City sign Afonso Alves

[tototoner]

I think he will do very well

Manchester City have secured a deal for Brazilian international Afonso Alves, according to reports in Holland.

It is reported that City owner Thaksin Shinawatra flew to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Wednesday to open talks with Heerenveen and he seemingly wasted little time in securing a deal in principle.

It is now claimed that a 20million euros (£13.85million) deal is in place for January, and that manager Sven Goran Eriksson reportedly joined Shinawatra in Holland on Thursday to talk with the player.

Heerenveen director Yme Kuiper refused to comment on the speculation surrounding their star striker.

"Obviously the rumour machine concerning Alves has gathered pace and our policy is not to react to rumours," he said.

Alves is contracted to Heerenveen until 2011 - but he has made little secret of the fact that he wants to quit for one of Europe's top leagues.

Middlesbrough showed interest in the summer and Alves admitted he would be open to a move to Teesside, so a switch to Eastlands is sure to appeal to him.

Goals trail

Alves has risen to prominence in recent seasons after he moved to Heerenveen in 2006 from Malmo. During his first season he bagged 31 goals in 34 games and this season has proved equally as fruitful.

He has 10 goals to his name this term, which have come from just four games and that included a momentous seven-goal haul against Heracles.

City have turned to Alves as they look to bolster their options up-front, which are currently very limited.

Summer signing Valeri Bojinov sustained a serious knee injury in his first start for the club in August which has sidelined him until January at the earliest, whilst fellow new arrival Rolando Bianchi has failed to settle and looks as if he could leave during the transfer window.

Emile Mpenza has been filling in, but Eriksson does not consider him a long-term solution - which then leaves Georgios Samaras and some sources claim he could be used in the Alves move.

Samaras arrived at City from Heerenveen in 2006 but he has failed to live up to his hefty £5million price tag and again looks highly unlikely to be part of Eriksson's thinking for the coming years at City.

 

[joey55]

I agree. I think he'll be a great signing for City. He and Huntelaar are two very different strikers, but with similar scoring records. Whilst I don't see Huntelaar in the least bit suited to the Prem, Alves has the ideal game. He seems to score goals from all areas and also likes to get in behind defenders (this to me is the key difference between him and Huntelaar). If you look at how most goals are scored in the Prem, then Alves should fit in nicely.

 

[GenericID]

I repeat, I'll like to play Citeh in the Cup BEFORE Alves arrives. *cough*

 

[DoublePivot]

While Sven has procured some good talent for the club, none of it has been at the forward position. This might hurt Alves career

 

[Spursking]

This is really strange, as Alves is a player who played in the Swedish Allsvenskan just a couple of seasons back - First at Örgryte, and then at Malmö. This is also a player Scoutingmanagement have watched already at that time. Strange that he now as a value in the region of £14mill! He is only a cheap player from the Swedish Allsvenskan, and was rated as a Low price choice by Scoutingmanagement before he joined Heerenveen.

 

[Bonjour]

That's it Thaksin, you spend your dirty money..

 

[cnyy12]

44 goals in 35 games is unbelievable. The Eredivisie isn't bad at all, and Herenveen are not too great.

 

[Michey]

I think he will do very well

I might be wrong but i'll have to doubt that.

Played in the crappy swedish league for several years and didn't show that he would make it really big. A monkey could score in the dutch league.

But stranger things has happened

 

[SpurSince57]

He's got to be better than Samaras.

I saw the highlights of the game in which he scored seven. But it was against Heracles.

 

[paulspursman]

buyin anyone striker in from holland seems to be risky

so many have come with promise and flopped

very few succeded

he suits the new look city though

 

[Michey]

He's got to be better than Samaras.

Yes but so is my mom :wink:

:beer:

 

[Kendall]

Diet Abrahmovic

 

[Michey]

Diet Abrahmovic

even if u put the word diet in there you could never compare these two.

 

[LSUY]

even if u put the word diet in there you could never compare these two.

Yep, Abrahmovic is more legit than Thaksin.

 

[Real_madyidd]

I thought Thaksin wasn't a crook. Wasn't he very wealthy (legitimately) before he took power.

 

[SpurSince57]

I thought Thaksin wasn't a crook. Wasn't he very wealthy (legitimately) before he took power.

Bent as a corkscrew, and reputedly responsible for okaying a police cull of Thailand's drug dealers which saw their families and innocent bystanders being culled too.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Spot on, SS57.

And I'm ammending the title to save confusion. I know The Daily Star can't spell his name properly, but we're a pedantic bunch on here, so I'm dropping the 'l'.

 

[JKSpurs]

As I understood it he actually made all his money in the telecommunications market before he became PM... What he did while PM I'm not sure but he was a very successful business man before hand

 

[GenericID]

If we're talking about his money, most of it is clean. That at least he can claim. His fatal error was selling his family's stake in Shin Corp to a foreign sovereign fund (Singapore's Temasek Holdings) and then avoiding taxes for the sale. That sparked off the mess that resulted in the coup.

 

[MrWoolley]

Hopefully another Kezman