As this excellent Guardian Sport video shows, Fabrizio Romano has become, single-handedly and almost overnight, the very highest tier for football transfer news. Why? The affable young Italian works like a machine during transfer windows, sleeping (not that he has much time for that) with his smartphone next to him, then getting up and haunting the hotels of Milan.
Although he operates in a digital world, Romano’s success is a triumph for old-school journalistic values: make contacts, then make more contacts. Never stop making contacts. And don’t piss those contacts off. This requires a tightrope act balance of tenacity and charm. Not many can pull it off. This video reveals how Romano does it – in the simplest of terms, he’s a lovely bloke with an insane work ethic.
Crucially, Fab’s also cultivated a Twitter-friendly catchphrase – “Here we go” – that has become a hallmark of trust and authority. If Romano says it, you can pretty much guarantee it’s a done deal. Fans are hanging on his every tweet. At time of writing, he has 1.5m followers, and counting.
A small sample of his latest work:
