Bordeaux winger Mehdi Zerkane insists he’s going nowhere in the summer transfer window despite being linked with Premier League Aston Villa, speaking to Fennec Football.
Regardless of whether Jack Grealish stays or goes between now and the end of August, it seems the Midlands giants have their sights firmly fixed on a player capable of easing the creative burden on their talismanic number ten.
The club-record arrival of Emi Buendia will certainly help Grealish carry the can.
The former Norwich City playmaker was the most influential attacking midfielder in the whole of the Championship last season. He should have no problems picking out Ollie Watkins’ trademark channel runs with laser-like precision.
One name we can scrub off Dean Smith’s wish-list, however, is that of Mehdi Zerkane, the 21-year-old Algerian who recently burst on to the scene across the Channel at a struggling Bordeaux side.
Is that the end of Zerkane interest for Aston Villa?
“I don’t know anything about the interest of Aston Villa,” Zerkane says, breaking his silence.
“What is certain is I am at Bordeaux and I have no desire to leave, especially since I play regularly.”
With Bertrand Traore hoping to kick on following a promising debut season in the Premier League, guaranteed game time is something Aston Villa can’t offer Zerkane.
Most of the Algerian’s 27 Ligue 1 appearances have come in the the same right-wing position Traore has made his own during the past ten months or so. Regardless, it looks as though Zerkane is sticking with Bordeaux.
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