Despite having some good strong defensive ball-winning midfielders at Old Trafford, over the last couple of months we have been linked with two French internationals to boost this part of our midfield.
The first of those two players is Lassana Diarra who is a player who has a good amount of Premier League experience through his time at Chelsea, Arsenal and Portsmouth.
Diarra of course is now playing under Jose Mourinho (who managed him at Stamford Bridge) at Real Madrid and whilst he has not become a first choice in Spain, he has become an appreciated member of Madrid’s squad.
The other French international being rumoured with a position in our midfield, is probably someone who not many fans (at least those who don’t follow European football that strongly) would have heard of.
Yann M’Vila may only be 21 years of age, but the Rennes midfielder is somebody who has risen very quickly into France’s senior side and who has a growing reputation behind him.
M’Vila who has succesfuly come through Rennes youth academy has only had 2 seasons as a professional but already it seems like his career is destined for the top.
M’Vila was in the eyes of many France fans harshly left out of Raymond Domencech’s World Cup squad last year after making into the preliminary 30-man squad before the final 23-man squad had to be named.
France just as England and Italy did, struggled in South Africa to keep hold of the ball and exited the tournament in the group stages
Laurent Blanc (our former defender) replaced Domenech as France’s coach directly after the tournament, in his first game in charge away in Norway gave M’Vila his debut and the ball-winning midfielder has been a regular for his country ever since.
As a result of that bigger clubs started to pay attention and despite M’Villa signing a new deal with Rennes in May that will runs out in 2015, it is expected that several leading clubs across Europe will try and snap him up.
Sir Alex Ferguson this summer has clearly made intent on signing young talented players who a new team can be built around.
Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David De Gea have all joined and Arsenal’s Samir Nasri (M’Vila’s national team mate) is another young player that according to the press we have a strong possibility of signing.
Whilst I don’t think that we will sign M’Vila this summer or even next summer, he is a player worth looking out for next season as it seems only a matter of time before he moves to a bigger club (with all due respect to Rennes).
In France he has been likened to Claude Makelele for his energetic approach in midfield, although in all fairness he seems to have some good attacking skills as well unlike Chelsea’s former midfielder – so he could prove to be more of an all-round player in the middle of the park.
So keep a look out for M’Vila next season, as there’s no doubt that his name will be mentioned even more in the press as he solidifies his place in France’s midfield and gains more exposure for Rennes in the Europa League next season. He’s going to be some player from the looks of it.
By Adam Dennehey – @ADennehey87
