Twitter: Sunderland set to sign defender Kone: One-cap Ivory Coast defender Lamine Kone is set to be Sam Alla… https://t.co/HeOuXUV8YQ #football (@footballfeeds1)
French club Lorient recently confirmed that they have received and accepted a bid from Sam Allardyce, with the manager Sylvian Ripoll saying the following:
“We have received an offer that, we have accepted. It is now up to Lamine to find an agreement with Sunderland and to pass the medical before the transfer can be made official”
But what does he offer to the club?
The Ivorian centre-back offers stability and strength to an otherwise woeful Sunderland defence. He is a muscular tank, he has strength and will win headers being 1.9 metres tall, he has been called names like “brick house” and “Beast” during his time at Lorient. He also has pace and skill on the ball that Allardyce has been tracking since his days at West Ham.
Kone’s side has struggled to keep clean sheets as a team this season, but that wouldn’t all be down to him making individual mistakes as his team has been on overall poor form in midtable.
Kone boasts a rather unfortunate injury and suspension record with 14 breaks from play, some long term, at his age. He may struggle with the style of play in the Premier League due to his record, but with all his power, he should be able to cope fine. You could say he is similar to our other CB Younes Kaboul.
This could be a fairly likely transfer as Big Sam has a good record with signing French-Africans like Alex Song and Sakho.
