Wes

le10sport.com reporting that we have made a bid for Montpellier's Younès Belhanda along with AC Milan, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and Galatasaray.

Google Translation:

The Montpellier president Louis Nicollin has revealed that 10 Sport Younes Belhanda would soon be leaving Montpellier Moroccan has only select the destination for the transfer window.

 

Where are you on the transfer of Younes Belhanda?

He is leaving. There are 4-5 clubs that have arisen. This is the player to choose now because we are almost in agreement with the clubs. He will leave for 14-15 million euros.

 

And you had concrete offers?

Yes, AC Milan, Inter Milan, from Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray and Aston Villa.

 

So it is recognized as follows: Younes Belhanda will soon leave Montpellier?

Yes, there is no problem. It has the authority to agree with whoever he wants now.

 

Antoine Simonneau

23 year old Moroccan international Attacking Midfielder. Would undoubtedly be our "marquee signing" of the summer with a fee of around £12,5m, if this is to be believed.

I don't think he's an out and out striker. If he's replacing anyone's spot in the squad it's Ireland's.

A lot has changed in 6 days

Do Tonev and Popov have experience playing with each other then? Or is he just referring to the fact they're the same nationality?

They both have played for the National team together. Tonev wasn't called up for their recent friendlies however whilst Popov was.

In March they were both in the starting lineups for Bulgaria's World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Denmark.

For those who would want/think that we first should/would get defender but many times when it comes to transfers, you have to "go in" when you see opening so that other clubs wouldn't get them first. I'd be very surprised if Lambo isn't already after defender and if he is we might not hear about it before they announce the transfer.

 

Edit: Lack of rumours isn't proof of inactivity.

Agreed. Potentially bringing in these two Bulgarians for July the 1st makes a lot of sense. Gives them the maximum amount of time to familiarize themselves with the club and the team. General rule of thumb seems to be the further away your previous club was based, the harder it is for them to adjust. Not always the case of course. Talent and personality affects this hugely of course.

Hardly prolific then

I'd agree, up until this season. 9th best strike rate in Russia's top league this season for regularly starting players isn't bad considering it was his first season for the club.

In terms of transfer planning I think the concept is great. Signing them together is a hark back to the classic days, before international transfers were commonplace. Teams would always try to sign two players of the same nationality, language or previous team so that they would have someone to help aclimatise with in the new country. Petrov being in the same building would be a big bonus too.

You can see, for example, that Benteke and Sylla are good mates off the pitch, and Sylla has said in an interview how important N'Zogbia was for him initially settling in.

He'll be 26 in October. 6ft. Behind the Striker player most of the time it would appear.

His last three seasons:

12/13 - 34 Games (7 sub). 10 Goals. 4 Assists

11/12 - 41 Games (5 sub). 6 Goals. 4 Assists.

10/11 - 55 Games (3 sub). 9 Goals. 9 Assists.

Has played 38 times for his country, currently their captain, scoring 9 times, 1 assist

He is named in the Bulgarian National team playing away against Kazakhstan in a friendly tomorrow.

Sounds like a versatile attacking midfielder to me.

This is the article from sport1.bg Lamski is referring to (i think!)

The best thing about it is there are direct quotes from the player.

Pretty sure it's to do with the Waterford Hurling team losing in their match today. From his previous tweets I would suggest he was in the crowd.

Yep we couldn't possibly be scouting anyone else, those links prove it.

That's not what I meant at all. I was suggesting that it looks likely any new centre-back would probably be under 25, rather than an old hand to replace the outgoing playing experience that Dunne offered.

But who can tell. It's still very early days.

We're not scouting for an experienced CB then.

Correct, If this link and the one with James Chester are to believed. Chester (24) has 3 full seasons experience. Mirin Isimat (21) has 2.

According to a Belgian website we had been following the 21 year old centre back Nicolas Mirin Isimat before Monaco agreed a 4m Euro fee with Valenciennes for him today.

Almost all European based contracts end on the 30th of June. Likewise transfer of players aren't "completed" until July the 1st. So whilst the likes of Falcao, Gotze, Moutinho have all already agreed to sign for other clubs those transfers wont actually go through until July 1st.

Dunne has still got four weeks wages coming from us.

whos that Alex bloke? reporter?

"Freelance football Reporter/Broadcaster/Summariser/Pundit."

Is what he describes himself as on twitter. No idea as to his reliability as I haven't heard of him before.

Although he does seem to know a few people in the British media.

 

Looking at some Poznan stats, who play a 4-2-3-1, he played the left winger role almost exclusively. Matching that up to how we play he would predominantly play in the spot Gabby plays - whether or not that's a role deeper than Gabby played this season we wont know until the friendlies. Sounds like a good rotation buy with potential.

