Ligue 1-winning Lille midfielder Yusuf Yazici is in talks over a move to the Premier League with Fulham and Nottingham Forest keen, the Turkey international’s agent tells Sport Express.
After a slow start to the transfer window, Fulham and Forest have exploded out of the blocks this month.
Joao Palhinha should be joined at Craven Cottage (at last) by Andreas Pereira and Manor Solomon. Steve Cooper’s Forest, meanwhile, have added Moussa Niakhate to Dean Henderson and Giulian Biancone.
And Yazici now finds himself in the middle of a tug-of-war, with Steve Cooper and Marco Silva on either end of the rope.
“Yes, Fulham and Nottingham Forest are interested in Yusuf,” says Adam Chebedzhi, the 25-year-old’s representative.
“Now, the clubs are negotiating.”
Fulham and Forest in Yusuf Yazici talks
A cultured and skilful attacking midfielder with a penchant for making well-timed late runs into the penalty area, Yazici was a major part of Lille’s shock Ligue 1 title win in 2020/21, alongside fellow Turkey internationals Zeki Celik and Burak Yilmaz.
He scored 14 goals that season, before finding the net eight times in just ten matches during a terrific loan spell at CSKA Moscow during the second half of 2021/22.
“Yusuf Yazici is an amazing number 10,” one Mesut Ozil said a couple of years ago. “We have a lot of similarities and see I myself in him. His left foot, his positional sense, his passing and calmness on the ball…”
With Fulham and Forest likely to find themselves towards the bottom end of the table next term – providing they do not ‘do a Leeds’ or a Brentford – Yazici’s eye for goal could be the difference between survival and failure.
Yazici would seemingly fill a Philip Zinckernagel-shaped void in Cooper’s City Ground squad. Fulham, meanwhile, lost their own talismanic number ten when Liverpool snapped up Fabio Carvalho after an outstanding breakthrough campaign.
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