Emmanuel Mbola - Done Deal?

[THFC6061]

Tottenham plan Belgium loan move for new Zambian ace



Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is trying to find a club in Belgium for Zambian left-back Emmanuel Mbola - after setting up a £1 million move to White Hart Lane.

The teenage defender has been to Spurs for talks and will sign once the red-tape problems are sorted out, with Redknapp and the player's agent looking to place him in Europe for next season.

Mbola is waiting for his chance to officially become a Tottenham player, in a move first revealed by MirrorFootball . He has told his Armenian club Yerevan that he wants to leave.

Now Spurs are sorting out the fee and also looking for a club where Mbola can play first-team football, with Belgium the favourite destination.
Mbola said: "Tottenham were happy with me and I should be going back, depending on how fast the issues are sorted out. I could not sign because I have to finalise things with my club.

"I am not going back to Yerevan because I have issues with my contract. Spurs liked me a lot but there is contract confusion with my Armenian club and my agent."

[hxspurs]

Any reason as to why he wants to place in Belguim??

[SirBillyNick]

speaks french maybe, and the french are ******s?

[THFC6061]

Any reason as to why he wants to place in Belguim??

No idea really, although it's important to stress that there's been no official comment about this from Spurs yet.

We don't have any partnership deals with Belgian clubs, as we do for Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic, and Zambians don't speak Flemish or French as their National language - English is widely spoken over there.

[BigDub]

I hope this is a done deal! This kid looks like he has some serious up side. I'll wait til I hear the club say something on it, though. But these are good signs.

[SirBillyNick]

YouTube - Mbola Welcome to Tottenham Hotspur !!!

[Toddenham]

Yeahhhh, this looks like one of 'Arry's signings, an unknown African player for cheap. Looks like he could be a quality buy judging from that video.

Also could him going to a Belgium club be anything to do with a work permit?

[SirBillyNick]

Yeahhhh, this looks like one of 'Arry's signings, an unknown African player for cheap. Looks like he could be a quality buy judging from that video.

Also could him going to a Belgium club be anything to do with a work permit?

surely they have the same labour laws as we do?

[THFC6061]

surely they have the same labour laws as we do?

You'd have thought so, with both Belgium and the United Kingdom being members of the European Union, but this isn't always the case.

[HeroesComesandGoes]

You'd have thought so, with both Belgium and the United Kingdom being members of the European Union, but this isn't always the case.

On Football Manager - you can loan out a player to an afiliated Belgian club and after 3 years he becomes a Belgian and able to play in the Premiership...never at all figured out why...

[hendey]

he looks Ok I suppose probably just a little over priced but then I'm sure we can sell for a profit even if he flops at his age. Just hope we done it all above board, I cringe whenever I hear a preimership team buying a youngster from abroad. We could really do without his old team turning round in a year saying we used underhand dealings to get him.

[Ekad]

Belgium has different citizenship laws to us (I think). You only need to stay there for 3 years to qualify for a change of nationality, then he wouldn't need a work permit to play for us.

[basskadet]

he looks Ok I suppose probably just a little over priced but then I'm sure we can sell for a profit even if he flops at his age. Just hope we done it all above board, I cringe whenever I hear a preimership team buying a youngster from abroad. We could really do without his old team turning round in a year saying we used underhand dealings to get him.

That won't happen with us.

This is a very similar situation to Gael Kakuta's but we won't make the same mistake as Chelsea did. Lens claimed that, after they had developed Kakuta over the years thru their academy up to him signing his 1st pro contract with them, Chelsea convinced Kakuta to break that so that he could sign for them, with Lens seeing nothing out of the deal.

Lens said that that was illegal & took both parties to court (effectively). However, Lens lost the case because it was they who had illegally signed Kakuta on a pro contract too early (i.e. before his 16th birthday) &the contract was therefore invalid..

This is exactly what is happening here & Kakuta's case is clearly what has motivated Mbola to take issue with Yerevan, seeing as tho he too was signed as a 15 year old.

Spurs tho are too wise to fall into the same trap as Chelsea. There are some clear differences in the 2 cases:

1st, Yerevan have invested nothing in Mbola's development, they merely bought him from his African youth team at the start of this season. 2nd, We apparently offered £1m for him & Yerevan have refused to sell which has prompted Mbola, similar to Kakuta, to take issue with the contract which he also signed too young

It seems that Mbola's lawyers are working on terminating his contract with Yerevan but Spurs are staying well out of it for now, which is precisely why the club have not said anything official on the matter. Technically, if the contract is terminated, then we would not necessarily have to pay a penny to Yerevan for Mbola.

I think tho, where it might get a little sticky, is that Yerevan will no doubt want their money back that they originally paid Zanaco for Mbola (I have no idea how much that was) & I'm guessing Spurs will just pay the relatively small amount of money just to keep everyone sweet.

Either way, we've handled this situation far, FAR better than snobby Chelsea, who did step all over Lens & effectively steal a young player that Lens had invested a lot of time in. Yerevan certainly can't argue that & they should not have tied the kid to a full pro contract when he was just 15 years old.

£1m is a snip for this boy. We paid £5-£10m for Gareth Bale who has only just reached over 20 caps for Wales now. Mbola already has over 20 caps for Zambia & has played in a major international tournament & come u against some of the world's best in the likes of Samuel Eto'o. We paid £750k for John Bostock (& we were expecting & willing to pay more than double that) when he had only had a couple of substitute appearances for Palace & was nowhere near earning a cap for his national team.

There are no work permit issues. Mbola has earned enough caps, even at his young age, for it not to be a problem. I suspect that they are looking in Belgium because we feel we can get him into a reasonably big club playing in a top division there. If it was France, Holland, England, Germany, etc then he would likely end up loaned to a lower tier club & I think we see him as better than that. Belgium's top League is kind of in between & therefore a good place for him to test himself. He might even get a taste of some European competition. We are probably looking at how the likes of Romalu Lukaku in Belgium, or Seydou Doumbia in Switzerland, have flourished in these leagues & look set to move on to greater things

[gary_human]

have we signed this kid does anyone know as another thread in the players lounge has Mbola listed as one of Harry's signings

[P UNIT 1980]

Any news lads? THFC6061?