As newly-taken over Leicester, now free from the comedic exploits of half-celebrity, part-football manager Sven Goran Eriksson, are linked with all and sundry throughout the football league, Nigel Pearson looks to arrest his problems at central defensive with a move for West Brom’s 21 year old protégé Craig Dawson.
Pearson has been left as bare as a skeleton at centre-half following the injury of man/ human machine Sol Bamba and the recent fall-out with Shaun St Ledger, which has seen the Irishman on the verge of heading through the King Power Stadium exit door.
Dawson hasn’t quite hit it off for Premier League side since his leap from Rochdale upon achieving promotion with the Manchester club, being sent back to Rochdale in his first year he consolidated their position in League One, before heading to Albion permanently to only make four appearances to date.
Of course, Roy Hodgson has been around the block a few times and has seen enough to be aware that four months is nowhere near enough time to completely give up on such a promising young defender, so Pearson will have to settle for a loan deal if it goes ahead.
Here, we get an equation that suits everybody; Pearson manages to bandage up his troublesome position and release the pressure on the balsa-wood Bulgarian Alexander Tunchev who looks to be the player charged with operation fill the Bamba void, while Hodgson manages to grant playing time to his young star without thrusting him into the Premier League spotlight as his Albion side hover just above the relegation dog-fight.
This may be the perfect opportunity for Dawson to get some playing time as he lies behind Jonas Olsson and Gabriel Tamas in the pecking-order at the Hawthornes. Nottingham Forest were rumoured to be the last club interested over the summer but the their strange faith in their bizarre Transfer-Panel looked to have prevented Steve McClaren making any kind of interest concrete, even though he is believed to be pretty adept with a heavy duty mixer.
Furthermore, in other news, Gelson Fernandes has become the latest player to fall foul of Nigel Pearson’s desperate plea to distance himself from the summer squad-swelling under Mr. Eriksson, the Swiss international having his one year loan contract ripped up and thrown in the bin with force, before boarding the first ferry back to French club St Ettiene. The midfielder was immediately cast out of Pearson’s plans, only making two substitute appearances under the new regime.
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