Thursday 20 May 2010

Gourcuff, Ibrahimović linked

Two more rumours today - Bordeaux's Yoann Gourcuff and Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Barcelona's signing David Villa for €40m has inevitably raised questions over the future of Zlatan Ibrahimović . And, given how well he did under Roberto Mancini at Inter, we are inevitably linked. Today's M.E.N. says that City are 'set to step up their interest' which could mean almost anything. I think this is fairly easy journalism, but then I do think the following points are true: Barcelona would sell if a big bid came in, Roberto Mancini is interested, we could afford the fee and the wages. The only absent side of the square is Ibra's enthusiasm: he does have a fairly high opinion of his own abilities, and I'm not sure he'd want to play Europa League football.

The next is Gourcuff: a graceful, classical No. 10 who won the French league with Bordeaux in 2008/09 but who might now join the exodus from the Chaban-Delmas along with Laurent Blanc and Marouane Chamakh. According to Ian Herbert Mancini 'has an interest' in Gourcuff, and 'a move for a player valued at £21 million is a possibility.' Like the Ibra rumour, I'll wait till there a few more leaves on this tree before writing more about it, suffice to say that Gourcuff isn't quite the dynamic box-to-box player some think we need, but would certainly be a marvellous addition to our attacking options. He's a joy to watch.

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