Late last week, according to Mercato365, five Championship clubs decided to take a trip to France and watch Dijon-Marseille: Norwich City, Bolton Wanderers, Sheffield (which one isn’t mentioned, but our guess is United), Nottingham Forest and Blackburn Rovers.
With the Norwich and Sheffield United currently battling Leeds for promotion, there’s a good chance the pair were keeping an eye on potential summer targets in case they return to the Premier League.
Nottingham Forest have been extremely active on the transfer market of late, looking all around Europe for players, while Bolton and Blackburn could be switching their strategies, perhaps turning their attention outside of the United Kingdom for reinforcements, having almost exclusively stuck to more local targets over the past year or so (except for Pavel Olkowski).
Mehdi Abeid, for example, could be of interest to numerous sides, having previously played in both England and Scotland for Newcastle and St Johstone.
After a couple of seasons in Greece with Panathinaikos, first on loan then permanently, the 26-year-old decided to return to France to revive his career and it’s worked, having matured in the process.
The midfielder could certainly provide some guile and experience in any Championship team’s midfield, as well as being versatile enough to play anywhere through the middle if required.
His contract is up in June of this year, and if the likes of Norwich, Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers or even Nottingham Forest can get in there with some attractive contract offers ahead of the summer, they could snap him up for free for next season.
As for Bolton, an improvement in the table might be needed, as we doubt relegation to League One will attract Ligue 1 players anytime soon.
