Out with the old and in with the new is the expression. The day after 32 year old Kish left on a permanent deal to Leicester a new full-back arrives. He's 20 year old French U-21 captain Yassin Moutaouakil who does seem to have a striking resemblance to Nicolas Anelka.
He's been playing for tier-2 side Chateauroux down there in mid-france and says all the right things that a new signing should be saying, the most important being "Many clubs tried to sign me but Charlton did a good job convincing me that this is the best move for me. I chose Charlton because I feel that this is an ambitious club and I believe that I will progress well under the manager here. I did not want to sign for a club just because they are a big name, or for the colour of their shirt."
Sounds like a good signing even if the name doesn't exactly round off the tongue. He currently needs a translator but at least there's Diawara, Bougherra and Faye that all speak french so he should feel at home. And with 4 french speaking and 4 paddies in there too ( OK, I included Captain Matt) it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall come July.
A lot of clubs have shown interest in Yassin, not least Barcelona, Marseille, Lazio, Celtic and a couple of Premiership big boys but strangely no mention of Arsene. Come to think of it, didn't Pards and Wenger have a spat about Arsenal's reliance on foreign players and not enough young British players coming through. Well, seems Pards has had second thoughts and besides he'll argue that he's only swapping an old Bulgarian for a young Frenchman, a good deal in anyone's book although Osei probably wouldn't agree.
And is this the Big Goodbye to Luke Young? West Ham here we come at last although there does seems a certain reluctance on the part of our players to rejoin their old manager over there in Upton. Strangely enough 45% of the pollsters on cafcpicks still want him to stay. Come on Luke do the decent thing we need the dosh.
Anyway, holidays apparently come to an end at the end of next week with Pre-season Training due to commence on Monday July 2nd and at least Andy Reid will be happy to get the company as he's reported to have been training alone for the last few weeks. Better get some french lessons, though Andy.
2 comments:
His name should be pronounced;
Yahseen Mootawaakil.
not so difficult after all.
Well, thanks for that kind comment, Anon, although I can't say that Mootawaakil actually rolls off the tongue either! Perhaps we'll just call him Yakky.
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