Coventry City appear to be favourites to sign winger Abdoulie Manneh from newly crowned Swedish top flight champions Mjällby, according to reports.
FotbollDirekt claims to have “new information” that says both the Allsvenskan club and the player’s “main target” is to join the Sky Blues amid reported interest from Championship rivals Stoke City and Premier League Bournemouth.
Reports in the African press claim the Gambia international - who scored seven goals and provided four assists for his club this season - was the subject of a €5.45m (£4.8m) bid from Mark Robins’ Potters, although FotbollDirekt insist that according to their information, no bid has been made yet, only indications.
And the outlet further states that Coventry will be the first club that Mjällby and Manneh will negotiate with, starting next week.
Mjällby’s sports director Hasse Larsson has confirmed English interest in Manneh.
“There are a couple, three clubs that are interested in him,” he told Fotbollskanalen. “So we’ll see here after the season when we’ve finished playing, then we’ll sit down and sort out and see which club. Partly with the finances and partly that it will be good for Manneh.”
Asked if the club is negotiating with anyone right now, he said: “No, we’ve said we’ll wait until the season is over. So next week we’ll sit down.”
And when asked if he expects him to leave this winter, he replied: “Yes... You never know in football. As it feels now, that’s how it is.”
Although Frank Lampard doesn’t comment on individual player targets, the Sky Blues head coach has admitted that he would like to add strength to his squad in January, particularly out wide where he has just one recognised winger for each side in Tatsuhiro Sakamoto on the right and Ephron Mason-Clark on the left.
“We’ll try and improve the squad if we can,” he told CoventryLive. “That’s my opinion as well.
“I think it’s very important at the moment where we’re going. I think that January is quite active for the Championship. I’ve always found it more active than the Premier League. I’m not sure if that’s actually the case, numbers wise, but I think the Championship’s more active with its squads.
“The summer’s a big turnaround with squads quite a lot but I think if we can help our squad in terms of depth, in terms of options – certainly from my point of view – I think it’s something that we’ll look at.”
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