Rumours are rife that former Bournemouth and birthday boy, Tommy Elphick is attracting interest from Turkey.
First and foremost, Happy Birthday to Tommy who is 30 years young today.
Now onto the purpose of this article. Turkish-football.com are reporting that Turkish side Goztepe is interested in signing Villa’s defender.
They claim that a ‘source close to the club‘ has stated that they have held talks with both Aston Villa and Elphick.
The Turkish transfer deadline closes on Friday 8th September so if any deal is to be done it would have to be soon.
Villa reportedly turned down a loan offer from Sunderland on transfer deadline day stating that he was required due to potential injury issues to Chris Samba. Bruce has always spoken very highly about Elphick who has failed to make a single appearance this season, so far.
Former Villa defender, Aly Cissokho has already moved to Turkey this season when he joined newly promoted Yeni Malatyaspor.
Geztepe also got promoted this season but it is reported that they have ‘powerful’ leaders who are able to sanction big money moves.
Reliable link
I am going, to be honest, and admit that I don’t know how reliable this source is. They did report the Cissokho rumor and link in the summer but so did a lot of other media outlets.
Would Bruce allow Elphick to leave after turning down a move to Sunderland on deadline day? Maybe. If the price was right of course. Every player has a price tag especially one who isn’t the first choice.
Villa has had their FFP issues and it is said that they should be fine following more than £16million worth of departures this summer.
Bruce could look to offload Elphick if a decent deal was on the table and look at the youth setup with Easiah Sulliman eager to get involved.
Another option could be the free market. Clubs are still allowed to sign players who are not under contract and Bruce has already taken this option with Samba this summer so it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it again.
Although I personally think the Elphick deal is unlikely, one thing we have learned this summer is that anything is possible in football.
[…] Tommy Elphick is back up to James Chester but was not taken on the pre-season tour of Germany but has starred in the cup. The ex-Bournemouth man is a like for like replacement for Chester in terms of the way they play, which is why it didn’t work when the started together at the back at the beginning of last season. I thought it was interesting that Bruce wouldn’t allow Elphick to leave before the transfer window closed so he must want to keep him in the defensive set-up. […]
[…] Jedinak, the man is a machine and I trust him at the back more than Samba and certainly more than Tommy Elphick. As many have already stated, this is why we should have kept hold of Nathan Baker but I guess you […]
[…] Jedinak, the man is a machine and I trust him at the back more than Samba and certainly more than Tommy Elphick. As many have already stated, this is why we should have kept hold of Nathan Baker but I guess you […]