Sunday 25 April 2010

Linked with Izmailov

A new transfer rumour today, in the News of the World - a move for Sporting Lisbon's Russian creator Marat Izmailov:

His agent Paulo Barbosa said: "City want to sign Marat and have done for a long time.

"He'd be interested but the problem is the price. Sporting want £20m, but City are refusing to pay that.

"City have said they will only pay £10m, but a compromise could be reached.

Izmailov was very highly rated when at Lokomotiv Moscow but I think he's struggled in Portugal with injuries and various disputes with Sporting. I imagine we'll be in the market for a creative midfielder but my sense on this is that this is an agent talking up his player.

UPDATE: Here is what respected football scout and analyst Tor-Kristian Karlsen had to say about it on Twitter:
ridiculous rumour of the day: man city chasing izmailov (sporting). not cut for the premier league, lovely skills but slow and inconsistent
...
frail, injury prone, wouldn't even rate him among the top performers in portugal and hasn't featured for russia for nearly 4 years...

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