Giant centre-backs and Polish wonderkids

I love transfer gossip. And in today’s round up we have two typically random links, which naturally we’ll take a closer look at. The first concerns Abdoulaye Ba, a 6ft 6 centre-back currently plying his trade with Porto, and who ESPN have linked us with a loan move with.

‘There remain doubts about Dunne’s long-term future at Villa Park and with Lambert keen to continue building for the future, Porto’s Ba appears to fit the bill.

The Senegal international has been on Premier League radars for some time, with West Ham first expressing an interest in him ten months ago and again this summer.

Ba is believed to be keen on a move to the Premier League and is confident he no longer has issues over being granted a work permit, having played in Senegal’s last four games.

His chances of gaining a move in January have been increased by the Lions of Teranga’s disqualification from the African Nations Cup in South Africa.’

There is limited information out there on the player, but it doesn’t look like he has played much, if at all for Porto. He has gone out on a number of loans though, and has impressed enough to be linked to a number of Premiership clubs. He has also gained a number of International caps for Senegal.

I think we need help in the centre-back position, and you only have to look at the last game to see how thin we are when a couple of players go down with injury. With Dunne still out injured, I think a loan move would make perfect sense come January.

A goals per game record of 9 in 24 during his first loan spell is also pretty darn impressive, and it’s about time we added more goals to our team. A few seasons ago we looked a genuine threat from set-pieces, these days we’re right on the opposite side of the spectrum.

On to Polish wonderkids now, with Talksport linking us and a number of other top sides to his signature:

‘Aston Villa and Everton are part of a growing pack of European sides chasing Polish wonderkid Arkadiusz Milik.

Milik, who has drawn favourable comparisons to free-scoring compatriot Robert Lewandowski, is currently on the books at Gornik Zabrze.

The 18-year-old has already found the back of the net six times in nine league games this season, prompting interest from French club Lyon, who are believed to be the front-runners for his signature.’

Who knows the truth behind this particular story, but if there is even a hint of interest then as many have alluded to, it’s not looking good for Darren Bent. The player himself is 6 foot tall, and has really hit the goals this season.

It is exciting to be linked to young players like this, but I’d still much rather bring in players with a bit of experience and who have played in the league before. Still it looks like the transfer links will hot up in the next few months, especially with Lambert and Lerner due to hold a meeting sometime soon.

If things don’t improve then it wouldn’t really surprise me to see Lerner give Lambert the green light to bring in a number of new, potentially expensive signings, much like Houllier did with Bent when we were in trouble a few seasons ago.

Still hopefully we’re heading up the table at that point, for I really don’t want to deal with another relegation battle this season!

UTV.