 

Or he may want gabby to play up front and offer an alternative to Benteke it would be nice not having him to rely on him so much

 

I think you're exactly right. Gabby could well be played in that sole striker position when Benteke is out. In which case bringing in some versatile wide players makes a lot of sense in this scenario.

It'll be interesting to see if a "replacement" for Bent is bought in. Personally I think we'll see more wingers/attacking midfielders bought in as I think PL and the staff have faith in Benteke/Gabby/Weimann being the #1/2/3 in that sole striker position for when injuries/suspensions occur, and the new players will replace Gabby and Andy in those wider positions.

If we're going to get Petrov luring some of his fellow countrymen to play for us then I hope he starts talking to Georgi Milanov too!

Looking at some Poznan stats, who play a 4-2-3-1, he played the left winger role almost exclusively. Matching that up to how we play he would predominantly play in the spot Gabby plays - whether or not that's a role deeper than Gabby played this season we wont know until the friendlies. Sounds like a good rotation buy with potential.

If we're going after a Bulgarian we should also look at Georgi Milanov then. Has had a great season and already seems integral to the national side.

I'm annoyed to see Van Ginkel being linked with Chelsea today. £8m is likely how much he'll move for and he has the potential to be the next Lampard for that team for the next decade once he settles in.

If 4.5m is going to 'be too steep for us' then Lerner needs to do one.

I mean in terms of any specific deal for Cresswell. They may just not consider it good value for money. Then again they could! I'm just speculating.

Was it not the price tag that put us off cresswell last time? Can't imagine the price would be cheaper this summer.

A year less on his contract can make a fair difference. The quoted price last year was £6m so a year less and the price is rumoured to have dropped 25%.

In fact he'll be in the last year of his contract so Ipswich will be looking to cash in whilst they still can. I doubt he signs a new deal with them, not after he knows Premier League teams are after him.

£4.5m may still be too steep for us. Unless it's divided in to clauses and such.

Just seen that Santana is leaving Dortmund - could be useful for a couple of years at most?

Widely known in Germany that he will be moving to Schalke.

What ever happened to Eikrem? 22 years of age, can play anywhere in midfield. Didn't have a great season last time around I don't think but there could be a reason why?

He's at Molde in Norway. Solskjaer's club. Doing very well there (although the club have had a bad start to the season this year). I like him a bunch as an upgrade to our whole squad, not sure if he's the difference maker we need to inject in to our midfield though. He's be a great acquisition all the same as the fee would likely be low and as he's lived in the country already and wouldn't take as long to adapt as others may do.

Shame things didn't work out for us before when he was on trial with us.

If we did get Mertens, who would you lot want him to replace? Gabby or Weimann?

Or do you reckon we'll completely change our formation again?

No need to replace anyone and he fits the 4-3-3 we've been playing in the run in to the end of the season. The three would be great in a rotation system. If you were the opposing team you would hate to see any of them coming on from the bench after 60 minutes.

The Mertens rumour all stems from a season ticket holder on twitter. All the other "Transfer Twitter Accounts" and "Twitter ITKs" are all echoing his original comment which was that Villa are going to enquire PSV about his availability. This was first mentioned Friday evening. Everything since then is just echos rebounding off other people claiming to know information.

Just because the number of people talking about it is increasing, don't read anything further in to it beyond "somebody on Twitter said so" (no matter what they claim to have got true in the past - correct or otherwise) until there's been a more concrete report in a media publication.

As for the player himself postionally he makes sense as he would be an upgrade to our wide forwards of Gabby and Weimann. I would think clubs with a larger wage and transfer budget, including those in European competitions next year, would have a stronger chance of enticing him to join them rather than us at the moment.

Nothing has changed. The English media are missquoting the missquoted Belgian article based on another Belgian article.

It's standard Chinese whispers.

A snippet regarding Paul Lambert's transfer philosophy from the Footballer's Football Show:

David Jones: Are you anticipating a busy summer, not just in terms of trying to keep hold of the ones you do want to keep hold of, but also bringing in some more bodies to help your boys whilst also reducing your wage bill no doubt?

Paul Lambert: That's probably it in a nutshell really. You have to try to improve on what you have each year. It'll still be hard. But we'll still get the ones in who'll actually play for that shirt and play for the club.

DJ: Will those be experienced ones or will you carry on with your way....

PL: No we'll stick to our philosophies and beliefs. I wont change from it. I think when people keep on saying about getting experienced players and experienced players - as soon as you go to an experienced player the first thing they'll say is "Ok. How much?"

So you think right away "I'm not sure he's going to come here to play for this club". I don't want players like that. I want players that want to go and compete, have a right good career for themselves plus play for the shirt.