Transfer season madness: A look at the specialists who get the calls right | Football News

Fans of European club football experience an inevitable lull during the months of June and July. Once a long, gruelling club season reaches its conclusion, it is only a matter of days before you start craving the beginning of a new campaign. Considering this is a World Cup year, the quadrennial extravaganza would have conventionally done its bit in keeping you engrossed, but the 22nd edition is slated to be held in Qatar in November and December.

The only matter of interest right now then is the summer transfer window and keeping track of the various ins and outs at numerous clubs.

While Manchester City and Liverpool made early moves by signing Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez respectively, the window hasn’t been ablaze with activity up until now. The signing of Gabriel Jesus by Arsenal on Monday, however, could potentially trigger more high-profile moves over the coming weeks. At this time of the year, the rumour mill starts getting into overdrive with every club being linked to a wide array of players. The more experienced fans eventually realise though that only a few moves will materialise in the end.

But if you can’t resist staying ahead of every transfer development much before there is official confirmation from the clubs, it is handy to follow a few reliable journalists/transfer specialists on Twitter. Here’s a look at some of them:

Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano)

With 9.3 million followers on Twitter, this Italian freelancer has quickly gained cult status for breaking transfer stories much before anyone else gets a whiff. While his own Youtube channel has 1.08 million subscribers, he also writes for The Guardian among other publications. Based out of Milan, a customary day for Romano during the transfer window entails making over 50 phone calls and lurking outside plush hotels where player agents and club owners are involved in long deliberations.

From Lionel Messi moving to Paris Saint-Germain to Cristiano Ronaldo signing for Juventus, Romano has been the first to report some of the biggest stories in recent times. And the key, of course, is his tendency to get it right time and again. So much so that if he sends out a ‘here we go’ – a catchphrase of his – for a transfer story, you can rest assured that the deal is done.

A recent story concerning Japan centre-back Maya Yoshida is an apt illustration his reliability. On Monday, Romano tweeted that Schalke are set to sign Yoshida on a free transfer from Sampdoria, adding that he had turned down many offers including one from Turkish club Trabzonspor. A day later, once the move to Schalke was done, Yoshida himself responded to Romano’s tweet with a dose of humour, “This guy is incredible…even my wife didn’t know about Trabzonspor.”

David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein)

If you follow David Ornstein on Twitter, you would have known about Gabriel Jesus moving to Arsenal on June 25, nearly ten days before the Brazilian striker put pen to paper on a long-term contract. Ornstein, who currently works for The Athletic in the UK, has profound knowledge of the transfer dealings transpiring in English football in particular. While he does not have as big a following as Romano, his 1.3 million followers on Twitter are likely to swear by his accuracy and reliability when it comes to transfer news.

Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio)

Di Marzio is also from Italy and has some of the inside scoops on transfers well in advance. While Romano and Ornstein are newer to the business, this Milan-based journalist, who works for Sky Sport Italia, has been around the circuit for a long time. Recently, he was one of the first to report on Liverpool striker Sadio Mane’s move to Bayern Munich.

He has 1.6 million on Twitter, but the only drawback for English-speaking audiences is that he generally tweets in Italian.