see their side linked with a new number nine.

But from a cursory glance on social media, it appeared that some fans had suddenly become Dutch and Italian football experts.

As per pretty much any modern signing, the sport’s increasingly data-driven approach means there is more information about players available than ever before.

And for van Hooijdonk, there’s no denying that some of those statistics are impressive.

The Bologna hitman, 23, racked up 22 goals in just under 50 games on loan at Eredivisie side Heerenveen last season and, from seeing short clips online, certainly looks a handful.

But without trying to sound miserable and temper fans’ enthusiasm, we fundamentally have no idea how good he is or how he will fare in the gruelling English game.

It’s obviously not just Norwich – among many younger fans, there seems this obsession with casting an ostensibly expert judgment on highly-rated foreign players they have invariably never seen play.              

Goals, assists, ‘xG’ and ‘chance creation’ are now the crude barometers used to prematurely declare a potential signing a hit or a flop, the first two admittedly important but ultimately no real reflection of a player’s ability to translate their foreign form onto the Championship, or Premier League, stage.

Just look at Ricky van Wolfswinkel, a striker of similar age and profile to van Hooijdonk who City snapped up after developing a red-hot goalscoring record at Sporting Lisbon.

We all know what happened next.

And from a Premier League perspective, what about the likes of Andriy Shevchenko, Gonzalo Higuain, Radamel Falcao and Timo Werner, all strikers signed with prolific previous returns but unmitigated failures when it came to grabbing goals in England.

On the flipside, look no further than our very own Teemu Pukki for a striker who arrived with a largely modest record before taking all of us initially-uninspired fans by surprise and catapulting himself into the pantheon of Norwich City greats.

The long and short of it is this – there is no way of judging a player unless you’ve genuinely seen them play and while stats are significant, labelling a potential signing our saviour based on a few goals in a league you’ve never watched in no way renders you a football expert.

It’s an irritating modern trend pioneered by Football Manager, Fifa-playing young ‘fans’ and influencers who want to sound well-informed but, in reality, probably watch very little of the game they profess to know so much about.

Back to van Hooijdonk – I consume a huge volume of English football but will be the first to admit I’ve barely watched a minute of the Eredivisie, or many other foreign leagues, in my life.

So while the stats are impressive and I would love to see him thrive at Carrow Road, it’s too early to start getting excited and simply assume he’s going to be the man whose goals will propel us into the play-off picture.

Signing a young new striker is obviously good news and a positive way to end what has been an otherwise quiet Carrow Road window.

But as history shows with many others to have gone before him, it’s silly to judge a signing we know next to nothing about until he’s pulled on a City shirt and we can make our own minds up.