NZONZI COULD BE BARGAIN BUY OF JANUARY SALES
THE January window will soon be open and one name I’ve seen persistently linked with a move to the Premier League in recent days is Steven Nzonzi.
I have no idea where he will end up — Arsenal and Everton are the clubs getting the biggest mentions — but one thing I do know for certain is he will be a quality addition wherever he goes, as he is tailor-made for our game.
Steven was my team-mate at Stoke for three years. When he left for Sevilla in 2015, I was shocked that Arsenal or Liverpool didn’t enter the bidding for him as I felt he would have been ideal for both those clubs, particularly Arsenal. He looked like he could be a replacement for Patrick Vieira. I genuinely think he’s got it in him to become that good.
You can’t really compare him to Vieira because he was something else but Steven has got similar attributes, being so good on the ball and energetic, but so strong, powerful and good in the air. I sometimes think players who are doing well for Stoke get overlooked and that may have been the case with Steven
His situation reminded me of Lassana Diarra, who I played with at Portsmouth. He had been at Chelsea and Arsenal, but barely played.
After training with him a few times, I couldn’t work out why.
He ended up going to Real Madrid for £18million, but we were so lucky to have him at Fratton Park.
‘Lass’ was quality and that is the word that I would use without hesitation to describe Steven, who has been excellent for Sevilla and won the Europa League with them in 2016.
If he does return to England next month, he won’t have any trouble settling as he knows the league inside out after his spells with us and, before that, Blackburn. He can have some stroppy moments when things aren’t going well, but he’s a good lad.
Any club who take a punt on him will be getting a good one.